Be lazy and feel good about it

In the coming days and weeks I'll be expanding and adding on additional information about training and conditioning tips during pre-season, mid-season, and off-season, as well as other health and nutrition tips to keep your body at the ready.  But there has mostly been a singular mindset toward readying athletes for competition, that being the preparation, drilling and conditioning that takes place just before whatever event it is that you are working toward.  Once the event is over though very little attention is payed toward what should be done.  You are simply on your own, and this is a very dangerous time that could leave your body in "debt" the next time it wants to prepare for the next competition.

You should put as much time and attention into what you do in the immediate 24 hours after exercise whether that be a tournament or training session, from what you eat to how you body reacts and feels.  Unfortunately the latter is something you can only gain from experience, but hopefully you will heed the advice of others and not push your body when it really needs time to recover.

I'll admit that personally I was rather ignorant on this matter, and for a while as a teenager I felt invincible as I was able to endure 3 hour practices one day then go for a 2 mile run the next, but as we know it doesn't last forever.  That soreness that you feel the day after playing is a defense mechanism that was developed over thousands of years to tell you to SLOW THE HELL DOWN!  That pain is your body trying to tell you that if you don't stop staining itself then you are going to feel more pain.  That pain is a not so subtle way to immobilize you while your body repairs the micro-tears in your muscle fibers.

For the longest time and even as I was growing up, I was told that lactic acid build up in the muscle was to blame for the soreness that we experience during and after exercise, but that theory has essentially been discredited.  To learn more about why you need to stop blaming lactic acid (and your coach) click here.  Just  imagine that right before a big tournament you went for a 5k run.  That's basically what you are doing to your body when you don't give it enough time to rest and eat junk food.  You leave yourself in sub-prime condition, not fully able to handle the average workload that you are accustomed to.  So for now on, once you get home and shower off, turn on your favorite TV show or movie and just chill.  Your body will thank you later.