Posted by Ebenezer Floppen Slopper on August 1, 2025, 11:48 am
Curious as to opinions on allocating time to rest, training (eg skill lessons or strength & conditioning), practice (team) and playing.
What is the best mix, and how do you rebalance that mixes during the calendar?
Some thoughts:
Spring: Practice is every day after school and games are frequent. This leaves no time for rest and less time for training.
Summer: Playing is intense on the weekends (Thu-Sun) and tournament travel leaves much less time for training and team practices.
Fall: This seems to vary the most by team and org, but certainly no time for rest.
Winter: Best time for rest and training, but HS practices start later in the season.
While there is no doubt that being a college softball player is grueling, the format seems to allow for more emphasis on one or two of the four, versus what happens for HS athletes. (Spring= practice and playing; Summer = rest and training; Fall = training and practices; Winter - training and practices).
What are the best clubs doing? Again, the fall seems to be the most variable. Some teams are playing a tournament every weekend, and others seem more selective.. and those decisions dictate what is available for everything else.
I would recommend having your daughter take a weight lifting class in high school instead of gym class. That way she still has time to for training during the high school softball season.
Summer is pretty easy for training, plenty of time during the day since school is no longer going. You can also use the hotel gyms when you are on the road if your daughter is dedicated.
Fall has plenty of time since she is lifting during school if she is in the high schools weight lifting class, and she can go after school.
When travel ball is going on we don't train as heavy as the rest of the year. During travel ball we work more on explosive lifts, higher volume less weight. The rest of the year we train heavy for strength, less volume more weight. Just to give an example during travel ball season daughter will squat 135 for 15 reps, 3-4 sets. When she is strength training she will be squatting 185 - 225 for 6-10 reps, 3-4 sets.
