| When I am participate in a basketball tournament. I | | | | disruptions. Some go to the opposite extreme. They |
| consider myself an athlete "in-season". I may play up to | | | | add huge amounts of training on top of games, |
| 4 full court games in a weekend. There are 2 common | | | | traveling, tactical work and other in-season trainings. |
| mistakes athletes (and unfortunately... coaches as well) | | | | This leads to lower performance due to excessive |
| make during sports season time. These mistakes | | | | stress on the athletes. |
| result in a team that is running slower, not jumping as | | | | During the season we are just trying to maintain the |
| high and getting more run down, fatigued and injured | | | | improvements we made during the OFF-SEASON! It is |
| as the season goes on. | | | | not very reasonable to expect great physical progress |
| They either... | | | | during this stressful time. We should do the minimum |
| * Stop Strength training altogether - in favor of | | | | required to maintain all our physical attributes. |
| endurance work to "stay fit" - this just gets your weak | | | | So for most team sports athletes, I recommend at |
| and worn out because muscle mass and power is not | | | | most 3 short, total body strength training sessions per |
| maintained. It is hard and takes weeks and weeks of | | | | week (usually 2), and 1-2 sports specific interval training, |
| hard training to gain strength and power but two | | | | conditioning sessions (especially for those guys who |
| sessions of 30min of well designed strength training | | | | don't play much during games..) As for nutrition, |
| sessions can maintain strength. It is always harder to | | | | unlimited as long as its healthy. In fact most athletes |
| get your body to a new level than it is to maintain that | | | | need to eat MORE. |
| new level. | | | | All the combined stresses tend to wear out athletes |
| * Overtrain - because the season is draining with | | | | and they lose weight during the season. We want our |
| multiple games, extra tactics sessions, increases | | | | teams to be peaking at the finals, not in the preseason |
| stress, injuries and possible traveling and schedule | | | | so we must stay strong all the way to the end. |
