Off-season

Athletes from basketball, triathlon cycling, running, swimming, and boxing usually use the off-season to recover from injury and rest their bodies from year-round training.

They usually do this after a big game, fight or race.  Athletes usually take 10-12 weeks to prepare for an event. But for long and hard event like the marathon, Ironman or extreme sports, some even take a year to prepare for it.

Off-season is the time to rest and recover, but for elite athletes it is the time to train on what they are weak on and during this off-season they focused that weakness and turn it into an advantage. Here are some elite athletes who personify that trait.

MICHAEL JORDAN. During his early years as NBA player, he was known only as a great scorer and offensive player. As is his famous Coach Doug Collins one said  “ Pass the ball to Michael and everybody get out of the way”. Fans didn’t respect his defensive game and his shooting. So every off- season, he worked hard and improved his defense. He eventually won 1988 defensive player of the year and what people did not know, Jordan also won three ‘steals’ titles and was part of the NBA All-Defensive team 9 times in his NBA Carrier.  His offense is usually capped by dunk or graceful behind the back lay-up eventually as years passed he became a very good jump shooter, remember those sweet turn around fade away jump shot, you need time and practice to master one elegant shot. Also, a dunk and jump shot are just the same, both worth two points.

LANCE ARMSTRONG. My favorite cyclist of all time has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, blood doping and etc. But he was only leveling the playing field because ‘all of them are using it’, Even if you have all these drugs it still boils down to proper training and nutrition. During Lance’s off season, he eats, sleep and breathe cycling.  He trained so hard in the cold that instead of hating it, he loves the cold weather. He was known to bike even on a stormy weather. At one point, before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, he went biking in pain and had to stand the entire time while pedaling because of the pain if he sits on the saddle.

MANNY PACQUIAO. Pacman was known to have a powerful left hand knockout punch but thru out the years he has develop a strong right punch. I got a chance to meet Pacman in the course of his training for his rematch against Marco Antonio Barrera six years ago. It was fun rubbing elbows with him, much more playing basketball with him for four consecutive weekends. This took place between his 10-12 week hard training. We were lucky because he was training here in Cebu to get away from the spotlight in Manila. I asked him why risk playing basketball during his rest day that he might get injured along the way. His answer was very surprising; basketball is his passion and his stress buster. Training is stressful so to take his mind off, he plays basketball. Indeed, he played very competitive basketball that he hates losing. They won during out first three games, but in our last game, we tried our best to beat them and we did. He took that loss seriously that he did not talk to us after the game, but during our lunch, we simply laughed it off.  This is just to show you that in every athlete, you should find your own motivation to make you continue on what you are doing. As for Pacquiao, he loves basketball and uses it as his outlet to come back the next day and train hard in boxing.

It’s sad to say that some athlete fall on the pit of the off-season. Even elite cyclist Ian Ulrich, gained so much weight in the off-season that he tried to lose weight before the Tour de France. As a result, his body suffers so much as he tried to shed off extra poundage while training. That greatly affects his competitive edge during his cycling carrier.

On the other hand, the common problem of athletes and specifically boxers during the off-season is “nag pabaya sa food and training”. Some think that since they are training, they don’t need to control their nutrition. So going into the weigh-in, some can lose the fight just in the weight itself. Take for example Johnriel Casimero, he lost his world boxing title on the scales for failing to make the regulatory limit in his weight division.

My advice to all athletes, Plot your training, fights, events, races and schedule your rest day thru out the year.  During off-season find one sport or training regimen and make it your base training, something to keep you in shape. It does not mean that since it’s the off-season, you should stop training and eating healthy. Just lessen the quantity and maintain the quality of training. Nutrition is also important, your body is your engine and like any top race car engine it needs the best fuel to perform.  By binging and eating unhealthy food during the off-season you are affecting and putting heavier load during your actual training. Remember your performance during the fight or race will depend on your training and your training will be a result on what you do on your off-season.