As fall activities are starting to wind to a close, winter and spring sports have started getting ready for their seasons. To prepare, many sports have started pre-season training and conditioning sessions. Many athletes find pre-season training to be annoying and unnecessary, but when the season comes, their bodies will feel the positive effects.
“So starting a season without doing any kind of prep work right, you’re already setting yourself up to fail. Because you have not gotten your body in a position where you can do all the things that are required of your sport,” said Greg Garofalo, head athletic trainer.
Without training and doing conditioning before the season, athletes come into the season prepared. Working out before the season helps prepare athletes for the hard work they are going to do during the season and build connections with the coaches and players.
“Skipping out and just showing up on the first day, you’re already going to be behind the people that were doing things through preseason, right? The things you build on in preseason are stuff like, We work on agility, we work on strength, you know, you work on doing the little fine-tuned motor movements that are going to be required of your sport,” said Garofalo
Not only does pre-season training and conditioning help prepare athletes for the season, it can also help prevent athletes from getting injured. For example, ACL tears are very common in female soccer players because of their anatomy; during pre-season training there are stretches and exercises that help prevent the injury from occurring.
“Now you’re not going to prevent every injury, right, because contact injuries—that’s a whole other thing. But if we’re talking about noncontact types of injuries, a lot of those can be prevented by doing strength training and some focused exercises. So, yes, definitely notice a difference,” said Garofalo
“So it’s very important that if you’re in a sport, you do the preseason workout training with your team or something to get your body ready to go,” Garofalo continued.
