Off-Season Workouts: NM Students Prepare for Future Seasons

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:54:35 GMT

By Aaron Jones

Linnea Bonin
Junior, Jesse Tromp working out in the North Muskegon high school weight room. Tromp is preparing for his senior football season next fall.

Good athletes know that to truly improve at a particular sport, hard work needs to be put in during the off-season. Preparing for a sport in the off-season is the perfect way to get a quick advantage against athletes on other teams, but ultimately has to come from hard work and dedication. Many hours of your own free time needs to be dedicated in order to properly prepare yourself for a particular sport. "I am preparing for next years football season by lifting everyday and staying in shape," junior Jesse Tromp said. The most difficult task to overcome when preparing for a sport in the off-season is convincing yourself to actually put in the hours of work that are needed in order to be effective. Just showing up for the off-season workouts is one thing, but to be effective, you must participate and work hard so you can improve your own personal skills. To accomplish a successful, effective off-season workout, you must be very responsible and have self discipline otherwise you are wasting your teammate’s time and your own time. "Off-season is no longer a realistic term in high school football, we take short breaks to get rejuvenated, but in reality preparation for games is a year round process," head football coach John Slocum said. Many athletes say that as soon as the end of their season has arrived, it is already time to start the off-season preparations that are needed for next year. This statement is entirely true and has proven to be affective for athletes that want to improve their game during the off-season. It is commonly known that players make the changes, improvements and developments needed to their game during the "down time" of their season. "Our team has been practicing at Norton Pines to get us prepared for the spring season. North Muskegon girl’s tennis is usually good at our school and I hope to see us improve from last year’s season," senior Alex Neal said. Participating in a sport during high school is a very pro-active thing that you can do. However, to really achieve in that sport, the main work needs to be done in that sports off-season so, when the season starts, you have a sizable advantage over other players. If this is done, the improvement that is made is ultimately worth any time or anything you may have sacrificed for it.

The Norse Star

Off-Season Workouts: NM Students Prepare for Future Seasons