The offseason is not a time to sit around and do nothing. It is a time to recover mentally and physically while maintaining the fitness level you had over the course of the past season.
You want to minimize any losses in strength and conditioning built up over the past year. Your body needs rest during the offseason, but that doesn’t mean that the intensity of your workouts should dwindle by any means. Fitness experts say that if you sit around and do nothing for 5-6 weeks it will be like starting from scratch once you start training again. Instead of taking a long time off to recover, why not minimize workouts during the week?
Many studies have shown that you are able to decrease the number of days you workout and still maintain your fitness levels. Many offseason programs say that you can work out 2-4 days a week for 30-45 minutes and still maintain your fitness levels instead of working out 5-7 days a week for an hour or more. The reason you are able to maintain your fitness levels is because you are maintaining your intensity, but also giving your body time to recover both mentally and physically.
Offseason workouts should focus on maintaining the player you have become, while still focusing on what parts of your game needs improvement for next season. Coaches across the country say that you should be working on your endurance, agility, strength, stretching, nutrition and ball work during the offseason. The more you work these areas in the offseason, the more naturally they will be to you next season.
So you know you need to keep your training up during the offseason, but how? Try joining an offseason league. Smaller leagues are a great way to keep gameplay in your head, maybe get used to working with new/different teammates, and of course staying active. You also want to make sure you’re going to camps to get a new perspective of the game. You want to find a camp that will benefit you on all levels, not just one aspect of the game.
EXACT Soccer Elite Prospect Camps are typically 2-day camps that will work on your physical and mental aspects of the game. They also give you first class exposure to college coaches. At the end of camp the college coaches give face-to-face feedback to each player so that they can take away not only the good things about their game, but things they need to continue to work on in the offseason.
Everyone will find a different offseason activity or routine that works best for them. What’s most important is that you’re staying active on all levels of your game. If you want to be the best when season starts again, be sure to be devoting time to your sport as if it weren’t even the “off” period.