Can you train speed in season?
The answer is absolutely yes. In fact, our team highly recommends it.
From the in-season work we’ve done in the past, we’ve seen full teams improve speed while training during the season AND we’ve seen a reduction in injuries as well.
It’s frustrating when coaches build up all off-season only to cut everything out when the season starts.
“We want our athletes fresh” - we hear it all the time.
And yes, keeping your athletes fresh is incredibly important. But there’s a way to continue improving speed that will prepare athletes for competition, and help prevent injury.
If athletes have low intensity throughout the week then are asked to give 110% on game day, their body likely isn’t prepared for that kind of stress.
That has plenty of injury implications, but it also goes back to something I’ve talked about before:
In a game, there will be times where your athletes will fall back to their lowest level of training. We want their lowest level of training to be high enough that even if they have a bad performance, they’re close to what they should have run.
With all of that being said, rest is important. It is in the off-season too.
So yes, in-season training will look different than in the off-season. However, there are still beneficial opportunities to help your athletes perform by training in season.
How to Think about In-season Training
First things first, if you're training an athlete in-season, make sure they're always going through the warm up routine.
Foam rolling, stretching, warmup are essential before anything else.
Then, assuming there's time, add a little technique work.
The most important thing to focus on in-season however is to ensure the athletes are hitting their speed stimulus.
This is done by micro-dosing their speed exposure.
Basically, you're touching on the speed qualities without a ton of volume on it.
A couple sprints, some resisted, a little bit of jump work, etc.
Athletes need to sprint with maximal intent to run faster. Even in-season, hitting the speed stimulus is super beneficial to any developing athlete.
It really can be that simple.
If you'd like help programming your in-season speed training, check out our courses to learn how to get started.