If you are the parent of a high school football player (or future high school football player), you need to read this! I’m pulling no punches and going straight to the point:
SIMPLY PARTICIPATING IN THE HIGH SCHOOL’S OFF-SEASON TRAINING WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR ATHLETE TO REACH THEIR FULL ATHLETIC POTENTIAL.
First off, I am not damning the work being put in at the high schools by the players or by the coaches who are essentially volunteers when you consider what they get paid. They should be working out together, sweating together, and getting better together…that’s what great programs are built on…WORK.
And I’m not making the above bold statement just based upon simple observation of the kids in our program making improvement – and many times at leaps and bounds. I am also actually accumulating the data to prove that bold statement in RED above. That data is in the form of the in-house speed and agility tests that we use to track our athletes’ progress.
Time and again I have re-tested athletes returning to our program to train with us again…
Athletes that have been away from us for 4-9 months…
Athletes who have been working within their school’s off-season program or participating in their sports…
Athletes that can barely make the marks they attained when previously training with us…OR WORSE YET…
Athletes who actually test out SLOWER than when they last trained with us…!
You don’t have to know much about sports to have an basic understanding that high school athletics is competitive and if you’re not getting better you’ll never achieve your full potential…or possibly never even see the field!
The high school coaches will be pretty much putting together the fall starting line-ups during the month of May as they put their players through spring practices minus the departing seniors…its next fall’s team already!
Hopefully your athlete has totally transformed themselves in the past nearly 4 months of the off-season: part of November, and all of December, January, and February. They should be significantly stronger, more agile, faster, and more athletic than they were in November…if they’re not a measurably better version of themselves by now, they are likely falling behind others who are putting in more (or better) work!
If your high school football player is to be fully prepared for spring practice commencing in May, they need to begin putting the final touches on their speed, strength, agility, and athleticism NOW!
