Preparation for the College Season

Before last Christmas, I found a copy of the high school highlights DVD in an old file box, which includes several clips of my son easily getting by opponents or stealing balls from them. "How come you never made any of those moves in college?" "Most of those high school players weren't good enough to make a college team."

The moral of the story - everyone on his or her college team was probably one of the better players on their high school team. Expect to see an elevated level of play.

Another free word of advice - beware of freebies, even seemingly trivial ones. Don't let a teammate's parent buy you dinner without kicking in a few bucks, or sleep on the Captain's apartment couch a couple of nights before the dorms are officially open to athletes without paying a share of the rent.

 

Why do you say beware of freebies? My DD went to visit our family @ the beach over a weekend break with her roommates and we would never want them to pitch in. They offered, but helped my DD with gas money instead. Why the caution?

 

Be Humble and Hungry - forgot who gets credit for this phrase but it represents a very helpful perspective. It's hard for freshmen to play on a 30ish sized college roster. And some have always been starters and have always played alot. The best programs have future all americans waiting their turn. You will get what you earn on your new team but you better be ready to earn it and Still have to be patient. How you handle waiting your turn will determine if you get a turn playing a lot and running the team one day. Think about it, you really want to be on a good team that already has good players, as long as there is a path to that lineup for you in time.

Dan Blank wrote a great book. I suggest every recruited player read it. Helpful for highschoolers too.
https://www.amazon.com/Rookie-Surviving-Freshman-College-Soccer/dp/0989697738/

 

If it is with family or long-term friends, probably not a problem. If it comes from anyone associated with the college, find a polite way to decline.

 

How hard is it to make a roster and play in a WPSL or UWS league team? This seems like the best preparation. Anybody's daughters did this after high school or between college semesters?

 

My daughter has been invited to play for WPSL since she was a Jr in HS. It's a disaster in our area. The roster is always fluctuating, the coaches are ECNL coaches and will backfill with any club player willing to play. The age range on our local roster is 15-30. It was never worth it to us. As a fr this yr she's planning on going to ECNL Nationals with her old club team if possible, throw in a little TOCA , our old club also runs a summer fitness program for college players, and she lifts. All this on her own, I just feed her and see her as she drives by lol.

 

Depending on how your DD's school puts stock in the beep test ...practice practice practice. My DD's school had an incoming expectation of 35, 40+ to expect significant playtime or to start.

 

First- fitness preparation is absolutely expected in college soccer. Coaches will scare the crap out of their kids to get them to run. It's funny since most soccer players generally hate to run unless they are chasing a ball. But it's very true that as the body biologically matures, it needs more and more maintenance to stay close to peak performance. It's also funny how the Jrs/Srs on a college team kinda hate the freshmen who don't have to work quite as hard for preseason. But they train smarter so have an advantage. Remember, the incoming first year player just played 20-30 games in the Spring, while the college player is lifting and training but only plays about 5 real game days and some of those are not serious games.

Aerobic vs Anaerobic conditioning (the cross country question) - Do some research! Soccer needs both kinds of fitness. There is still some debate but most coaches agree that quickness, speed, recovery ability, has more value than overall stamina. So, a good 2-mile time is not as valuable as several good 30-40 yard sprints.

I believe Anson wrote about this in one of his books - his kids were getting really good at the Cooper Run as they were training for it (a 12 minute usually 1-5 to 2 mile run). BUT some were actually getting slower as sprinters. So he stopped doing that test and went to more of a beep-test of sprint/recovery ability.
Basically, the longer distance runner is not recruiting fast-twitch muscle fibers to grow and activate so their sprint/recovery ability is not improving. BUT the sprinter doing interval training will also naturally increase their aerobic capacity while getting faster and better at repeated sprints. So sprint training is better, maybe much better for soccer players. (see fartlek training).

Again, lots of debate and research about this. Many coaches believe that if their training is hard enough, they don't need much extra fitness anyway. Others will still run their kids often, especially in preseason. Some do it very purposefully to test their players drive and will as much as fitness. Hating the fitness really unifies most teams!

So, your CC coach could be full of crap unless you just have a player that doesn't have a good fitness habit and having a coach hound her about running will be helpful.

 

First- fitness preparation is absolutely expected in college soccer. Coaches will scare the crap out of their kids to get them to run. It's funny since most soccer players generally hate to run unless they are chasing a ball. But it's very true that as the body biologically matures, it needs more and more maintenance to stay close to peak performance. It's also funny how the Jrs/Srs on a college team kinda hate the freshmen who don't have to work quite as hard for preseason. But they train smarter so have an advantage. Remember, the incoming first year player just played 20-30 games in the Spring, while the college player is lifting and training but only plays about 5 real game days and some of those are not serious games.

Aerobic vs Anaerobic conditioning (the cross country question) - Do some research! Soccer needs both kinds of fitness. There is still some debate but most coaches agree that quickness, speed, recovery ability, has more value than overall stamina. So, a good 2-mile time is not as valuable as several good 30-40 yard sprints.

I believe Anson wrote about this in one of his books - his kids were getting really good at the Cooper Run as they were training for it (a 12 minute usually 1-5 to 2 mile run). BUT some were actually getting slower as sprinters. So he stopped doing that test and went to more of a beep-test of sprint/recovery ability.
Basically, the longer distance runner is not recruiting fast-twitch muscle fibers to grow and activate so their sprint/recovery ability is not improving. BUT the sprinter doing interval training will also naturally increase their aerobic capacity while getting faster and better at repeated sprints. So sprint training is better, maybe much better for soccer players. (see fartlek training).

Again, lots of debate and research about this. Many coaches believe that if their training is hard enough, they don't need much extra fitness anyway. Others will still run their kids often, especially in preseason. Some do it very purposefully to test their players drive and will as much as fitness. Hating the fitness really unifies most teams!

So, your CC coach could be full of crap unless you just have a player that doesn't have a good fitness habit and having a coach hound her about running will be helpful.

 

Cross Country is terrible preparation for soccer. Think about the game and how it's played. Do the players run consistently at one pace for miles at a time in a straight line? Absolutely not, it's a dynamic game, sprints, jogs, walking, standing, sharp/quick changes of direction. Which beep test is the school running, a continuous or an intermittent test. They test different things. At the end of the day though, if the kids are actually doing the summer packet to the T, they should be ready to go for the season. If the kids think they can get away with going for 8 mile runs a few times a week, they may find themselves on the bench. Soccer is more of an anaerobic & speed sport than aerobic, so you have to train that way. If you want to prepare for the sport you play, make sure the preparation is specific for the sport.

 

this is true. Personally I think it’s idiotic to determine starting/playing time based on the beep test, but most schools do have a cut off where your either eligible to play/receive gear/travel or not.
My point, if a junior has a 32 and a sophomore a 37 but the junior is a returning all conference player and the sophomore isn’t, I’d still play the junior. Now if it was 25, and the cut off is 30, that’s different because that means the kid fell below minimum expectation.

I think there are worse things that running XC, provided it’s not the only thing you’re doing. I’d take a CM with an XC engine any day, as long as they’re still playing soccer 5 times a week.

 

I have coached XC and track for many years. I have never used nor have I every heard of anyone using the beep test in XC. I understand soccer is a lot of sprinting, but I am a huge supporter of XC and or track for soccer players(keep playing soccer of course during these seasons). Soccer players can run miles every match so I have found the XC training really helps. I have also found over the years most all soccer players make very good 400 and 800 meter runners(These two races require speed, strength, and edurance). I recommend having your high school travel soccer player run XC and track "if allowed" by the soccer coach.

 

I also agree that it is idiotic to sit a player for not meeting a beep test score(unless dreadfully under requirement) I personally know a player who had to sit the first 4 games of her freshman soccer season because she did not meet a juggling requirement!! She ended up being the second leading scorer on the team her freshman year and then transferred...

 

I've advocated for years that the basic requirement for a HS soccer team should be juggling. I would have every kid pick up a ball and the first 5 to let it hit the ground would be cut. Surely the best 18 players wouldn't be in the 1st 5 out. Then I would use fitness test to weed out 5 more. Then we would play small sided games and I'd watch first touch, spacial awareness, communication etc. to determine who would be varsity level vs JV. Now for reference our HS has 3 teams (Varsity, JV, & JVB- mostly freshman). They keep between 54-56 players - depending on GKs. They have 65+ tryout 98% come from some sort of club environment. The top 10-15% usually come from national level club teams - they can juggle.

 

If you want to use that as a tool at high school, fine, but I think using juggling as a differentiation tool at the college level is a gargantuan waste of time. There are much better technical tests that can be used, and I would much rather have my strikers work on finishing, midfielders work on passing and being fit, and defenders stay strong and work on clearances and keepers work on shot blocking and distribution than spend the summer worried about passing a juggling benchmark. While I agree with the spirit of your idea -- the best players SHOULD be able to juggle, I think it has NO bearing on the type of college athlete the player can become. I care a lot more about athleticism and passing and receiving a ball over 30 or 40 yards when switching than I care about stationary juggling. Is there a correlation? Probably. But we don't waste our time dealing with juggling, but use other tools for technical evaluation.

 

Can the player use both feet?

Does the player get or keep possession (perhaps by laying the ball out to a teammate) on first touch?

Can the player dispossess an opponent moving with the ball?

In an open run with the ball, does the player shoot at the keeper or at the corners?

Can the player see an open teammate at the far post?

(no juggling required for success in any of those)

 

I was talking about a D1 soccer player. High school - that is another story.

 

This thread was started asking about college prep. Plenty to discuss about technical testing as well as physical/fitness tests. I agree its silly to "fail" any single test and get cut as a result. What's important is 1- comparisons of standards within the group and 2- seeing improvement over time. For example, coming in to preseason significantly less fit then the year before is one reason to be in jeopardy of losing your roster place. Esp when compared to a similar ability player who is improving. Preseason fitness testing in college is a baseline and comparison tool then it becomes a homework check and a measure of improvement/commitment.

True story - recruited player went to Purdue for preseason. 'failed' their fitness test and was cut and so just went home. She walked-on at UMD the next week and became a starting wide back in the ACC.

imho - yes, every competitive team has a fitness/athleticism baseline but how fast you run is not as important as knowing when and where to run and being willing to run. Otherwise Carly Lloyd would have never been a WNT starter and regular pro. Many other examples.

Of course there is value in juggling to some degree. The best juggler on my HS team wasn't athletic enough to start. And you don't see it much in the college game. A defender comes over and cracks you after about the 3rd juggle!

 

I'm amazed at how many Div. 1 college players cannot strike the ball at all well with their off foot. Many will try to shoot with their strong foot when the ball is on their weak-footed side, resulting, of course, in a weak or errant shot. I'm also surprised at how many players do not get over the ball when striking it, but instead have the classic lean back--which accounts for the countless number of good scoring opportunities squandered as fans watch the ball rocket 12 feet over the goal. I also see a lot of college players who are not able to break/escape pressure effectively with their dribble. I mean, if you've been playing competitive soccer for, what, six, eight years, you should be able to hit the ball halfway decently with your weaker foot and get the ball on net when you get a centering pass in the box.

 

On the fitness note. Last year one particular college team had 9 freshmen. Only 2 passed the bar on the beep test. The other 7 never or rarely saw the pitch the whole season
Do the work if you want to play

 

@L'orange - we're a bit off topic, but I am amazed at IN GENERAL how awful women's college GK's are at distribution and how a lot of players have such poor decision making. It mind boggling. Our nat team player pool would be so much bigger if we had better youth coaches! Maybe this new generation will be better...

 

Better youth coaches is thread of its own! My DD played at a very well recognized club-ECNL,DA and so on and I found the coaching to be sub-par at best. One of the big problems (coaches fault, parents fault-who knows) is the emphasis on winning. My DD and her teammates all worked on (not enough) technical skills outside of club practice with a private trainer. This always burned me up and my pocket book!