Preparing for the Spring Season
The winter is baring down on us, teasing us with ups and downs of temps. Spring is calling. If you are a soccer player, you know what that means…
Well, depending on where you live, of course.
In our part of the country it means RAIN! In more northern areas it means still more snow! And if you’re further south, it means that the color green is going to be in your life a bit more.
With the spring comes more training and more competitions. So with more, more and more…how do you prepare for more? As you read through this, maybe not all of it is for you, but I bet there are some items you can takeaway and make happen for your upcoming spring season!
HOMEWORK
Wait, what?! You’re reading about preparing for the Spring Season and the first item is homework?
Yep.
If there’s one thing that will help your game on the field, is how you manage your time off the field. One of the growing time-takers for you, no matter your age, is homework. There are a few strategies that can help you as you tackle your studies. Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes has some great strategies. My favorite tip of theirs is to "Plan study time with a schedule.”
Many of you have practice after 5:00 PM…and you get out of school around 3:00 PM. That two hours is a vital time of preparation for your spring. Use that time wisely. And if you have a big homework day, make sure you flush out some of the work prior to training. If you’re able to finish your work before practice, just think about how focused you can be for your training session?!
And if you got a load of homework for the weekend, guess what!? Plan it out. Look at your weekend and find the gaps. 30 minutes here. 1 hour there. Commit that time to giving your homework the knockout punch! You don’t want to be getting to Sunday night loading up your evening with studies and then not being prepared for Monday. You’ve got to get back to training! Get your homework done before Sunday night. That way you can rest for Monday morning and your training schedule.
TRAINING RHYTHM
If your team is a club team or travel team, you are training twice a week at minimum. Unless it rains! Some of you train three times a week and some of you train four times a week. By now, you understand your coach’s intensity for your first session and through your last session. If you don’t know, you’re soccer homework is to ask your coach what next week’s training schedule is going to be like.
Trust me. You want to know the training rhythm.
If you know you’ve got a tough game on Sunday or a tournament over the course of the weekend, your Monday session will more than likely be a bit lighter. You will probably have a session on Tuesday or Wednesday that picks up the pace a bit. And your last session of the week is probably the hardest.
So think about that. Your coach wants you to recover from the weekend and work hard for the upcoming weekend. So work with that rhythm. Use your light training day as an opportunity to get some technical work in. If you have a harder physical session on your next session, taper off the extra work. But get another fitness session in. Should it be after your hard session or before? Depends. What’s the schedule for the upcoming weekend? Take a look and plan your week proactively. If you can plan monthly, even better!
And if you can see your entire season on a team calendar then go ahead and plan your extra training in the gaps of your week. But if you are booked up for a week, your extra training may be to just rest and recover. Keep in mind that your extra training may also be to get a guest playing session in or a guest training with an older team or a better team or a personal training or a performance trainer.
If you can see a little bit ahead of time for your Spring, you can put together an awesome training rhythm to allow you to be firing on all cylinders when it matters most.
PRE-GAME AND PRE-TRAINING
Traditions rock! This player named Lebron James had a tradition before each game where he grabs some powder and then throws it up in the air.
Everyone claps and cheers.
More importantly, his mind told his body that it’s time. It was time for whatever was next. For him, it was the game.
What tradition makes sense for you? The tradition is something that reminds you that what’s about to happen is important. It’s different. Your mindset shifts. For me, I used to tie my shoes in some unique way that I only did for training or games. When I tied my shoes THAT specific way, my mind was telling my body that it’s time to work!
What’s your pre-training and pre-game tradition to get your body and mind right? That tradition will serve you well through the Spring Season, so get creative and get to work!
POST-GAME AND POST-TRAINING
Post training and post game is a great time to eat! You need to reload that energy you just burned off!
Of course you want to be as healthy as you need to be. There are many nutrition strategies to pursue. However, every person is different. So your body may need some extra of something that someone else doesn’t need to much of. It’s best to talk to your family and your pediatrician to pursue an accurate nutrition plan for you.
But another item that is post game and post training that athletes can forget to do is hydrate. Water is vital to help your body systems do their thing. That’s your muscles and your eyes and brain and heart and skin and everything. You want to be well hydrated so your body can manage it’s output most efficiently.
So maybe you need some pizza! Be sure to grab a super tall glass of water to drink as well. Your Spring will go to a whole new level if you begin to finish your training and games with great nutrition and great hydration!
Family and Friends
Final thought is this. Always make time for family and friends. Because this spring, you will need a group of people to support you on your journey. Being known by a group of people is a wonderful place to be able to be real. And being real is vital to your success on your journey this spring.
Remember that schedule you made for your training rhythm? There is homework time and training time. Be sure to add family time and friends time to that schedule.
In a few years, you might thank me for it! And even if not, your spring will be much more fulfilling if there are different perspectives connecting with who you are.
So get out there and make this spring season your best season ever! And if you need help with your journey, we’re ready to help you have your best season yet!