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.