Consistent Effort

You are what you do consistently. Those who know me know me well know me as a lively, energetic, and passionate guy. While I certainly consider myself as all those things, I feel like my personality has matured and settled down to the point where it’s brought a new found sense of peace and clarity. This clarity has given me the mental bandwidth and energy needed to deeply reflect, and doing so has provided me with a lot of life lessons. The biggest one that keeps presenting itself is the power of consistent effort.

Consistent effort is key to achieving success in most endeavors. Whether it’s athletic, academic, career, wellness, business, or anything else we take on, consistent effort will breed success. While this may seem bluntly obvious, how many people actually do it? Most people go “all-in” for a short stretch of time, investing constant and unsustainable effort up front in an attempt to see results as quickly as possible, only to burn out and quit before they make any substantial progress. This type of binging effort does not lead to success and isn’t realistic, practical, or maintainable. I’ve come to realize that putting in focused effort in short bursts more frequently has allowed me to achieve so much more than my previous binge, crash, repeat effort cycle, to the point where I now believe I can use it to achieve success in anything I take on.

Relating this to soccer/training, stop worrying about the perfect plan and simply invest in the things that matter to you. Figure out what you want to develop in your players (physically, technically, and tactically), and consistently invest effort into those areas. For example, if playing in transition is important to you, dedicate time each session to working on the transition phase of the game. This applies to skill and athletic development as well. Consistently invest effort into the skills and physical attributes you want to develop. The immediate results won’t be as profound as pouring copious amounts of effort into it up front, however, it will far out-produce that short burst in the long run as your team/players continue to revisit the concepts you want to instill and the skills you want to develop.

The lesson in all of this is to change how you are putting in effort. Put in shorter, more focused, more frequent bouts over a long period of time. Doing this will lead to far greater results in the long run and will eventually instill habits of success.

Thanks for reading,

-JL

The Importance of Unilateral Load

In a previous post, I highlighted some of the benefits of a high-quality strength and conditioning program for soccer players. In this one, I’d like to explain one of the core principles of my training approach/philosophy: Pushing Unilateral Load.

Soccer players tend to be averse to loading heavy. This stereotype stems from the professional level, where the focus is on fitness, and the fear of loading is widespread. These players (and coaches) have a lack of understanding of what load is and worry that loading heavy will make them slower and lead to injury. They perceive load as lifting as much weight as possible in the “big three” lifts (barbell squatting, deadlifting, and bench pressing), and I would agree. Lifting like a power-lifter will likely diminish their performance and lead to injury, as they are not replicating the demands of their sport. We have thankfully evolved from the early-ages of strength and conditioning, and when I say “pushing unilateral load,” I mean something entirely different than what they think.

I want my players to lift in a way that replicates the demands of the sport, thereby leading to an increase in transferability, and actually impacting and improving their performance on the field. Soccer players (and all athletes with the exception of rowers), “play” on one leg. Running, jumping, cutting, passing, shooting, etc., all occur on one leg and under intense force. Therefore, in order to reduce the rate of injury and improve performance on the field, we should safely and progressively replicate this off the field. The best way to accomplish this is through sprinting (which also occurs on one leg), and pushing unilateral load.

With this in mind, I shifted my programming, eliminating most bilateral lower lifts, and making unilateral lifts primary exercises rather than accessory exercises. This change has made a tremendous impact on the health and performance of the athletes I serve, and has become a staple of my programming approach/philosophy. My athletes get all the benefits of lifting heavy, without the wear and tear, risk, and other drawbacks of bilateral lifting.

Interested in experiencing this for yourself? Try replacing your lower bilateral primary lift with a unilateral equivalent for a month, and I guarantee you will feel an immediate difference and reap the benefits it provides. Better yet, schedule a meeting with us and start training in a way that will actually make a difference to your performance on the field.

Until next time,

-Jer

Playing Tip: Body Positioning/Receiving the Ball on the Half Turn

Soccer is a game played at an incredibly high pace. Decisions are made quickly, forcing players to often react rather than think about and calculate their next move. While soccer isn’t black or white, and there is no “one size fits all” solution to every situation, there are certain fundamental skills that should become habitual and automatic in order to slow the game down and take the decision making out of it. One of those skills is a player’s body position when he or she receives the ball, which should (almost) always be on the half turn.

Receiving the ball on the half turn means receiving it in a position where half the player’s body is turned towards the field of play. Doing so allows the player an extra heartbeat of time before being pressed (an eternity in soccer), gives the player more options (making it harder for the defender), and lets the player to see the entire field (helping them make the best decision). Start to look for this as you watch professional soccer. Pep’s teams do this the best, however, it’s a foundational pillar of all the elite teams because receiving the ball on the half turn is imperative to building in possession.

Building this habit requires a lot of hard work. The technical skill itself is not hard to work on: Simply find a partner or a wall and pass the ball back and forth receiving the ball with your hips and body half opened towards the field of play. Translating the skill to the game requires a little more focus and hard work. It requires players to both think and move proactively; to move early and often to put themselves in a position where they can get on the half turn before receiving the ball. Eventually, the skill will become automatic and the benefits will be immense, giving players a competitive advantage over their opponents and helping them stand out amongst their peers.

If you’re interested in working with us to build this game-changing skill (and others) into your game, then please contact us HERE.

3 Strength Training Benefits for Soccer

Historically, strength training in professional soccer has been looked at as detrimental to performance. Aerobic fitness is king, and myths such as, “strength training makes you slower,” “strength training leads to injury,” and “I never strength trained and I had a successful career,” prevail across the culture in the professional world. While these are just myths, and the history of this issue deserves a blog post in it of itself, thankfully the professional level is slowly crawling out of the stone ages, and the benefits of this shift in mindset is trickling down to the high school and college levels. With that in mind, I wanted to share three benefits of strength training for soccer players, particularly at the high school, college, or even older middle-school level, as this is a prime time for development where strength training can be extremely advantageous.

1. Resiliency. No, I’m not talking about mental toughness. Philosophically, I don’t believe in using exercise as a way to build mental fortitude, as exercise should be used as a tool to spur physiological adaptation. One of the best adaptations strength training provides is an increased muscular resiliency, which leads to a decreased risk of injury. Think about it logically, when an athlete plays soccer (or any sport), he or she is putting his or her body under immense stress. A proper strength training program will slowly and progressively apply stress to prepare the body for the stresses that it will endure during play, and should eventually surpass those forces, leading to a substantially lower risk of injury.

2. Improved Movement. A proper strength training program will be built upon fundamental movement patterns, which will both teach athletes how to move properly, and also increase how smoothly/seamlessly they move; it becomes automatic. Consider how complex a sport like soccer is. Athletes are asked to jump, sprint, run, shuffle, jockey, dribble, shoot, pass, tackle, and cut (just to name a few), and are asked to do all of this across a 90 minute game while making the appropriate decisions, it’s pretty neurologically taxing. What a good strength program will do, is take the fundamental movements associated with those maneuvers, and practice them over and over again, to the point where those movements become automatic and no longer have to be thought about. Next time you are at a high school or college soccer game, observe which athletes are smooth and seamless with their movements, and which athletes are clumsy and clunky with their movements, I’d be willing to bet that one is practicing those movement patterns in a strength training program, and one is not.

3. Improved Performance. An athletic player and team will always have a competitive advantage against a less athletic player and team. Strength training is a core component to any holistic athletic development program. Beyond the aforementioned movement and resilient benefits, a proper strength training program will also develop muscle mass, make an athlete stronger (obviously), and teach them how to properly engage.

As you can see, proper strength training should be integrated into any training program where the goal is to maximize athletic performance. I think strength training gets a bad wrap because it is so often done improperly. Yes, a BAD strength program will lead to injury. Yes, a BAD strength program will make you slower. Yes, a BAD strength program will be detrimental to your performance. Thankfully, the bad programs are becoming easier and easier to spot, and you’ll never have to worry about that if you train with us.

Until next time,

-Jer

3 Quick Tips to Improve Dramatically

Yesterday, I was asked by one of my players if I could provide him with three tips for players who want to improve rapidly and give themselves the best opportunity to play at the next level. I thought about it for a minute and wanted to share what I shared with him.

My first tip is to compete. Of course, we want to have fun and we want to enjoy playing soccer, but if you want to improve quickly and give yourself the best opportunity to play at the next level, then you have to shift your mindset to a competitive one. You have to compete in every game, compete at every practice, compete in every exercise, and compete on every play. Truly competitive players, players who will sacrifice anything to win, are rare. These players stand out amongst their peers and a team full of competitive players will wreck havoc in any league, regardless of the level.

My second tip is to watch soccer. Many of the players I coach do not actually watch soccer, and it shows. Watching soccer allows you to gain a perspective and understanding about what you should do whilst you are on the field. And while you’re at it, don’t just watch, analyze it. Don’t just follow the ball or watch highlights, watch the players who play the same position as you, and analyze what they do when the ball is in a certain part of the field, or with a certain player. Watch how they move, watch when they step, watch when they drop, watch when they attack, watch when they defend, when they take players on, and when they move the ball around, you get the idea. Doing so will improve your knowledge of the game, and will dramatically improve your movement, decision making, and positioning on the field. In fact, we have brain cells called “mirror neurons” that fire both when we watch someone perform an act, and then when we perform it ourselves, physiologically indicating that we can improve at something by simply watching it.

My last tip for rapid improvement is to practice the skills you are able to outside of practice, outside of practice, and practice them at game speed. Doing so will allow you to maximize the time you spend at practice learning and competing. It will also help you stand out to your coaches and earn more playing time. Practices should not be spent working on the technical skills that are within your control, those skills are your responsibility to develop on your own. Skills like passing, receiving, shooting, pulling the ball out of the air, dribbling, etc., are all simple to train on your own and should be habitual actions at practice. And practice them at game speed. Doing so will increase the likelihood of the skills translating when you are under pressure on the field. Improving these skills on your own will maximize your ability, and allow you to use practice to improve the skills that are a little harder to work on yourself, such as tactics or decision making.

So, in summary, if you are trying to improve dramatically, and give yourself the best opportunity to play at the next level, my three best tips (at this time) are to compete, watch soccer, and develop your technical skills outside of practice.

Thanks for reading,

-Jer