Excessively weak 10-11th grade athletes going to more showcase’s/prospect clinics in a month than they do s&c workouts always strikes me as absurdly ironic.

I had two athletes train with me all summer and fall in preparation for their winter sport. 2-3x wk/for 6 months. Winter sports are about 16 weeks. Athlete A continued to train 3-4x/month with me all winter. I would have liked 2x wk but they don’t drive etc… Athlete B didn’t hit a single lift all winter. Not with me or her HS. When they came back for training and preparation for their fall sport: Athlete A main strength metrics are right at where she left off before her winter season with force plate jumps being slightly higher. Athlete B was down 5-15% on all major strength/speed/power metrics. Now, as I said, I would have preferred athlete A to have come twice/wk as I feel we would have increased our metrics but at the very least we did not drop off. Sometimes, it’s just about not getting worse. We can now attack the spring and summer not having to catch up. We can just build. 📈 Athlete B? We will need 1-2 months to catch up. Not to mention reestablish the habit of training missed from 16 week away from it. Time and money? Not wasted entirely but this athlete/parent is not getting the biggest ROI they can! If they continue to miss 16+ wks during the year, they will not make much progress during HS. TRAIN IN-SEASON!

How do we get so many 7-8th graders to lifts? Because the sport coaches tell them to and show up! Remember coaches… It’s MY job to program and train your kids. It’s YOUR job to push them to workouts and show up as well. It’s a dual partnership!