Every fall the same thing happens at Cobra Command in Basehor.
Football starts. Volleyball starts. Cross country starts. And half our teens disappear until November.
And we get it. Practice is five days a week, your kid’s wrecked, and something’s got to give.
But the thing you let go of is almost always the wrong thing.
The Off-Season Myth
Somewhere along the way high school sports decided lifting is an off-season activity. You lift in the summer (during summer strength & conditioning), you play sports in the fall, and the barbell goes in a closet until the season ends.
That’s backwards. And every college program in the country already knows it.
They lift IN season. Less volume, sure. Fewer days, absolutely. But they don’t stop… because the strength your kid built in July starts leaking away within a few weeks of “sports season” when they aren’t lifting anymore.
So picture what that means for your athlete: She trains hard all summer, gets noticeably stronger, then spends three months slowly losing it. Right during the season you paid for it to help.
Lifting, just one day a week keeps almost all of it. One day (that’s the whole ask!).
What It Actually Does for Your Kid
They get hurt less. This is the big one and nobody talks about it enough. A kid who can decelerate, land under control, and change direction without their knee caving in is a kid who doesn’t tear something in week six of soccer.
They get faster where it counts. Not treadmill fast. First-step fast. Change-of-direction fast. The kind that shows up when somebody cuts in front of them during the football game.
They stop getting pushed around. On the court, on the field, and in the lunchroom. Ask any coach in Basehor about the difference between a strong sophomore and a weak one. You’ll get the same answer every time. And it isn’t just physically stronger. We are talking about confidence too.
They recover better. A stronger athlete works at a lower percentage of their max on every rep of practice. Same practice… less cost.
What Our 10-14 Teens Class Looks Like
Tuesdays + Thursdays at 6:30PM. And it looks pretty different from the little kids class.
There’s real barbell work here. Squat, press, deadlift, cleans. We teach the movement first and add weight when the mechanics earns it… which is slower than your kid wants and faster than you’re expecting (sorry, kiddos!).
We also do the unglamorous stuff: Single leg work. Core work that isn’t sit-ups. Landing mechanics. The things that keep a knee where it belongs. That keep shoulders strong.
And your kiddo is coached the whole time. Nobody’s grinding through a whiteboard workout while an adult scrolls their phone in the corner.
“But Isn’t He Too Young to Lift?”
No. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Strength and Conditioning Association both support supervised strength training for kids and teens. That growth plate worry traces back to old studies of children doing max lifts with zero supervision, which isn’t remotely what a coached class is.
Your teenager is at a dramatically higher risk at football practice than in our 6:30PM class.
Don’t Cancel. Adjust the plan.
Every September we lose teens who head off into their sports season. And then in November they come back a little sheepishly. They feel a little behind. Like they took a step back. But there is a better way.
Drop to once a week. One day in season keeps almost everything your kid built over the summer.
Try Personal Training. If finding a time that works is really tough, we also offer personal training for teens, that can be sports specific, or lifting specific.
Either of these options will allow them to maintain what they’ve built, and likely have their best season of sport so far.
Ready to Figure It Out?
Book a No Sweat Intro. Bring your teenager if they’ll come. And we’ll figure out together what actually fits around their season, even if that turns out to be one day a week.
And if your teen is already with us and their fall schedule just blew up… message us before you disappear- we can help you get a game plan.
-Jill
Wednesday we’re telling you about three girls who came through this gym… and what happened to them.
