Thursday, February 9, 2012

How to Spend an Off Day

It's still very early in Spring Training so the wear and tear on the body isn't as prevalent as it would be in mid-April. Nonetheless, off days are always welcome no matter the time of year. Forget the phrase, "there are no off days." While that phrase looks good on a t-shirt, if you want to make it thru an entire season in good mental health, you need to take advantage of off days. Here are just a few areas which are addressed during an off day as a coach.

1. Sleep. There are a lot of sleepless nights during the course of a season whether its an extended losing streak, a rash of injuries, disciplinary problems with players...the list goes on. Throw in the fact that five of the seven days are spent getting up at 5:30am and you are running the risk of running on fumes by mid-season. So if there is a morning in which you can sleep in past 6am, you do it.

2. Working Out. On practice days, getting a workout in during the day can be very difficult. If your team has morning workouts and practice during the middle of the day, there isn't much time between the two. There are also practice plans to put together, staff meetings to attend, high school coaches to talk to about recruits, and a laundry list of other daily tasks which need accomplished. An off day allows a coach to workout during the time they would normally be at practice and clear his head and get reenergized for the next wave of practices or games.

3. Recruiting Visits. The recruiting aspect of college athletics truly never ends. So having a full day in which there is no baseball activity, off days are good opportunities to bring on potential student-athletes to show around campus without trying to limit your time with a recruit.

4. Emails. Coaches are on their emails everyday, be it in the office or on their smart phones. For the most part, the emails are with recruits or administration, but there are always emails which get pushed to the bottom of the pile, which can now be addressed.

5. Personal Time. Spending time with family is always taken for granted during the off-season but those opportunities can be few and far between during the season and can have an exponential affect on your week. There are also the menial tasks such as laundry, cleaning your house, going to the bank or whatever needs done to clean out the inbox.

Stay tuned all Spring Training long for updates on the Storm via The Coach's Cave Twitter feed (@thecoachscave #SpringTraining). RAGE ON!