 Rider: Jeremy Hand Photo: Zachary C. Bako Joel YounkinsHigh Performance Coach After years of working with racers at every level, one thing is clear: the In-Season is where most athletes either separate themselves, or slowly fall apart. The final training phase we need to cover is the In-Season Phase. This is the phase of training and practice that runs continuously throughout the competitive schedule and, depending on the series and discipline, can last for months at a time.
This phase is also where most racers get it wrong. On one end of the spectrum, you have riders who do almost nothing in-season, hoping their Off Season and Pre-Season work will simply carry them through the year. On the other end, you have racers who continue to grind away week after week, stacking training stress on top of racing stress, and unknowingly showing up to race day fatigued. Neither approach is ideal by a long shot. The magic is found somewhere in between. In-Season Training Unless you’re a national level amateur motocross racer who only targets multi-day national events, most riders are part of an organized series that races either every weekend or multiple times per month. For the sake of this blog, we’ll assume that you actively compete in a race series. The primary purpose of in-season training is not to chase massive gains. It’s to maintain performance, stay healthy, stay sharp, and leave the door open for small improvements as the season unfolds. If you don’t train enough, fitness and sharpness will slowly decay. If you train too much, the cumulative stress from racing, travel, preparation, and weekly training piles up and leads to fatigue. And in racing, even slight fatigue matters. When margins slip, results slip. And when you’re not at your best physically or mentally, mistakes start to happen. When mistakes happen and you're already ran down, things begin to break... Tapering: Where the In-Season Begins The Off Season and Pre-Season are stressful by design. That’s how new adaptations are made when racing isn’t happening. Volume and intensity are intentionally higher to push performance. But before the season begins, fatigue must be allowed to wash away. Depending on the stress accumulation of both the off season and pre-season, this takes 7–21 days and leads to what we call supercompensation. At the end of your pre-season, you should actually feel slightly flat or run down, that’s normal. When volume drops and recovery is prioritized, performance rebounds and peaks. That rebound is where your In-Season Phase truly begins and the focus shifts to getting ready to go racing. Physical Preparation During the In-Season, volume and intensity should never exceed off season or pre-season levels. However, there must still be enough stimulus to maintain strength, power, and conditioning. This phase is also about reducing unnecessary stress while keeping performance intact. For example:
Aerobic conditioning remains a key priority, but it now serves two purposes:
Lower-intensity aerobic methods are often the best tools here. It keeps the system healthy without digging a recovery hole. Sport Practice There are no rigid rules for in-season riding practice, but there are two non-negotiables:
In-season practice should focus on:
Too many racers simply replicate race formats in practice. But you already race every weekend, you don’t need to prove you can do two 30-minute motos again. Instead of repeating the race, break it down. Practice pieces of it. Expand the game plan. Get better in the different components of the race. Bring Your A-Game When you line up during the competitive season, your job is simple: Bring your A-Game. Your A-Game isn’t perfection. It’s 90% or better. You don’t need to feel 99–100%, or even 110%. But anything below 90% isn’t good enough, and you shouldn’t walk away believing you gave your best, even if your results on paper looked good. The real question is this: Is what you’re doing Monday through Friday helping you show up at 90%…Or hurting you? There have been times where I’ve told professional athletes to do nothing taxing during the week, just active and passive recovery work, so they could go win on the weekend. Other times, the priority was skill work, targeted drills, or managing the aftermath of a crash just to get them close to 90% again. Context always matters. The reality is, many racers, even at the highest levels, cannot honestly say they show up at 90% or better most weekends. And that’s the difference. Final Thoughts The In-Season Phase is not about grinding. It’s about precision. It’s about managing stress, maintaining performance, sharpening skills, and showing up ready when it counts. The goal isn’t to survive the season, it’s to perform through it. If you can master this phase, you separate yourself from the majority of the field. Because when others fade as the season drags on, you’re just getting started.
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