The Start of a new Season
For many of you a new season is just around the corner. Many of you have spent the off-season relaxing and having fun. You haven’t even thought about your sport or activity since your last game or practice. And for many of you there is nothing wrong with this. The question though is what do you want? What do you want to achieve? Where do you want to go? Is your sport something you do socially for fun or is it something that you want to strive to achieve more? Those are the questions you have to ask yourself.
If your sport is nothing more than a social activity that you enjoy then taking the offseason off to just relax and enjoy is exactly what you should be doing. But know this, when you get back you will not be the same player you were when you left at the end of the previous season. Your control, vision, speed, none of it will be at the level it was when you last played.
That being said, if you are truly passionate about your sport and work through the offseason you will see a drastic improvement in your performance come the start of the new season. The more work you put in during the offseason the greater the improvement will be come the start of the new season.
At the end of the season you should ask yourself what you want and where you want to be come next season. From there you can create a plan of attack so to speak for the offseason.
Here’s the catch, training for your sport does not have to involve your sport. If you’re a soccer player you can spend the off-season playing basketball or swimming or doing something else. This can actually be beneficial! Kobe Bryant has often said that one of the reasons he was so good at basketball was because he played soccer as a child and it allowed him to get a different perspective of spacing and position. Playing other sports is not a detriment to one’s growth, it is actually a benefit. It will help you see things you didn’t see before. You can gain a better understanding of what is going on and become innovative in how you use techniques and skills. You can even cross train between sports. The technique used for a layup in basketball is very similar to that of a soccer goalkeeper going up to get a high ball. But seeing it in a different sport and taking it in a different context might help understand it better. Training in a secondary sport could also have a secondary effect by helping to preventing burnout. Burnout occurs when a player quits a sport due to undue stress brought on by either physical or emotional exhaustion.
So here’s the thing, if you want to be great, then remember, the season never stops. There is always something that you can do.