Well, summer has finally bid us adieu, and school has roared back into gear this week! Meyer Athletic Development had a fantastic summer training season with tons of kids and adults putting in some solid effort on both the turf field and the weight floor. In addition to the regular training sessions, we partnered up with the revamped Austin Aztex Football Club and Nitro Swim Club's top youth swim teams as training partners. While the focus with the Aztex was providing quality injury prevention and recovery sessions, the kids at Nitro were treated to some old fashioned strength and power training in order to improve their swim times. All told, it was a really busy summer and we truly couldn't have had a better start to our new life inside SoccerPlex (formerly SoccerZone) Cedar Park.
However, with school starting this week, schedules seem to tighten up just a little bit. Maybe it's the homework that the kids are bringing home, or the taxi service to and from practices that the parents have to coordinate. In any event, it seems like there is less time to continue the great training program that was such a staple in the schedule not so long ago.
Don't let this happen to your child. The gains that were made over the summer will inevitably fall by the wayside without regular training sessions of a similar caliber and design. Make sure that all of that work wasn't in vain!
In the strength and conditioning business, we call it Periodization. For a moment, imagine that you or your child are a college or pro athlete. The summer is your off-season. There is plenty of time to put in quality strength/conditioning training as there are no practices to attend and no competitive games to play. You train up to 4 times a week, working on speed, strength, and agility. However, now, you are in season again, with practices and games a plenty. Do you think that athletes at those levels just stop training? I guarantee they don't. While the games and practices have taken the driver's seat in the training plan, the athletic development continues with supplemental training sessions to help maintain the growth achieved in the off-season.
Now, your 10 year old soccer player is not a professional athlete. But, still, they trained two to three times a week over the summer, developing their speed, strength, and agility. Without a weekly training session, those skills and gains will slowly fade. I'm afraid it is a use it or lose it situation. Just like playing the game itself.
So if you think that athletic development is just a summer time thing, think again. Help your child maintain those improvements and not have to start all over from scratch next summer by keeping a weekly session with Meyer Athletic Development. We'll be ready and waiting for you!
