FIT Training - Sunday, April 22

11:00AM - 12:30PM @ FIT Studios (Minneapolis)

From Danielle,

Today’s session was broken up into three stations. Adam was responsible for strength and balance, Mark did skill training on the turf, and I focused primarily on speed and agility.

To up the endurance level for the team I had them do interval training on the bike rather then the treadmill. This requires a completely different group of muscles. While on the bike the girls did one minute sprints on the bike while limiting their recovery time as they went along. This workout took roughly 19 minutes. They each did it twice. Upon completion they went right into what I consider to be game fitness agility workouts (jump rope, gates training, squat thrusts, core work). These exercises were designed to test an athlete’s ability to perform in a fatigued state. The girls showed drastic improvement this week in that respect. Their energy level was high as well as their determination.

Adam contributed to the workout by having the girls perform various strength activities which required a high level of concentration and balance. This is done by having the girls use weights in addition to physio and bosu balls. By having them perform these activities in an unbalanced environment will only further strengthen them as soccer players because it hones in on sport specific muscle groups.

We concluded our session as a team doing additional core work and reactionary drills. Although the girls were extremely tired their focus was great and I had a wonderful time training them. I look forward to this week’s session.

Please check out our website at www.fittc.com if you are interested in any of our elite performance camps that will be starting up in June.

See you soon!

-Danielle

FIT Training - Sunday, April 1

11:00AM - 12:30PM @ FIT Sudios (Minneapolis)

This was the fourth out of 6 Crash Training sessions the team is taking this spring at the FIT Training Studios. The first three were held at the St Paul studio, the next three will be held at the Minneapolis location.

I have not had a chance to see the St Paul studio as I was coaching the East Academy teams on Sunday afternoons when the U13s were taking the training. With our Sunday Academy Futsal Training now complete, I got the chance to head over to the Minneapolis studio this morning with the team.

Our session started at 11AM, but the FIT trainers have have gone out of their way to make themselves available for 1-on-1 personal attention to any of the girls who want to take them up on the offer. When I got to the studio at 10:30AM, Scratch was already hard at work with Danielle working on stability and running technique. Lily was also there early to work on ankle strengthening exercises.

We had 12 girls attend, and the FIT trainers worked the team hard. The Minneapolis studio has a turf area that also allowed the girls to get some touches in. It's a great setting for the girls to work in and I think they had a good time.

From Danielle Pellicano, FIT Training

Today’s session began with a dynamic warm-up and stretch. I tailored most of the exercises around running form, emphasizing the importance of arm movement and body tilt. I explained to the girls that the quicker they pump their arms the quicker their legs will react in a sprint motion. Leaning into the run also helps with body mechanics. This will only come with time much like most muscle memory activities we are having them perform. The girls appeared very fresh from the start and seem to be absorbing the running tips from the week prior. I feel in time this will only contribute to our goal of ‘functional speed’ on the field.

Having said that, I divided our session into two parts: One, focusing primarily on strength and balance, while the other focusing on speed and performance.

FIT trainer, Adam Meier, lead the strength portion of our session. He had the girls perform various exercises on the bosu ball while incorporating resistance training at the same time. The bosu ball forces an athlete to find core balance while performing additional activities. We encourage our players to train in an unbalanced environment to help develop their coordination which in time turns into strength. This will help prevent injuries in the future.

I had the girls doing incline sprints on the treadmill for duration of 2-4min. Their goal was to run to fatigue and then perform various agility activities on the turf with little to no recovery, most of the drills revolved around foot work with the soccer ball. This is a great way to judge a players ‘game fitness.’ The reason I gave the girls little recovery was to show them how it would feel to perform on the field with 3 minutes left in a game. This highlights not on a player’s physical capability but more importantly one’s mental toughness. The girls struggled at first but for their first time at FIT this is to be expected. We hold a high expectation for our athletes and encourage them to perform at a tough level. This type of training although difficult is extremely important in the game of soccer and will only prove so to a player come game time.

I ended the season with a team cool down which always involves ‘core’ work and laughter. Adam and I enjoy working with the Bangu girl’s and feel they are progressing wonderfully but more importantly they appear to be enjoying themselves while doing so. Till next week.

Cheers!

Danielle

FIT Training - Sunday, March 18

3:15PM - 4:15PM @ FIT Studios (St Paul)

From Danielle Pellicano, FIT Training

Sunday’s session I feel was the team’s best yet!! The girls stayed incredibly focused and worked very hard. I tailored the session around Functional Speed & Agility .

We started with a dynamic 10-15min. warm-up followed by dynamic stretching. This is an important part of any training session because it allows the athlete to get more out of the muscle groups they are about to use.

From there we divided the team into two groups. One worked with trainer, Lisa Pederson (elite fitness trainer and former professional athlete) on the importance of agility and foot speed. She had the girls perform various activities at a max threshold while focusing on quickness and change of direction.

The other group worked with Adam and I on proper running technique through a series of sprint activities. I went over the mechanics of the body and the importance of proper body alignment while sprinting in a game as well as on the recovery. I could not emphasize this enough and feel it will be a recurring theme throughout our remaining training sessions.

I also had the team work on power and stability by having them do a series of explosive drills on the stairs. This is to prevent ACL and Meniscus tears. Although the activities may have seemed easy at first, the girls realized quickly how important technique was in performing the task properly.

Lastly, we finished as a team with a drill I like to call 4 corners. Each athlete works in a 4ft x 4ft square for a duration of 30 seconds with minimal recovery time. They were focusing on quick feet and reaction time.

I was very impressed with the work ethic throughout the entire session. Although it was a challenging hour the girls remained high spirited and encouraging of one another. I am convinced that they will have an edge on their opponents if they continue to train at this level. I wish the team the best of luck in Richmond and look forward to hearing about their performance.

Cheers! Danielle

FIT Training - Sunday, March 11

3:15PM - 4:15PM @ Fit Studio (St Paul)

From Aaron Leventhal, Fit Trainer

The second Crash Training session with Fit Training went well today and the girls did a great job. Still getting used to the intensity of the work and the new environment, but it is great to work with a group of such elite athletes.

As we focus on our “game fit” training goal we also took some time for what we call pre-habilitation or injury prevention. We know that the girls demand a lot of work out of their bodies and we want to make sure that they understand that it is an important part of their training to recovery and regenerate.

We started with a dynamic warm up, light interval running in the skyway with Adam and then team stretching. Sprint mechanics and form running as a follow up from last week. This took us into the bulk of the session, again “game fit.”

Remember that we are preparing the girls to maximize performance under pressure. In other words, when our bodies are sore, tired, fatigued, or injured, skill level will drop. We are building so that none of these things will affect our skill level, thus operating at maximum performance level under the pressures of game intensity and duration. To administer this type of training we want to fatigue the girls then have them perform activities that require some sort of skill, for example balance, stability, agility, or proprioception.

We finished the session with stretching and a talk on recovery through the use of our foam rollers. We explained the importance of releasing tension in muscles and specifically tension in fatigued muscles.

We know the training is demanding, as it should be to match the demands the girls of the game, and we have made sure to remind the girls to make sure to see us (Aaron, Adam, or Danielle) on an individual basis to make sure that we can address past injuries or concerns the girls might have.

FIT Training - Sunday, Mar 3

3:15PM - 4:15PM @ Fit Studio (St Paul)

As part of our agreement with FIT Studios, the girls are taking part in six Crash Training Sessions in March and April. Today was the first session and the girls met at the St Paul studio from 3:15PM - 4:15PM to work with Aaron "Levy" Leventhal and his trainers. I could not be there as I was committed to working with the U10s and U11s at Lake JHS in Woodbury for Futsal Training, and I would catch up with the girls later that day as they came to Lake for their Futsal/Street Soccer Sessions at 5PM.

From Aaron Leventhal, Fit Trainer

After working with the girls on Sunday we have begun to design a team specific program to help the girls peak for their outdoor season, specifically their trip to Virginia.

As we have spent time training speed, agility, strength on Saturday during the winter, we have decided to focus mostly on game fitness and peak performance by the end of March.

On Sunday we administered a sub maximal v02 test, we split what is called the “cooper test” between 2 girls. The goal is to cover a 2 mile distance in 12 minutes, we which means that each girl would need to cover 1 mile in her 6 minute interval. Performance levels for this were fine, but we are concerned mostly about this aspect of the girls training right now as it relates directly to game performance at high levels.

In other words, we want to make sure that their ability to maintain high levels of intense work for an entire game. 2 reasons for this are simple and they have turned out to be the main goals for this crash training course.

1. If we do not have high levels of intensity that we can maintain for a certain amount of time, full game in this case, our skill level will drop as we fatigue. At this level we do not want to waste time building this type of fitness through playing actual games, we want to have it in place before we go into our first game.
2. Injury prevention is most important in this type of crash training. Most common serious injury among girl soccer players is ACL/MCL injury. We are dealing with joint stability and lateral strength. It is important to make sure that we are able to maintain strength and stability under the demands not only of the intensity of the game but the volume as well. In other words, the girls are more susceptible to injury when they are asked to perform outside their level of fitness and they become fatigued. We want to make sure that they are able maintain stability in this state of fatigue. We do this through challenging the girls in unstable environments while fatigued.

We have decided to include maintenance work for the certain aspects of the girls training. Thus, making sure that we continue to keep high levels of speed, strength, and power.

Our focus on the mechanics of running will be our first activity in most sessions and will serve as a dynamic warm up. In other words we are using specific movement to warm up as opposed to static stretching, as we feel that we can teach form and use specific movement more specific to our training than static stretching.

We also will include a cool down component to the training using foam rollers to help with tight muscle groups. This will serve as the recovery and regeneration portion of the training.

We are looking forward to working with the girls and expect to have a great time with them and get a lot of work done in our sessions. The best advice we can give the girls at this time is to make sure that they come prepared for 60 or 90 minutes of focused training depending on the session.