Today was an excellent teaching day for me.  We had softball in at 8am.

Here's the back story.  Tuesday is their off-day during fall ball.  The last 3 weekends they've played games.  Three the first weekend, three the second and four this past weekend.  Needless to say, Mondays are a rough go for these girls because it's the end of their work week.

Normally, they come in laughing, joking and generally very energetic.  They like the weight room.  Partially because some of them are meatheads and partially because their coach doesn't like it and they don't particularly like their coach.  I think it's a little "we like the weight room because he hates it" type attitude, which is fine with me.

Generally, softball is great in the weight room as evidenced by the other schools I've been at.

Today they were dead silent.  No jokes, no good mornings, nothing but exhausted faces and just tired body language.  Sometimes this will change once they start warming up and going through their pre-lift routine.  Once the blood starts flowing the mouths start moving.

Not today.  I asked a few of the seniors how they were feeling (the girls I know I can trust) and they didn't try to get out of lifting, they just said they were beat up.  So, I made the executive decision to call the lift short after the first three movements (Hang High Pull, Squat and FBB Bench).  In place of lift we took them through a PVC should stretch circuit, foam rolling and band stretching.

Normally, I don't skip or shorten a lift.  Athletes need to suck it up and get through it.  Life is tough, buy a helmet.  But when a team is so uncharacteristic of themselves that's usually a sign of something, to me.  You can bet those ladies will have a good lift on Thursday.  No sympathy ahead for them.

My point is, as strength coaches our job is to keep them strong and healthy.  In my opinion, today wouldn't have been as productive as it should be.  Knowing they have one more week of fall ball, no major injuries (besides a broken hand from a catching incident) and no pulled/strained muscles - we've done our job thus far.  Backing off on a lift one day will no destroy the program or their progress.  With an afternoon of hitting and conditioning with the head coach, I thought it was more important to get them through this week.  Next week starts their three day lifting schedule as fall ball is over.