I agree with your points here but it's not just college ball, there are a significant number of professional players who can't use their weaker foot and don't have the proper body positioning to take a good shot. Just saying it's not just women's college soccer.
Why on earth would non-injured players not show up in shape? The only way to get match fit is to play full games. And the problem in college is that when you play 2 games a week the practices aren't intense. So if you start the season unfit it'll be next to impossible to catch up and you'll never get any minutes on the pitch! I still think that the division below NWSL would be a great place to get fit between seasons. I mentioned it before and someone said the league was hit or miss. Anybody else have any insight????
My son was fortunate (if that's the right word) to be playing in a summer league whose last game was about a week before the informal "captain's practice" his Freshman year.
makes no sense. If you aren’t getting minutes you have all the time in the World to get in shape. In some programs you get to run with an assistant coach. Back from the run in time to pick up the balls.
@Cliveworshipper It can be difficult to get to match fitness without playing in actual games. You can definitely get fit sprinting etc., but it's difficult to duplicate actual game fitness. I'm talking about a high school senior who wants to be a starter on her college team and for whatever reason shows up her Freshman year unfit (unable to pass a beep test). The college game is much faster than your average ENCL game, the season is so short and rosters are 25+. It's hard enough to get playing time as a Freshman in general and to show up unfit says a lot about your commitment.
ok, but showing up unfit didn’t just happen like getting the flu or something. Unless the player couldn’t stay fit for some medical reason, it does indeed show a lot about commitment. The measure of it on many teams is the beep test, which is different from match fitness, but it is one indicator of a players ability to keep up. If you can’t pass the beep test, you probably won’t ever be match fit. It is seen as a minimum standard. At the schools I know about, the player I given a recommended regimen to wok through either on her own or with her club trainer, if she has one. It is usually quite clear that not being fit will hamper your ability to help the team. The ability to start isn’t just given out. In most circumstance a freshman won’t be the best player on the team right off the bat. Everybody is a step up from the club level, and players fresh out of club will be out of their element for a bit precisely because the pace is faster. And like most team sports, you compete for a spot, not just the opponent.
I could easily argue that juggling is a very good indicator of the first 2. Juggling very much helps with first touch and ball manipulation. I heard a very high level coach say one time, "being a great juggler doesn't necessary make you a great soccer player, but every great soccer player can juggle." It's THE indicator of overall ability, but it can be AN indicator.
My 2021 daughter is working her ass off doing online technical training, following a strength training / conditioning regimen our club rolled out, and mixing in some 4-5 mile runs a few days a week. My 2023 son? Not quite as dedicated with his soccer workouts, but is pretty busy on the basketball hoop and he runs with his sister.
Any clubs offering any money back for early cancellation of season? and if this goes into summer/fall this will be a huge hit to club soccer. Unless the clubs justify fees with the offer of on-line training...
No offer of refund. Club said they are paying the coaches their full salary for a couple months. After that, not sure what will happen if no soccer.
Some of the clubs I've seen are trying to provide workouts and having team meetings on zoom and such. Might be harder now with a mask on! Many clubs are holding out that there is still a glimmer of hope there could be some summer games. That is helping fight back those refund requests! How they handle tryouts though is another story. Most around here are in May. (mid-atlantic) College teams are in 'summer mode' really as no 'CARA' is allowed. My understanding is the NCAA is considering allowing some kind of hybid virtual activity. Online workouts and such. I don't think the TP challenge counts! I think it's best to hope to keep some fitness base and get touches in case there are any games. Job #1 is earning credits and grades in this virtual learning whirlwind. Everyone will still have the same summer to ramp up for preseason but likely won't have competitive summer games to play. Could be a slow start to the fall in terms of quality of course IF there even is a fall start.
My kid is a workout fiend. 2-3 hours a day. Being a GK she is worried about not getting training reps but her coaches Are more concerned with fitness as a whole. Technical ability ones back faster than fitness
I hope this is true! And I think it's true when they are this age. From what I can tell my daughter is focusing a lot more on core and running (hill sprints or 4-5 miles) than anything else. She probably remembers how hard it was to get her match fitness back after she had a serious ankle injury.
It looks like you have gotten a lot of good advice here. As a father of collegiate athletes I was going add my 2 cents and had never gotten around to doing so until now. I'm just going to piggyback on what others have said and add my own comments. The WPSL is hit or miss. Two of mine have done it and it was very good. The players were mostly all current collegiate players with a few that formerly played in college and had graduated. Each team had maybe a few recent HS grads that were going to play in college. Most of the teams that they played against were similar. Some had a higher percentage of former collegiate players while some had more current players. Some teams also had more HS players. The level of competition was good and the pace was fast. My daughters were on teams that had regular trainings and that was very helpful for fitness and, more importantly, training with and against top-level collegiate players. It was particularly helpful for my kids when they were just graduated from HS. The competition against collegiate players gave the a good perspective of what to expect. I think the quality of WPSL depends a lot on what region of the country you're in. In the Midwest part of the country it is particularly strong. Look at the recent roster of Motor City. There were 3 or 4 of Florida State's best on the roster and some other good collegiate players. I doubt that those players all gathered for regular training but there are enough top players that are from area (a lot of Michigan Hawks players) that the trainings are competitive. Rose Lavelle played for the Dayton Dutch Lions. while she was in college. There are a lot other alumnae from the WPSL that have gone on to be really good collegiate players. That said, I said it can be hit or miss. Some regions can be very weak. Even in the stronger regions there can be times when training sessions aren't well attended. On teams that have a large percentage of former collegiate players that have graduated and have "regular" jobs, careers, and families, they sometimes have obligations that take precedence. In the end, just getting out and knocking the ball around with other good players can be helpful. If there is a strong team in a player's area it can be a good and worthwhile option to consider. This year, unfortunately, It may not be an option and the season, if it occurs, will probably start later in the summer. It has already been pushed back to the end of May and that is probably being optimistic. I like cross country as a sport but don’t necessarily believe that it would make the best preparation for collegiate soccer. Aerobic capacity would definitely be improved by running XC but the anaerobic component, that is so vital in soccer, would be missed. EddieK touched on it a lot in this post: The fartlek training that he spoke of has been my one of my kids’ favorite types of conditioning. We’re fortunate enough to have nice parks with good trails near where we are. A good workout is to go out and run easily for 5-10 minutes to get adequately warmed up. Then run a fartlek workout for however long you feel like. My kids would generally run for anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes. A workout might consist of an all-out sprint for 20 seconds followed by and easy jog, another sprint, a short period of walking, a sprint, jog, if a hill comes along, sprint to the top, etc. Vary the workout between being aerobic and anaerobic. One of the trails they used had benches. They might stop at the bench and do a few sets of push ups and leg lifts followed with easy jogs between the sets. The imagination is really the only limiting factor but mimicking the work rate on the soccer field is important. note - be sure that your kid has good running shoes. It's better to go to a store that sells running shoes and has workers that know what they're doing. They can tell if a runner pronates excessively, supinates, or is neutral and can make the appropriate recommendation on what type of shoe to get. Don't go to a place like Dick's, Kohls, Walmart, etc, and just buy a pair of shoes off of the shelf. Running in a shoe that is not appropriate can cause injuries. If your kid is fortunate enough to be at a school that gets equipment, and the suppler, usually Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour, has a good rep, he or she will also know what they're doing and can make the appropriate recommendation. Choosing a running shoe because it looks "cool" is not a good reason. My kids are pretty athletic and are fitness junkies. On the the off days from training/fitness in preparation for the collegiate season they're pretty active. They also might be active above and beyond what the packet is asking for. One of my kids was/is a competitive cyclist and still rides a lot. It is great cross training for her. We also have a heavy bag in our basement and some boxing gloves. One of my kids starts every workout, after a warm up period, of 20 seconds of jumping rope as fast as possible, followed by 10 seconds of rest, and repeated for a total of 14 times. She immediately follows this up with 20 seconds of hitting the heavy bag as fast as possible, followed by 25 seconds of rest, for a total of 14. That workout really boosts her anaerobic capacity. Soccer coaches will be sure that all players have a workout packet for the late spring and summer. The packets will also convey expectations. It would be wise to know what those expectations are and to show up to the season in shape and ready to go. It's also very important to get a lot of rest and to eat well. And maybe more important than anything is to keep a foot on the ball when possible. If there isn't anyone to knock the ball around with, find a wall and practice striking it and receiving it. Players should be able to either stiffen up their foot or relax it so that the ball stays at their feet when it is received and doesn't bounce 5 feet away. Repetitively receiving the ball at a variety of paces helps with developing that feeling.
I agree with Eddie's thought..... I will be very surprised if there is a fall season. If there is not a fall season, could there be a competitive spring one?
Really? Trump has tired of pretending--unsuccessfully --to be a president and is now determined to open the country, like now. What seems likely to happen is that some states will open, or partially open (whatever that may mean) while others with more concern about the virus will take a slower approach--but probably won't be too slow about it. I'm sure that much effort will be made to fully open colleges and to play college football this fall---because the financial implications of not having students in classrooms and football players on the field would be catastrophic for colleges and their athletic departments. How that will be accomplished, I'm not sure--but a lot of businesses will be cranked up again in the next four to six weeks; that is almost a certainty. Testing is a long-term thing and seems a disorganized mess, and I don't see companies or organizations sitting around waiting for testing of employees--everybody would go bankrupt. Does that same thinking apply to colleges and universities? I don't know. I mean, we know that young people aren't susceptible to the virus in the first place. It's hard to see states opening businesses and other organizations but not colleges; would we keep universities closed through the fall on the off chance that a few students might have the virus? It's the horns of a dilemma: You either accept a certain amount of health risk or gird for severe and lasting financial damage to academic institutions. Republican states in the south, I can tell you, will want their fall football. And if they're playing football, I think it would be hard to justify not playing soccer.
not sure why you are commenting on this in the preseason fitness thread. I'll put my reply in the Corona thread.
With regard to preparation for the fall season..... Preparation of the athletes is one thing. It could be done with testing of the players, coaches and staff. THen games against opponents who do the same would be ethical. But the fans are a different issue. For WoSo maybe not a big deal because for most schools the gate receipts are not huge if they played with no spectators. But for pointyball, packing in 50,000 or so raises bug bucks. But it could also kick off the next huge wave of COVID-19 infections... like "game zero" in Bergamo in February in Italy. Would college football games be played with no one in the stands?
That's a good question about fans. The NHL is talking about finishing its season and having the playoffs at a single neutral site with no fans. Interesting idea. Of course clubs lose money with no fans--but in the case of college football and pro sports, games can still be televised, and TV money is enormously lucrative and enormously important to clubs, leagues, etc. And you'd probably get very good ratings. Playing games with TV but no fans would be weird but a lot better than no games at all, that's for sure. I wonder if it would be possible to have a smaller number of fans so that fans could social distance while at a stadium. It might be difficult--but, say, you allow 15,000 fans (picked by lottery from among season-ticket holders?) to attend a college football game in a stadium that normally holds 80,000, so that the fans can put some distance among themselves. Masks given out to everybody in attendance? Feasible? Not sure. I read yesterday that a race-track owner in the Midwest is doing just that: He's got a seating capacity of 30K, he said, and he wants to start holding races at his facility again. But he said he'd limit the number of fans to 6K, so they can spread out. Would his state allow him to open and hold races and have fans in the stands. I don't know. Even 6 K fans is a lot of people in a smallish area. It's going to be a crazy next two months--with health officials urging caution and the usual conservative crowd, led by our ridiculous carnival barker in chief, saying, 'screw it,' I want the economy opened. It's a huge dilemma.
My understanding has been that when you count total football expenses, including thing like debt service in facilities, only a handfull of schools actually make money on football. I am not counting alumni and alumnae contributions to schools generally (as distinguished from contributions to the athletic programs) as revenue, although I think it is believed that school sports success, especially in football and basketball, has some correlation to general contributions. Does anyone know (as distinguished from having an opinion) whether I am wrong about football usually not making money
Some college football teams make money and some don't. Without insight into their accounting practices, it's hard to see where the line should be drawn separating those that make money from those that don't.
Most big football programs make a lot of money. For example, in 2018 The University of Tennessee football program had $96.1 million in revenue compared to $52.7 million in expenses. I don't think that number includes donations from fans and alums to the program or athletic department. I think that surplus is then spent financing pretty much everything else associated with the athletic department--all the non-revenue sports and their coaches, paying off ex-coaches who are still owed money, paying facilities debt (a big liability), etc. Major-college athletic departments are not always profitable, but their football programs are, and without football revenue they've got a serious problem.
One topic that I failed to mention in an earlier post was that of injury prevention. This is even more critical for girls and women due to their higher incidence of knee and lower extremity injuries vs the guys. One often overlooked aspect of the campuses being shut down is that the athletes don't have easy access to the trainers for therapy, etc. Old injuries might crop back up to cause problems if the athletes are not diligent in keeping up with injury prevention exercises. The lack of access to trainers is more problematic and if any athlete has been working closely with a trainer it would be good for them to keep in touch with them and seek guidance if needed. There are a lot of injury prevention routines but one of the most effective that I have found is the Vern Gambetta leg circuit. I am still an athlete and pretty active. One of the hardest things for me during this "shutdown" is the lack of playing sports. I have been making more of an effort to workout and exercise. I also have been cutting and splitting a lot of firewood and that is a great workout. In addition I try to work the leg circuit into my routine a few times per week. For those not familiar with it, here is an article with the routine: Vern Gambetta is a trainer that has worked with a lot of athletes in a lot of different sports. The leg routine is effective for all athletes. "The Leg Circuit is a tool I devised out of need around twenty-five years ago. It is placed in a training following the Foundational Leg phase. I have used it in many sports. It is a versatile tool if used properly. The Leg Circuit is the foundation for more specific work to follow in terms of absolute strength and plyometrics. This is a program to put the finishing touches on a foundational strength and power endurance base. It is also a very useful tool to use in lower extremity injury rehabilitation to rebuild work capacity in preparation for return to play. The basic prerequisite for progressing to heavier lifting and high level plyometrics is the ability to perform five full leg circuits without stopping. When an athlete has progressed to this point they are ready!" https://www.hmmrmedia.com/2010/12/the-gambetta-leg-circuit/
Awesome! I really like the fact it has detailed weekly progressions for beginners and more conditioned athletes. I often find programs that give basics without the full details. I didn't see an "old, fat, bad knee beginner" schedule so I will go with the beginner program to start ( I know you posted this for college preparation but I'll still give it a go.) If I show some incredible benefits from it I may be able to convince some young players of the efficacy. Thanks for posting this!