Optimising Your Pre-Season
As we approach the winter sporting season, many clubs and teams have started their pre-season training. Pre-season training varies greatly, from a casual kick in the park with friends once a week to a structured program that begins in the summer months. Whilst most participants in team sport start some form of training prior to their competition season, the importance of a planned pre-season is often overlooked.
Why have a pre-season?
The pre-season is a crucial part of physical and mental preparation for the upcoming season. It is an opportunity for the team to be exposed to game-like conditions prior to the commencement of the competitive season. It also allows players to get to know each other both on and off the field and allows the team to gel into a cohesive unit before coming up against opponents. Perhaps most importantly, an effective pre-season training regime has been shown to result in reduced in-season injury rates and enhanced physical performance.
What constitutes an effective pre-season?
An effective pre-season should prepare athletes so that they feel less physical stress during their competitive season, not more. Therefore, pre-season training should actually be somewhat harder and more intense than your in-season training!
The aims of the pre-season are:
1. Injury prevention
Most team sports involve high risk movements such as rapid acceleration and deceleration, cutting, pivoting, jumping, landing, and contact. For players to be able to execute these movements repetitively with success, they require optimal physical conditioning specific to their sport. These high-risk sport-specific manoeuvres should be identified, and rather than protecting players from these manoeuvres during pre-season, they should be exposed to them regularly. Training should incorporate a number of drills and exercises to help address deficits in these areas and prepare the team for the demands of a game, to reduce the likelihood of injuries occurring.
Example: Netball players should engage in short and sharp agility drills with quick changes of direction, as well as plenty of drills involving jumping, landing and pivoting
2. Strength and Power development
Pre-season should always involve strength training to load muscles and tendons to allow them to adapt to the demands of the sport. Strength needs may vary between sports, body types, player position, player history and strength-training history. It is generally recommended that 2-3 strength sessions/week are completed in pre-season.
Example: A rugby-league forward relies more on their strength, size and power to execute their roles in a game, whereas a winger requires more speed and agility. Both will need to strength-train, but their programs would look very different
3. Conditioning
Conditioning in pre-season should prepare the team for the conditioning requirements of a single match as well playing multiple matches over an extended period. This can be colloquially referred to as “fitness” but may incorporate components of aerobic endurance, speed, agility, and repeat speed. The balance needed will differ depending on the type of sport and player position.
4. Tactical training
Pre-season is the perfect time to implement a style of play or strategy through tactical sessions and player education. Tactical sessions should be incorporated into pre-season immediately and worked in with each session through a number of drills and game-play scenarios.
What about Tapering?
A pre-season taper is important prior to the commencement of the competitive season, but this will depend on the length of pre-season, the importance of the first few matches, and player conditioning. A common mistake is for teams to taper for too long and lose the benefits of their pre-season training. A 6-week pre-season might only require a 1-week taper (or perhaps less) while a 16 week pre-season would require closer to 2 weeks of tapering.
Putting it into Practice
The majority of us do not play professional or elite sport and it is unlikely we have access to strength and conditioning coaches, state-of-the-art gyms and the support staff required to program and monitor a comprehensive pre-season. However, educating players on the important components of a pre-season and making suggestions on how they might incorporate these into their own weeks might be enough. Players may be able to complete strength and conditioning sessions in their own time, whilst team training is reserved for tactics, drills targeted towards injury prevention, sport-specific conditioning and gameplay.
Happy pre-season!