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In the last few years it appears that the number of injuries to professional and collegiate players, especially early in the season, has increased greatly. Every week you can read articles about star players being injured. You can even hear fans complaining that if only the athletes weren’t injured, the team would be having a much better season. All injuries are not preventable; however, the number of injuries can be cut down greatly through proper training. This is a proven fact but most teams, especially professional teams, seem to ignore this. They keep hoping that their players will not get injured. But if they do get injured, “it is part of the game.”
One of the reasons for this is that little attention has been paid to the type of training done and when it is done. Also, many players come into pre-season camps out of shape and then work hard to get in shape in 2-4 weeks. But this is impossible. They may get over some of the soreness experienced in the first few days, but it does not prepare the athlete for competition and it is a far cry from preventing injury. The demands of most sports are quite high, and if the athlete is not already in good condition prior to the season it is impossible to get him or her in good shape during the season. Thus, they will always be playing at a sub-par level and be more prone to injury. In addition, programs to develop greater strength or other qualities in-season often lead to more injuries. The reason for this is that the weight training may interfere with the skills that must be executed on the field. This disruption of coordination is a leading cause of injury.
Understand that most injuries have a neuromuscular base. It is a combination of technique and strength or other physical qualities as they relate to the execution of the skills on the field. For example, many players get injured while running and executing cutting actions, two of the more common skills that most players, especially team sport players, must continually execute. When physical contact is added to improper technique, the chances of injuries are increased. For example, many players get hit during the execution of a poor cut which places their leg or body in a vulnerable position. If they had better cutting or running technique, the chance of injury would be less because they would be in a safer position when contact is made.
The above applies equally to the lower-level athlete as well as the elite athlete. Because of this, more attention should be focused on technique of the skills of running, cutting and other key movement skills. This can be done in-season as well as prior to the season. In addition, the players should already have ample strength, speed, quickness, and explosive power developed prior to the season. If not they should continue to work on speed, quickness and explosive power, especially the technique involved in the skills that exhibit these physical abilities. Strength, however, should be maintained -not increased- as it will interfere with technique execution.
Also, because most teams do not use effective restorative methods after playing a game, it usually takes 2-3 days before the athlete recovers sufficiently for any type of worthwhile training. This does not leave any time to develop new physical qualities prior to preparation for the next game. Thus, the concept of physically preparing the players while in season is only partially effective. It should revolve mainly around fine-tuning the physical and technical abilities already developed. In all cases they should not, as too often presently occurs, play in the hope of getting ready to play.
For more information on this topic see Build a Better Athlete. Also see Sports: Is It All B.S.?
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Dr. Michael Yessis is a professor emeritus in biomechanics and kinesiology and president of Sports Training Inc., a diversified company that does specialized work with athletes and develops specialized training equipment. Dr. Yessis is the foremost U.S. expert on Russian training methods. He has been to Russia multiple times, has worked with Russian coaches such as Yuri Verkhoshansky, and has translated and published Russian training articles in the Fitness and Sports Review International for over 29 years. He also wrote the number one article read in Muscle and Fitness (Kinesiology, Training Notebook) for over 25 years. Visit his website at 
When attending a conference years back we had the chance to listen to several nfl strength coaches speak. The problem that they were running into was that they were affraid to train these athletes (that’s not what they said but rather what I heard) for fear of losing their job due to injury as a result of training. They kept their program very easy, it sounded like they were just happy people showed up. When a few college strength coaches spoke up about how passive their program was the reply was, “we are dealing with multi million dollar athletes”
There is something wrong when we let our program be dictated by fear rather than what is best for the athlete.
Thank you
I agree that there is not enough off season training being done by a majority of the pro’s along w/ insufficient recovery during the season. But we have to remember, these guys generally push their bodies far beyond what is thought of as normal. Injuries are a part of the game. Each person is responsible to take care of his/her own body. Education and execution of that is key.
I think accountability is the key. Its hard to get anywhere with athletes, especially the professionals who go home in the off season and do their own thing. If they come in out of shape, that’s on them. Im not certain that you can put total blame on the strength coaches program. Personal accountability on the part of the athlete is a huge factor.
But the easy thing to do is blame the type of training. There are so many factors involved. The perfect training world doesnt really exist in team sport training.