2018 Summer Training Program

I have come up with an offseason program encompassing a number of areas for each player to improve over the summer. These areas include strength and fitness training, technical training as well as nutritional awareness. For me, the secret to happiness is the never-ending quest to improve one's self, whether it's being able to deadlift twice your bodyweight or gaining a basic understanding of Austrian business cycle theory. Learning to deal with situations that fall outside of your comfort zone not only provides opportunities to overcome and to vanquish physical challenges, but mental ones as well. This summer program is merely a plan to continually answer the daily question of "Am I better today than I was yesterday?" If the honest answer is "yes" more times than it is "no", then we're that much closer to making self-improvement a habit and good habits allow talent to shine.

To quote the Spanish philosopher Jose Antonio Marina, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not a single act, but a habit."

Each morning I will email out the day's activities. We will be active 6 out of 7 days. Friday will be a day off. Of course, if you want to do some work with the ball, go for a run, do some pushups on a Friday, then, by all means, get after it. As Coach Phil alluded to in the email from today, you can do these activities anywhere. There are no excuses for not being active. The only equipment you will need for the strength training is a bar to do pullups/chinups. If you don't have a bar, then you can get a $20 pullups bar from Amazon that uses leverage to attach to your door frame. You can find it here:

STRENGTH TRAINING
The strength training program is a 12 week bodyweight only program. The trainer who came up with the program is a former college football player who trains high-level football and baseball players. This program can be done by everyone from the beginner youth player to the elite athlete. Here is a link to PDF that explains the methodology and theories behind the program.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8aw2w0wljpdbdt5/Athletic%20Calisthenics.pdf?dl=0

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Each workout takes 15-20 minutes to complete. The emphasis of the program is to improve an athlete's power and explosive ability - basically, speed plus strength. It is structured to be worked at 4 days a week. For our purposes, I will send out strength workouts Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. On Wednesday and Saturday, I will send out a plyometrics workout which usually takes 15-20 minutes to complete. Friday, as mentioned above, is a rest day. Each workout will have a short video explaining what and how to do each training exercise.

Please review this short video introducing the Athletic Calisthenics program.

https://youtu.be/LJrCW9jJF-8

FITNESS TRAINING
The fitness portion of the program will look to improve general endurance initially and then increase soccer-specific fitness levels as we get closer to August. Most fitness days will never last more than 20 minutes, and if they do, the intensity will be minimal.

For the girls, we will be working towards passing a fitness test in 6 weeks. A 7 minute mile is a reasonable pace to shoot for so we'll go with that. If you wish to have a faster goal, then all you have to do is adjust the split times for the track workouts. This will make sense when the workouts are given.

For 4 days of the week, the girls will be asked to go for a nice and easy distance jog in order to get miles in their legs and lungs. The other two days will be on the track to specifically work on the mile. Most of these workouts will be in the form of hitting 400 meter split times in order to run a 7 minute mile.

TECHNICAL TRAINING
The technical portion will be simply working with the ball. There will be a technical portion six days of the week. I will provide video instruction for the technical training just like I will provide video for the strength training exercises. A player can never work too much with the ball. Technical quality with the ball is without a shadow of a doubt the most important attribute for a soccer player. There is no substitute for ball skills. The only way to sharpen and to improve any type of skill is to repeat it over and over...and over and over. To quote da Vinci and Coach Phil, "Repetition is the mother of skill."

NUTRITION

Nutrition is a very important and very underrated aspect of the competitive athlete. An athlete uses his physical body as a utility or vehicle to compete. If that vehicle is not properly fueled, then that vehicle breaks down and fails to perform. Food is fuel. The right food provides consistent energy. The wrong food does not. Lethargy then creeps in and performance, both physical and mental, suffers. Through experience, research and self-learning, I've come up with a few guidelines that may be helpful for any of the players that are looking to augment their abilities and talents. For the parents who may be interested in the same thing for themselves and other family members, I recommend a book called "Deep Nutrition" by Dr. Cate Shanahan. Dr. Shanahan was, at one point, a nutritional consultant for the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant is a big fan of hers, for what that is worth. Either way, it's a superlative read. You can find it at this link:

So, here are some basic guidelines that I will recommend. The gist of Deep Nutrition is that Dr. Shanahan studied every kind of "diet" around the world - paleo, South Beach, Okinawa, Mediterranean, etc, as well as numerous traditional diets of indigenous populations. She effectively found 4 common similarities in all of them and summarized them in 4 parts. She calls it The Human Diet and, of course, her book is littered with scientific citations. She recommends that you choose your foods from these 4 "pillars".

The 4 Pillars

1. Meat (preferably on the bone)
2. Fresh vegetables
3. Fermented foods (ex. sauerkraut, buttermilk, pickles, Greek yogurt, cheese)
4. Organ meats - if you don't have the stomach for organ meats, then substitute organ meats with eggs

Foods to Avoid

1. Vegetable Oil (Canola, corn, soy, sunflower, safflower, grape seed) - this includes all processed foods (read the label) and anything fast food
2. Sugar (soft drinks, sports drinks, candy, doughnuts, fruit juices and everything else in between)
3. Wheat - this includes Cap'n Crunch, Count Chocula and Cheerios

Good oils - coconut, olive, non-processed peanut oil, butter, ghee


RECAP
I will send out a daily email with that day's activities. If you have any questions about any of this, then please let Phil, John or me know. I understand there is a lot of information in here. To recap what each week will look like:

MONDAY - Strength, Fitness, Techincal
TUESDAY - Strength, Technical
WEDNESDAY - Plyometrics, Fitness, Technical
THURSDAY - Strength, Technical
FRIDAY - Rest
SATURDAY - Plyometrics, Fitness, Technical
SUNDAY - Strength, Technical

Have a productive summer