As athletes transition into the off-season, coaches have an opportunity to elevate performance, build resilience, and address key developmental needs. I recently moderated a webinar that we at Volt hosted in partnership with Universal Speed Rating. In it, I had the chance to sit down with three top coaches—Mark Fitzgerald, Zach Dechant, and Brittany Vandergroff. They shared their philosophies, frameworks, and real-world lessons around speed and strength training in the off-season.

Whether you're a strength coach, sport coach, or performance specialist, these takeaways offer powerful guidance for crafting effective, athlete-centered programs.

Meet the Panel

Mark Fitzgerald, former NHL performance director and owner of Kelowna High Performance, brings years of experience with elite hockey and lacrosse athletes, including overseeing Olympic development programs.
Zach Dechant, Director of Human Performance at TCU, now exclusively oversees baseball and has authored several respected resources on athletic development.
Brittany Vandergroff, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Fordham University, works across a range of teams—from baseball to football to water polo—and brings a passionate and practical approach to her athletes.

🎥 WATCH THE FULL RECORDING

Designing Off-Season Programming: Coordination of Speed and Strength

Each coach highlighted how strength and speed training should work together—not against each other—to get the best results.

Mark Fitzgerald shared how controlling both on- and off-ice programming allows for better management of stress and recovery. For example, Mondays are "Medium Days" to accommodate weekend fatigue, while Tuesdays are higher intensity sprint test days. This strategic undulation boosts performance metrics across the board.
Brittany Vandergroff prioritizes sprinting year-round, regardless of sport. Her off-season programs always include acceleration and max velocity days outside of the weight room. In the gym, Brittany uses foundational tissue prep phases involving eccentric and isometric loading early in the off-season to bolster resilience against sport-specific demands.
Zach Dechant stressed the need for adaptable plans. “Write everything in pencil,” he said. No matter how solid your initial plan is, constant re-evaluation is key. He monitors force plate data, jump metrics, and fatigue cues, adjusting programming in real time. He also emphasized the immense cognitive fatigue that skill development can cause—often surpassing strength work—and urged coaches to factor this into weekly planning.

Individualization vs. Simplicity: What's the Balance?

All three coaches agreed that “individualization” gets thrown around a lot—and is often misunderstood or misused.

Brittany explained that while every athlete wants to feel like a priority, much of what appears individualized can be achieved through clear communication and expectation setting. Explaining how and why exercises support sport-specific goals often resolves confusion or resistance.
Zach breaks individualization down to three core filters: movement screens, injury history, and structural assessments (e.g., hip/shoulder anatomy). Adjustments are made to big lifts based on these factors, but overall programming principles remain consistent across athletes. Many athletes want an “individualized” program, when they really just need to “stick to a program” consistently for several months to get the results they’re looking for.
Mark emphasized that elite performance often comes from mastering boring, foundational work—like split squats. The "unicorn" athlete asking for a fancy exercise might benefit more from doing the basics really well.

Speed Development Across Sports and Positions

Speed work isn’t just for skill players.

Mark applies sprint mechanics training even for ice hockey athletes, who benefit from learning ground force application despite spending most of their time on blades. He views sprinting as an essential ability that enhances athleticism regardless of sport.
Zach uses GPS data to guide sprint programming for baseball players. Submaximal accelerations and decelerations are more frequent than high-speed runs in games, so he mirrors these in training using tempo runs and ACL-focused decel drills. Pitchers also sprint—not for specificity, but for the neural and structural benefits.
Brittany emphasized yardage-specific sprint design for football positions. Linemen still hit max velocity through fly sprints with long build-ups, while wide receivers may focus on higher volume sprint work. Communication with sport coaches is crucial to balance yardage during preseason camp and avoid hamstring issues, which Fordham experienced firsthand.

What's Overrated and What’s Undervalued?

To wrap up, I asked each coach to name one overrated and one underrated element of athlete development.

Mark Fitzgerald: Overrated? Hyper-specialized “unicorn” programming. Undervalued? Boring consistency. “Just show up, sleep well, eat right, and do the work.”
Brittany Vandergroff: Overrated? Over-customization. Undervalued? Lifestyle habits and mental health. Time management, meal prep, and emotional wellbeing matter more than perfect rep schemes.
Zach Dechant: Overrated? Jamming high-intensity work on Mondays. Undervalued? Less is more. Reducing one high-intensity day in the week post-COVID improved athlete outcomes and reduced fatigue.

Final Thoughts: The Role of the Coach

Ultimately, effective off-season programming is just as much about knowing when to deviate from the plan as it is about having “the right plan” in the first place.

Great coaches know when to push and when to pull back, with those decisions being informed by a combination of objective data (gps, force plates, readiness surveys, etc) and collaboration with sport coaches, particularly when it comes to the cognitive demands of high-intensity skill work.

If you want your athletes to really “buy-in” to your program, learn how to communicate your program design to the different types of athletes that you work with. This helps keep athletes engaged, healthy, and progressing over time.

Whether you're operating in a team setting, private facility, or school, the principles of collaboration, adaptability, and consistency are your most powerful tools.