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 Fit2Finish will be presenting Fit to the Final Whistle to coaches, trainers and athletes at the Virginia Youth Soccer Association Convention in Richmond on February 3 and 4. Coaches want their athletes to stay strong and execute their game plan all the way to overtime – if necessary. But finding time during practice to add conditioning is a tough fit. Join me and your fellow coaches in this interactive session where we’ll pin point how to fit fitness into your practice session. All ages. All genders. All ability levels.
Here’s the session description. Share it with your friends and fellow coaches:
Are your athletes as strong in the last minutes of the game as the first? If not, are you feeling the time squeeze to fit in conditioning? Don’t sacrifice skill development to add fitness, blend them. Dr. LeBolt will show you how to incorporate conditioning for endurance, balance, strength and agility into your existing practice plan. Your reward: athletes who play stronger for longer and stand up better to the demands of today’s youth sports.
Thanks for subscribing to Fit2Finish online to get ready for the the 2012 Angel Kisses 5K Event.
We’ll be posting a 12 week training plan with scheduled training runs 4 days per week to help you work your way up to a successful performance on race day. Contact us to tell us whether you’re a beginning, intermediate or advanced runner and we’ll tailor a training plan to your needs. Then we’ll KEEP in TOUCH to help you stay on track to reach your goal.
Beginning in February, Fit2Finish will share bi-weekly motivational emails with training advice on the hot topics like:
- Eating right
- Hydrating
- Goal setting
- Staying motivated
- Plus, tips for race day to take away the worries and let you put all your energy into running your best race.
Here’s to finishing the race this year with your personal best time!
 Stretching and chatting build team especially for girls Recovery. Every athlete needs it. Suzy Germain says it’s missing from her son’s topnotch team and that’s taking a toll.
Wayne Goldsmith, in his January 4th blog post, has a great mnemonic to help us think about how recovery – that is, time off from sport-specific conditioning and training – re-charges the elite athlete so he can go back to training hard. This is also essential for players with nagging injuries and/or many games in a short period of time. Give them time to “washup.”
Wayne calls it WASHUP.
Water: the use of different forms of water, e.g cryotherapy (ice), hydrotherapies (contrast showers, “hot-cold” baths, spas, saunas, swimming pools etc).
Active Rest: doing something physically active other than the primary training and competition activity, e.g. walking, swimming or cycling instead of running.
Sleep: ensuring adequate quality and quantity of sleep.
Hydration and refueling: drinking the right fluids and eating the right foods at the right time, in the right quantity and of the right type to enhance recovery.
Unwind mentally: mental and emotional recovery is just as important as the physical aspects of recovery.
Physical Therapies: including massage, physiotherapy, stretching and Yoga.
Rest and recovery between practices is essential to every athlete’s sport performance. Even though our young athletes seem to be able to bounce back from training, or even sustain it at a pretty high level, you might be surprised at what a little intentional recovery can do for them.
 Sprint speed and fitness will win many balls. Interval Training ~ Using Recovery as a Training Tool: One of the best techniques sport scientists have to offer to maximize efficiency of practice time is interval training ~alternating periods of hard training with shorter periods of rest in a fixed ratio, perhaps 5 or 6:1, depending on the demands of the training. They can work harder in these shorter high intensity bursts when they have rest intervals between. By the end of practice, they will have performed more high intensity (quality) minutes of training than they would in a session that had constant moderate demands with little or no rest.
Make it like the game they play: Fitness training with intervals is an especially good way to structure your practice if the game your athletes play requires all-out effort interspersed with less intense effort. Sprinting and jogging. Driving and recovering. Attack and defend. Get their bodies used to game demands at practice. You’ll have fitter, better prepared athletes.
 Suzy Germain, Championship player and coach When Suzy Germain and her freshman class (1980) teammates were recruited by Anson Dorrance to play for the UNC Tarheels, they were a force to be reckoned with. Describing it, Suzy says, “Practice was a battle. We took over every starting position. We knew we were better.” She says this matter-of-factly, with the confidence I’m sure gave her an edge on the playing field. There was no question that Suzy came to college for one reason: to play soccer.
That was the early 80’s. These girls were riding the wave of Title IX. More opportunities were opening up for girls in the sports venue. National Federation of State High School Associations statistics show that girl’s high school soccer participation grew more than 600% in the decade between 1971- 1981. But did the number of really top notch female athletes grow at that rate? Suzy’s recollection is that the strongest athletes were few and a tight knit group. Easy to spot and easy to recruit by enterprising coaches.
Cut to the young women of today who are competing on their high school teams with high hopes of playing in college. There are many more college women’s soccer programs, Division I, II and III, in 2011/12. But the explosion in the number of girls playing soccer has kept pace. While there weren’t very many programs for women in the early 80’s Suzy wonders whether the percentages really have changed much. The statistics bear this out.
The NCAA estimates (I have used the calculation methods designed by NCAA to generate estimates) the chances of a female high school senior soccer player landing a roster spot on a college team in 1981 was 6.4%. For college freshman in 2009 it was 6.7%. NCAA research estimates for boys put their chances at 5.7%. Though the NCAA does go on to calculate the chances of going pro for boys: 0.04%. Women’s professional opportunities are so limited they are not calculated.
The bottom line: while more kids are playing and more programs are providing teams, the chances your kid will make the college team is probably no better than it was 30 years ago. Male or female, they need to be:
- in the top 5- 6% in the nation. That means on a championship area team and a top player on that team.
- willing to look at Division I, II or III programs and flexible in their geographic demands. The chances to play Division I soccer are much slimmer: Under 2%.
- able to stand up to an exhausting schedule of training, practices and travel
- championship time managers because time for homework is slim even with study haul and tutorial help usually available.
If this looks like an impossible dream, it just may be.
Suzy and I agree. It would be healthier and more reasonable to:
- establish more realistic tiers for our kids playing soccer (and probably all sports).
- find an appropriate playing level where they can compete and grow in their fitness and athleticism.
- take the college pressure off the table.
- consider the club and recreational options many colleges now offer. Lower pressure. More fun. Still highly competitive.
If they show the highest potential (Be objective about this. Get a professional coach’s opinion!) then help them move up the ranks to the appropriate level of challenge. But for the other 95%, let’s put the ranks in place so all our kids have a safe and healthy place to play.
Next up in the Fit2Finish blog: stories of young athletes who have walked the gauntlet of college recruitment and beyond. You don’t want to miss hearing these.
Here are the top ten new year’s resolutions according to about.com. Is yours on this list?
- Spend more time with family and friends
- Fit in Fitness
- Tame the Bulge
- Quit Smoking
- Enjoy Life More
- Quit Drinking
- Get out of Debt
- Learn Something New
- Help Others
- Get Organized
So many of us look to the new year with a resolution in hand. We want to reclaim the body we have let go, re-attend to the proper management of our resources, re-unite with the people we have let slip away. We want to stop over-indulging and address what we haven’t been taking care of.
Statistics say that less than half of us will be successful, come June.
Imagine with me what new year’s 2013 would look like if we didn’t need to make a new year’s resolution? What if we attended to our health all year long and prevented the need to lose weight, made a regular place for fitness, had a regular date with family or friends, didn’t engage in behaviors we knew were unhealthy and added behaviors that were?
What if we practiced prevention all year long? Out of gratitude for the lives we have been given and the bodies (one per person!) we have to live them in. Practicing prevention is SO much easier than making restitution.
What if we passed this practice along to our children?
I come to the end of this year very aware that health can be fleeting because not all injuries are preventable. I learned that in a big way when I slipped in the mud on the playing field and ruptured my hamstring tendon. Surgery and 8 months of rehab and recovery later, I am getting back in action. And I am more grateful than ever to have the use of a strong, fit, coordinated body.
So I start this year re-newed. More ready than ever to get health and fitness into our homes and our schools and onto our playing fields. With thanks to the One who mended my hamstring and has me up and running again.
Subscribe to Fit2Finish or follow us on Facebook or Twitter to find out how you can do fitness with us all year long. Happy new year!
 Team gathers for post game chat Many girls, by nature, are tentative. Go ahead. Watch the U7 boys play. They throw themselves into the game, into their opponent, get whistled for rough play. Then watch the girls. They fight over offering the other player the ball. A whole new species.
Girls are tentative, not necessarily because they are being polite, but because they are afraid of making mistakes. The Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) advises coaching them to “make more mistakes.” So I do. That, on occasion, has even become a rallying cry. I had a player paint that on her team t-shirt. You go, Emily!
I have coached a lot of kids in losing games. That is, the score at the end wasn’t in our favor. In the game re-cap we gathered in our stretching circle to talk about what we learned. Girls tend naturally to look at their mistakes. And they tend to take the responsibility on themselves. Suzy Germain says this is true even at the highest levels. When Anson would say “we’re not winning headers” we all looked at the ground thinking “that’s me, he’s talking about.” Girls need help learning from “their mistakes.”
Seth Godin’s blog today gives this a new spin. And I like it. Funny how a marketing guru can speak to you about helping kids succeed on the athletic field. He makes a distinction between a mistake and a failure. Failure he says is a “project that doesn’t work, an initiative that teaches you something at the same time the outcome doesn’t move you directly closer to your goal.” But a mistake is ”either a failure repeated, doing something for the second time when you should have known better, or a misguided attempt that hindsight reminds you is worth avoiding.”
Ah, the hindsight. So thinking about those sad faces in the “losers circle” I may have been mistaken. Should have taught them to fail more. But next time, let’s make fewer mistakes, huh?
One of the hardest issues for kids in today’s competitive youth sports setting is playing time. No one likes to spend time on the bench; the fun is in playing the game. But, the more competitive the team, the more important the win. Coaches whose jobs and reputation depend on fielding a winning team play their starters. Maybe only their starters.
Germain had 8 players from the CYA Blast go on to play in college Experienced player, successful coach, and sports parent, Suzy Germain says, “Help your kid talk to the coach about playing time.” As a parent, she worked with her kids on ways to approach their coaches. Coaches generally avoid this conversation with the parents. Those discussions can get emotional because parents often don’t have an objective perspective on their own child’s play. But coaches, when approached at a time they can talk, generally welcome this conversation with the player. And self-advocacy and responsibility for changes that need making are great life skills for kids.
Suzy suggests having the player meet one on one with the coach at a pre-arranged time. She coached her kids on what they might say. “How do you suggest I earn more playing time?” or “What things do you suggest I work on to earn playing time?” Be sure the kid listens to and understands the coach’s suggestions. Suzy she even worked with her kids to anticipate the coach’s response. “If the coach says…then ask him ….”
As an experienced coach, Suzy has more insight about what the coach might say than the average parent. But key in her recommendation is to be sure your kid walks away from the coach-conversation with an action plan. Not just ‘Whew, I was brave enough to ask him what I wanted to,’ but ‘He told me to work on A, B and C.’
Then the kid needs to go work on A, B and C and come back to the coach after the extra effort he put in is showing in improvement on the field during practice. If the coach is not rewarding him with more playing time the kid now has grounds to say, “I did what you asked, Coach, but I am still not playing much.”
This is the moment of truth. Perhaps the coach hasn’t noticed the improved play. Some only look to their starters, having already decided on who is second string. Hopefully, the coach will give the kid a second look and like what he is now seeing.
My oldest daughter had just such a situation after her move to a more competitive team. Her coach told her that, as a forward, she needed to work harder off the ball. She needed to track back and win balls back from the opposing defenders. With this in mind she discovered a quickness and an element of surprise that really worked for her. The result: more playing time. And ultimately, she became a starter.
Not all kids can be starters, though. And some are rostered on teams that are really above their playing level. The coach may not feel he can give them more playing time. Suzy’s oldest daughter, Katie, had this happen on her college field hockey team. Katie approached the coach and was told to work on A, B and C. Katie worked on A, B and C and came back to the coach who then said, now you need to work on D, E and F. This, Suzy says, is a sign that the coach really doesn’t intend to reward you with more play. At that point the player has a decision to make. If she’s resigned to sit the bench in order to stay on the team, then so be it. But if the game is only fun if she gets to play on game day, then it might be time to look for a different team or a new sport.
Suzy said that as a coach she welcomed two separate conversations -one with the kid and another one with the parents. “These,” she said, “were two very different conversations.” With the kid she talked about what they needed to work on. With the parents, about what was or wasn’t working. Triangulating this conversation can be a recipe for disaster. Held separately, it is easier to be honest and realistic.
So, in addition to giving your kid a break from year round play, Suzy says, help your kid with the coach-kid conversation. But help him be realistic about his chances to play. Check out the next F2F post for part 3 in the conversation: taking an honest look at your kid’s potential and being realistic about the best place to play.
Here’s a riddle:
What do you call something you do almost every day, all week, year round? … work, right?
What do we call it when our kids do it? … sports. Is anyone laughing?
Neither are our kids. They’re paying the price in exhaustion, stress, injury, and burnout. The scenario sounds very much like the popular documentary “Race to Nowhere.”
Suzy Germain led UNC Women to 4 National Soccer Championships Recently Suzy Germain and I talked about this phenomenon. Suzy played for the 1981-1984 National Championship UNC Tarheels Women’s Soccer teams. She is also a successful youth soccer coach and parent to three kids who have navigated the area youth sports environment.
Our time was short because Suzy had to dash off to her son’s soccer game, on a schoolday Friday at 1:15. “Guess they don’t care about school when they make the schedule” she told me. It’s a tournament weekend and kids have to get their games in. “Hey, Billy doesn’t mind missing school,” Suzy says with a forced laugh.
Billy, who is a high school senior, plays high school and club soccer but also played high school football. He’s a kicker. (of course) Suzy says Billy seems to still love soccer. He wants to play in college if a team will have him. But he really loved football because it’s season. From late August to November, it’s intense. But the kids say, “6am practice – YES!” because it’s football season.
This launched our conversation about the work that youth soccer (and many youth sports) has become. Year round means no breaks. Fall and Spring seasons have added winter indoor and summer Y-league. There are no breaks for the holidays. In fact, tournaments are on holiday weekends so people can more easily travel. We can be all soccer, all the time.
Suzy says this burns the kids out. “Have you ever seen a kid burned out of football?” Suzy asks me. Can’t say that I have. They get a long break after the season and they are anxious to play come August. That’s what she says is missing with the youth soccer players she sees. They play so many games and so many tournaments that it all runs together. She says her son’s soccer team played 36 pre-season games. Thirty six games before the season even began! By the first regular season match, “They looked terrible.”
How does this happen? Some of it is driven by the parents, she says. There are multiple tournaments where college coaches will be. Parents want their kids to get exposure so they insist on playing all the tournaments rather than choosing. Of course, it’s the kids who are doing the work; the parents are traveling, eating out and paying. And worrying whether the college coaches got a good look at their kid.
So how do we change this? Keep in mind that Suzy wants her kid to have his shot and wants him to keep the love of the game she has even 25 years after her college competitive playing days. She has two great suggestions:
- US Soccer should legislate that no sanctioned tournaments are played for December and January. This would require tournament directors to schedule on “competing” weekends and force teams to choose between tournaments rather than playing in all of them.
- Kids should be allowed to take a season off from their competitive teams with the promise that the coach will give them a fair chance to earn their spot back the next season. Suzy says a boy on her son’s team did this and he came back stronger and more hungry to play the game. He’s never played better.
So what makes Suzy think this will work? Well, she coached the Division I WAGS CYA Blast for 7 years. She gave them weeks off, didn’t play December, January, or July, met with parents to plan tournament scheduling that wasn’t overkill, and made winter indoor un-coached and optional. The result: 8 of her athletes played soccer at the college level.
For more from Suzy, follow this blog for parts 2 and 3 of the interview:
2. How to help your kid talk to the coach about playing time.
3. Are we being unrealistic about our kids’ chance to make the college team?
 Money 100 USD Public Photo, courtesy of Public Photo Net; Emilian Robert Vicol How much is your kid worth? Surely, there’s no answer to that question; they’re priceless. But what I am seeing in youth sports clubs lately makes me think that priceless is getting more expensive. We’re paying for them to do everything and at younger ages. The gear, the fees, the uniforms, and the professional trainers.
A few years ago a friend and I had a good laugh about a parent who actually brought his nine year old football player for personal training at the local health club. He wanted the kid to get a leg up on the competition. No one is laughing any more. Parents are flocking to “professionals” (defined I guess as people who take money to perform the training) to put their kids through their paces in their sport of choice. And this, on top of three practices a week the kid already attends.
The thinking, I guess, is “if some is good, more must be better.” Let me buy my kid better. If we have the money and want to be responsible parents we are supposed to do all we can for our kids, right? If the kid is bouncing up and down to play more soccer, shoot more hoops, or swim more laps…then maybe it’s right for your kid.
But the trend I see isn’t just with the singular kid, it’s with the whole team or the whole club. They bring in a professional to supplement what the volunteers are doing in the hopes that all the kids will step up to the big time. In competitive sports terms, the big time means: they will win.
And let’s make no mistake, when we pay for something, we expect to get what we pay for. Even if we don’t admit it, when we pay for training we expect our kids to play better. We expect wins.
So, what happens if wins don’t come? Do we find another trainer, another team? Or do we ask, is this as good as my kid is gonna get? is this worth it? Are we insisting he go to practice even though he’s exhausted, has tons of homework and is coming down with a cold because…we paid for it.
Does money leave us “no choice”?
This “professionalism” of the playing field has me nervous because I’m not sure, as parents, we recognize what is driving our decisions about our kid and his play. Every time we write that check – for training, travel, tournaments – does it say ‘we love you’ to our kids? Or do we think, this better be worth it? Because by the time we’ve funded all of this, we’ve spent what we were saving for college tuition. Now he really needs that college scholarship.
No pressure.
Fit2Finish is happy to share ways to keep your athletes healthy and playing the games they love at no charge. Contact us for more information about developing a team environment that will last kids a life time.
If you Google ”coach” today, you’ll find the debacle of ex-coach Joe Paterno. But below this (after Coach handbags) you’ll land not on “sport coaching” but on personal or life coaching. These are people who will help you achieve your personal and professional goals. The word, I’m told, originated from the coach or carriage that carries people from one place to another.
 Coach and kids, counting on each other This is what a sport coach is meant to be. One who carries people from where they are to where they want to go. Coach Joe Paterno did this for so many people. He’ll do this no more.
It is a sad, sad story. There are so many layers. So much yet to be brought to light. But one thing appears clear to me. Mr. Paterno lived by the principles of loyalty to team and this blinded him. He failed to speak up and speak truth when he knew it was being transgressed. We can’t afford this indiscretion, especially not when we speak for those who are without a voice, like our children and young people. Intimidated into silence, they suffer.
I recently shared a great story about Lisa Bishop and the difference she was making in the lives of her U19 players. Lisa is not a professional coach. She’s a volunteer. She’s a personal coach. She carries and cares for the young people in her charge. She’s a great coach.
So often we ask what a coach knows, what his credentials are, and how his team performs to decide whether he’s great. But shouldn’t we look beyond these things? And keep looking. Because complacency and doing things the way we always have with the staff we’ve always employed leaves us open to temptation. Sometimes the worst kind of temptation.
And our children are in the line of fire. Watching what a coach does tells us who he really is. And isn’t that what we really want to know before we entrust what we cannot bear to give up into his care.
Loyalty at all costs and taking one for the team are a great philosophy, but not a good lifestyle. I fervently hope that this tragic story will cause us a sports community to be rededicated to holding all coaches to the highest standards. It’s risky (Ask coach Mcqueary who won’t be at the Penn State game Saturday because of multiple death threats.) But isn’t bringing things out in the open the kindest thing to do? So those in the wrong can be set right. And all that is good takes its rightful place in the spotlight. It is amazing how well people behave when they know others are watching.
As a coach, I am so very sad today. Coach Joe was on a pedestal his career had earned him and it was a long way to fall. I am satisfied to be ferrying kids from where they are to where they dream of being. To me, that’s the best use of a coach.
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