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Episode 20 - Coaching Female Athletes for Long Term Health and Performance: Erica Mulholland, Author of Female Athlete High Performance
541 Plays1 month ago
Guest host Darren Hansen sits down with Erica Mulholland to talk about coaching young female soccer players the right way: balancing skill work with strength, reducing overuse injuries, and why load management + recovery matter way more than most athletes realize. Erica shares how a meniscus tear changed her approach, what she’s seeing with ACL injuries in young girls, and the big rocks coaches should focus on if they want athletes to stay healthy and keep improving long-term.
Timestamps (Key Moments)- 0:29 – Erica’s early inspiration: discipline, hard work, and chasing big goals
- 1:11 – Meniscus tear → wake-up call on load management + recovery
- 4:09 – Why “skills-only” training fails young girls (and drives overuse injuries)
- 4:29 – ACL injuries becoming more common in young girls (and what pushed Erica deeper into S&C)
- 15:59 – Calling out bad coaching trends you see on Instagram (and why it matters)
- 48:33 – Where to find Erica / socials
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:06
Speaker
All right. Welcome back to another episode of the Speed Lab Podcast. Your substitute host is still on it, believe it or not, Darren Hanson. And today we have an awesome guest by the name Erica Mulholland. We're going to kick it off with our hero hardship and highlight and then let her introduce herself and
Inspirations and Early Athletic Journey
00:00:21
Speaker
kind of what she does. So go ahead and start with hero.
00:00:24
Speaker
Okay. So it can be anyone. And anyone that you want. Yep. I would say my parents. um Yeah, I think they just really inspired me when i was young and especially being a young athlete, just the importance of discipline and hard work and just chasing my dreams. And my my mom specifically was an athlete herself and she really inspired me. So definitely my both my parents.
00:00:51
Speaker
And then what was the second one?
Overcoming Challenges and Learning Recovery
00:00:54
Speaker
So the second one's hardship. Okay. So just any challenge I've faced. Yep. It can be as deep or as surface level as you want. Yeah. I mean, there's hundreds, but um yeah you know i I would say towards the end of my playing career, um i got a meniscus tear when I was playing semi-pro. I was in my mid-20s. And thankfully, before then, I didn't have any crazy injuries or knee surgeries. That took me out for a long time. But after I got that meniscus tear, I was like...
00:01:26
Speaker
you know, i i was strength training. I was doing all the right things, but i wasn't managing load properly. And that time kind of woke me up to this other side of performance. Like, yes, strength training is great. um But, you know, during that time, I started to research a lot into load management and recovery. And yeah, it was a hard time being on bed rest and being on crutches for six weeks, but I had plenty of time on my hands to really dig and now I'm really passionate about that side of performance as well.
Coaching Young Female Athletes
00:02:00
Speaker
Love that. And then last one is a highlight. um Yeah, that these are hard. Super hard. And I think you're super accomplished. So it also makes it hard to Yeah. You know, I think ah an easy one is just like the most favorite part of my job as a young athlete performance coach is starting with the girls in middle school, 11, 12 year olds, and getting to see them their whole way through their development. And I'm very grateful to have a handful of athletes that I've been able to see through all those stages, through college, through pro and then life after sport. And it's just really cool seeing them still wanting to strength train, being able to do it on their own and not even need me when they're done playing.
Building Long-term Athlete Relationships
00:02:49
Speaker
So I think that's probably the most rewarding part of the job and the biggest highlight for me.
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, I love well I want to say real quick, I love that. I mean, if you listen to my stuff, you know, previous to this, like that's what we're all about is that long term athlete relationship. We'll have kids in here from, you know, fourth, fifth, sixth grade all the way through high school. They'll come in in college during breaks, even if they're not playing a sport like they can take care of themselves. They know how to train in an athletic way in a way that's healthy.
00:03:18
Speaker
and continue to do that for rest their lives. And like that, that is the most important part, right? Is them being able to learn how to do this themselves. And that's our job as a coach. And another thing I relate to is sounds like, I think a lot of us in this space, like we went through something like an injury or, you know, something that kind of set us back from where we wanted to be. And then we're like, why? Like we dig deeper, dig deeper, dig deeper.
00:03:42
Speaker
And then it turns into this passion of like, how do we help? How do we potentially help other people, you know, not not running that same issue? So I love I love all of that.
00:03:53
Speaker
Tell me a little bit. Do you you're your coaching athletes? If this is your first exposure to I know you've written it looks like you've written some books. Like tell tell me a little bit about like your journey, what you're doing right now, um where you're coaching athletes at and that type of deal.
Transitioning to Strength Training
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah, so I actually started off in the skills training world in my first several months, but I didn't last long because I started to realize I was part of the problem with ah young girls soccer players, especially getting too much of the skill specific work and no strength training.
00:04:26
Speaker
So I started to see a lot of overuse injuries. And during that time, ACL injuries were being more common in young girls. So I decided to um get my master's degree in exercise science and then become a certified strength and conditioning specialist and go all in with the strength piece and just leave the skills training world. I was like, there's a need for this. This was back in 2012. And twelve and i think that was a time when girls were kind of scared to get in the gym still. um So I really wanted to show them, hey, you need this side of soccer so that you can be healthy. And then you can also improve performance like your speed. your deceleration, your agility, um being able to withstand fatigue um and have faster recovery as well. So I went all into that and um I've been doing it for 14 years and it's gone by really fast. But um i mainly work with youth girls because I was finding throughout my career, I was attracting a lot of those clients because
00:05:27
Speaker
the injuries were popping up and parents were desperate and they were just seeing their daughter go through injury and they were hearing what I was saying and it made sense to them. So I just naturally attracted that type of client, but I'm also really passionate about female athletes, especially girls who are on the cusp of their growth spurts or right in the middle of their growth spurts.
Strength Training and Injury Prevention
00:05:50
Speaker
Because there's a lot going on. The the bones are going growing faster than the muscles and tendons, and their muscles are going to be naturally tight and not able to withstand the sport-specific load as much. So that's all the more reason that they need to strength train during this time. and not be afraid of it. And then just making sure that they're building the bone. And the only way to do that is to progressively overload. So um their bone density really starts filling in when they're like 15 or 16 years old. So just want to make sure that we're setting them up for good health, um not just sport performance, but I get more excited about the health benefits for life. So that's why I like working with female athletes. And I also just like telling them, hey, you...
00:06:35
Speaker
You have to train like an athlete. it you know It doesn't matter if you're a girl. You're going to eventually do heavy deadlifts, heavy front squats, heavy heavy split squats, just like the boys, because we have to gain strength relative to body weight so that we can prepare for what we're about to do in a game and and withstand those demands. So so um a lot of people ask if there's like female athlete specific training or ACL injury prevention. I'm like, no, it's just we're building the individual athlete and every athlete who comes in is on their own program. based on their age. and I like to lean more towards training age and exercise history. But yeah, ah female athletes, I think, need to be more empowered. And I think they're underestimated a lot. think they definitely need to be encouraged to lift heavy.
00:07:26
Speaker
There's so much good stuff and everything you just said right there. I'm like trying to wrap my brain around all of it in terms of what I want to highlight. But One thing I love that you said is like talking about those development stages, how the muscles are developing. You know, yeah're they're going to be tight. They're going to be a little uncomfortable with movements. And it seems like to me from my also 14 years of coaching is unfortunately one of the first things they're gonna cut out because it's a little bit uncomfortable is going to be the strength training. Like they're going to go to the skills training. They're going to go to soccer practice. They're going to be on the club team and the high school team and doing skill work on the side. They're to add those. They'll be doing three or four hours of that, you know, every other day.
00:08:03
Speaker
But the strength training, for some reason, since it's a little uncomfortable, they kind of shy away from it or they're like, I don't i shouldn't be lifting weights right now because my knees hurt. And you're like... Well, actually, maybe you should be lifting more weights and and doing a little bit less of the other stuff. But that's a hard sell sometimes because yeah I get it. Like these girls have dreams of and they love soccer and they love this. But um getting getting that message out and being able to communicate that to them and to the parents and convince them of that is something that I think a lot of coaches out there are trying to do or trying to get that message out.
00:08:35
Speaker
And it sounds like you're doing a a really good job with that. So I think that's awesome. um Yeah, the the knee pain is ah is definitely a big issue. And um you're right. Parents think that strength training is risky and more dangerous. But i always have to explain to them, okay, strength training is slow, controlled,
00:08:56
Speaker
predictable, supervised. And if you're working with someone who knows what the heck they're doing and they ah select exercises based on the injury that we're working with, then your daughter will be okay. And I always tell parents there's a library of exercises we can do to not make the pain worse from the knee, but we can build the muscles surrounding it, and she's going to feel better when she leaves. And when the girl feels good after strength training, the parent's like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. And then I have to explain sports are a lot riskier with knee pain because they're chaotic. ah we We don't know what's going to happen. They're high speeds. And and that's more damage to the joints and the muscles ah from all those eccentric actions. So when I kind of break it down that way, it makes sense to them.
00:09:50
Speaker
But I think, you know, we just have to really articulate what's going on because I understand it. I think strength training can be scary for parents who – don't have a basic background in it. They just think it's a bunch of like heavy barbells and music blasting and we're getting after it. But for girls with knee pain, I mean, we're doing a lot of isometrics. We're doing a backwards sled drags, which very beneficial for the knee tendon. So yeah, when, when they realize that it's not causing the pain and the pain comes after she plays practice, then it they put it together. They're like, Oh, strength training actually makes her feel better.
Demanding Sports and Load Management
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah. Right.
00:10:28
Speaker
And that's that's important. I feel better every day walking out of the session. So like one thing we kind of use is just like typically with parents, we'll just talk about how, you know, typically when you're getting pain and obviously this growth is a factor, but load is just overcoming capacity. So the athlete's capacity is lower than the load that's being put on them.
00:10:46
Speaker
You know, what's interesting is, you know, soccer specifically. I mean, that's what you're really passionate about. That's one of the highest. I think it is the highest ACL sport in the in the world.
00:10:56
Speaker
And, you know, I put some GPS, you know, um on my female soccer players and they're getting i mean, over a couple games, like they were averaging like 64 D cells and like 50 something excels. And I did the same with football players, wide receivers, and they were half of that. So these soccer players are actually being asked to go out and make these really hard accelerations and decelerations more than your typical football player.
00:11:22
Speaker
And if you know the training space, you know that those require, those are the the most amount of force on those D cells is that's what you're going to, that's a max capacity of force that the body's going to see is those hard D cells. And if you're not strong and you can't manage those loads 60 times in a row, you know, that's when you start to get fatigued and that's when these injuries happen.
00:11:40
Speaker
Right. And so if you're avoiding the strength training, you're avoiding exposing them to those loads in controlled settings like you just talked about. I mean, the door is wide open for something to just go wrong.
Deceleration and Individualized Training Programs
00:11:52
Speaker
So i think I think that's really important. And, you know, some a message that I want all parents to hear and you explained it even better than I did. So i'm like, and I should make sure everybody listens to this. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, well, it's good to have the GPS data as ammunition against the parents and be like, hey, here's what's going on in the game. But the fact that you don't want to shrink train to prepare for all of that, is that's very scary. And I saw something recently by um it was Dr. Sophia Nymphius, and she said um more than the female factor, the training age of the athlete um is more of a determinant of ACL risk, which is which is so true. So, um you know, we're sending girls out to do a job on the field, and that is to be able to do all those hundreds sort of sprints and changes of direction and be able to play the full 90 without skipping a beat and maintaining those high speeds. But um if we're not doing the strength piece or working on ah deceleration and and the jumps and the plyos in the gym, then we're really doing them a disservice and that ACL risk will go up.
00:12:59
Speaker
And I think de deceleration is another big one. A lot of girls don't work on enough and a lot of coaches actually don't do it properly either. um You know, you see a lot of decelerations or landing drills that are just piss poor on Instagram. Girl is collapsing, falling over, not being able to have a crisp landing where the hips are low and the the chest is up. But you see a lot of girls, they're falling forward. Their trunk is swaying every which way.
00:13:29
Speaker
And I just don't think deceleration is coached enough in a controlled setting. Yeah. All right. We got to take a second to talk about the universal speed rating because I literally just found this out and it blew my mind. We just hit over 500,000 verified speed tests inside the USR software.
00:13:48
Speaker
Half a million. That's coaches all over the country testing, tracking, improving athlete progress with this system. It's not just data. It's giving athletes confidence and giving coaches real proof of results.
00:14:00
Speaker
I remember running our first speed lab test back in 2019 in a closet that my uncle helped me build, now half a million. If you're not testing speed yet or you're doing it without a system, this is your chance to check it out.
00:14:12
Speaker
Hit the link in the description, book a free consult, and see how the USR could work in your program. And you know, what's interesting is I did ah just did a podcast on this a little bit ago and less did too. It's like what we're finding over and over again is even if you're looking for the performance metrics, like it it seems to be even the fastest sprinters and the most explosive athletes, they don't they stand out on the concentric or the explosion side, but not too much. It's the it's the eccentric and the ability to absorb load that actually is the huge difference between your good high school player and your good college player or your professional player.
00:14:46
Speaker
um So it's actually a quality that, like you said, is be doing wrong is overlooked. But recently it's coming out and it probably came out 20 years ago, but it just seems to go in circles where, you know, deceleration and the eccentric capacity might actually be.
00:15:00
Speaker
If you're looking for performance, that might be the thing you should be spending the most time on anyway. yeah Right. So it's all. you It's all it's all really interesting how it all ties together. So um you just brought up a couple of things that led me into this question.
00:15:12
Speaker
You know, um with speed training and strength training, what are some what are some like red flags that parents and coaches should should watch for if you're looking for someone for your kid or you're observing stuff at a practice?
00:15:24
Speaker
Give me a little bit into that. There's so many. yeah um yeah i just want to say this, just because someone is a certified strength coach or they have a falling doesn't mean they're good. um i mean, you have medical doctors who have gone through med school in their residency who have malpractice. So just because someone is certified or an expert doesn't mean they're doing it right. um My biggest red flag is i would say the deceleration is not coached. I mean, you can just see in some of the videos you watch on Instagram, the coach is sitting down. He's not correcting athletes, even though they're falling over on a box jump or they're doing a box that's too high. for their training age or level. It's just those things that, yeah, it's just, it but parents get sucked into them because it it looks cool. It looks like people are working hard, but they're they're not being coached and corrected automatically. on their form. So that's that's one. And then another one is not having individualized programs. you know too Too often, kids will go to like a big box facility and for the strength, everyone's doing kind of like the same circuit and there's no progressive overload from week to week. They're just setting up stations and they're maybe doing like pushups and then crunches and it's all bodyweight stuff. for the whole year. um So that's a ah big red flag. And for ah for young athletes, they really need to have that individualization for the strength side of things. Everyone's going to be doing maybe a different version of a split squat as a starting point, or maybe ah a different version of a squat, whether it's front loaded or back loaded, just depending on who they are. And of course, everyone's doing different loads. depending on their training age. And you have to have a program. They have to track it from week to week and slowly build over time. So that's that's a big one is just kind of those random circuits and like whiteboard workouts where the trainer just writes it on the board when they come in. It's like, all right, we're just doing this for strength today. And there's like no plan.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yeah. and And I think ah to add to that, I think one of the challenging things is from like, you know, our sector, if we're trying to do it right, is sometimes like doing the right stuff for the training age of the athlete and stopping it frequently and coaching. It's it's bor it seems more boring, right? It's not as cool. Like you said, like it's not as flashy as like kids jumping on these super high boxes and all of these things. So I think it can be easy for younger coaches and even, you know, coaches have been doing it for a long time to get sucked into like, you know, we got to do stuff that looks cool because that's what's going to bring more clients in. But at the end the day, it's a disservice to the clients you have and you're not really making the progress that you need to and that you're promising these parents and players.
Consistency and Training Intensity
00:18:16
Speaker
Right. So I think that's a really important point. And I think.
00:18:19
Speaker
you know, it can be hard. It can be hard to be like because the consistent, boring training is what I have. I have found is like helped my athletes ah get the best results on the field. So, yeah. And I think you're right. I think a lot of ah like team coaches or personal trainers just want to make it look like they're they're doing something wild. And I recently just got off a consult with a soccer coach who was doing broad jumps for distance with a U12 girls soccer team. And I'm like, okay, a broad jump's not a bad exercise, but who's the population? How long have these girls done this movement? And he said, you know, they were jumping as far as possible and some of them were falling over, their knees were caving in. And he was like, well, what coaching cues would you give? And I told him, it's okay to regress them and have them not jump as far for the first few weeks. And because they're all novices to this, it's okay to work on just a forward leap and then stick and then maybe speed up the movement and then maybe go for distance when they're ready for it. It's It's okay to regress people. And I i work in ACL return to play as well. So I work with a lot of female athletes in the last like six to eight months of their rehab. And I, you know, I've seen that you should train all of your athletes like they're almost rehabbing because with ACL return to play, you have to be very particular with landing mechanics and you have to really, it has to be close to perfect technique and we should train healthy athletes the same way as well when it comes to a lot of these drills. And yeah, I've just looked at it a lot differently now, now that I'm working with ACL ah girls rehabbing.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. So that that kind of ties in My next question was I'd seen that, you you know, you em you emphasize that intent matters most, like in speed drills and strength drills and like the way that you're performing it. And that almost ties into like this conversation of coaches to like the intent behind our coaching and being dialed in. And because we do some of that as well. And yeah, you're like when you're working with those ACL.
00:20:23
Speaker
you know, return to play end of that stage of nine months, you know, nine to 11 months, it's like, you're so focused on everything lining up and and looking right. And it's like, why you know, why are we not that way with, with everyone? Right. Why does it take an injury to get there? And that's like intent on our end as coaches.
00:20:40
Speaker
Um, when you, when you have spoken about that with speed drills and, and probably your strength drills too, like, what are you looking for? or what do you think When you say intent, do you feel like that drives the most results is just getting the highest intent out of the athletes? Or what did you, what do you mean by that?
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah, definitely for plyometric drills. um I think plyometrics are something that the soccer community royally screws up because the soccer community turns plyometrics into those long random circuits where they're doing jumps and hops for minutes on end. And by, you know, like 10 to 15 seconds in, the kids are slowing down and we're not really doing a plyometric anymore. And we're not really increasing ground contact and building reactive strength to help with our speed. So um i think plyometrics are the ones where I tell people intent matters and you have to go full speed. um I like to cue you want to bounce off the ground like a ping pong ball and not be clunky. So yeah, definitely for plyometric drills. And then for more of the the sprint mechanics. So
00:21:46
Speaker
You know, I used to be really big into them, but i just use them within our warm up because I don't have a lot of time with these kids. i I see some of my soccer girls one to two times a week. So we'll do a few minutes of mechanics drills. And if something like really glaring pops out, like they're striking the ground with their foot.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yes, we fixed that because during the growth spurt, you want to fix those those skills and you can really leave an impact on the athlete. But yeah, the mechanics, we we fix like the glaring mistakes first and then eventually with a high knee drill, they they need to be going full speed. I can't be having girls, ah especially soccer players, they kind of half-ass their high knees. If you go to any girls soccer tournament and you see the team warming up, they're just kind of like It looks like a jog. It's not like a really fast, uh, 11 out of 10, like turn the volume up high knee drill. Um, so that's what I want from my girls. That's the intent behind, uh, the drill I want. Or if we're doing an a skip again, that pop off the ground, like a ping pong ball, um, So yeah, intent is key for speed drills. And um with 10-yard dashes or shorter sprints or our fly tens, I always like to race and time at the same time if I can. um i just find that I get the most intent and intensity out of them when I'm doing both of those things. And I always like to use the timing just for progress tracking, but athletes also like to compete. So if we can do both at the same time, we will.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah. I love it. Um, you know Early in our journey as well, speed training with youth, you know we spent way too much time when we first were learning how to implement these drills on the technique side, like you just said. right And I love how you said, we're going to fix something that's glaring, and then we're going to get the athletes running as fast as they possibly can through through timing, through racing.
00:23:43
Speaker
And what you find over time is if you're, like you said, going back, you're correcting that stuff in the weight room, you're getting things to line up um in all the other movements you're doing. and then you're getting to run as fast as possible like those pieces will start to come together um and their sprint mechanics will will get better as they get stronger and they'll get better as they can do other things and and they can broad jump better like all of these things tie into one right and it's really easy to waste you know we're the same way we have an athlete two to three hours a week most of time um you know two to three sessions one hour at a time and if we're spending 25 minutes on technique drills and we're not getting any kind of stimulus
00:24:19
Speaker
You know, how are we how are we evoking change with the athletes
Balancing Skill and Physical Development
00:24:22
Speaker
in limited time? So those are all really important. um my My add-on question that would be, you know, are there other things you see being done in the soccer world that ruin speed development? So you talked a little bit about like, you know, plyometrics and then all of a sudden they're saying you're doing like 100 of these and they're gassed out at 15, right? Are there some other things you see that, you know, if sport coaches are trying to do this or people are stepping in trying to help, where are they messing up or what are some ways that they can avoid messing up?
00:24:50
Speaker
i I like to point to Tony Holler because he he calls it out a lot too in our industry, but just the overemphasis on extra conditioning.
00:25:02
Speaker
ah and it just you know It never made sense to me when a soccer team has – most of them practice for 90 minutes to two hours. And they're doing small sided games, they're doing scrimmages, technical drills, they're getting a really high aerobic effect for a long period of time. But then at the of practice, they add more conditioning.
00:25:22
Speaker
And my thing is, is that it's detraining speed, but it's also causing potential overuse and accumulated fatigue. Um, so I just like to think of it as in buckets and I think soccer players there, you know, most of them practice three to four times a week, especially if you're on an ECNL team. And then outside of that, they sometimes have a skills trainer. So they're getting a lot of the conditioning and not enough of those max effort accelerations and those top speed sprints. And it doesn't have to be a lot. I mean, us strength and speed coaches aren't asking for much. We're just asking for a couple times a week of some sprint exposures, some smart, high quality plyometrics and strength training and call it a day. um yeah
00:26:10
Speaker
But I think, you know, there's too much emphasis on the sport load, the skills training world, and there has to be a balance. We're not saying, you know, don't practice, don't do skills, but you have to balance it out. um And I find a lot of girls, they might strength train one hour a week, but then the other 15 hours a week, it's all a sports skill. So I think there needs to be more of a buffer ah with the strength training to really make sure that they're staying healthy and getting faster and not detraining speed.
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah. You know, I talk about it a lot. And I think sometimes I wish I could just really hammer this into athletes and parents head is like, In all honesty, like athletes are them are more skilled than I've ever seen.
00:26:57
Speaker
And it's part of it is like how much they're playing, skills practice. But they're also somewhat underdeveloped. And it's just, I just want, I want people to understand that like if you can get your athlete overly physically, like if you spend more time on the physical side and then you send them to a good skills coach when they're a little bit older and let's say they're strong, they're fast, they move well.
00:27:19
Speaker
their skill cap for how good they can get at soccer specifically is so much higher than if they can get, they just do skills and they don't have the capacity or the engine to make the big plays or to be fast or to be explosive.
00:27:32
Speaker
It's almost more important, honestly, and I'm biased because we do this, but it's more important that they develop that strength, develop that speed, and they could be not that good at soccer. And then by senior year, if they're good at all that stuff, they can go get a college scholarship because they're capable.
00:27:47
Speaker
Right. Like there's so many athletes I see that i'm like, dude, you are so good at your sport, but you just are not strong enough. You're not fast enough to make those plays like it's just part of how the game works out. And so now it gets me a little riled up because I'm like, you'd be better off spending more time, you know, with us right now. And then and then sure, swing once you get these things really down and go swing into going crazy on the soccer field.
00:28:12
Speaker
um But I think that that's a bucket that's missed and unfortunately overlooked. And if you do want to play at the next level, I mean, those are kind of prerequisites now.
Preparation for College-level Sports
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah. and and And it's the edge to now, you know, everyone at the D1 level, let's let's talk about the top 25 D1 teams like your Stanford's, UNC's.
00:28:33
Speaker
They're all skilled. They're all fantastic soccer players. But. What's the edge you're going to have is the physical side is yeah your speed, your agility, um your ability to play the full 90 and then some and blast through overtimes if you need to. And then also, do you have career longevity or are you tear are you tearing your ACL freshman season of college soccer because you weren't ready for the spike in load during preseason with all the fitness tests and seeing your strength coach two times a week in season? That's another thing I tell young girls is you think strength training with me in season is like a hassle right now?
00:29:14
Speaker
You're telling me you want to play in college. You're going to be seeing your strength coach at least two times a week. I had the Stanford women's soccer strength coach on my podcast a few months ago. And she told me that one of their lifts is right after their Friday night games because they have Saturday off. They want to maximize the recovery window and then they play Sunday again. So they're lifting on a Friday night, probably at 9 p.m.
00:29:37
Speaker
And then you have these high school girls say, oh, I don't want to lift after school with Erica. And it's like, well, you're telling me in one breath you want to play college soccer, but you don't want to you know, work on the habits and what you're expected to do at that level and how you're actually supposed to train. Okay. That doesn't make any sense. Quick pause here. i want to talk about the universal speed rating.
00:30:02
Speaker
So many coaches I meet are just overwhelmed. They're running sessions, programming, dealing with parents and trying to prove their athletes are actually getting faster. One of the reasons why we built USR was to take some of this stress off the table.
00:30:15
Speaker
One software solution to help coaches test, track, and show improvement without adding hours to your week. If you feel like you're guessing with your speed training or drawing, trying to make sense of your data, hit the link in the description.
00:30:27
Speaker
Schedule free consult and see how the USR can help. Like real quick, it's going to be not an option and it's going to be, So like you said, let's say you go and you tear your ACL freshman year college. That can be that could ruin your career. Like some athletes make it back with the transfer portal now with how the money's flowing around.
00:30:47
Speaker
du That can be the end of your career because you weren't prepared. You go tear your ACL or let's say you step in. You've never been in the weight room or you haven't spent enough time there. All the other girls have.
00:30:57
Speaker
Your development is set back and now you're going hard time getting on the field. but like let alone also the stress of like walking into a new environment. Now you're in a gym and you're being asked to do things you've never done before and you're not very good at them and everybody else around you is good at them and you have school. like It's just...
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, I wish people could see that bigger picture of like what you're telling me is you want to do this. And what I'm telling you is I know exactly what you're going to need to do to do this. And yet you don't want to get a little bit uncomfortable and do those things, which is very frustrating for people like us. Right. Because we're like, hey, we've been there. We've seen it. We know what they do. And we want to help you, you know.
00:31:35
Speaker
yeah and it's it's i don't always blame i don't blame the kids i don't blame the parents sometimes it's just it's big you know it's tough it's tough to be like what's important where am i going to put my athlete with their time their friends are doing this their friends are doing that you know they're on every club team they're on practicing every and doing every sport so it can be very challenging for these people to navigate yeah Yeah, I don't want to sound like a downer, but um you know I do want to highlight my athletes who do stick with strength training. And they do it in middle school and through high school and they get ready for college. We've had no serious issues. We've had no ACL tears. um except I've like looked at the girls I've trained who came in year round, not just girls who like train in the summer for two months. That doesn't count. It has to be year round and the year round girls.
00:32:26
Speaker
We've had no issues. They've thrived. They've stayed strong. They feel great towards the end of the season because they don't fatigue as much and they can recover fast because they're strong and then they go into college healthy. So we've just had great stories of girls who make it a priority. And they get in the gym year round. So, um yeah, it's it's it's powerful. And I always have to tell people that you have to commit to it. And it can't just be, you know, you drop in for a month or two and then I see you again 10 months later.
Optimizing Female Athlete Performance and Wellbeing
00:33:02
Speaker
i mean, better than nothing, but it's like we kind of have to start start at square one again. And the gains we could have made in 10 months time, I mean, you can change someone.
00:33:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think in season training is important. And again, they'll have to do it in college. and And I always say, and I'm curious if you agree, I'm like, no, I have some athletes that'll come hard. They'll come like three or four months, um you know, three to four times a week, and then they'll be gone for four months, five months.
00:33:32
Speaker
My best results have always been, even if it's one or two times a week, usually at two times a week, year round. Yeah. I don't need to add that extra session. Just just the consistency to the exposure to the stimulus. Like that's it. Like it i agree how it can even be one time a week. I would be confident to say like if I had somebody one time a week all year round yes versus somebody coming three times a week for three months and then taking a three month break and then coming in for two months and then taking a two month break. Like, I mean, it sounds like you agree with that. like I'm so glad you brought that up because I think sometimes people frown upon the one time a week. But like you said, if it's
00:34:09
Speaker
throughout the whole year and we just compound that over time. It's like putting money in a piggy bank. It just builds and that training age becomes higher. um And you know we've had amazing results with like our eighth grade girls who do it year round. I mean, a lot of them are well over 135 pounds on a hex bar deadlift at this point. Meanwhile, their friends who come every summer, it's like, you guys are still not even close to 100 because I only saw you like for one month. So it's just stuff like that that, you know, it's just so beneficial long term. So I agree. I'm a huge fan of the one time a week. ah Recently, I just added in a hybrid.
00:34:49
Speaker
I do ideally like two times a week of strength. So um if girls want to just see me one time a week in person and then the second day is a quick home program, um not as much technical lifts because I'm not really supervising, but more like your isometrics or get some plyos in.
00:35:07
Speaker
um it's so much better. And I've been finding good success with that as well. I love that. Okay. want to, I want to ask you like a female specific question here. Cause I don't often get interviewed someone like that. That's in this niche as much as you are.
00:35:23
Speaker
So for our females, um how does nutrition, sleep or menstrual health like intersect with their speed training, strength training? And is there any advice you can, you would give them on like how to optimize or things to watch out for or anything like that?
00:35:38
Speaker
I love this one. um I've spoken spoken on this topic many times at conferences because there's a lot of misinformation out there on the menstrual cycle. And if I can give any advice for your listeners to take away is please don't tell your female athletes to train. around their menstrual cycle. Because the research that came out on this, ah when this first became a trend, is very unreliable, actually. So the studies that suggested, oh, well, a certain phase causes injury, but then another study would say, oh, this phase causes injury. So it's like, well, it sounds like it could happen at any point that you get injured. So what actually influences injury more? And it's the training age of the athlete. um So how much strength capacity they have um and also how how fueled they are with nutrition. So I think just adding this layer of the menstrual cycle can be really complicated for female athletes and take their focus away from the basics of good training, progressive overload, nutrition, sleep, recovery. Those move the needle most when we're talking about injuries. um Yeah, the menstrual cycle discussion, I think, also can make female athletes fear their hormones and fear that they're female. um I've had girls say to me,
00:36:58
Speaker
I'm so scared of, you know, the week before my period comes. i i i think I'm going to tear an ACL. And I'm like, where did you hear that from? So they're hearing these messages in the media and in the unreliable research that a certain time of the month they tear their ACL and it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
00:37:17
Speaker
Maybe they step on the field more fearful or reluctant, and that's not good for you know taking wrong steps. There's a reactive component to injuries too, and if you're slow to react or reluctant, that's worse for you. So I just don't like the fear around it. I would prefer female athletes focus on front-ending this. So What can help your menstrual cycle symptoms? What can make you feel ah less fatigued or ah less in pain during that time of the month? And it's making sure you're well recovered and you're fueling your body with the nutrients your hormones need. And one of the biggest misses with female athletes is they don't eat enough healthy fats. they think that fats make them fat and they're not getting enough butter, salmon, olive oil, avocado. If you can do dairy, they're not getting enough whole milk or they're going for the skim cheese. But female sex hormones are actually made up of fat and cholesterol. So that from those healthy sources is really important.
00:38:22
Speaker
And a lot of girls who have enough of those healthy fats – their symptoms go away. They don't have cramps as much or they're not as fatigued during that time. I personally have gotten rid of my symptoms altogether. I feel great the whole month actually. And everyone's like, how'd you do that? And I'm like, well, I took charge of my nutrition and I learned about how it impacts my hormones. So um the fats are really important. And then just also true hydration. So a lot of girls think that plain water hydrates them, but it doesn't. They need minerals. So they need magnesium, especially for nervous system health and recovery, um selenium for thyroid health. um They also need potassium. A lot of girls don't get enough potassium.
00:39:07
Speaker
um So they get a lot of those pains and cramps. So minerals are really important. And I would argue not a lot of girls are getting minerals. They're really deficient in them. So if you can do those,
00:39:19
Speaker
come back to me because you'll be feeling amazing most of the time. And I think that should be the goal. We should feel the best we can the whole month so that we can train hard during all phases of our cycle. ah Another one of my issues with the phase-based training approach is a lot of ah these papers and practitioners were suggesting, oh, well, female athletes should recover more during their luteal phase. Yeah.
00:39:46
Speaker
because everyone supposedly feels bad during that time. But that's not true for everyone. Not every female athlete feels bad during that phase. Some are ready to get after it. So why would we hold them back with these blanket rules when it's really different for everyone? And then it also becomes a load management issue. If we decide to cut back in training and load for one to two weeks every month, would we really progress?
00:40:14
Speaker
we We would have no consistency in our program. And then when we feel good again, we spike that load all of a sudden. Well, that's actually more dangerous for us in the end is those like big spikes and dips and loads. So don't train around your cycle. Just do the best you can with strength training and nutrition and don't think
Ideal Training Schedules and Multi-sport Challenges
00:40:31
Speaker
about it. Like I think a lot of coaches just because they coach girls, they have to bring up the menstrual cycle discussion. No, just lead with the basics that we know reduce injury and improve performance.
00:40:43
Speaker
I love it. And I'm going to try to make sure every single one of my girls that comes in here listens to this because I mean, ah a lot of them under eat too. Like there's just that. Yeah. The fats are huge. um Carbohydrates they stay away from, which is really important for the nervous system and the brain. And it's just like, yeah yeah you know, we we preach it to them till we're blue in the face, but it always helps coming from you know from from someone else. So hopefully that will resonate with them or other coaches listening to this or parents and athletes. So that was awesome. um So i want to kind of wrap it up with some practical advice for coaches and parents.
00:41:17
Speaker
um We've kind of already talked about a little bit of this stuff, so we'll just kind of be like reiterating it. But um for you, Erica, for let's say we have ah a parent that says I have a busy youth athlete with a packed schedule.
00:41:30
Speaker
What's a realistic like sample weekly plan to prioritize my speed and strength training? I would say my ideal week, if I could control youth girl soccer and people actually followed the advice. So most girls, they practice three times a week on average with their team.
00:41:49
Speaker
So you have to go to your team practice. So three times a week. And then I would say one to two times a week of that strength training. And like you said, make it a year round pursuit.
00:42:00
Speaker
And then at least two full off days a week. to recover. and And we didn't really talk about this a lot, but in order for your daughter to get a training adaptation and to build and really gain strength, she has to have that recovery within her week. so the muscles can repair. um So a lot of people are like, well, what what days do we put strength training on? Well, I prefer to actually put them on practice days and let training days be full training days. Keep your high days high and then keep your low days low. It doesn't have to be anything complicated. I think that's kind of like load management for dummies. You don't need ah an Excel sheet doing calculations if you're a parent. Just high days high high and low days low and make sure you never... you know, burn the candle at both ends or do two two to three high days in a row with no recovery, that's when we start to get injuries from accumulated fatigue and overuse. So three days a week of soccer practice, two days strength on practice days, and then two full off days a week is what I'd recommend. And you can still get in a skill session if you want, but I don't recommend it in season because you're already touching the ball that much. So
00:43:12
Speaker
If you can forego the skills and lean more towards strength in season, I would do that. I love it. and And I think, too, to add to that, like that's where a soccer coach or a program that's also really in debt, like takes the time to learn about speed development, like that can be built into the warm up of a practice.
00:43:34
Speaker
Right. Like so that's like the ideal setting. Right. They go to the soccer. They do a good 15, 20 minute speed. They play soccer and then they lift. And and that's what you would see. you know, these high level professional programs doing. And like you said, they'll lift after, after a game, like and NBA players will lift for 30 minutes after a game because you have to make those high days high and those low days low. So I love that. I think that's really good advice.
00:43:59
Speaker
Um, very simple. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what, that's what we need, right? We need simple. So yeah. Um, how can, and how can coaches make speed training fun and transferable to sports like soccer?
00:44:14
Speaker
I think if you can add in anything reactive, whether it's to a visual cue or a verbal cue or having athletes race, chase, mirror drills, dodge drills, I mean, just make it fun. And this is where you can get creative as a coach. um You know, I am a big fan of Tony Haller's work, and I think you have to run fast time to get faster. But I think within his program, you can add those fun reactive components and go max effort to just because soccer is a thinking game and we have to train our our girls to be fast decision makers. So I think the more variety of stimulus for a sprint is really good for them.
00:44:58
Speaker
Perfect. I love that. Um, lastly, looking ahead, what trends, um, in youth, female speed training excite you? Um, and what piece of advice would you give expiring coaches like, like yourself listening? Um,
00:45:13
Speaker
I like the trend of running fast to get fast and just keeping speed simple, short, ah intense. And I think doing it it as a warmup is perfect because it it doesn't take away from soccer practice that much. If you can do speed for for the first 10 to 12 minutes, athletes are going to be ready for practice. They're going to be potentiated and they're going to be healthier as a result and faster. So yeah, I'm a huge fan of it. So, and then what was the other question?
00:45:44
Speaker
Just one piece of a advice you'd give a coach that's listening to that. Let's say a female coach listening to this. Maybe she's soccer player right now, just like you. what What's one piece of advice you'd give them? um Oh, my gosh. If they want to get to where Erica's at today or or impacting kids like you are today, what was what's one? Yeah, one big thing you'd be like or a couple.
00:46:05
Speaker
Don't be afraid to be brutally honest with sports parents because i think they're blasted with so much misinformation on youth training, especially speed training, strength training, injury prevention. Don't be afraid to correct them and let them know what's good and bad for their daughter.
00:46:25
Speaker
um Even if they might get a little defensive at first, you have to tell them the truth. um I recently had to tell a mom that a girl was coming into my gym and she every week she had some muscle tweaks.
00:46:40
Speaker
And she's playing on two sports in a single season right now. And I didn't want to micromanage and tell them what to do, but I just had to be honest and express my concern that this could turn into an overuse situation. And it's a gamble to do two teams in a season.
00:47:01
Speaker
And, you know, at first I was a little scared to tell her, but you have to be honest with people because, you know, if someone gets injured down the line, then it it also becomes a liability issue.
00:47:13
Speaker
And you have to just really educate parents because they just don't know and no one is educating them. So don't be afraid to be honest and educate and say your piece. Yeah, and you can look at that too as like protection of your training system too. Like if you don't bring it up and she goes and let's say she tears her ACL, I mean, you know, you hope not. They blame you. might be like, well, her training didn't work or whatever. Yeah, exactly. So coming out and saying, hey,
00:47:39
Speaker
You know, because we've had this conversation with a lot because I mean, we have kids that play, you know, three different sports at one. It's crazy. Like we have people playing. Most of my girls play multiple sports at once. Like very rarely do I have a girl just playing one sport.
00:47:53
Speaker
So gives me a panic attack. Me too. I'm like, oh my gosh. And then they'll be like, they'll show up for high school soccer and the coach will be like, we need to run a ton because we need to get ready for a two mile conditioning test. And I'm like, hey back they've actually been playing soccer all year round. So they're not out of shape.
Conclusion and Further Resources
00:48:08
Speaker
I'm pretty sure they're in shape for soccer. Like literally they had two weeks off before your tryout. And so za we're just ready to rock and roll. Like, I don't think we need to do a two mile conditioning test, but yeah cool I love it yeah you got to say your piece for sure so if they love this podcast they want to find more of you engage with you more we'll put it in the show notes too but where can they find you ah just on Instagram at Fitz Soccer Queen and then from there um just the link in my bio has everything okay awesome I really appreciate taking the time I think the the guests are gonna or the people listening are gonna love this and it's one of my favorite podcasts I've ever done so thanks Erica oh I appreciate it