As the school year winds down, the focus for strength coaches shifts from managing in-season chaos to kickstarting summer development. It’s a narrow window that’s filled with opportunity if used correctly. Organizing an end-of-year checklist helps close strong and set the stage for a successful summer.
Review this year’s progress and training data
This is the time to review any athlete performance metrics, training logs, and attendance records. Who improved? Who plateaued? Who struggled? The data informs individualized training strategies and overall program effectiveness. Athletes transitioning into different competitive levels benefit from refined assessments and validated improvements.
Audit your equipment and facility
The weight room sees wear and tear every day. Auditing equipment condition, cleaning out storage, and scheduling repairs is best handled during this time. Safety items, power racks, spotting arms, barbells, and flooring are the main things to look out for. Simple inventory checklists of damaged, missing, or outdated items organize the process. If budget allows, orders placed now sets up equipment to arrive during the summer. Clips, bands, med balls, and cleaning supplies are essential restocks.
Touch base with sport coaches and admin
Alignment with sport coaches is a cornerstone of effective programming. End-of-year meetings are perfect for reviewing strategy with varsity head coaches as well as athletic directors. What worked? What didn’t? What are the expectations for summer training? This time provides a great opportunity to review the program’s impact and coordinate upcoming needs, like staffing, budget, facility access, or schedule accommodations.
Re-evaluate summer training
Whether running comprehensive summer strength and conditioning programs or managing sport-specific camps, the structure of sessions matter.
- Are progressions clear?
- Are time blocks realistic?
- Is there enough variation to keep athletes engaged from week to week?
- Do your registration numbers align with staff-to-athlete ratios?
- Are your warm-up and cool-down routines effective across different training groups?
- Does your schedule account for travel, vacations, and multi-sport conflicts?
Establish expectations
A well-developed plan for summer strength training provides clear expectations for athletes and parents. The plan should include Session times, dress code, hydration policies, and attendance guidelines should be included . Multiple formats: email, printed flyers, team apps, and social media increases the accessibility of program information. Setting the tone now ensures questions aren’t popping up in mid-June.
Professional development
The Summer also provides a great opportunity to sharpen one’s own coaching skills. Whether a certification course, a clinic, or time spent shadowing a peer, any chance to learn is valuable. It’s also important to consider personal development in other ways:
- Is there time to revamp warm-ups?
- Is it worth implementing a new movement screening system?
- Does the athlete onboarding process need to change?
Back up of digital systems
Remove clutter by archiving essential files: athlete records, Excel templates, training blocks, videos, forms, and email threads. Using cloud-accessible folders labeled by school year makes important files easily accessible. Organizing data and setting up new workflows saves hours of frustration later on.
Reflect on program culture and growth
Setting one meaningful goal for next year. Consider the following questions:
- Are program values manifesting in how athletes train and treat each other?
- Does the program motivate, empower, and challenge?
- How does the training space influence athletes?
Culture doesn’t improve accidentally, it evolves through intentional design. Whether increasing athlete motivation or fostering mentorship avenues, even unmeasurable changes benefit program culture and long-term trajectory.
