Is 6 weeks enough to get ready for your upcoming season?

A quick rant today.

We are now almost thru September (holy ----) Unbelievable.

That means that Fall sports are now in full swing and winter sports (basketball, hockey, wrestling to name a few) are rapidly approaching.

It's right around this time a year when the phone starts to ring. Parents and athletes call and try to set up a program with us at Optimal Performance that would start 6 weeks before the upcoming season.

Just 6 weeks. Now don't get me wrong - you can accomplish a lot in 6 Weeks, but wouldn't you be better off with a Little more time to prepare for your season?

Think about it - Olympic athletes don't sit around for 3 + years before they prep for the big event. Pro athletes off-season training programs usually start a couple weeks after their competitive season ends. Marathon runners don't start running 6 Weeks before race day.

On a personal note - when I'm training for an Olympic lifting competition or something - I usually give myself at least 12-16 weeks of focused training time. Heck for my first 2 this past summer I trained nearly 8 months getting ready for it.

My question is why should it be different for our Youth athletes?

If anything I think at these ages - it's more important train correctly and with a long term plan in mind.

That's why we stopped offering these 6 week programs at Optimal Performance. We now offer 3 month and 12 month programs as our foundation, with a 1 month program that acts as kind of a trial.

JZ

PS -