Student Athlete Lifestyle | Training & Preserving the Body
Many don’t truly understand the huge physical toll being a student athlete takes on one’s body. From all the hours spent in practice and in outside training sessions, you’d be an anomaly if you didn’t feel exhausted. However, there are measures in place that allow you to reach your fullest potential on the playing field or court. Here we’ll outline what you can expect from the physical side of being a student athlete.
Training & lift
Although we’ve covered the time breakdown a little in a previous post, here's a quick recap of the time breakdown that Training and Lifting sessions may take up as part of your regimen for student athletes. The average practice time on a weekly basis out of season will range from 10-15 hours on the court or field. The primary focus is on a lot of technical skills and honing certain parts of your game whether its through team drills or individual ones. In the gym an athlete can expect to be piling on more strength exercises in order to prepare their bodies for the heavy workload of in-season play - basically, the off-season is used to gear up for the regular season of play. Of course, this depends on the sports program and how seriously they treat their strength and conditioning regimens for their athletes.
In season, training schedules can reach a max of 20 hrs/week with the lifts included. This varies from sport to sport, but these practices are more focused on creating in-game experiences for the athletes to train like they’re competing. In terms of lifting, most sports change their workouts in order to cater for the long season, which typically means things that will amplify the athlete’s performance capabilities. This can be done in many different ways such as a changed program or tapering off weight (lowering the weight lifted in gym sessions to give the muscles a chance to recover).
Student Athlete Lifestyle | Training & Preserving the Body
Here’s an example of what a tennis player's practice and lifting regimens may look like in and out of season:
Out of season, depending on the school, a tennis player can expect to practice at least 3-5 days a week with the whole team and then receive more individualized training sessions with their coaches, with a huge emphasis on technique and fitness on the court. In the gym, the program will tend to focus on building strength and raising the athletes’ endurance to get them in good shape for the season. This brings us to the season itself, where the whole team will practice almost every day of the week together, and there’s a much bigger emphasis on match/point play in order to recreate the match setting. In the gym, heavier weight and raw strength are not as prioritized and are replaced with explosiveness and agility drills that will help the players develop better speed bases for their matches.
Rehab & Injuries
One of, if not the most important part of being a student athlete is your ability to stay healthy and injury-free. Due to the huge emphasis on keeping players in good condition to represent the school in competitions, many schools have athletic training staff that always provide support from the sidelines during the games or in their individual athletic training rooms. Athletic training rooms essentially act as rehabilitation centers for injury prevention and you could walk in either with an appointment or with an injury that needs treatment at any time of the day.
Depending on the school, the trainers have access to some of the latest equipment when it comes to pre-game preparation or post-game recovery, as well as having received specialized education and training themselves in order to diagnose and treat any athletes’ ailments. Based on the popularity amongst trainers, some things that may be available to you as an athlete through a training room are ice baths, cupping therapy, heating/icing, and many more tools to help you keep your body in its best shape.
For a more concrete diagnosis of an injury or condition developed from practice or competition, many athletics programs in the U.S. also may have access to doctors specialized in sports medicine on campus. These doctors either run clinics through your school’s athletic training department or may work directly within the athletic department itself - this allows them to make a diagnosis, based on which they provide trainers and strength/conditioning coaches the guidance they need to speed up your recovery, as well as prescribe the necessary medications needed for it. All in all, many athletic departments try very hard to take care of their athletes and make sure they’re performing highly. However, one of the more overlooked aspects is the things you can do yourself to make sure you’re putting yourself in a position for success.
Note: Keep in mind once again that this heavily depends on the size of the athletics program and their ability to leverage this type of care.
Student Athlete Lifestyle | Training & Preserving the Body
Taking care of your body
1. Be diligent with lift/rehab
Truly speaking, lifts may not be the most fun, especially if you’re not traditionally a person that trains outside of their sport. However, it makes up a hugely important part of your training and responsibilities to your team, which means if you’re skipping the gym, you’re not only hurting yourself but your teammates in the process. Along with that, comes the responsibility of you making sure you’re healthy and being diligent with treatment whenever you’re given the correct pathway to recovery.
2. Getting adequate sleep
This one’s a bit of a no brainer, however, many people don’t understand the profound impacts sleep deprivation can have on athletic performance. If you’re not giving yourself the proper time to rest, then you should never expect to play like you’re completely fresh. In other words, that extra episode on Netflix at 11 pm the night before your 6 am practice is probably not worth it...
3. Eating right
We plan on covering this in more detail in the future, however here’s the big picture message for now: treat your body like a new Ferrari. You wouldn’t just put any run-of-the-mill gas into the engine, or else the car won’t run the way it’s supposed to. In the same way, you shouldn’t just be feeding yourself low-quality food, but rather the most nutritionally balanced meals that allow you to maximize your energy output.
Doing these three things not only gives you the confidence to practice and compete at your highest level, but they also set the right example for the future generations of your team to follow and pass on for years to come.