The winter off-season is where college roster spots are earned ❄️⚽️, but only if you are training correctly. Too many players spend these months on machines designed for aesthetics rather than athletic performance. It can be enticing to chase those abs or bigger quads, but I would argue that doesn't get you where you want to go 🤔. To prepare for the spring, prioritize strength training that offers a high return on investment for the pitch 📈: • 🔄 Swap the Leg Extension for Squats and Deadlifts to build power that translates directly to the game. • 🔄 Swap the Leg Press for Bulgarian Split Squats to produce force one leg at a time, mimicking the demands of running, shooting, and cutting. HUGE MASTER TIP • Decide on your reps guided by your weak leg. If your left isn't as strong, start the sets with that leg. If you can do 8 with the left and 12 with the right, don't force the left into 12. Instead, bring the right to 8 until they are balanced and equal. Remember, your goal is to be an explosive athlete on the field, not just the strongest person in the gym. Train for the game, not the mirror 🏆🪞. Best of luck, and let me know your thoughts! 👋

Coach Dave Most young athletes plan their future based on how they feel right now. They look at: - Their current confidence - Their current skill level - Their current role on the team - Their current struggles And then they ask, “What’s realistic for me this season?” That question feels responsible.But it’s also the reason many athletes never break through. Because elite athletes don’t plan forward from who they are today.They plan backward from who they want to become. A High School Example I See All the Time I once worked with a high school basketball player who desperately wanted to become a varsity starter by his junior year. But every plan he made sounded like this:“I’m not strong enough yet.”“I’m not confident enough yet.”“I’m probably not there yet.” So, his goals stayed small. His effort stayed safe. Then we flipped the conversation. Instead of asking, “What can I realistically do right now?”We asked, “What does a varsity starter look like?” - How do they move? - How do they communicate? - How do they handle mistakes? - How do they prepare when no one is watching? Once we defined that version of him, the plan changed completely. Every workout had purpose.Every practice had intention.Every choice either moved him closer to that version, or away from it. That’s when growth accelerated. Why Planning from the Present Holds Athletes Back When athletes plan only from where they are: - Today’s stress limits tomorrow’s goals - Current confidence defines future belief - Short-term discomfort feels like a stop sign It’s like a sprinter only training at the speed they can run today, instead of the speed they need to win. They’ll improve a little…But they’ll never separate. Parents, this is important too. When we constantly ask kids to “be realistic,” we often mean “don’t stretch too far.”But growth requires stretch. How Elite Athletes Think Differently Elite performers start with the end in mind. Think about a championship-level athlete. They don’t say:“What can I achieve based on how tired I feel today?”

A Coach Dave Story for Athletes and Parents At the beginning of this year, one of the athletes I work with was on the verge of a breakthrough. Their training numbers were skyrocketing. Conditioning was sharp. Confidence was high. Every session felt like another step closer to the kind of season athletes dream about. You could feel momentum building, like everything was finally clicking into place. And then, in one moment, everything shifted. During a routine workout, they felt a strange little “off” sensation in their ankle. Not a sharp pain. Not something that screams stop now. Just a whisper, the kind athletes usually brush off because they’re so used to pushing through discomfort. That tiny whisper turned out to be a stress fracture… a serious one. Within hours, this athlete went from preparing for their best season yet to sitting in a doctor’s office hearing words no athlete wants to hear: “You’re in a cast. No weight bearing. No running. Six weeks minimum.” The physical injury was real, but the mental impact was something far deeper. The Mental Battle Most Athletes Don’t See Coming When an athlete gets sidelined, it’s not just the body that takes the hit.It’s the identity.The routine.The sense of progress.The feeling of belonging. For this athlete, every emotion hit hard and fast: - Frustration - Sadness - Jealousy watching teammates train - Fear of falling behind - Worry about losing everything they had built And parents, you see it too.You see the shift in their mood, their motivation, their confidence. Injuries can rattle even the strongest kids. One of the hardest moments for this athlete was scrolling through teammates’ workouts… seeing the runs, drills, practices they wanted to be part of. They were happy for their friends, but they were hurting on the inside. And that’s normal.Every athlete goes through a version of this when the sport is suddenly taken away. But injuries also reveal something important: When the routine cracks, you see what your foundation is really made of.

When no personal emotion, mental noise, or internal judgment interferes, the experiences of training and competition are processed with total clarity and fluidity. The athlete’s perceptual system is designed precisely for this: to read what is happening on the field, experience it fully, and then let it go so you can be completely present for the next action. When this system works well, you are well. Everything flows: one action after another, one reading after another. Every play, every decision, every stimulus in the match is a gift that trains you and makes you better. Just like a well-constructed play, experiences move through you, awakening your focus, your intuition, and your ability to react. In reality, every experience on the pitch —a mistake, a success, a comment from the coach, a duel won, a controlled error— leaves a mark on you. It shapes you. It makes you grow. Your athletic mind and heart expand, and you become stronger, more stable, and more aware. If experience is the best coach, nothing compares to the power of living your matches with full attention. The purpose of being an athlete is not to control every play, but to fully experience each moment that is happening to you, let it go, and prepare for the next one. In a match or training session, hundreds of micro-experiences appear: stimuli, sensations, decisions, emotions. They arrive, pass through you, and move on. That is the ideal system. If you could be this present —the way truly conscious footballers play— every experience would touch you deeply. Every action would feel meaningful because you would be completely open to the information of the game, and your sporting life would flow through you without blockages. But this is not what happens to most athletes. Most carry unprocessed emotions: frustration, fear of failing, external pressure, self-criticism, expectations. These emotions interrupt the natural flow of performance. The challenge is to return to the state where you allow each experience to train you, move through you, and free you —so you can perform with presence, lightness, and fullness.

The winter off-season is your most crucial development block. Step away from the pressure of every indoor result, as these indoor matches are just to keep you on the ball throughout the winter, and focus on becoming a future collegiate athlete. Your pillars are Strength, Mobility, and Recovery. Aggressively attack the 'massive needle movers' you neglect during the competitive season: • Strength Training - don't just lift, build explosive power and durability. • Prioritize Mobility work to unlock your hips, ankles, and T-spine, creating more efficient movement and preventing non-contact injuries. • Crucially, use this time for Active Recovery, addressing any nagging injuries or imbalances with a specialist. When you return to the pitch, you won't just be fitter, you'll be a fundamentally more robust, powerful, and injury-resistant player, ready for the next level.