Off-season training for college athletes: a blessing or a curse?

Off-season training at Simon Fraser University / SFU Public
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An NCAA student-athlete needs time to rest and recover between seasons, as well as gain strength and endurance for the upcoming year. This is the function off-season training serves. It is a period for athletes to stay in shape and put in effort towards success and improvement in their abilities, both physically and mentally.

Although the off-season is an advantageous time for most athletes, it comes with serious drawbacks. The off-season training puts athletes at risk of injuries, both catastrophic and non-catastrophic, and there have even been reported deaths between seasons for several NCAA sports.

Off-season workouts differ among sports, but they all have one thing in common: important progress is made towards improving student-athletes’ physical condition and sport-specific skills.

“Summer participation allows a wrestler the chance to greatly accelerate the training program without the normal pressures and hassles of the winter folkstyle environment,” Southern Maryland Wrestling Club Head Coach Dr. Bruce Gabrielson said in a 1992 article on SMWC.org.

Besides increasing strength and stamina, off-season training also serves as a time to reinforce a sense of teamwork, as well as to set individual goals for oneself and learn to adapt to changes.

“The off-seasons helps you build as a team through all the time spent together and brings you closer together so that you can trust each other on the field,” William Jewell College junior football player DJ Balazs said in a 2012 article on TheHilltopMonitor.com. “Team chemistry is vital in order to perform as best as possible.”

Despite the benefits, off-season training has some serious dangers. Student-athletes increase their risk of injury, usually when they overwork themselves in an attempt to get ready for the upcoming season. The NCAA Injury Surveillance Program (ISP) has implemented multiple methods to document and limit these injuries; however, they cannot manage to record each and every one. In fact, the NCAA ISP does not include off-season injuries in their annual reports.

The NCAA Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention wrote a 2013 article about the historical difficulties in the surveillance of injuries during the off-season.

“Student-athletes are at risk of catastrophic injury during off-season training. However, little remains known about the risk of non-catastrophic injury during the off-season.”

An even bigger threat is the risk of death. The off-season is known as the "Kill Season" in the NCAA, as 19 deaths have occurred since 2000. It is important to note that these deaths were non-traumatic, which means there was no impact or injury during a game. They happened merely during workout routines. Many student-athletes even claim that their strength and conditioning coaches went beyond the allowed eight hours a week of workout time, exerting their players more than is legal or, for that matter, safe.

“The way we're training college football players in this day and age is putting them at risk," president of the College Athletics Trainers Society Scott Anderson said in a 2011 article on CBSSports.com.

The off-season can be a beneficial time for student-athletes to improve their skills and prepare for the next season, if they focus their energy effectively and do not overwork themselves. Injuries, and even deaths, are a serious and real problem, and the NCAA has not done enough to limit or prevent these from happening.