As the Varsity girls basketball coach at Farmington High School, Natalie Yarber makes sure her players are in top shape every season to be competitive in each and every game. Many think that the hard work and dedication is only found through practice between games to sharpen skills, but it’s actually found outside of those practices and hard fought games.
“I always tell our athletes that the only time their skill is going to get better is during the off-season,” Yarber said. “If you want to become a better ball handler and a better shooter, that’s only going to get fixed in the off-season. We don’t have time for it in the regular season.”
Yarber is among many in the sports’ world that stress the importance of training in the off-season where that time is dedicated to building physical and mental strength so it doesn’t hinder the progress of the regular season.
“During the season, the goal is to build team chemistry, work on plays, and get ready for games,” Yarber said.
Senior cross country and track state qualifier Kierra Magner views the offseason as important as training in the regular season, if not more.
“It’s a 60/40 ratio between off-season training importance and regular season training importance,” Magner said. “It makes it a lot less scary going into the season with a base.”
As a long distance runner, Magner runs most of her mileage during the offseason to create an aerobic base, leaving shorter speed workouts for the regular season to hone in for races.
“I find offseason training paying off the most with my breathing and respiratory,” Magner said. “Through running long base runs, the breathing comes along with that.”
Not only does offseason training build physical strength, but it also sharpens mental strength.
“I think the biggest thing that the offseason builds is your confidence,” Yarber said. “That’s one of the most important things in sports. If you’re taking time off during the offseason, you’ll have that in your mind.”
Off-season training is also crucial in sports such as swimming that requires many hours in the pool to perfect different skills.
“In situations where I’m tired during practice or in a competition, I’ll still be able to do the correct technique because I would have muscle memory from doing it so many times in the offseason,” senior Eduardo Garcia said. “It helps you build endurance and the skills you need so that the meets you go to feel competitive.”
As an experienced swimmer of ten years, Garcia swims almost all year round and is motivated to improve his times.
“The thought of what happened last season and anything I didn’t accomplish keeps me motivated to train in the offseason,” Garcia said. “There have been times I didn’t go to extra practices for different reasons, but there is the understanding that going to it does help you.”
Being a coach for ten years ranging from middle school boys basketball all the way up to an assistant coach for the women’s team at Schoolcraft college, Yarber also played basketball for Macomb Community College.
“At the college level, you’re basically playing eleven months out of the year,” Yarber said. “You get the month of April off, and maybe some of May off, and then you’re starting summer workouts.”
Even though it’s not always easy waking up early in the morning to practice, oftentimes individually, the hard work pays off in the end.
“If an athlete doesn’t want to put forth that time and energy in the offseason, there’s probably someone else that is,” Yarber said. “I always tell my girls leading up to tryouts that even if you’re not the most skilled person on the floor, if you show up and you’re in great shape, you’re automatically going to put yourself in a better spot than everybody else.”
