Off Season Training

Now the season is over, you might be looking forward to a break from trining and getting your weekends back. But what should your training look like at the moment and how can you make sure that you are ready to return to the game for pre-season. 

After a phase of in-season training, periodised training programmes will include an ‘off season’ or General Preparation Phase (GPP). During this time, you can start to work on addressing and fixing any injuries or niggles you might have picked up during the season, enjoy training in new ways with a more relaxed routine, but most importantly you should use the time to improve your general strength and fitness ready for pre-season. 

During your off-season, there are three things you should be focusing on in your training:

Fix your Body 

You are bound to have picked up some niggles during your season. Now is a good time to priorates your movement and mobility to ensure that your body is ready to compete again. Just like with a car, if you continue to ignore a warning light (in the form of a slight pain in your body), it will not go away…more likely it will get worse and eventually stop working. Now you have more time and less pressure, priorities moving correcting in all movement planes and recovering your body. Regular stretching sessions and swimming are great for helping the body to become more supple.  

Build Strength 

Now is the perfect time to focus on building your full body strength. With the pressure of competition gone, you can focus on fatiguing you body in another way and improve your upper, lower and core strength. This will help you to perform better in the pre-season stage of your season when the exercises will become more sport specific. The stronger you are, the better you will be able to perform. 

You should look for your resistance training sessions to have low-moderate load and high volumes (more reps/sets). Aim to include to 3-5 sessions a week.

Build Fitness

You be happy to have the rest from in-season fitness, but if you don’t keep your cardiovascular system ticking over, you will quickly loose your base and pre-season sprints will become a whole lot harder. Make sure to include 2-3 aerobic training sessions every week to keep your fitness where it needs to be. This could be in the form of running, interval training sessions, swimming, or anything else you fancy. Now that the season is over, there is less pressure to keep your training ‘sport specific’ however your training should be moderate to high intensity to develop your fitness levels.

As with anything, it is important that you slowly build yourself into your off-season training schedule. If you have JUST finished your season, you should take time to recover and rest (tradition phase) with some gentle swimming and yoga/pilates style sessions. After 3-4 weeks of rest, you are ready to start building strength again and preparing for your Pre-Season. 

PRE-SEASON 2022 will be running on the NET MEMBERSHIP from the 16th August. 8 Weeks of progressive, intense training to help you level up your game and get court ready! 

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