Adapting Training Focus Mid-Season:Part 2

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Adapting Training Focus Mid-Season:Part 2

In part 1 of this series we touched on keeping your focus in the right places and workload management. While those are two of the key components, getting better during the season contains more. It's probably the hardest time of year to maintain your performance, so improving with all the additional stressors of a season can be and is difficult.

What I mentioned in yesterday's edition of the newsletter can be compared to the macro-nutrients of your training. The carbs, protein and fats that make up the majority of the nutritional label. The rest of the facets of getting better are like the micro-nutrients, the vitamins, minerals that don't steal the spotlight but if you definitely can't function properly without.

No one really talks about your daily vitamin D consumption, but go deficient in vitamin D long enough and you'll feel the effects as much or more than being low on carbs or fats. So let's start talking the nitty gritty.

Sleep

Darn near every time I hear of someone having their velocity slightly tick down in season it is tied to sleep. In the off-season, you train at extremely high intensities. For 4 to 6 days a week you are lifting, throwing, or running at near maximum intensity. The training for a serious player lasts roughly 4 hours on your intense days, sometimes more. You show up to the gym, do roughly 30-45 minutes of low intensity mobility and soft tissue work, then 30-45 minutes of throwing ranging from low intensity to max effort, and then 1-2 hours of strength training and conditioning. Sometimes, even the low intensity throwing is taxing, as you are throwing different implements that weigh up to 4.4 pounds.

Everything is physically taxing, everything wears you out. You finish your work day and then sauna/cold tub and go home. You lay on the couch and watch whatever you want, or maybe you go hit some golf balls (even more physically taxing). But deep down, you know that none of it really matters. You know that if you have a bad training day that you'll be fine, you aren’t walking around the morning of your outing anxious.

Now, don't get me wrong, after a bad training session I've been down BAD many times, but it doesn’t wear on you the same. The feeling of a bad velo day can often be chalked up to over-training, but a bad outing doesn't get chalked up the same. You simply have to wear it.

In the season, you try to take all the physical stresses you implemented this off-season and turn them down enough to where you are recovered and fresh for all your outings. However, you didn’t train yourself to handle the mental toll that a season takes. You did all the mental training, but nothing can wear on you the way your three day wait does after a horrible outing, the last few days of camp when you're on the cut line or don’t know if you’re making the roster for your promotion.

While these might seem just like mental stress, it is incredibly important to realize that the human body deals with all stress the same. It takes mental stress and puts it through your nervous system just like it does the dead-lifts you did the other day. There are studies that show injury rates spike during finals and midterm weeks for college athletes. Physical stress is simple, you do the reps and your body becomes used to it, mental stress isn't that simple.

Players take their foot off the gas on recovery in season because they don't feel physically taxed every single day. In the days after their outings, they will throw lightly and maybe hit 1 lift after their outing. They take the days lightly to be ready for the next outing, but they fail to compensate on the recovery side because they feel as though there isn't a stimulus to recover from on their light effort days.

Pair this with the travel, stressors of life and the toll of being in the sun every day and suddenly you realize getting enough sleep and recovery can be hard.

Soft Tissue and Mobility

This is where you can really get your money's worth. These are things that really don't tax you physically, but can be a massive difference maker from a performance standpoint. Most people realize, a lot of mechanical flaws come back to not being physically capable of executing the motion. The mobility and strength needed to properly throw the ball as a pitcher is known, but they don't realize how much they can improve their body capabilities in season without pushing strength.

It is boring, but taking 45 minutes to an hour every day and pushing your capabilities from a mobility, flexibility and soft tissue standpoint can be a massive unlock. It is also something you can hammer out every day without taxing yourself. You can stretch and soft tissue for an hour the day you pitch and feel more ready to compete than you did when you showed up.

Improving is hard enough, and everything else is a balancing act. You need to recognize the opportunities you have to really hammer something in season. Fill the buckets up as much as you can, realizing you cannot fill up all the other buckets in season.

Nutrition

So many people take the wrong nutritional stance in season. Some people try to limit their calories because they don't want to gain weight, while others lose weight because they simply don't focus on nutrition.

Calories are simply the unit of measurement for energy. Being in a deficit for calories can and will lead to you feeling sluggish. Being sluggish in season is bad, especially when you are expected to have your peak physical output consistently over a 6 month span.

I went into the season in the best shape, and knew that slowly over the course of the season I was going to gain weight. That is just part of it. Being in a slight caloric surplus is the best way to maximize physical output, recovery and everything else. You don't need to be crushing food 24/7, but being in a 200-300 calorie surplus will lead to 1 pound gained every 2 weeks. You can pick a day or two per week to negate this surplus if you're gaining too much weight, but being in a surplus before and during your outings is important.

I wrote an article about a year ago that no one made it to the big leagues because of their 6 pack abs, so while it's human nature to care about gaining weight, you need to realize that it is part of being a professional athlete. If you stay in a 200 calorie surplus every single day, we are talking about 10ish pounds over the course of 6 months. You can cut that pretty quickly in the off-season.

Conclusion

When it comes to in season training, most of it can be chalked up to “don't do too much”. However, a better perspective would be to realize when and where you are capable of pouring most of your energy into and going all in on those aspects. The season can be viewed simply as a period for emphasizing different training. Making the most of every time period is key to being your best.

John