What Are You Going to Do When You Get There?

In the past 9-10 years of coaching athletes, I've heard myself or other coaches say "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" when trying to get athletes to be more effective when developing linear speed. The point obviously being that in order to maximize your effort, you needed to move as efficiently as possible to avoid energy leakage.

Imagine a 40 yard dash where the runners constantly swerved from lane to lane. There wouldn't be any world record times in that heat, I guarantee.

The problem, however, exists in that most performance coaches don't work with just sprinters exclusively. I happen to train soccer players primarily, and soccer is easily defined as a multidirectional sport. Recently, I sat in on a coaches' meeting at the local club I work for and overheard a coach describing one of his players:

"The boy has the biggest heart and tons of desire, and in a straight line, he'll smoke anybody. But, the problem is, what is he going to do when he gets to the ball?"

Do you see the issue at hand? For probably too long, sport coaches have been focused on developing speed in their athletes. At many tryouts for competitive teams, I've seen the coaches line up kids on an endline and have them race to an arbitrary point, focusing on the top 2-3 girls/boys who won. What they should have been doing was having them cut and run back and forth to determine which ones were the most agile and could maintain that top speed out of transition.

According to the FA, the governing body of soccer in England, the longest distance most soccer players run in a straight line (without changing direction) is about 20 yards. Any decent speed coach knows that in a 40 yard dash, most sprinters are STILL accelerating at the 20 yard point and have yet to reach top speed. In fact, top speed may not be reached until 50-60 yards. So, for any multidirectional sport, when administering a performance program, perhaps the heavier emphasis should be on the player's ability to change direction, not just how fast they can get from Point A to B.

When I work with my soccer players, we try to develop the "micro" skillset that leads to the improvement in the "macro" movement patterns. Meaning, I can't really expect a 11 year old player to cut perfectly through a series of cones if they aren't balanced and stable enough to perform a lateral single leg hop. That hop may not seem as "sexy" as performing intricate cutting patterns, but laying that foundation is crucial to successfully teaching that player how to change directions and stay with their opponent on the field of play. In that single leg hop, they will develop better balance and stabilization, strength and power, and will better learn how to control the decelerational forces that come with changing directions while maintaining certain speeds.

Now, will I use cones and have that player cut through them? Of course. But, I will not address the "macro" movement pattern without having at least initiated the "micro" skill practice. It would be foolish and unprofessional otherwise and I would be doing my athletes a disservice.

So, remember that being fast and athletic doesn't just occur in a single plane of motion. It's not who gets from Point A to Point B fastest, but who can get from Point A to Point B and then to Point C fastest!

Lateral Strength/Speed Development

So, we had a fantastic workout with 3 young soccer players at Meyer Athletic Development today!

The focus of our first main set tonight was lateral change of direction. We started "In the Tunnel" (thanks Lee Taft!!) and did reactive lateral steps using the "squash the bug" cue! After a few rounds of establishing a good base position and working on pushing against the ground hard, we shifted to single ring lateral ins/outs to add a bit of speed and coordination to the movement pattern. Finally, we lined up 4 rings, shuffled through them, performed a hard cut, sprint 10 yards, cut again with the same foot, and returned back to the start. All of my girls did a fantastic job!

The focus of our main set was developing some strength/fitness based off of the lateral patterns from the previous set. Exercise 1 was a 4 ring diagonal hop to a wall pass with the soccer ball. The girls bounded from foot to foot developing strength, power, and balance, then finished it with a pass/receive off the wall. Halfway through the set, we changed the hop to an Icky shuffle through 4 cones, again focusing on hard cuts, fast feet, and good balance. Exercise 2 was a lateral sumo walk with a partner chest pass. The object was to stay low and move slow to develop quad, hip, and glute strength. Exercise 3 was a partner hand slap with the intent to develop core and shoulder strength and stability.

Thanks so much to Isabel, Hannah, and Ashley for a great session! You girls were focused and did great! Not bad for 3 9 year old girls!!!

Build Your Foundation First

As a youth soccer coach, I get many questions and requests from parents who want me to help their child improve as a player. Many times, I get specific requests to help players improve their shooting ability.

"Can you help my son/daughter shoot the ball better? They really don't put much power in their shot."

Now, teaching technique is one thing, and I feel confident in my ability to help improve a player's shooting technique. However, balance and stability is something that I think many parents look past when they ask me these questions.

Usually the first thing I have a player do when I want to help them improve their shot is stand on 1 foot for 10 seconds without falling over. With young players, you almost always see the same thing: they simply cannnot do it! Now, if that's the case, how do you expect them to perform a very complex movement like shooting a soccer ball with power and precision if they can not even stand on 1 foot without falling over?

In order to strike a ball well, you must first be able to stabilize your lower body through your ankle, knee, and hip joints. At Meyer Athletic Development, we spend a lot of time on 1 foot in order to better develop single leg balance and strength. We do partner tosses on single legs in order to improve our body's ability to receive and produce force. We do single leg squats and deadlifts to improve strength and flexibility. We do hops on a single leg to develop acceleration and deceleration skills that are pivotal to being able to plant and hit a great shot. We spend a great deal of time stabilizing our hips and shoulders through ground work like planks and bird-dogs. All of these exercises will help young players better control their bodies and increase their ability to strike a ball with more power and control.

As an athlete, you must build your foundation first. You cannot skip the most important steps. Speed, agility, power are the walls, windows, and roof of the athletic house. However, strength, balance, core stabilization, and flexibility are the concrete foundation that house sits on. Without them, the house falls down and your young athlete will struggle to reach the potential that they strive for. Build your foundation first!