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The Warm up
Opening night is here, and the whole sports calendar just shifted into a higher gear
The NHL dropped the puck on its 2026-27 season Tuesday night with an ESPN tripleheader, and the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes hosted Florida in the opener (NHL). Toronto and Montreal met on opening night for the seventh year in a row (Headtopics).
Baseball is in its own kind of opener. The Wild Card Series runs September 29 through October 1, with Yankees vs. Red Sox, Astros vs. White Sox, Padres vs. Cubs, and Phillies vs. Braves all playing best-of-three series (Yahoo Sports).
Also on the calendar this week:
NFL Week 4 kicks off Thursday, October 1 with Steelers at Browns on Prime Video (NFL).
College football Week 5 brings Ohio State at Iowa and Miami at Clemson (CBS Sports).
Every athlete you are watching this week spent months building toward opening night. Your athlete's season starts the same way, and the build matters more than the first game.
The Lead Off
The injury risk nobody schedules for: doing too much, too soon
THE SCIENCE: The most common way a young athlete gets hurt is not a dramatic collision. It is the slow build of too much load without enough recovery. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that about 50% of sports injuries in kids are overuse injuries, and it defines training load as the total duration, intensity, and type of activity a young body has to handle (HealthyChildren.org, AAP). The AAP's practical guardrail is to add no more than 10% to 20% to weekly training load at a time. For an athlete practicing an hour a day, that means about 12 extra minutes next week, not an extra hour.
There is real evidence that sudden jumps matter. A year-long Swedish study followed 252 competitive adolescent tennis players and found that repeated spikes in weekly workload, defined as a week more than 30% above the prior four-week average, were associated with a higher rate of shoulder complaints and injuries. The authors concluded that weekly consistency is likely better for adolescent players than rapid increases (Sports Health).
Here is the honest complication. A separate study of 244 middle school athletes did not find that a higher ratio of this week's training to recent weeks predicted injury. It found the opposite pattern for a different measure: kids with a higher average training volume over the previous four weeks reported fewer injuries, not more (Journal of Athletic Training). That fits with what many coaches see. A steady base protects athletes, and the athlete who gets hurt is often the one who arrives at the first practice cold after weeks of doing nothing, then goes all out.
Return-to-sport guidance lands in the same place. Shriners Children's recommends that an athlete coming back after time off start at about 50% of their previous activity level and increase roughly 10% per week (Shriners Children's).
Preparation works too. A meta-analysis of the FIFA 11+ Kids warm-up program found it cut overall injury risk nearly in half compared with a normal warm-up (relative risk 0.52) (FIFA 11+ Kids meta-analysis).
What This Means for Your Athlete: You do not need a formula. You need a rhythm. Treat the first two weeks of any season, tryout, or tournament run as a ramp: less than they can handle at the start, a little more each week, and at least one true day off. The goal is to be playing in February, not to win the first Tuesday practice.
🔄 TRANSLATE TO YOUR SPORT:
Hockey: Early ice time can stack fast with tryouts, team skates, and stick-and-puck sessions. Count the total, not just the official practices.
Soccer: Fall club, school team, and weekend showcases can double the load without anyone noticing. Add it up on paper.
Baseball and softball: Arm care is the ramp. Throwing volume rises slowly and pitch counts are a rule, not a suggestion.
Basketball: Open gyms, pickup, and tryouts count as load too.
The Fuel Station
Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos
Early-season mornings are chaotic. A freezer full of these means your athlete gets real protein and carbohydrate before school, before practice, or on the road to a weekend rink.
THE PLAYERS (makes 8)
8 large eggs
1 cup cooked sweet potato, diced small
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup shredded cheddar
8 large whole wheat tortillas
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt, pepper, and a pinch of cumin
Salsa for serving
THE BUILD
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sweet potato with a pinch of salt and cook 8 to 10 minutes until tender.
Push the potato to the side, pour in the eggs, and scramble until just set. Stir in the beans, cumin, and pepper.
Spoon about 1/2 cup of filling onto each tortilla, add cheese, and fold in the sides before rolling tight.
Cool, wrap each burrito in foil, and freeze. To reheat, unwrap, microwave 2 minutes from frozen (turn halfway), then check that it is hot all the way through.
THE GOAL: Serve at breakfast, or 2 to 3 hours before an evening practice or game. One burrito makes a solid breakfast for most younger athletes, and two suits a hungry teen.
WHY IT WORKS
Eggs and beans bring protein to the first meal of the day. A recent review of adolescent athlete nutrition suggests spreading protein across the day at roughly 20 to 40 g per meal every 3 to 4 hours (review of adolescent athlete nutrition). Protein at breakfast is a natural place to start (review of nutrition for young athletes).
The tortilla and sweet potato carry the carbohydrate. Protein is not a primary fuel for short exercise, which is why carbohydrate needs to be on the plate too (Sport nutrition for young athletes, PMC).
Sweet potato adds potassium and vitamin A, and the black beans add fiber that keeps breakfast filling through a long school morning.
The freezer does the discipline for you. When the schedule doubles, the athlete who eats is the athlete who keeps up.
The Lab
Three drills for the first two weeks of the season
THE PLAY: These three build the base that makes a ramp-up safe: a warm-up that actually warms up, controlled stopping, and single-leg stability. They are cousins of the movement patterns in the FIFA 11+ Kids program, which is built around progressive warm-up, running drills, and strength and balance work (FIFA 11+ Kids meta-analysis). Drill 1 is a new version of the Long Ramp from the September 17 issue. Drills 2 and 3 are new.
Drill 1: The Ten-Minute Ramp (new twist on the Long Ramp)
Setup. Any open space about 10 steps long. No equipment.
The drill. Three minutes of easy marching and arm circles. Two minutes of walking lunges and leg swings. Two minutes of skips and side shuffles. Three minutes of gradually faster strides, finishing at about 80% effort.
Progression. Once it feels easy, finish with two short accelerations at near full speed.
Why it works. It gives the body time to warm up before the hard part starts, which is the idea behind structured warm-up programs that have reduced injuries in young players (FIFA 11+ Kids meta-analysis).
Drill 2: Stick the Stop
Setup. A cone or shoe about 10 steps away. A driveway or hallway works.
The drill. Have your athlete jog to the cone, then stop under control in two steps with knees bent and chest over the toes, and hold for two seconds. Repeat 8 times.
Progression. Add a quick cut left or right after the stop, then the same drill with a ball or stick.
Why it works. Most sports are built on stopping and changing direction. Learning to decelerate under control is a core part of the running and landing patterns used in injury-prevention programs (FIFA 11+ Kids meta-analysis).
Drill 3: Bound and Hold
Setup. Bare floor or grass. Two pieces of tape 3 feet apart.
The drill. Bound sideways from one line to the other, land on one leg with the knee slightly bent, and hold for 3 seconds without the knee collapsing inward. Six each side.
Progression. Widen the gap or hold for 5 seconds.
Why it works. One-legged landings are where knees and ankles show weakness. Balance and single-leg control are part of the strength and stability work built into FIFA 11+ Kids (FIFA 11+ Kids meta-analysis).
🔄 TRANSLATE TO YOUR SPORT: Hockey players can do Drill 2 in sneakers now and on skates later. Baseball and softball players can add a throwing warm-up after the ramp. Basketball players can pair Drill 3 with landing from a small jump.
Parent Playbook
Your own ramp: how to protect the calendar and the day off
THE STRATEGY: Ramp-up problems often start with the calendar, not the kid. The AAP's advice includes no more than 5 to 6 days of required activity per week and a rule of one team per season. When kids are on more than one team, games and practices should not land on the same day (HealthyChildren.org, AAP). That is a hard conversation when your athlete's friends are signing up for everything. Framing it as protecting the season, not limiting the fun, tends to land better.
THE PLAY: Sit down Sunday night with a paper calendar. Write in every practice, game, skills session, and open gym for the coming week, then circle one full day off. Compare it to last week. If the total jumped by more than about a fifth, pick one thing to drop or shorten. Do the same again next Sunday.
THE CONVERSATION STARTER: "Is there any place your body feels sore or tight that we should keep an eye on this week?"
🔄 TRANSLATE TO YOUR SPORT: In a team sport, the coach sets most of the schedule, so your leverage is the extras: private lessons, camps, and open sessions. In individual sports like tennis or swimming, you often control more of the total, which makes the Sunday calendar even more useful.
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🏆 Play of the Week
Watch a wild card game like a coach
THE PLAY: Pick one Wild Card Series game before Thursday and watch it together for about 15 minutes. Ask two questions:
When does the manager decide to change pitchers, and what do you think he was seeing?
Watch a hitter after a tough at-bat. What does he do to reset before the next pitch?
If baseball is not your family's sport, do the same with the Hurricanes' opener or the Thursday night football game. Ask who is on the ice or field the longest, and when the coach gives someone a rest.
THE GOAL: It shows your athlete that even the best teams manage workload on purpose. Pitchers get taken out, and lines get rotated. Little League goes further, requiring days of rest tied to pitch counts. For league age 14 and under, 66 or more pitches means 4 days of rest (Little League). Rest is part of the plan, not a sign of weakness.
THE FINAL WHISTLE
A strong start is a slow start
Opening night is exciting for a reason. Everyone believes this is going to be their year. That belief is good for kids, and your job is to protect it long enough for the season to pay it off.
You do not have to hold your athlete back. You just have to build the base, add a little each week, and guard the day off. The research does not give us one magic number. It does give us a consistent message: steady beats sudden.
Start at half, add a little, and keep the finish line in February.
See you on the sidelines,
The Seasoned Sidekick Team
Pass the Assist
Know a family whose athlete is jumping straight into tryouts, team skates, and weekend showcases all at once? This issue was written for them. Forward it along before the first big weekend.
Keep Reading
September 24, 2026: Playoff Push: What Youth Athletes Can Learn from Pressure Moments
September 17, 2026: Fall Equinox: Adjusting Nutrition for Shorter, Cooler Days
Medical Disclaimer: The content in The Seasoned Sidekick is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace the advice of a licensed physician, registered dietitian, or certified athletic trainer. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your athlete's nutrition, training, or recovery plan. Individual needs vary. The information presented is based on available research and general guidelines for youth athletes.