🏋️ The Offseason Advantage

📰 COLLEGIATE ELITES WEEKLY

Issue 014 — September 15, 2025

Today’s athletes are in a nonstop cycle. Club teams, school seasons, travel tournaments, it never ends.

On the surface, it sounds like a good thing. More games, more practices, more competition. But here’s the truth: if you’re always in season, when are you truly building?

⚡ Quick Note for Multi-Sport Athletes

If you’re always in season, you’ll need to decide where and when you can grind it out anyway. Playing multiple sports is valuable, but if your goals matter, you have to carve out time for growth, even when another season is in the way.

Don’t worry, we’ll be following up soon with specific guidance for multi-sport athletes on how to balance competing year-round with making progress towards your goals.

🔄 IN SEASON = MAINTENANCE

During a season, the priority isn’t pushing limits. Training has to adjust to keep athletes fresh and healthy so they can perform at a high level. That usually means:

• Lighter weights to reduce soreness and risk of injury

• Shorter or fewer workouts so energy is saved for competition

• Lower intensity drills designed to maintain skills, not expand them

This kind of training works like cruise control. It helps athletes perform consistently week to week, but it isn’t designed to spark major improvements in strength, speed, or power.

In other words: in-season training keeps you ready, but it rarely takes you further.

🔄 OFFSEASON = REAL GROWTH

The offseason is where athletes transform. Without the constant demands of practices and games, they finally have the space to push their bodies beyond maintenance mode. That’s when they can:

• Lift heavier loads in the weight room and safely push strength to new levels

• Build real speed and explosiveness with higher-volume training sessions

• Rebuild weak spots in their game without worrying about fatigue before the next competition

• Train with intent, knowing they won’t be stepping on a court or field the next day

This is the phase where athletes dig deep, take on tougher workouts, and make the gains that carry over into the next season.

No games. No distractions. Just focused training that creates the edge others won’t have. 

⚠️ THE PROBLEM WITH “ALWAYS ON”

Playing year-round seems like the fast track to improvement. More games, more touches, more reps. But when there’s never a true offseason, athletes eventually run into walls that are hard to push through:

• Plateaued performance: Athletes keep practicing and competing, but without time to build new strength or refine skills, their performance levels off. They get “stuck” at the same speed, the same vertical, the same output.

• Increased risk of injury: Joints, muscles, and tendons take a beating during long seasons. Without blocks of time for recovery, small aches can grow into overuse injuries that sideline athletes for months.

• Mental burnout: Competing is fun until it isn’t. When there’s no reset, the joy of playing fades. Practices feel like chores, games lose their spark, and motivation drops.

• Lost opportunity for growth: In-season training is about staying ready, not about leveling up. If every season blends into the next, athletes never get the chance to dig deeper, train harder, and make the real gains that come in the offseason.

The result: athletes who are always busy, but not always better.

🕒 MAKING TIME FOR REAL PROGRESS

Not every athlete can take three months off. But you can build in short blocks for growth:

• 2–4 weeks after a season to reset, recover, and hit heavier training

• Focused skill work in smaller windows during slower months

• Active recovery weeks where the body repairs instead of just grinding

💡 Coach’s Insight: “Athletes need time to get out of maintenance mode. Even a few weeks of focused offseason training can do more for long-term growth than another season of back-to-back games.”

🎯 FINAL THOUGHT

More games doesn’t always mean more progress. To keep improving, athletes need windows of time to step out of season mode and into true growth mode.

If you’re always competing, you’re only maintaining. To get better, sometimes you have to prioritize growth, push harder, and give yourself the chance to break through.

Be Elite.

✅ TAKE ACTION

📍 In Seattle?

Come train with us in person at the Collegiate Elites weight room.
Get hands-on coaching, structured training, and the same environment our college athletes trust to stay sharp. 👉

🌐 Not local?
Train with a former college athlete — online or in your area. 👉