This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

By Peter Twist

Having athletes go through a dynamic warmup is a good first step toward injury prevention and performance optimization. Here, Peter Twist, MS, BPE, CSCS, President of Twist Conditioning, describes the importance of a dynamic warmup and provides sample exercises to achieve pre-game and pre-practice neuromuscular activation.
Warm Up Purposefully

A dynamic sport requires an athlete begin the game or training session ready to play and immediately meet the demands of the sport at maximum intensity. The warmup must optimize performance and lower the chance of injury through increased muscle temperature, muscle compliance, and physiological response efficiency.

The Science
Functionally, an increase in muscle temperature decreases the viscous resistance of muscles, combined with an increase in oxygen delivery to the muscles, improved central nervous system function, and faster transmission of nervous impulses. Stimulating muscle compliance mechanisms activates the command from the mind telling the rest of the body to perform quickly and efficiently. The warmup drives physiological and neuromuscular systems to create compliance between the mind and muscles.

Move Like a Statue
A warm-up run or linear aerobic work raises the core temperature and promotes oxygen delivery to muscles, but when followed up with static stretching, the benefits of the initial warmup are wasted. Research related to the physiological effectiveness of static stretching have reported decreases in the force producing capabilities of a muscle following a bout of static stretching. Decreased motor unit activation, firing frequency, and altered reflex sensitivity have been proposed to explain the stretching-induced decreases in force production. Ultimately, static stretching in the warmup slows nervous system activity, elongates muscles fibers, and allows the body to cool off, leaving the athlete ill prepared to jump into dynamic activity.

Demands of Sport
Sport requires us to move in multiple directions with the aim of creating space to get open for a pass or to take away space from an opposing player. To be successful these movements must occur at varying speeds, and through various ranges of motion all while appropriately reacting and responding to elements of unpredictability in their environment. No matter how many systems and structured plays are put in place by the coaching staff, the flow of the game is truly unpredictable. Luckily we can train and prepare the body to best respond as soon as the game commences by implementing a dynamic warmup.

The body is always in a state of learning, memorizing, and recalling. During the practice of a skill your body is lying down motor engrams that it will later recall in order to carry out a specific skill such as kicking a soccer ball. The success of the kick is directly related to how well it was taught and practiced by the athlete. As part of this learning process the body goes through the three phases of motor learning (cognitive, associative, and automatic) with the end goal of recalling and performing the skill quickly and successfully with very little cognition and optimal mechanics. Firing up sport specific motor patterns in the dynamic warm up activates the neuromuscular pathways, refreshes the pattern, and helps athletes be game ready.

Building a Dynamic Warmup
Time Allocation: Plan to dedicate 10 to15 minutes to your warmup. By the end of the warmup session athletes should be fired up and their nervous systems activated, but not to the point of fatigue.

Number of Exercises: 10 to 15

Sets and Repetitions: Perform one set of 10 to 12 reps of each exercise making sure to work both sides of a movement.

Exercise Selection: Look at the demands of the sport.
• Incorporate fundamental movements found in the sport into the warm up (lateral shuffle, 45-degree open steps/lunges, etc…). Take a multidirectional approach.
• What is the tempo and speed of the movements involved? Is it a sport that involves one continual pace, or does it have multiple changes of direction?
• Incorporate deceleration. The ability to stop quickly or decelerate is fundamental to changing directions and reducing the incidence of injury.

Be Progressive: Gradually increase in Range of Motion (ROM) and tempo. Also consider the neural complexity (performance difficulty) involved in the movement.

Perfect Practice for Perfect Performance: The dynamic warm up is the ideal time to develop and refine movement skills and teach athletes movement precision to solidify the mechanics needed for sport success.

Sample Game-Ready Dynamic Warmup Exercises:
Cool walk to toes
Crane toe touch
Lateral shuffle
Sumo squat
45-degree lunge
Cross over lunges
Lunge with upper body rotation
Back pedal
Lateral bound and stick
Lateral bound with coupling

Change the Way Athletes Train
Our mandate at Twist Conditioning is to change the way all athletes train to improve performance, reduce injury, and promote long and prosperous sport careers that transition into passionate recreation pursuits. The Twist training style builds Smart Muscle™ (the mind commands, the muscles comply) to give them a competitive edge.

Peter Twist, MSc BPE CSCS TSCC-Gold PTS is President of Twist Conditioning’s 3 divisions: franchised Sport Conditioning Centers, product wholesale, and the Twist Smart Muscle™ Coach Education program. To learn more about the Twist training methodologies, education, and equipment available in the USA, contact www.twistconditioning.com.

This article was provided to Soccer Toolbox by Training and Conditioning.

On its way to an NCAA championship last fall, the University of Notre Dame women’s soccer team worked with the athletic department’s dietitian on eating right throughout the season.
By Erika Whitman

Erika Whitman, RD, CSSD, is the Sports Dietitian at the University of Notre Dame, where she oversees the nutrition needs of more than 700 student-athletes in 26 varsity sports.

Arguably the toughest part of a nutritionist’s job is getting the athletes we work with to implement the advice we provide them about performance nutrition for consistent results. It’s easy to give athletes the right information about fueling for their sport–the hard part is getting them to follow through on it. It takes constant education, effort, and sometimes creativity.

Here at the University of Notre Dame, nutrition is considered a critical component to performance and the support I receive from the rest of the athletic department in this area certainly makes my job easier. Our sport coaches, strength and conditioning staff members, and administrators all emphasize the importance of nutrition right alongside our athletes’ training regimens on and off the field.

But I’ve found that if the athletes themselves don’t truly understand why a consistent, healthy diet is so important, they’re much less likely to effectively process the information I give them. In recent years, I’ve had success in helping our athletes remember key nutrition concepts–and act on them–with an acronym they won’t easily forget: The Fighting I-R-I-S-H.

I-Intake adequate fuel
R-Recovery nutrition for daily training
I-Include top performance foods from all food groups
S-Schedule a fueling plan to optimize training
H-Hydrate to keep the body running efficiently

A great example of athletes who took this acronym to heart last year is our national champion women’s soccer team. I’m confident that the squad increased its competitive edge by following through on these five key concepts throughout the season. Here’s a look at how I customized the I-R-I-S-H acronym for the team.

INTAKE ADEQUATE FUEL
Though it’s a simple and universally accepted concept that athletes must fuel their bodies with food in order for their muscles to operate efficiently, many athletes don’t meet this basic goal. In a sport like soccer, energy stores are critically important as the duration and intensity of the game place great demand on the energy stored in the body. Glycogen (stored carbohydrates in the liver and muscles) is the main fuel that powers the body during long, strenuous activity like a soccer game, so it’s important for soccer athletes to keep their tanks full.

Some telling research in 2009 found that soccer players who had low levels of glycogen stores covered 25 percent less distance and spent a greater amount of time walking than players who had adequate glycogen levels. Soccer athletes must understand that they will not achieve optimal performance levels if they don’t properly fuel for practices and competition.

It’s important to note that even within the same sport, energy needs vary from athlete to athlete. Factors such as duration of play, position, level of activity off the field, and body composition all play a role in determining a player’s fuel intake requirements. Individual diet plans should be based on athlete’s specific needs and performance goals, not just the sport they play.

Still, it’s best to start with some average numbers. The typical elite-level female soccer player needs between 19 and 21 calories per pound of body weight per day during the season. So for a 140-pound player, this means consuming between 2,660 and 2,940 calories per day.

Using this range as a starting point, I then factor in other variables that affect each player’s energy requirements and give them specific daily calorie goals. For an athlete who needs to put on healthy lean mass, I would help her figure out ways to add between 500 and 700 calories to her diet per day. For an athlete who is working toward weight loss, I would consult with her on ways to cut about 500 calories per day.

RECOVERY NUTRITION
When athletes hear “recovery nutrition,” they usually think of what they’re supposed to eat and drink after a game or practice. As a sports dietitian however, I know that when extensive daily physical demands are placed on the body, all foods consumed throughout the day can be classified as “recovery” foods. Recovery nutrition for athletes who are practicing or working out almost every day of the week should actually begin well before activity.

The best pre-activity foods for soccer players are rich in carbohydrates to provide a quick energy source and protein to protect against muscle breakdown and delay energy availability. These foods should also contain minimal fat since fat takes longer to digest. The type and amount of food consumed is dependent on how much time the athlete has before activity.

Fortunately, pregame meals are one time that I can make sure the athletes have plenty of proper foods to choose from. I also explain to them that these are the types of choices they should be making daily to ensure they are fully fueled for activity.

Our soccer team’s pregame meals are typically scheduled three to four hours prior to game time. I encourage players to also have a snack like a granola bar, half of a bagel, small sports bar, piece of fruit, or yogurt one to two hours before the first whistle blows.

The NCAA championship game was held in the afternoon last fall, and the squad’s pregame meal included pancakes, eggs, various breads and bagels, assorted cereals, fresh fruits, milk, juice, water, and condiments like peanut butter and jelly. If the game were held later in the evening, the meal would have consisted of grilled chicken, steamed vegetables, pasta, rice, salads, rolls, and fresh fruits.

The next step to maximizing performance is maintaining fuel availability during activity. Because of their fast-acting properties, carbohydrates are the most efficient fuel source during exercise. The general recommendation is 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour of exercise if the training bout lasts longer than an hour at moderate to vigorous intensity. Soccer obviously fits this criteria since an NCAA game is at least 90 minutes long.

Examples of carbohydrate-rich supplements good for use during activity include various sports drinks and energy chews, gummies, or sport beans. It is important players consume sources their stomachs can tolerate during exercise. Supplemental sports bars and beverages can be a great option during a practice or game, but I suggest athletes experiment with them at practice before using them during competition.

Although nutrition may be the last thing on an athlete’s mind after a game or practice, I spend a lot of time stressing the importance of refueling within the “30-minute window” immediately following activity. During this time, the body is rebuilding at its fastest rate, using carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores and repairing muscles via protein resynthesis.

To improve this recovery, soccer athletes should consume 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates and 10 to 20 grams of protein within the 30-minute window. Examples of foods that include these ratios are chocolate milk, a sandwich that includes a lean protein like turkey, a yogurt parfait, cheese and crackers, pretzels, trail mix with dried fruit and nuts, or a carbohydrate- and protein-containing shake or bar.

A well-balanced meal within two hours will further enhance the recovery process. Regular meals and snacks should be consumed every two to four hours until the next pregame or pre-practice meal when the cycle begins all over again.

INCLUDE TOP FOODS
Unfortunately, college athletes are prone to the same temptations as their non-athlete friends. It’s easy for first-year players who come from homes that don’t regularly stock potato chips, sugary cereals, soda, and frozen pizza to be tempted by these previously forbidden foods.

We focus on the 80-20 rule, which states that 80 percent of an athlete’s diet should consist of top performance foods, with only 20 percent of their diet made up of those less nutritious foods some athletes feel they just can’t live without. It’s my job to make sure our athletes understand why some of those favorite foods are not good choices and which ones are. (When necessary, we may shift the percentages to rename this the 90-10 rule.)

Healthy food doesn’t have to mean boring food. Variety is important both in appealing to the athlete’s palate and in making sure our players meet nutrient needs necessary for the body to convert stored energy into available energy. A great way to illustrate what this looks like is to create a healthy plate with real food or using food models. Create examples of meals and snacks so they can see the differences in color and nutrients on healthy, balanced plates of food versus plates that lack variety and color, and therefore important nutrients.

One tip I give our players is to make sure each meal has at least three different food groups represented on the plate. And from meal to meal, the foods that fit into each food group should also change. For example, if a player only eats broccoli and never spinach to represent the vegetable group, she will get a lot of vitamin C and calcium but miss out on a great source of iron and vitamin A. (For examples of top foods in each food group, see “Top Performance Foods” below.)

SCHEDULE FOR OPTIMIZATION
College athletes’ daily routines are often hectic. There are classes, meetings, practices, lifting sessions, and hopefully some socializing time, too. But none are an excuse for nutrition to be put on the backburner.

That’s why sticking with a good eating schedule involves planning. I sit down with our players early in the season to outline their schedules and identify convenient and optimal meal and snack times for each day of the week. I emphasize the importance of avoiding long periods between scheduled meals or snacks, and show them what it means to balance calorie intake throughout the day.

Dining halls are good options in many cases, but they’re not open very late at night after a long practice. And during the day when classes are going on, students may not have enough time for a sit-down meal. Some easy snack ideas that I suggest to athletes for these crunched times include granola bars, trail mix, sports bars, a piece of fruit, a cup of yogurt, or a peanut and butter jelly sandwich they made in the morning before they left for class.

HYDRATE FOR EFFICIENCY
Last, but certainly not least, hydration is not only important for proper fueling, but also to guard against dehydration and heat illness during the hottest months of the year. Similar to scheduling when athletes eat during the day, I’ve found that it’s important to outline a hydration plan.

In addition to maintaining fluid intake throughout the day, soccer players need to begin seriously hydrating for competition two to three hours before the start of play. This means at least 14 to 22 ounces of water or a sports drink, then another six to 12 ounces every 10 to 20 minutes as tolerated up until game time. During competition, six to 12 ounces every 15 to 20 minutes is suggested. And at least 16 to 24 ounces per pound of fluid lost is recommended after practices and games.

This is going to sound like a whole lot of liquid to the athletes, but I tell them performance has been shown to visibly decrease when fluid losses reach two percent of an athlete’s body weight (or three pounds of fluid weight loss in a 150-pound athlete).

Game time is one of the toughest stretches for soccer players to stay on top of their hydration. With few clock stoppages and subbing opportunities, the athletes are on the go constantly. I advise our players to use every opportunity that arises–after a goal, a penalty, or maybe when the ball is kicked far out of bounds–to grab a water bottle from the sideline.

I also make sure our players know how to look to their own bodies for information on their hydration status. For example, the color and smell of their urine reveals a lot. Clear and odor-free is the goal, and the darker brown and stronger the odor, the more dehydrated they are. The players are advised to watch their urine carefully throughout the day for these signs.

As a sports dietitian dealing with the subject every day, it can be easy to forget that most athletes spend little time thinking about what they eat and drink. However, with a little prompting and reminders of how it can improve their performance, they will make better choices. I’ve found here at Notre Dame that sometimes all it takes is one little word.

Sidebar: TOP PERFORMANCE FOODS
Below are some of the best foods athletes can choose to eat from each of the food groups below, along with why they are great choices.

Fruits (carbohydrates): Fresh, frozen, or canned berries, melons, bananas, apples, and grapes; dried fruits like raisins and cranberries; 100-percent fruit juices provide potassium, magnesium, fiber, vitamins A and C, and other vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Whole fruits are also filling, low fat, and low calorie.

Vegetables (carbohydrates, protein): Fresh, steamed, frozen, grilled, or canned spinach, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and corn provide potassium, fiber, vitamins A and C, and other vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Vegetables are also filling, low fat, and low calorie.

Grains (carbohydrates, protein, fat): 100-percent whole wheat or whole grain pastas, breads, bagels, and cereals; brown rice; oatmeal; quinoa provide more B vitamins, iron, zinc, potassium, and fiber than refined and processed counterparts.

Meats & beans (protein, carbohydrates, fat): Baked or grilled lean meats like boneless, skinless chicken breast, turkey breast, salmon, and tuna; various beans like black beans; lentils like chickpeas or prepared hummus; nuts and seeds; egg whites provide zinc, iron, B-12 and other B vitamins, selenium, and a variety of amino acids. Lean meats are low in fat and calories.

Dairy (carbohydrates, protein, fat): Skim and low-fat milk; cheeses like cottage cheese, mozzarella, and various soft cheeses; yogurt and Greek yogurt; pudding are low fat, rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamins A and D.

Other (fat): Baked goods with real fruit and nuts like Fig Newtons, banana bread, and trail mix bars; oils like olive oil, fish oils, and flax; non-creamy salad dressings provide anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids.

This article was provided to Soccer Toolbox by Training and Conditioning

During its grueling fall schedule, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte men’s soccer team stays ahead of the pack by combining high-intensity work with an emphasis on recovery.

The following article appeared Training & Conditioning Magazine.

By Sean Muldoon

Sean Muldoon, MSEd, CSCS, is in his third year as Sports Performance Coach for the University of North Carolina-Charlotte men’s soccer team. He can be reached at: [email protected] or on Twitter @Sir_Sean.

In-season training for NCAA Division I men’s soccer is a unique beast. From August to December, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte squad plays between 20 and 28 games, depending on how far we advance in the postseason. We need every regular season win in order to boost our strength of schedule rating, so there is no perfect time of year to peak.

To further complicate matters, NCAA regulations prevent us from starting official team practices until roughly two weeks before our first regular season game. This makes planning out a periodized in-season training schedule quite difficult, yet it is imperative for our success.

We adjust to these challenges by holding very intense, but optional, summer and preseason training, which ensures the athletes hit near-optimal levels of fitness once the season kicks off. Then, we aim to maintain that level as the season progresses by working the high and low ends of the intensity spectrum, with a special emphasis on recovery. And to guarantee there is no wasted effort in the weightroom, we tailor all of our lifting to players’ position-specific demands. Combined with our use of state-of-the-art technology, these strategies allow us to keep our foot firmly on the gas throughout the season.

For my first two years with the Charlotte 49ers squad, this approach yielded positive results. During that time, the team won two Conference USA championships, hosted two games in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and finished the 2014 season ranked in the top 15 nationally. Going forward, we’ve got our eyes set on a national title, and I believe our in-season approach will help us get there.

FOCUS ON FITNESS

One of our top priorities with in-season training is working the high end of the intensity spectrum. The main goal with these sessions is replicating in-game demands. Charlotte men’s soccer has built a reputation as one of the fittest teams in the country. We play a very compact and mobile version of the game, so all of our field players run between six and nine miles in each match. They are expected to attack in waves for the entire game, and we press hard and often.

The vast majority of our high-intensity in-season conditioning work occurs during team practices using soccer drills. Head Coach Kevin Langan and I never think about conditioning being separate from soccer. The sessions usually last 90 minutes to two hours, and they typically consist of athletes running more than five miles total.

We classify our high-intensity workouts as either “velocity load” or “body load.” Depending on the demands of the game we just played, the style of game we expect to play next, how long we have between games, and how many training sessions we will have during that time, will determine whether we train for velocity load or body load. This is a strategy I learned from Dave Tenney, MS, CSCS, Sports Science and Performance Manager for MLS’s Seattle Sounders. He says the key is to not train both qualities on the same day.

Velocity load days focus on attaining maximum speed, emphasizing running technique, and sprint patterning. Training consists of larger-sided games of seven or more per side, with players running linearly. The athletes are expected to hit at least 85 to 90 percent of their maximum speed throughout the course of the session.

Body load days are geared more toward training acceleration and deceleration. These workouts incorporate small-sided games of six or less per side, more changes of direction, and a higher total distance covered.

TECH ASSIST

Two tools that have helped us quantify our high-intensity training outcomes are GPS devices and heart rate monitors. Players wear these during practices and games, and we track total distance, high-intensity distance, number of sprints, maximum speed, session duration, maximum heart rate, and cumulative time in each heart rate zone. Monitoring both internal and external metrics provides us with a more complete picture of the daily stresses the athletes are under.

The 2014 season was our first using the devices, and although we learned a lot last year, we still have a long way to go to fully maximize the technology’s potential. Probably the biggest takeaway has been recognizing that data progresses through three stages: 1) descriptive, 2) prescriptive, and 3) predictive.

Our data was very descriptive last year. We didn’t make any sweeping changes to our training but used the data to define benchmarks for the typical demands faced by players during practices and games. The coaching staff and I had daily pre-practice meetings where we planned that day’s session, and then we reviewed post-practice training reports together. As the season progressed and we gained a better understanding for what our sessions entailed, we were able to monitor practices to ensure we were maintaining a certain level of workload.

This year, we’re hoping to enter more of a prescriptive phase. Now that we have data that quantifies players’ efforts, the coaching staff is using a drill calculator when designing practices to assist in achieving our predetermined output goals.

Down the road, we’re aiming to use the data in a predictive way. We’re hoping to implement algorithms that analyze multiple data sets to predict the outcome of an event. For example, one goal is to estimate each player’s injury risk in a given practice based on past metrics.

SOCCER STRENGTH

When it comes to in-season strength training, I keep our program very specific to the demands of soccer and our athletes. This starts by assessing players’ postural and movement dysfunctions and addressing them during weight training.

Eccentric loading from hundreds of accelerations and decelerations builds up big, strong quads in soccer players, and they spend a lot of time bent over while defending or on the ball. This combination screams for posterior chain training, so we focus on exercises that level the pelvis, fix muscle imbalances, and improve proper muscle firing patterns.

Nordic curls are one popular way of addressing some of these issues, but there are many others that will also do the trick, such as back squats, Bulgarian split-squats, glute-ham raises, hip thrusts, step-ups, Romanian dead lifts, trap bar dead lifts, slideboard pushes, and prone leg curl machines. You read that last one right—I use a machine. Hamstring strength at the knee is highly undervalued and is hard to achieve with free weights alone.

Besides addressing movement dysfunctions, our strength training is individualized and position-specific. Two variables that determine what kind of strength plan an athlete follows are the number of years he has been in our program and playing time. The top 15 players in our rotation focus more on maintenance during the season, while the rest of the team works toward continued development. Outlined below are some of the strength training details for each position group.

Goalkeepers need to be like tigers—explosive and strong—and they should be regulars in the weightroom. Depending on whether they are a starter or reserve, keepers lift two to four times per week. We regularly adjust each session’s volume and intensity based on the players’ competitive demands, as the in-season schedule is too irregular to have a training plan written in stone.

Veteran goalkeepers focus mostly on lower-body power via Olympic lifts, contrast training, and plyometrics. We use Tendo units to measure their bar speed during select lifts, and we keep a close eye on the state of their central nervous system. When they are fresh, we go hard in the weightroom. But when they are drained, we focus more on technique and core work.

Programs for the underclassmen keepers are mostly focused on body composition and general work capacity. We emphasize building a strong and balanced foundation first and then add more speed and power-based training as they progress.

Central defenders and target forwards need to be like gorillas—powerful, strong, and quick. These athletes follow hypertrophy and strength-based programs during the season, lifting two days per week, with intensities in the 80 to 95 percent range. I don’t worry as much about the added fatigue of weight training with this group, as their overall practice load is typically lower than the other positions’.

We want to build strength with veteran central defenders and target forwards, so we stick to tried and true compound exercises like back squats, bench presses, weighted pull-ups, and rows for one to five reps each. These athletes also utilize Olympic lifts and contrast training to work on force production.

Most underclassmen central defenders and target forwards need to put on mass before they worry about strength. Therefore, we have them follow Charles Poliquin’s tempo training methods, which emphasize time under tension for optimal hypertrophy.

Strikers need to be like cheetahs—sheer speed is the name of the game, but they require time to recover between bouts. In-season lifting is optional with this group. Players who really like lifting will find the time for it, while players who need the added rest are encouraged to take it.

Strikers need a solid strength base to maintain game-changing speed, so players who choose to lift complete heavy lower-body work with the trap bar and Romanian dead lift. We keep the emphasis on quality and speed of movements, and I use Tendo units to get instant feedback on the velocity generated. We are careful never to let form or quality deteriorate in exchange for more bar speed.

Fullbacks and wide midfielders need to be like gazelles—capable of running long distances at a good rate of speed, with the ability to change direction on a dime. Our central midfielders need to be like thoroughbreds who can tolerate load at medium speeds for long distances. Fullbacks and midfielders are grouped together for strength training work.

With our team’s style of play, these athletes are our pillars on the field. Similar to the strikers, they have optional in-season lifts, and we give them the most freedom to take rest when they need it. When they are in the weightroom, these players perform total body strength maintenance via the trap bar, step-ups, pull-ups, and prone leg curl machine, using moderate intensity and doing four to eight reps. We’re especially careful to avoid hypertrophy training with this group because of how fatiguing it can be.

Of the athletes who qualify for optional lifting, about half to two-thirds come in once or twice a week. The key to players seeing rest as an important part of maintaining peak performance and not as a sign of “weakness” is transparency. The athletes know the coaching staff’s expectations, our overall plan for the season, and why we train the way we do. They trust our judgment because they’ve seen the positive results firsthand.

RECOVER TO WIN

In college soccer, recovery is everything. Our weeks during the season revolve around playing two or more games, recovery, and training, so if the recovery aspect is missing or incomplete, a breakdown will undoubtedly occur.

While our games, high-intensity practices, and lifting provide the stimuli during the season, off days and low-
intensity sessions allow for fatigue management. This creates a nice ebb and flow during the competitive slate.

Low-intensity in-season sessions are used for both game preparation and post-contest recovery. The game prep sessions are designed to meet the needs of the top 15 players in our rotation and have a hard stop time of 90 minutes. The aim is for the athletes to have a low heart rate throughout, so the workload is in the three to five mile range, with minimal to no high-intensity running. The priorities during post-game recovery sessions revolve around getting guys moving with low impact, controlling their emotional responses to performance outcomes (not too high after wins and not too low after losses), and balancing their movement adaptation needs without further fatiguing them.

In many ways, it’s during our low-intensity sessions that the success of the season is decided. There is an art to only doing what needs to be done, and pushing athletes too far early on could burn them out.

Working with Coach Langan makes it easier for me to properly plan low-intensity sessions. He is a brilliant tactician with a clear vision for the team and a tremendous amount of self-awareness, so he is adept at communicating exactly what he wants. When it comes to planning recovery work, Coach Langan and I discuss the current state of the athletes, what we need from them, and the overall team dynamic. He then gives me the freedom to design the session based on those guidelines.

A valuable tool that helps us strike the right balance between in-season work and recovery is the concept of Training Stress Balance. This is something I learned from Mladen Jovanovic, a Football Physiologist for ASPIRE Academy in Qatar. By comparing a rolling seven-day average of a metric to a 42-day average for the same metric, we can see how athletes’ acute stress relates to the chronic stress levels they are accustomed to. If the acute stress value starts climbing too high above the chronic value, there is an increased risk of overtraining. When the opposite happens, it means the athletes are at an increased risk for under training because they are not reaching the necessary stimuli.

Not all recovery strategies are appropriate for every athlete at all times, so we are aiming to become more precise in how we program this aspect of training. To individualize our recovery strategies, we started using Omegawave prior to the start of the 2015 season. Using data gleaned from this tool, we have a better idea of which athletes are fatigued, which energy system is fatigued, and how we can tailor recovery sessions to their needs.

For example, if we find athletes are sympathetically dominant, we do a session to stimulate their parasympathetic nervous system. This could entail listening to reggae music, a team walk around campus, yoga, breathing exercises, or visualization work. Conversely, if athletes are parasympathetically dominant, we’ll implement easy games like soccer tennis or do some movement patterning, contrast bathing, or prehab work.

When we’re traveling and we don’t have as much control over our surroundings, I’ve found sessions in hotel pools are excellent for full-team recovery. We set up Bluetooth speakers, play upbeat music, and do a dynamic warm-up and some light competitions in the water. The goal is to get players to have fun, relax, and move around a bit.

It’s easy to do too much when it comes to in-season training for men’s soccer. However, with a careful eye on balancing fitness, lifting, and recovery, and honing in on exactly what our players need and respond to, we can continue to put the pedal to the metal throughout a long competitive season.

This saying from The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle sums up my philosophy well: “Think like a gardener, work like a carpenter.” We have a long-term plan in place that won’t bear fruit immediately, but we work with a specific purpose every day toward that goal.

Sidebar: FUELING THE 49ERS

As the co-owner of a whole foods snack bar business called brüks bars, nutrition has been a lifelong passion of mine. It’s only natural that I’ve made it a priority with the University of North Carolina-Charlotte men’s soccer team.

In the offseason, we have our players fill out weeklong food diaries to get a sense of their fueling habits. Over the years, we’ve found many do not eat enough total calories or get a steady stream of protein during the day, and others have too long of a gap between the last meal of one day and the first of the following day. Solutions have been:

• Offering more protein options as snacks

• Ordering larger quantities of food at team meals, with athletes taking leftovers home

• Suggesting the shared purchase of blenders for players who live together to be used for green smoothies and post-workout and pre-bed shakes.

Our coaching staff has also taken on a bigger role in nutrition and lifestyle education with players. This means going grocery shopping together to talk about what to purchase and what to avoid, informal cooking lessons, meal preparation planning for the hectic in-season schedule, and accompanying athletes to their favorite local restaurants to go over healthy menu options.

Sidebar: TAKING TRACK TO THE FIELD

As an undergrad at the University of Illinois, I was a scholarship sprinter in the 400m and 600m runs. So although I don’t have experience playing soccer, my track background gives me a unique perspective on the cardiovascular and speed demands of the sport.

The majority of game-changing moments in soccer require a player to make a short, linear sprint without the ball. I interpret this as: If athletes want to have an impact on the game, they better know how to sprint!

While most soccer players are either fast over long distances or very quick in confined spaces, most have never learned basic running mechanics, how to optimally accelerate or decelerate, or how to safely change direction. This is something I knew I could help improve.

During our spring training, we spend six to eight weeks on developing proper movement patterns. This training is for everyone. While the veterans might be a bit further along than the incoming players, it’s never a bad idea to rehearse the basics.

We often dedicate one full day during this time to teaching correct sprint mechanics, and then revisit the concept daily for 10 to 15 minutes. Most of our time is spent on the fundamentals of running, such as correct posture, use of the upper body, hip separation, relaxation, and driving the ground past you. We also examine acceleration hindrances, like false steps, standing up too early in the sprint, and shifting weight backward. Each movement progresses from a staggered stance using verbal starts, to a bi-lateral stance with a visual cue (on a pass), to an unconventional stance using a cognitive start (a red cone means one direction, while a green cone means another).

It’s important to rehearse proper technique over and over again, stopping every time something isn’t right and talking about what went wrong. Ingraining new movement patterns takes many hours before they become second nature, but when athletes know what to look for, they are able to self-correct quickly.

Although the bulk of our work on running mechanics is done during the spring, we also address it every day during the season. Doubling as a warm-up, we use the first five to 20 minutes of daily training to practice a movement pattern or sprint quality, which helps keep it fresh in athletes’ minds.

This article was providied by Training and Conditioning

An overhauled strength and conditioning program put together by two coaches new to campus has helped reinvigorate the Pepperdine University women’s soccer team.

By Matt Young & Jamie Faro

Matt Young, MEd, CSCS, is the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Pepperdine University. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Jamie Faro, MS, CSCS, is the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Pepperdine. She can be reached at: [email protected].

While outsiders may assume life here in Malibu, famous for its cool ocean breeze and surfing sights, is slow and relaxing, that’s only because they have not been on campus to see a Pepperdine University women’s soccer team training session. The energy-packed strength and conditioning workouts reflect a culture of focus, energy, and intensity from driven athletes whose goal is to not only win conference championships, but be successful on the national level. The players chase these goals in every training session–with impressive results.

The 2011 season was a huge success for the Waves as they went 15-1-4, winning the West Coast Conference title and earning a berth in the NCAA Division I tournament. The team was ranked as high as third in Division I (a school record) and ended the year ranked 10th–the second best end of season ranking for the Waves since the inception of the program in 1993. The team continued its success this past season, ranking in the top 20 for much of the season and returning to the NCAA tournament.

Several key changes occurred at Pepperdine leading up to this recent success. A new Athletic Performance Center opened in the fall in 2009, which coincided with the formation of a strength and conditioning department and hiring of the school’s first Director of Strength and Conditioning, Matt Young, MEd, CSCS. Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Jamie Faro, MS, CSCS, was hired the following fall. Soon after, they started working with the women’s soccer team and completely overhauled its training regimen.

TEAM CULTURE

When the players began working with us in the spring of 2011, we felt it was critical to instill a defined team culture around strength and conditioning. Without one, workouts would lose purpose and the outcome would be poor. After discussing team goals with the coaching staff, we defined our philosophy and team culture with three words: Focus, energy, and intensity. If we could get the players to bring these principles into each and every session, they would create an environment that demands relentless pursuit of excellence in the weightroom and on the field. Here’s a deeper look at how each of these concepts manifests itself during a workout.

Focus: Part of our coaching style is to have the athletes learn a movement by focusing on the details. Once they can execute the movement flawlessly, they won’t need to be reminded every rep to have better posture, finish with the hips, or hit the correct depth.

Players who “get” the movements quickly can also help any struggling teammates. Rather than strength coaches being the only ones correcting technical miscues, in our team environment the athletes are held accountable for their teammates’ actions as well as their own. Everyone is focused on the same thing.

The team’s focus begins from the start of every session with the warmup. We prefer warmups that are run off commands from the strength and conditioning coach, which gets the athletes focused on the task at hand. Otherwise, the warmup can easily turn into a social gathering where teammates discuss their personal lives instead of concentrating on the assigned movement. An off-command warmup places the focus on completing the movements correctly in a systematic fashion.

Rather than calling out the movement and having athletes complete it for a set number of yards, we break each dynamic warmup movement into several commands. For example, during the warmup we perform an exercise called “handwalk to downward dog.” We give the athletes several commands throughout the exercise that allow us to control the amount of time they spend in each position.

The athletes begin the exercise standing and upon the command “down” they reach down to touch the ground. Upon the command “out” they walk their hands out to a plank position while pushing their legs back to stretch their hamstrings. “Back” tells them to raise their hips in the air as they go into a downward dog position. From that position, “peddle” allows them to move and bend their knees back and forth to stretch their calves and Achilles’. And “up” tells them to walk their feet to their hands and stand back up in the starting position so they are ready for the next rep.

After each movement ends and the athlete returns to the start position, they are required to count out loud which rep they just finished. The idea is for the players to move in unison. This type of warmup makes for a great start to a workout because it takes a lot of focus to stay in sync with each other. It’s worked so well at getting everyone tuned in that the team has even decided to use an off-command warmup before games.

This initial focus then carries over to our training sessions. Athletes are dialed in after the warmup, ready to watch any demos, listen to the concepts and coaching cues, and understand the sets and reps that will be completed.

For new movements, we complete demos and teaching sets together as a team before the team breaks up into partners for their working sets. We demand that the players focus on details during their workouts, much like their coaches do during practices and games. Therefore, we restart a set if athletes are not following directions or partners fail to provide correct technical feedback to each other.

Energy: Once the culture of focus is established, it is coupled with energy. Focus comes first because energy without focus can spell disaster, especially when quickly and aggressively moving weights. In contrast, energy with focus creates an atmosphere of development. Weights are still moved quickly and aggressively, but with sound technique so improvements come faster and injury potential is lower.

The players also needed to grasp that their energy level could influence a teammate to get in another round on a conditioning test, squeeze out another rep in the rack, finish the squat hold, and more. This was a learning process for the players, since many had not experienced teammates pushing and challenging each other during strength and conditioning sessions before.

When we first started working with the team, we brought sessions to a dead stop whenever the energy level dipped too low, addressing the entire squad at once. We told them we would not allow sessions to be quiet and reserved. We often had them look over to the banner listing the team’s WCC conference championships and NCAA tournament appearances and made reference to the blank spots for the past few years. We talked about their energy being a product of their determination and drive to put “2011” up on that banner.

If discussions weren’t effective, extra reps or sets were added to workouts. When this happened, the energy level went up dramatically. Seeing a teammate struggle across the weightroom or field triggered an automatic response of encouragement from a player because there was pressure to succeed.

Intensity: There is a level of intensity that is only felt when focus and energy come together. Once the team bought into those ideas, intensity became second nature. Sessions were loud, encouraging, and competitive. The culture was complete and the team was primed for success. When intensity is consistently raised in training sessions, it can change an entire season, and the players figured that out very quickly.

OFF-SEASON PROGRAMMING

The team’s off-season is just 13 weeks long, including spring break at week seven. We have to work within the time constraints and account for an intense spring ball slate of six games during weeks six through 10 when designing the team’s off-season program.

Overall, we were tasked with packaging a standard periodized program of speed, agility, and strength/power training within the new culture of focus, intensity, and energy. We scheduled 30 lifting sessions and 20 movement/conditioning days in the off-season program, which was broken down into three phases.

Phase I consisted of three weeks of general prep work, which included three days of strength work and two days of speed/agility/conditioning each week. The goals were to familiarize the athletes with the structure of the program, introduce them to a new battery of fitness tests, and increase their mental toughness and focus. Every training session was held on the field until all the players reached an acceptable level of physical and mental toughness.

We kept exercise selection simple and used basic teaching progressions to provide the athletes with the foundation they needed prior to entering the weightroom. The players completed a lot of body weight exercises, including squats, lunges, pushups, and planks, progressing from a hold in a static position to a dynamic movement version. Before any external load (medicine ball, weighted vest, etc.) was added, athletes were required to master the movement at the prescribed set/rep progression.

Much of this early training was done in partner format where one athlete worked while the other provided feedback. This made each athlete accountable for her own actions as well as her partner’s and did not allow either to lose focus throughout the session. If a player couldn’t master a movement, the whole team would rally around her and give her their focus and energy to get her through the set or rep. The struggling player was motivated to give everything she could.

Our final day of this phase revealed the strength of our players as individuals and concluded with our strength as a team. The team did repeated sets of walking lunge holds, with a few players repeating sets due to failed prior ones. The team finished together with one of the hardest and longest sets, resulting in the loudest and most intense session that spring.

Conditioning sessions included one change of direction/technique day and one strictly fitness day per week. Conditioning sessions were typically completed following team practices and were extensive. Change of direction days involved working in distances of five to 25 yards, and sufficient rest time between sets allowed us to give feedback and for teaching moments to occur.

A major emphasis with change of direction during the first three weeks was teaching the athletes the basics on how to decelerate their bodies in a safe and efficient manner. We broke down the basics and emphasized hip height, knee angles, and weight distribution during each drill until every athlete was able to safely decelerate her body in both the frontal and sagittal planes.

On fitness training days, working distances were high (400 to 1,000 yards), rest-to-work intervals were low (2:1), and the intensity of work was moderate (60 to 85 percent of max). Volume gradually built up each week, never increasing greater than 10 percent from the week prior.

Phase II consisted of six weeks of hypertrophy/strength work, with three days lifting in the weightroom and two days spent doing speed/agility/conditioning. This phase was split into two three-week cycles with one off-week between the cycles while players were on spring break.

Our goals in Phase II were to build on the foundation we set in Phase I and bring the intensity to an even higher level. This would require increased focus due to the added stimulation of the weightroom, along with performing more advanced movements.

Once in the weightroom, the players began working on progressions for the major lifting movements of the off-season, which included the hang clean, push press, front squat, single-leg squat, Romanian deadlift, step-up, bench press, bent-over row, military press, and pull-down. We kept movement selection very basic and limited so we could take the time to break down each one completely, even if that meant only training two movements per session.

For example, progressions for the hang clean included roughly six sessions of a static pull from technique boxes, followed by a squatting progression. The team did not move into receiving the bar until several weeks into the phase. This was part of maintaining the culture of focus and learning the movements in detail.

This phase also included an emphasis on plyometrics. There were two reasons we waited until the fourth week of training to begin teaching plyometrics. The first was safety. The athletes needed Phase I to prepare their bodies to handle the stress of jumping movements, and teaching progressions were made easier by the emphasis on deceleration mechanics in the first three weeks. The second was transferability–teaching the broad jump and vertical jump in the same phase as the hang clean allowed the athletes to relate the movements because of the hip extension necessary in all of them.

When teaching plyometrics, we placed an emphasis on decelerating the body and proper landing mechanics in all double-leg movements before progressing to any type of repeat jumping or single-leg take-offs or landings. Once the players mastered these movements, the bulk of plyometric work was focused on single-leg progressions.
After the athletes were through the first three-week cycle of Phase II, they were put to the test–literally–through the Man-U and 300-yard shuttle run tests. We administer the 300-yard shuttle run test by having athletes run 25 yards out and 25 yards back, six times. For explanation of the Man-U test, see “Test Time” below.
The team performed miserably on both initial conditioning tests. The team average for the shuttle run was 65.8 seconds, much slower than our goal of 62 seconds. And the team averaged only 15.8 points on the Man-U test when we hoped to see 19.5 points.

“Tactical errors” during testing led to this failure. The team went out too hard and too fast on the Man-U, leading to a very early drop-off in reps. The shuttle reps showed the reverse. The team paced itself on its first rep, leading to a huge drop-off in times between rep one and rep two. We needed to instill a discipline in the players that would translate to lasting performance in testing, 90-minute games, and eventually double overtime conference and national tournament games.

After these unacceptable results, both tests were repeated weekly for the remainder of Phase II. Over the second three-week cycle, we were pleased to see huge improvements in the team averages, even though the players still needed to get better. The average shuttle run time decreased by 1.9 seconds, and the average Man-U score increased to 19 points.

Keeping in line with the culture of focus on their own actions and the actions of their teammates, we kept the emphasis on the team averages and not individual times. If one person could not perform to the proper level, the entire team suffered. This heightened encouragement between athletes and made each athlete accountable for her performance that day, knowing that if she did not step up, she was letting down 18 other teammates and making them work extra for her shortcomings.

Change of direction work continued on the field twice a week, and we began teaching proper acceleration mechanics. Since the average sprint in soccer is only 15 to 20 yards, perfect form was emphasized in the “drive phase” of the sprint. This required teaching the athletes proper body positioning for the first 10 yards of their sprint, and allowing them to “feel” the 45- to 55-degree angle between their body and the ground. We used a series of wall drills, partner lean holds, lean fall runs, and other various acceleration drills to help them grasp these concepts.

Once the team mastered linear acceleration, we progressed by having the athletes start from various positions and perform different movement patterns, including crossover steps, drop steps, backpedals, lateral runs, and angled shuffles. And after these were mastered, we progressed the drills again by adding external load via a 30-pound sled.

Phase III consisted of continued strength/power work in the weightroom, a greater emphasis on acceleration/agility work, and continued effort with the goal to be match-ready each weekend. Following spring ball and entering the final week of training, end-of-semester testing was done in order to set team and individual goals for preseason training in August.

Normally, we are not huge proponents of having specific “testing” days for our athletes, preferring to integrate testing and evaluation into the workouts themselves. However, in this case, we felt it was necessary for the team to see the fruits of their labor over the past 13 weeks. The following improvements were observed between week one and week 13 of the off-season program:

– Broad jump: 2.23 inch increase
– Vertical jump: 1.73 inch increase
– Left-leg lateral jump: 3.08 inch increase
– Right-leg lateral jump: 3.23 inch increase.

SUMMER PLANS

At the end of the semester, all athletes were sent home with three four-week workouts that included strength, speed, and agility/conditioning components. Athletes playing in summer leagues with intense practice and/or game schedules received modified workouts based on their team schedules and amount of playing time. Incoming athletes also received three four-week workouts designed to prepare them for preseason fitness testing and the strength work performed during preseason and the competitive season.

The message given at the end of the team’s off-season training was the need to keep raising the bar and bringing focus, energy, and intensity to their own individual workouts. We urged them to return to campus prepared to maintain a high level of training and chase their goals of a conference championship and NCAA tournament appearance.

The record-breaking 2011 season and subsequent successful 2012 campaign proved the value of our new team culture and revamped training program. It also helped the strength and conditioning department make a strong first impression on the team’s coaching staff and athletes, which are both enjoying the results of their hard work.