Player Considerations for the GAA Off-Season
At this stage of the year,GAA club players still playing in the ‘business end’ of the season, preparing for an eminent county final, or still dreaming of playing in ‘Europe’ (how the provincial club championships were once witfully described by Kenmare hurling stalwart Johnny Tuohy) are a few and far between. Yes, unless you are within this lucky cohort, you are most likely looking towards the GAA off-season. At the time of writing, this will be the vast majority of GAA players.
Before we delve into the key considerations for the GAA players’ off-season, it is worthwhile distinguishing this period and its unique characteristics. Firstly, ‘off-season’ and ‘pre-season’ are different phases of a training macrocycle i.e., a full training season, and therefore, should be approached with differently.
The off-season is typically a period of time between 6-8 weeks following the culmination of competitive games. It is often characterised by a decrease in training load, a complete cessation of training or a transition to individualised exercise at low-to-moderate levels (Clemente et al., 2021). According to Gamble (2006), the off-season phase for team sports can be considered the period prior to the start of structured technical and tactical practices. Again, for the majority, what we are looking at here is the individual training that will take place between the months of November and December.
There is effectively two goals for an effective off-season that can be easily summed up as follows:
(i) Recover from the previous season
(ii) Prepare for the next pre-season
For the purposes of this article, we will focus more-so on the latter.
Consideration #1: The Residual Training Effect and Maximum Velocity Running
One of the first key considerations when transitioning into the off-season is the residual training effect (RTE). RTE refers to the retention of changes in the body state and motor abilities after the cessation of training beyond a certain time period. Decreases in training volume, intensity and frequency may lead to detraining and a reduction in physical performance. This is commonly observed in measures of speed, aerobic conditioning and strength.
The table below can serve as a useful guide for athletes and coaches alike who are looking to manage their in-season training, peak for a competition, deload, or even manage holidays.
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‘Block Periodization: Breakthrough in Sport Training’ by Vladimir Issurin (2008)
Table is adapted from ‘Block Periodization: Breakthrough in Sport Training’ by Vladimir Issurin (2008). Note that the data presented here refers to elite level athletes with years of training age - the RTE for lower level athletes will be much lower with fewer years of training.
Generally, we need to stimulate speed regularly, but can get away with minimum strength exposure for a substantial period of time. The volume of speed and plyometric work that you perform in the off-season should be significantly less when compared to pre- and in-season, but it certainly should still be included (maximum velocity running in particular). I would suggest 2 days/week minimum, while looking to increase this as you move towards pre-season.
Consideration #2 - Limiting Factor
The off-season affords us an opportunity to train in a way that is very difficult to do in any other phase of the year. For example, if strength is one of the main limiting factors of our performance, it can be difficult to address this in-season when we are pitch-training 2-3 days/week, with a game most weekends.
Questions worth asking at this point of year:
What area of your game, physical, technical or tactical, is currently holding you back?
What are your main weaknesses that if you could address, would make you much better player?
When answering these questions, it’s worth considering where you are also you’re strongest and what areas you can deprioritise i.e., how strong is strong enough? If you can already squat 2x your bodyweight, the return you will gain for adding more heavy squat work may not be as great in terms of pitch-performance as possibly increasing your aerobic threshold.
Once you get clear on the above, you are in a strong position to put a plan in place and get to work. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by!
Consideration #3 - Body Composition
Similar to consideration #2 and how the off-season affords us with opportunity to train differently, the off-season too affords us with an ideal opportunity to eat differently with the goal of ‘optimising’ body composition.
One thing that most performance nutritionists and sports scientists will agree on is that carrying excess adipose tissue (fat) is detrimental to performance. After all, fat doesn’t produce force. If you have fat to lose, the only to achieve this is by a calorie deficit. It is well established that being in a calorie deficit is not optimal for performance (you are essentially depriving yourself of energy), so addressing the issue of excess bodyfat is intuitively most appropriate in the off-season when performance does not need to be at its highest.
Conversely, if your goal is to ‘bulk up’ and put on some lean mass, the off-season is one of the more appropriate times of the year as you can allocate more of your training time to resistance training and recovery. This is isn’t to say you need to train like a bodybuilder, but prioritising hypertrophy is going to allow you to make more ‘gains’ in this time.
Along the same lines, learning how to cook to ensure you are in an adequate caloric surplus and getting in enough high-quality protein is also something that would be a worthwhile pursuit. The off-season is NOT the time to get sloppy with your nutrition and gain unnecessary bodyfat.
Summary
In summary, the off-season, as it is seen as a transition period, should be used to slowly restart the training process, provide active recovery and psychological rest, whilst still being mindful of upcoming pre-season demands.
It is recommended that specific training elements (e.g. strength, power, sprinting) are gradually reintroduced during this timeframe, to build tolerance and capacity ahead of potentially high pre-season volumes, loads, intensities & training frequencies.
Dean Cassidy
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