Why We Do What We Do

Smiling, laughing, giggling, cackling, grinning, and shrieking. All actions that put a smile on my face and remind me why I do what I do.

I started this business because I wanted to provide children of all ages with the kinds of movement and athletic experiences that I wish I had experienced. The kinds of experiences where kids lose themselves in the moment; where they are fully present and engaged because they are having the time of their lives; the kinds of experiences where they don’t even realize they are working out. 

In the last week, I’ve been privileged enough to work with athletes in every phase of their athletic development journey, from the novice trying a youth athletic development program for the first time, all the way across the spectrum to a college athlete returning for preseason next week. With everyone I’ve worked with, I firmly believe that they have improved athletically and will experience greater sporting success because of it. With that being said, what really stood out to me this week was the amount of smiling I saw, laughter I heard, and other obvious signs of enjoyment they showcased.

This was a proud moment for me as it reaffirmed that the work I’m doing is making a real impact. Kids are developing the physical skills they need to have success in sports and life, and are enjoying every second of it. Just see for yourself in the clip below.

If you want your child to experience this kind of training, check out our Little Athlete Academy to experience joyful-fitness for yourself!

Catering Your Training and Tactics to Your Best Athletes

I wanted to write a brief blog entry after listening to a podcast that brought a good concept back to the top of my mind. A couple of years ago, I listened to a podcast by Mike Boyle where he talked about how we tend to ruin our “superelite” athletes by trying to fit them into our training boxes and systems. Boyle explained how these athletes often get mislabeled as “soft,” or “injury-prone” when in reality, our programs and training models are what cause the injuries. Today, I was listening to the Pacey Performance Podcast with Cam Josse (strength and conditioning coach at Indiana University, works with football), where he talked about this same concept and it made me think back to the Boyle podcast from a few years ago.

As a general rule of thumb, I try to steal information and practices from people who are smarter than me, and figure out how the underlying concepts fit within my system. When multiple experts share a particular view on the topic, it means I should probably listen.

I thought a little bit deeper about it and want to share my thoughts. First, when Mike Boyle talks about “superelite” athletes, he’s referring to the 1% of the 1%. The athletes who are physically breath taking to watch perform, and transcend even the most elite athletes (think Adama Traore, pictured left). Most coaches will never be in the position where they will get to work with these athletes on a regular basis. In my entire career, I’ve only been fortunate enough to work with one of these athletes, and he was genuinely a walking type II muscle fiber. Due to their physiological makeup, these athletes are more prone to injury than your “average” high-level athlete. Boyle argues that we should be individualizing our training programs around these players, and Josse takes it one step further when he claims we should be building our team tactics around these players. I think they are right.

The player I had the short opportunity to coach was a game-breaking player in 15 minute bursts. When utilized correctly (such as during the last 15 minutes of each half), he was devastating for the opposition, averaging a goal a game playing 1/3 the amount of minutes of his peers. If I had tried to make him into a 90 minute player, then I would have taken away the rare ability that made him so special, and frankly, I probably would have gotten him hurt.

Now obviously, when you have an athlete of this caliber, the answer should be simple, unfortunately, it’s just not. Our most elite, game-changing athletes are still getting mislabeled and injured in our care. David Epstein wrote a brilliant little book called, “The Sports Gene,” where he references and explains this phenomenon. And even if it was simple, the question gets a little more challenging when the athlete becomes less athletically-gifted. Josse argues that in this case, your tactics should reflect the athletic strength of your players, and I would agree, to an extent.

I think that our jobs as coaches are to put our players in the best position to succeed, which would include athletically, while simultaneously building a system of play where everyone is bought in and pulling in the same direction. I think your team has to have general principles of play, but are principles that allow for your best and most athletically gifted players to have the freedom to impact he game when the time calls for it. If you want an example of a professional team that balances this brilliantly, watch Real Madrid play. I think they are the perfect balance of system and freedom, with all of their players being put in positions that accentuate their strengths, but their impactful players still having the freedom to make plays to win them games.

This post turned into a little bit of a brain dump, but I think that’s OK. Part of my vision for this blog is to throw ideas out that stimulate thought and spur action. What I really wanted to throw out was the idea of building your training programs and style of play around your most athletically-gifted players, rather than trying to fit those players into a predefined system, and I think I’ve done so. I also wanted to get across that our most athletically-gifted athletes should not be getting injured in our care. I hope this idea spurs thought and leads to action for some people.

Thanks for reading,

-Jer

Introduction/Pilot

Hello LPC Visitors,

Thank you for taking the time to view my site and read this blog. Welcome to entry 1, Introduction/Pilot. In this blog, I hope to share a little bit about me, my vision for LPC Soccer, and what to expect out of this blog going forward.

First, a little about me. My name is Jeremy Longchamp, I’m 26 years old, and I live in beautiful coastal Maine, in a soon-to-be not so little town called Biddeford. I graduated from the University of New England in 2018 (which is also located in Biddeford), where I was a member of the varsity soccer program, and studied Applied Exercise Science with a minor in Coaching. While at UNE, I was lucky enough to obtain a couple of very high level internships, one at a local performance center, and one at an atypical small-group training gym. These internships sparked my passion for maximizing athletic development, and showed me the impact a coach can make on his/her clients or athletes. This discovery was eye-opening for me, and steered me away from a career in medicine, and towards a career in athletics. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a plethora of athletes across a multitude of settings. I’ve worked full-time in the collegiate setting, at both a high and low level, coaching athletes on the field and in the weight-room. I’ve coached soccer at the club and Olympic Development level, with the ages of my athletes spanning from 10-18 years old. And all the while, I’ve even been able to obtain my master’s degree in Sport Coaching, allowing me to focus less on WHAT I’m coaching, and analyze HOW I’m coaching and WHY I’m choosing to do so. All of this information is shared to paint a picture of who I am and the experiences I’ve had. I am by no means an expert in my field, but I hope to be so one day, and am learning a little more each day.

I started LPC Soccer with the intention of providing high-level soccer camps to the Southern Maine youth. There are about 15 towns within easy driving distance from Biddeford, and not a ton of options for the local community. I hope to be the go-to person for soccer and soccer-specific strength and conditioning in this little bubble. In the future, I’d also like to provide this same area with high-level club soccer opportunities. Each town offers some sort of travel team, but my hope is to unite these areas to bring them all under one club with a systemized approach and holistic philosophy. For this club, my goal is to get every single player recruited to play at the college level. I’d like to be the club in the Maine area that college coaches go out of their way to see, and send my players all over the country to play competitively.

Lastly, I’d like to share my thoughts and expectations for this blog itself. I hope to use this blog as a way to express my thoughts and ideas in a formal and permanent manner. I have ideas constantly running through my head, and felt like this would be a good medium to get them out and develop some clarity about them. I hope that in doing so, I’ll be able to look back in 5, 10, 15, 20 years, and reflect on how far I’ve come. I also hope that by throwing my thoughts out to the world, that others may learn a thing or two, or it may spark their creative gene and provide the inspiration they need to take action or cultivate their own ideas. I have no idea when or how often I’ll be posting, but I hope to do so on a fairly consistent basis.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this blog entry.

All the best,

-Jer