My player is also a baseball star. This cross-training ensures that he isn’t slacking in the off-season of one sport or the other. Both sports are grueling on the body, but in different ways. My player is a power forward in ice hockey, amassing a lot of hits and checks during the season. Baseball is a different kind of grind. While not as physically hard hitting, it still takes a physical toll on the body. Why use this strategy to cross-train? I learned a difficult lesson early on in my career that taking time off and resting can make you a rusty player. This seems to always happen when one team sweeps another in the playoffs and the other series goes to game 7. This time off leads to players getting rusty and slower. In the next round, the team coming off a sweep have to play catch up and get their legs ready again. This is why cross-training in the off-season is an effective strategy for staying game ready.