Every athlete wants to be the best. But it takes more than just signing up for the sport and hoping you are the best. It takes training to be the best at your sport and hard work during the offseason. But training is much different from how it used to be. There’s more technology used and even the different ways players train at different levels.
“Training in the off-season is rebuilding your body from the last season and making it stronger for the next season.” Says Dlo Hardy former lakes football alum and star wide receiver at North Central. Training today is much different from how it was back then Lakes alum Lorenzo Gomez says “workouts were for two hours after school four days a week. And it was like an hour of lifting and an hour of speed and agility.” The training from then to now has changed a lot. Years ago training was getting big for the next season and getting bigger at the highschool level. But at the college level it’s much different. It’s more about getting your body ready for the next season but still in the weight room. But every player and coach takes training differently like head coach Jason Ellerman “Training is 3 days a week M/W/F, for 60 minutes before school. It is based on 4 week phases. The lift involves circuit training and tabata principles.” The training from a few years ago to now has overall changed. Less days of training and more focus on the body at the college level.
The use of technology in training has also changed over the years, But not as much as you think. “ Not too much, just the normal resistance bands, running routes. But for recovery I use the thermex, the leg compression sleeves.” Hardy said, technology today for training is not as common as you think. The use of technology in training has changed but not much from years ago” it was a paper and pencil we would have had to fill in our weight, like writing it in” Gomez said. The only time technology is really used now is for tracking things like weight percentages and what days you train. Ellerman says “The technology we use is google classroom, google sheets, and cell phones.” Even though there isn’t very much technology still used today it still helps players today get better and ready for the upcoming season.
If you want to be the best athlete on the field you are gonna need to train during the offseason it could be with technology or even just running up hills. Training is one of the most important things to do as an athlete. “Training in the off season is very important, it will help with injuries, make you a better athlete cause a lot of football is muscle memory, so getting those constant reps can improve your game in any sport.” says Hardy. Training also helps after a bad season and can help you to improve for next season. Gomez says “It was the most important thing, especially because like we were in our first year we’re going into it as just sophomores and juniors without no seniors Yeah, and then we got our butts kicked for an entire season. And then he was even more important, right because we wanted our payback. Yeah, so we worked out even harder than next year and, obviously, helped us be successful the next season, so yeah, it was like the most important thing.” All coaches know the importance of training as well, and if they want their team to succeed they need to get their players to start training. Ellerman said “ Training in the off-season is vital to the success of our in-season . Our team’s success in the fall will be directly correlated to the participation of our players in the off-season training. There is no play call to overcome bigger, stronger, and faster opponents.” Training has changed so much over the years with technology and even just the type of training for different athletes. Training might suck but it will always make you a better athlete.