BY PETROS SYRAKOPOULOS
In team sports, the competitive season is the most demanding part of the year in the athlete’s life. Players need to be in top shape, physically and mentally, and consistently perform at their very best. Whereas the off-season and pre-season offer opportunities for recuperation and well-programmed athletic and skill development (and athletes serious about their career goals will need to make the uttermost of that time), during the competitive season the athlete will need to perform at - and, sometimes, past - their limits week after week, month after month. This need to perform at peak RPMs for a prolonged period of time, combined with the stressful daily practices of their main sport, poses specific challenges and demands for their strength training.
The general goals of strength & conditioning training in team sports are two: reduce the risk of injury and enhance performance. On the one hand, S&C training reduces the risk of injury by improving muscle activation (e.g. proper glute activation will decrease risk of lumbar spine, knee and ankle injury), joint stabilization (e.g. stronger hamstrings will decrease risk of ACL injury) and muscle strength (e.g. stronger hamstrings will decrease the risk of a hamstring tear, whereas increased muscle strength can also protect joints during contact and falls). On the other hand, S&C training increases performance via increasing endurance, explosiveness and power production, max strength and rate of force development in the main motor patterns used in the athlete’s sport.
The same goals apply to the competitive season, albeit with one different detail: the majority of the athlete’s time and effort is focused on sport training and competition. Demanding daily sport training and frequent games provide a great amount of stress to the athlete’s body that necessitates the majority of its “recovery resources”. Since the athlete’s body can only recover from so much, it often is not possible to do adequate amounts of strength training to produce performance increases during this period (this is true especially when it comes to well-trained athletes who require a large strength stimulus to produce further adaptations). Therefore, while beginner athletes and athletes who have neglected proper strength training in the past may be able to slowly increase their strength levels during the competitive season, the goal of in-season strength training for well-trained athletes is to maintain the performance gains they’ve made in the off-season.
Different Stressors, Same Demands
Daily main sport training and frequent games exert great loads on the athlete’s body: bones, joints, tendons and muscles all receive substantial amounts of stress and strain, and the athlete’s nervous system is often forced to operate near its limits. On the flip side of the coin, this stress also provides certain training stimuli: large amounts of explosive movements - sprinting, jumping, changing direction, decelerating - and high-intensity intermittent activity on a daily basis, even if not strictly controlled, provide substantial training stimuli towards explosiveness and endurance adaptations.
But while main sport work (training and competition) alone is often sufficient to support the athlete's explosiveness and endurance throughout the season, it does not provide an adequate strength stimulus to maintain the athlete’s strength levels and muscle hypertrophy, and, if that stimulus is not provided by other means, there will be a substantial detraining effect over the course of the season. Since decreased strength levels have significant detrimental effects both on performance and on risk of injury, this is something that should be avoided, or at least attenuated, at all costs.
This is a key point to understand: without adequate in-season strength training, the athlete’s power, strength and hypertrophy will decline. (for more info on the importance of max strength for team sports you can read this article)
Strength Training during the Competitive Season
After reading all the above, one thing should be becoming increasingly clear: out of the main strength & conditioning training modalities (endurance, explosiveness and max strength) max strength should be the priority of strength & conditioning training during the competitive season (alongside with any corrective work necessary for each particular athlete). Considering the types of training stimuli provided by main sport work, stress on the connective tissues, overall training stress, limited recovery abilities and time restrictions, substantial amounts of additional explosiveness or endurance work may not be particularly beneficial and could sometimes even become detrimental when it comes to the athlete’s risk of injury (additional explosiveness work could be reserved for athletes who get limited practice and game time).
Having said all that, what is an adequate max strength stimuli for strength maintenance throughout the season? Studies and anecdotal practice show that, for well-trained athletes, a minimum of one maximal strength training session per week is necessary for strength maintenance. So, from our - the S&C coach’s - standpoint, it is imperative to program at least one heavy strength session in our athletes’ in-season weeks. If programming circumstances can allow it, a second strength session would be ideal, which would allow for more effective strength programming, could be used to prime the athletes for an upcoming game and would provide the opportunity to incorporate valuable assistance exercises (unilateral strength exercises, stability exercises and additional corrective work).
Key Points:
- S&C training aims to increase performance (explosiveness, strength and endurance) and decrease risk of injury.
- During the competitive season, large amounts of stress are exerted on the athlete's musculoskeletal and nervous systems, and limited time and "recovery resources" can be devoted to S&C training.
- These large amounts of stress also provide explosiveness and endurance stimuli, but do not provide a strength stimulus.
- If athletes fail to do additional work to maintain their pre-season strength levels, their explosiveness, as well as their strength, will suffer.
- Max strength maintenance during the competitive season requires a minimum of one heavy strength session per week.
- Two strength sessions are preferable when possible, are more effective at maintaining strength and allow some leeway for basic programming, peaking and unilateral/stability/corrective work.
- Athletes who do not get much training/game time (and athletes with a particularly high work capacity) might be able to handle, and benefit from, additional strength & power work.
Petros Syrakopoulos is a member of the Performance 22 coaching team since 2012 and is currently the strength and conditioning coach of greek major league team Arcadikos BC. He graduated from the School of Physical Education and Sport Science of the University of Athens in 2013 with the highest grade in the school’s 30-year history.
