The Off Season
Congratulations female youth soccer players on wrapping up your fall seasons.
It is now officially the off-season. Here are hints at what a healthy, productive off-season looks like, and what it does not look like:
@thebettercoach
In brief, the off season is NOT the season to plop on the couch for a few months, and NOT the season to do more competitive things. There is an in-between land where a healthy, productive off-season can be found.
If you want a week or two to relax, go for it. Please spend time with the people you care about who you did not get to see often during your competitive season.
Next, think about what went well this past season. Think about things you improved on from previous seasons. What do you think is something you want to start or continue to work on? Is there anything you need to stop doing that is getting in the way of your progress? The off-season is a great time to start a journaling practice. You can answer these questions for beginning prompts, and carry the practice into your next competitive season.
Taking time answer these questions will help you get clear on individual goals to work toward. No matter what your individual goals are, everyone’s off-season should include strength training, nutrition planning, building relationships, mental training, purpose searching, and playing.
Let me explain why each of these are important and give more details about what they each entail.
Strength training:
No, lifting will not make you bulky <—click the link to read other female coaches help explain why. Watch the video below to listen to me explain why. I go over the hormonal differences between males and females, and their responses to exercise. Check out Kickasch films to learn more reasons why lifting will not make you bulky.
What will lifting do? It will make you faster, decrease your risk of injury, build your confidence, help your agility, your athleticism, increase your resting metabolic rate, help you push through discomfort in, and improve your overall health and wellbeing in many more ways.
Improving fuel and hydration:
Eating and hydrating for performance starts in the off-season. Eating for performance is a year round, 80/20 type of thing, rather than a let me eat a bunch of carbs leading up to a game thing. Hydration is also a year round thing rather than a let me make sure I’m hydrated the night before a game.
Nutrition is highly individualized. The off-season is the time to figure out what fueling patterns work best for you. There are wonderful female sports dietitians out there to help you figure this out. Check out some of the ones I follow who offer programs to help you (no, they are not influencers; they are actual dietitians):
Jamiee @soccer.nutritionist // Lindsey @female.athlete.nutrition // Mitali @sportsnutritionistmitali
Building relationships:
Why is this important? I am a huge introvert. I am proud introvert. As an introvert, I admit from experience and from education, that humans are social creatures.
All of the studies about what brings the most fulfillment in life point towards deep relationships. The blue zones all have different varieties of diets, but their sense of community is off the charts. They sit down and slowly eat meals with people they care about. They do not wolf it down in the car on their way to a practice they are running late to.
Your sport is one part of your life. At some point, you will stop playing. Who are you then? It’s okay to go through a bit of an identity crisis when you stop playing sports, it’s actually common. One thing that helps is to have strong, healthy relationships in your life. It also adds to overall fulfillment, which will help you perform at your best while you are playing.
Mental game
#mindsetiskey.
I recently realized how much my anxiety actually impacted my performance on the soccer field. I knew I had anxiety, but I did not realize that is why I stopped performing well my last few years of my competitive soccer seasons. I talk a little bit about where my anxiety took me on the Recovery Warriors blog here: To The Athlete Who Is Out There Struggling.
I also somewhat recently realized that confidence is not something you are born with. You can develop confidence <— click to read practical ways that can help you.
Keep in mind that some of those techniques, like visualization and meditation, are not things that are going to work wonders the first time you try them. They take small, consistent, steps, which is why the off-season is the time to start developing these practices. Just like nutrition and hydration, you will have to find what works best for you.
One more sure-fire way to build confidence and self-esteem is to keep promises to yourself. Every time you follow through with a commitment you make to yourself, it is a small confidence deposit in the bank. Over time, those small and consistent deposits add up. One more way to build confidence is to be of service, to help others. I dare you to try it.
Purpose:
What’s your why? <- there’s mine. What’s yours? Your purpose is more than to be good at your sport. There is a reason, deep down, about why you compete at your sport at the level you do. You might not know it yet. They say if you ask why 7 times, you’ll find out your why. You may need to do more than this simple exercise to find your why, but let’s give it a try for now.
Why do you train? Because I want to get stronger. 2. Why? Because I value continuing to improve. 3. Why? Because there is so much I want to learn and do. 4. Why? Because I feel like I did not take advantage of learning in high school and as an undergraduate. 4 Why? I was too busy trying to be cool, which I realize now was not cool 5. Why? I struggled with anxiety. 6. Why? Pretty sure I was born that way, and other factors probably added to it. 7. Why? N/A, I got there in 6. But, damn, that escalated quickly. Give it a try.
…And yes, my anxiety is a big part of my why. I know how to manage it today. Part of that management involves my training. Part of that management involves me talking about it here, to give hope and help female youth athletes struggling with it today. And there are plenty more parts to my why. Your why and your purpose does not have to be just one thing. Your purpose might not even be your sport.
Play:
Just play. Have fun. Chill out. And then, watch your creativity and your curiosity fire up; on and off the field.
If you are located in Central New Jersey and ready to have a healthy, productive off-season, please use the form to ask me about my strength and conditioning programs.
If you are not located in Central New Jersey, but still ready to have a healthy, productive off-season, please use the form to ask me about my remote strength and conditioning programs.
And coaches! I actually like to create graphics and edit videos. If you need help in these areas, fill out the form below and ask :)
