I have a 16 y/o female soccer player for 10 weeks. She will train 1-on-1 with me for 6 sessions (3 times a week MWF for 60 minutes) initially, then will work into the semi-private training group. She will train MWF with us for an hour each session, but I would like her to do some low intensity work on her days off at least initially…
She is a great athlete (already verbally committed to D1 school in CA) but has other offers from a much larger and better D1 program in CA. She has 9 weeks to prepare for a soccer tournament where they (the bigger school’s coach) will be attending to evaluate her performance and possibly offer.
She has little to no experience with training outside of normal soccer practice. Anyone with experience training younger, novice female soccer players, what have you done?
I am already planning currently, but would just like some input… I don’t want to over analyze and get too fancy.
I would like to do some sort of GPP with her for the first phase of training… Thoughts?
Med Ball throws (low volume explosive and high volume low intensity)
Basic Jumps
Bodyweight Exercises
Band Work
Low volume Linear and Lateral Speed
Sled dragging forward/backward
High rep abdominal work
Also would like to test initially with some basic indicators so we can assess her at the end of her training. Thinking broad jump, standing triple jump, OHB throw, 30 meter, and push ups… Any others?
I assume there are no actual tests involved in her performance assessment? As-in, she will not be subject to the beep test, 300yd shuttle, etc.?
In the time frame available and given the situation, I would do as little as possible that could interfere with the athlete. Having worked with some high school football players in similar situations and extremely limited time frames (2 and 3 sport athletes who need to do well in summer combines despite minimal training), I have seen some of the following things:
Low volumes of well coached and planned speed work can do wonders. A lot of athletes never get to do real speed work, so just a few sessions show significant improvement since they “learn” to break out of their stereotype a bit.
Medicine ball throws are great to get significant amount of explosive work that puts little physical stress on the body. Also great for teaching females to really go 100%. Basic jumps also fit into this mold.
Sled drags, abdominal work, medicine ball circuits, and other lower intensity, conditioning focused activities can be great, but you really need to watch volumes. Even though the athlete may be fit for their sport, the last thing you want to do is really kick their ass this close to something really important. Be careful here, especially with a relatively untrained female who may or may not have the best dietary practices in place either (along with having homework, life stress, etc.).
Prehab/rehab/mobility type work can be good for these types of athletes… I am not talking about just having the girl do X-band walks or bird dogs or other somewhat fluffy things that do little long term. I am talking more about various sorts of lunges, wall slides, hurdle mobility at various speeds/positions/etc. and more. If done in low to moderate volumes, it’ll open up some movement patterns that may be otherwise restricted in the athlete.
Now, my biggest question would be: What is she doing for her soccer training? You are going to have to program everything around any skill work. Skill work will beat out “physical” training, whether it be speed/strength/conditioning/agility/mobility/etc. every single time in short or long time frames if you are not doing both. Make sure she is fresh for her technique work, that she is in game shape, and that she isn’t too sore, fatigued or anything like that for practices as it could affect her training there and lead to confidence issues if not adequately addressed (if fatigued and having numerous poor practices, for example).
I assume there are no actual tests involved in her performance assessment? As-in, she will not be subject to the beep test, 300yd shuttle, etc.?
Not that I know of. They are there more so to evaluate her on-field performance. So she wants to impress them (obviously).
In the time frame available and given the situation, I would do as little as possible that could interfere with the athlete. Having worked with some high school football players in similar situations and extremely limited time frames (2 and 3 sport athletes who need to do well in summer combines despite minimal training), I have seen some of the following things:
Low volumes of well coached and planned speed work can do wonders. A lot of athletes never get to do real speed work, so just a few sessions show significant improvement since they “learn” to break out of their stereotype a bit.
We only will have access to concrete at the facility for the low volume speed work; Do you think doing sprints out to 10-20 yards overkill on such a hard surface? Or should this be avoided?
Medicine ball throws are great to get significant amount of explosive work that puts little physical stress on the body. Also great for teaching females to really go 100%. Basic jumps also fit into this mold.
Yep, I enjoy MB throws a lot. Easy to teach and athletes seem to enjoy them a lot. 6-8 lb ball seems to work well for females.
Sled drags, abdominal work, medicine ball circuits, and other lower intensity, conditioning focused activities can be great, but you really need to watch volumes. Even though the athlete may be fit for their sport, the last thing you want to do is really kick their ass this close to something really important. Be careful here, especially with a relatively untrained female who may or may not have the best dietary practices in place either (along with having homework, life stress, etc.).
Agreed- I definitely will work up gradually in volume. What do you think about a taper 7 days out from her competition? She will be playing in a big Thanksgiving soccer tournament.
Prehab/rehab/mobility type work can be good for these types of athletes… I am not talking about just having the girl do X-band walks or bird dogs or other somewhat fluffy things that do little long term. I am talking more about various sorts of lunges, wall slides, hurdle mobility at various speeds/positions/etc. and more. If done in low to moderate volumes, it’ll open up some movement patterns that may be otherwise restricted in the athlete.
I agree totally. Most young athletes are very deficient in movement efficiency and doing this can open up and relieve some basic problems (to some extent).
Now, my biggest question would be: What is she doing for her soccer training? You are going to have to program everything around any skill work. Skill work will beat out “physical” training, whether it be speed/strength/conditioning/agility/mobility/etc. every single time in short or long time frames if you are not doing both. Make sure she is fresh for her technique work, that she is in game shape, and that she isn’t too sore, fatigued or anything like that for practices as it could affect her training there and lead to confidence issues if not adequately addressed (if fatigued and having numerous poor practices, for example).
I will find that out either tonight or tomorrow. I just sent her an e-mail to figure out her training week. I will know more soon so I can plan accordingly.
Well, you need to do speed work, so this is just going to keep the numbers even lower. I wouldn’t just to 10-20 yards. I would go out to at least 30 yards and probably some 40-50 yard sprints as well. Everyone talks about how they only sprint to 10-20 yards at a time, but that isn’t going to build up any sort of speed reserve nor will it develop much speed for upright running (while they may only have 10-20 yard bursts, these are done upright, while acceleration to 10-20yards in training will be with a significant lean).
Yep, I enjoy MB throws a lot. Easy to teach and athletes seem to enjoy them a lot. 6-8 lb ball seems to work well for females.
8lbs is about as heavy as I would go with a female like you describe. If you have something that is 4lbs, that would work great as well. I often use balls in the 8-12lb range and I am going to take a stab in the dark and say I am much larger and stronger than she is ;), so don’t be afraid to mix in light throws as well.
Agreed- I definitely will work up gradually in volume. What do you think about a taper 7 days out from her competition? She will be playing in a big Thanksgiving soccer tournament.
A 7 day taper in a sprinting sense generally means an acutely larger and/or more intense training load followed by a drop in volume/intensity/and or frequency to try to achieve a rebound in performance (along with a longer term drop in overall training volumes).
With a team sport athlete, this wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Now, I would drop volumes a little bit as you get very close and make sure she is sharp on everything. I would definitely drop and serious strength or conditioning sort of work right before as it isn’t going to do her much good. Low volume speed work and MB/plyo work combined with very mild “conditioning” work (just enough to get the blood flowing and keep the athlete from getting some kind of acute relieving) should be plenty the last 7-10 days before. Make sure she does things that make her feel confident and ready to go. Since she should be easily in PR shape, hitting PRs on short sprints, throws, jumps, and even moderate strength work can all be good. Just make sure she is confident because if you could just get her to play more confident with nothing else she’ll probably do much better.
Also, on the throws. Try to stick with throws for height or throws forwards. Most of the time when people do overhead backwards throws, they use their lower back way too much. At best, it leads to suboptimal development of the glutes/hamstrings and at worst it leads to hyperextended backs. Make sure they are very well coached if you do them or just stick with throws for height–a lot easier to teach.
Well, you need to do speed work, so this is just going to keep the numbers even lower. I wouldn’t just to 10-20 yards. I would go out to at least 30 yards and probably some 40-50 yard sprints as well. Everyone talks about how they only sprint to 10-20 yards at a time, but that isn’t going to build up any sort of speed reserve nor will it develop much speed for upright running (while they may only have 10-20 yard bursts, these are done upright, while acceleration to 10-20yards in training will be with a significant lean).
OK cool. I just found out she has practice twice a week on Tues/Thurs and the occasional game on Saturdays. Her practices usually run 1.5-2 hours, and they do some “light fitness” stuff i.e. shuttles, etc. How frequent would you include speed work into this type of training week? Volumes?
8lbs is about as heavy as I would go with a female like you describe. If you have something that is 4lbs, that would work great as well. I often use balls in the 8-12lb range and I am going to take a stab in the dark and say I am much larger and stronger than she is ;), so don’t be afraid to mix in light throws as well.
Haha yeah I agree. I have a 6 lb ball that I will probably start her with. And will mix in the 8 lb ball depending on how she does with the lighter one first.
A 7 day taper in a sprinting sense generally means an acutely larger and/or more intense training load followed by a drop in volume/intensity/and or frequency to try to achieve a rebound in performance (along with a longer term drop in overall training volumes).
Gotcha. I was always aware generally of what a taper entails, but never really put it into place with a non-track athlete. Thanks for the clarification.
With a team sport athlete, this wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Now, I would drop volumes a little bit as you get very close and make sure she is sharp on everything. I would definitely drop and serious strength or conditioning sort of work right before as it isn’t going to do her much good. Low volume speed work and MB/plyo work combined with very mild “conditioning” work (just enough to get the blood flowing and keep the athlete from getting some kind of acute relieving) should be plenty the last 7-10 days before. Make sure she does things that make her feel confident and ready to go. Since she should be easily in PR shape, hitting PRs on short sprints, throws, jumps, and even moderate strength work can all be good. Just make sure she is confident because if you could just get her to play more confident with nothing else she’ll probably do much better.
Cool, thanks again for your help. I definitely feel this training will help her confidence on the field.
I’ve noticed that too. I had some athletes this summer that could not grasp the OHB throw without using low back too much, yet all other throws they could do. Good tip!
Like you mention before keep it simple, I love training female athletes because no matter what I do they always respond well to my training. I agree with the poster above don’t keep yourself in the 10-20yd range for speed I would extend out to 50-60, also since you only have 6 weeks you may want to keep the reps in the 6-10 zone - sub max.
She’s very novice with weights, would you start out with bodyweight only the first few weeks? Also, we will have about 9 weeks of total training time, not 6.
And I will def extend the distances out longer. Would you post an example session of speed work with resistance training and throws for this type of athlete in my given situation? Thanks man.
Volumes are always going to vary as some athletes can tolerate a lot, some can’t. Some get injured easily and some are extremely durable.
I think sprinting twice a week should be fine, but just be careful. If you have to warm-up on the concrete, your sprint volume is going to be lowered even more.
To start off with, I would normally do something like 10x10-15m from a lying start. I am not sure how viable that is in your situation, but it can often be a good starting point. The volume there is really low, but is a start and you can begin to either extend the reps or increase the number. Typically, breaking it into something like 5x10m, 5x20m would be the next progression and slowly extending it (perhaps 4x10, 3x20, 3x30 would be next, etc.) as I felt necessary and useful. Vary the starting positions as much as possible
You could start out with some body weight training but with the short training block I probably would start out with higher reps while teaching proper tech with an increase vol of GS circuits etc at the end of each strength training workout. Sample Strength Training:
Mon/Fri:
Power clean
Back squat
Bench press+db row
Rdl
Gs circuits A/B
Do you think it is useful to do Olys and their variations working with an athlete from scratch if you have such a limited time frame? You set-up looks good for an athlete who has some time to train substantially or has already had a good background, but I’m not sure I’d throw and untrained girl into that unless it was really easy (and treating the weights almost like they were an easy GS/BB circuit).
GS circuits stuff like light bb type exercises for 1-2 sets of 10 each I’m guessing? And with this short of time to teach, would you prefer to teach this athlete snatch over clean?
How frequent would you include speed work in a 3 day training week (MWF)? I’m thinking twice a week would be plenty with her given practice schedule.
It really depends on the athlete, I have had success teaching a multi sport freshman high school female athlete the power clean in only a couple sessions. So in this case I probably would have taught her the power clean this week before starting her training. This is the teaching progression I like to use with success.
Free standing Squat
Front Squat
Back Squat
Rdls
Hang Shrug
Hang Shrug Jump
Hang Clean
Clean Pull
Power Clean
Remember she is a not a weight lifter, so if we can get her to be 80% proficent then I think it’s good.
We will most likely warm up inside the facility where at least the flooring is a bit softer (rubber mats). Might have to do her drills on concrete; there is a small patch of grass next to the concrete but it’s a bit sketchy; has some holes in it (damn gophers!!).