The State Championship weekend has come and gone and many players are wondering what is next for them in their offseason. Trying to balance their athletic schedules with work, or sports performance trainers, and technique trainers has become the norm for many high school football players. But many offensive linemen and defensive linemen out there don't realize that there is something for them. There's an entire community of dudes that are of like mind and want to sharpen themselves and perfect their craft. But what should that look like from a tactical aspect, and how should it progress throughout the offseason?
Start of the offseason
The hardest thing to impress upon younger athletes is that harder and more isn't always better. When it comes to technique training, overloading your system in a "grueling technique workout" can actually HURT your development more than help it. Oftentimes the "grind" that is embraced in a technique session will instill bad habits. When bad habits are formed in movement patterns at the start of the offseason, they will engrain themselves in the movement patterns throughout the rest of the training sessions participated in. So it begs the question "where should training start in the offseason?" The answer lies withing a very nuanced, and often argued, view. Most skill trainers will tell you to get in the lab and start refining your craft for hours and hours on end. There is SOME merit to that thought process. Being able to utilize your technique as second nature and being able to make tactical decisions in situations where most would panic is paramount... ESPECIALLY if you are able to maintain phenomenal technique during that situation. However, it isn't a secret that athletes in every level of sports, from youth through college are getting bigger, stronger, and faster. With all of this said, the HEAVIEST emphasis should be on the weight room. Lifting, core work, and sprint work should all take place during the start of the offseason. It will give your body time to recover from the rigors of the season while adding mass and dropping body fat. Skill work should be worked in, as well. However, it shouldn't be a GRIND.
At this point in the offseason, the majority of what should be worked on is footwork and muscular engagement. The amount of contact should be kept to a minimum. The boring and mundane drills that start from the ground up (literally) are the ones that should be done right now. Perfecting your stance, working the miniscule details in lower and upper body posture, and the very intricate details in your footwork should be the focus. As the offseason moves through the winter, movements should start to progress into bigger and more powerful movements, still keeping contact to a minimum. Striking and hand placement begin to make an appearance during the winter sessions.
Spring into contact prep
Spring is when contact prep should start. The emphasis on training should still be footwork and posture. But now we are going to start incorporating some light contact. These sessions will continue to work the movement patterns established during our winter training, but the progression will start to include more resistance and contact prep. Preparing the soft tissue for the demands of striking and absorbing force, contact prep is something that should get progressively more difficult as the spring goes on. Drills should encompass everything we've built during the winter footwork and posture-wise. Building upon the skills acquired is an important component of our training. It allows the athlete to continue to practice great movement habits while also learning, developing, and adapting to new technique. Increasing the intensity of contact and the ballistic movements muscles make during a block during training happens periodically through the course of the spring as we make our way into everyone's favorite season... Camp Season
Gone Camping
This is the part where it is IMPERATIVE that parents and athletes pay the most attention. There is such a thing as too many camps. All too often we see athletes that are registering for 3-5 Mega Camps (Some of them are 2-3 days) where they test every day. Athletes need to realize that putting out max force in your tests multiple days in a row will increase the risk for overuse soft tissue injuries. The training done for football does not mimic the training done for basketball or hockey where they play a minimum of 82 games a year, or baseball where they play 162. Summer is a time to use training to refine technique and implement it during your school's camp or college camps you may be attending. The hardest part for an athlete and their parents to decide is "what camps should I (my athlete) attend?" The camps season is ever evolving and most kids want to get as much exposure as possible. The tough part is, a lot of these camps will have 5-600 participants. By the end of the day, after multiple sessions, most college coaches are reeling from the amount of kids they've seen and talked to.
The other part of the camp season and scheduling so many is that it leaves little room to improve upon what coaches tell you to improve on. Coaches will attend mega camps and see athletes they have talked to and are disappointed when those athletes have not taken the time to work on what they had talked about. Utilizing your resources during camp season is an absolute MUST. Talk to your OL coach at school, contact your trainer, schedule a session, attend YOUR SCHOOL'S camp (let's not forget that you are still trying to win a state championship with your team!) and work out those kinks before the next camp you attend. This will also allow you to limit the amount of stress you put your soft tissue under during multiple days of testing. Our advice? Choose 2 mega camps, one camp at a D1 school that you'd like to attend, and then 2 camps for schools that are realistic possibilities. Being perfectly honest, this may cause some athletes to take a hard look in the mirror and ACCURATELY judge their ability. But ultimately, this will also give them the ability to focus on their team's goals while still achieving their personal goals of playing at a high level.
So Where does that leave us?
You are in charge of your own journey. Obviously everything here is just advice and observations. However, the anecdotal evidence comes from years of experience and years of talking with Strength Coaches, Position Coaches, and College Coaches. But, heeding some of the things in this particular post will prove to be beneficial. One of the questions that may pop up after reading this will be "what if you get an invite to a private workout?" If that happens you absolutely take it and forego any camp you were planning on attending that day. But when it comes to your school's camp and your training, you need to make sure you're continuing to do both and refining your technique for the season and for the next level. You'll want your skills to be second nature. Acquire skill during the offseason, making sure the emphasis at the beginning stays in the weight room while building your footwork and posture and continuing to add stimulus and stressors as you get closer to the season. Stick with people that can provide the scientific reasons WHY you are doing the things you're doing. Have fun and crush your goals!!!!
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