Young athletes improve by playing their sport. They need practices, competition, technical instruction and time making real decisions under pressure. None of that should be replaced by the weight room.

At the same time, more games are not a complete physical development plan. A soccer player can improve skill while still lacking lower-body strength. A baseball player can spend months throwing and hitting without developing better acceleration. A volleyball player can jump hundreds of times each week without building the strength and landing control needed to tolerate those contacts well.

The off-season creates room to work on qualities that are difficult to develop when every week is organized around the next game.

Sport practice and physical preparation have different jobs

Sport coaches have a long list of priorities. They teach systems, tactics, technique, position responsibilities and teamwork. They prepare the team to compete. Even excellent sport practices may have limited time for structured strength development, progressive sprint training or carefully coached landing and deceleration work.

Physical preparation fills those gaps. The purpose is not to make a young athlete tired for the sake of appearing tough. It is to build a stronger, faster and more capable athlete who can use sport skill more effectively.

A systematic review and meta-analysis involving youth athletes found that resistance training produced moderate improvements in strength and vertical jump performance, along with smaller but meaningful improvements in sprinting, agility and sport-specific performance. Another review comparing strength and power training found that strength training created a useful foundation and was particularly effective for lower-body strength and sprint outcomes.

What an off-season program should build

A good off-season program is broad enough to prepare the whole athlete while still accounting for the demands of the sport. The exact program will differ by age, training experience, position, injury history and time available before the next season.

• Strength: squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, carrying and single-leg control.
• Acceleration: learning to project the body and apply force during the first few steps.
• Maximum-speed exposure: practicing upright sprinting with enough recovery to run fast.
• Jumping and landing: developing power while learning to absorb force with control.
• Deceleration and change of direction: braking before cutting instead of only practicing fast feet around cones.
• Work capacity: building the ability to tolerate useful training without turning every session into a conditioning test.
• Mobility and coordination: addressing restrictions and movement challenges, especially during periods of rapid growth.

These qualities support one another. More strength can create a better base for power. Better deceleration can improve an athlete’s ability to change direction. Improved coordination can help an athlete use new strength when the game becomes fast and unpredictable.

The off-season allows real progression

During the season, the schedule may only allow enough training to maintain. The off-season provides time to gradually increase resistance, practice new movements and recover between hard sessions. That progression is where many of the improvements occur.

Young athletes do not need adult bodybuilding routines or maximal lifting every week. They need exercises they can perform well, coaching that emphasizes technique and a program that becomes more challenging as their ability improves. The load may increase. The exercise may become more complex. The athlete may move faster or perform additional sets. Progress can take several forms.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis in highly trained male youth soccer players found that strength, plyometric and combined programs improved several measures of strength, power and speed. The findings reinforce that athletic development responds to planned training, even in young players who already practice their sport at a high level.

More competition is not always the missing piece

Parents often respond to a disappointing season by adding more lessons, more travel teams or more games. Sometimes the athlete does need technical practice. Other times the athlete understands the game but cannot produce or absorb enough force to execute the skill at speed.

A player may know where to move but arrive late. An athlete may read the play correctly but lack the strength to hold position. A young player may have good skills early in a game and lose them as fatigue changes posture and coordination. Physical development does not solve every performance problem, but it can expand what the athlete is capable of doing.

Use the off-season with a clear plan

An off-season should not become several months of inactivity followed by a frantic conditioning push before tryouts. It also should not become year-round competition with no break from the sport. Athletes need recovery, variety and time away from constant pressure.

At Breakaway Fitness & Performance, the goal is to build athletes gradually. Youth from Hampstead, Surf City and the surrounding area learn strength movements, sprint mechanics, jumping, landing and change of direction in a coached environment. Training should make them more prepared for their sport while allowing them to return to the season healthy, confident and excited to compete.

The sport develops the player. The off-season gives us time to develop the body that player depends on.

Works Cited

• Lesinski, Melanie, Olaf Prieske, and Urs Granacher. “Effects and Dose-Response Relationships of Resistance Training on Physical Performance in Youth Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 50, no. 13, 2016, pp. 781–795. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26851290/.
• Harries, Simon K., David R. Lubans, and Robin Callister. “Resistance Training to Improve Power and Sports Performance in Adolescent Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, vol. 15, no. 6, 2012, pp. 532–540. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22541990/.
• Oliver, Jon L., et al. “The Effects of Strength, Plyometric and Combined Training on Strength, Power and Speed Characteristics in High-Level, Highly Trained Male Youth Soccer Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Sports Medicine, vol. 54, no. 3, 2024, pp. 623–643. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37897637/.
• Behm, David G., et al. “Effectiveness of Traditional Strength vs. Power Training on Muscle Strength, Power and Speed with Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Frontiers in Physiology, vol. 8, 2017, article 423. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28713281/.