just curious, since getting recruited is only step one.
parents of current or former college athletes, how did your student and their school handle summer workout packets - especially if a fall athlete. did you child work with a personal trainer during the summer? with a skill coach? with local friends?
Just curious how others handle it. right now my daughter is working with the same private trainer she has had since she was 13 once a week, and with the GK trainer once a week. Her club coach provides a college group workout 2-3 times a week and her high school coach has opened up summer lifting and ball work to her and her fellow seniors if she wants to attend. She also got the free student pass for planet fitness since all we have at home is a treadmill.
she will be at a d3, and doesnât report until aug 18th with many of her d1 teammates and friends reporting in a few weeks.
Just follow the coachâs workouts/schedule. DS never had a personal trainer and, frankly, the coaching staff was not interested in the input of outsiders.
Her personal trainer works with her one on one on speed/agility/fitness/injury prevention, ect and has since she was 13. He works with a lot of college kids and follows the workout packet.
Her GK trainer she has been with since age 10 and he does not look at anything from club or college coaches. She was going to do her weekly session with him in place of a technical session in the packet.
Her club has always provided small workout sessions for periods of extended time off, but this is the longest she has gone without structured training - will be about 10 weeks. Next year she will likely join a local summer semi pro team but she missed tryouts since she was with her club training and playing until last week
My soccer player just does the packet (not perfectly, I might add). Everyone must pass the dreaded beep test the first day of preseason, thatâs the bottom line. I would guess your daughterâs team might be the same. So focus on fitness and try doing the beep test a couple of times before she goes to college.
My soccer son works a job that can be physically demanding, then he practices/plays with his USL2 team six days a week. He also gets in some cardio on his own. I feel like the packet is for people that need a nudge to put the work in. Dedicated players will report to captainâs practices in shape, ready to go, regardless of any packet.
My daughter did the packet by herself. The first year was a little rough and when they showed up in Aug, MANY were not in shape and had to repeat and repeat the runs to make the required times.
After that first year my daughter worked the summer package a lot harder, and since she was doing it at altitude but the school was at sea level, she was better off than most of the team. The âstarâ of the team lost about 20 pounds that summer after the first year and really started running a lot more, and you could tell how much she improved from yr one to yr two. She was leaner and stronger.
One thing that was very different in the college lax game was the length of the half as hs played a 25 minute half and college a 30 min half (now college is two 15 min quarters per half). Also, the hs game had a lot more stops as they had to freeze on a whistle (and some refs blew a LOT of whistles) and the college game was changing to a âself re-startâ and just a lot more continuous action (running). They were all exhausted after that first season but much better in the following years.
It sounds like your daughter will be well prepared with the extra work the club coach is providing. But those who are in better shape will see more playing time (IMO). If she wants to do more private workouts it would be fine but not required.
My D23âs (also soccer) summer packet has a less strenuous plan for the entering first-years than the returning players, but she is planning to follow the harder plan (except for starting more slowly with the lifting program because she doesnât have much experience with that).
She is practicing 2x/week with college and post-college players on the local semi-pro team, and will be doing fitness work and lifting, for a total of 5-6 workouts per week. There are also a couple of scheduled fitness (beep) tests as a benchmark.
She did one of the tests already with a friend who is getting ready for her first season of college field hockey in the fall. Helps to have motivation! Sheâs doing other workouts with friends when they are available.
No one EVER regretted doing the harder summer workouts when fall practice started.
This is on a different level for sure (I have a college athlete but I wasnât one so I understand the difference) but I remember sophomore year in HS football I didnât really have myself in great shape before practices started. That was a miserable enough first week that 35 years later I still remember it. The next 2 years I showed up in shape (and watched the idiots who didnât suffer for it).
My D23 has a fairly rigorous summer packet. Each player has individual goals and benchmarks. There are usual lift weights, cardio, ball work etc, but those are just guidelines. The real motivators are the visible team checkpoints where the girls need to put in their numbers and everyone compares online. Nobody is âforcedâ to do anything more than the summer packet, but you can see where everyone is at.
My D is group training with college/semi-pro folks x 3 times a week + games on top of her packet. She got a lesson in humility when playing with these players, from full-time starter to bench warmer. Best motivator and training. Training with at her old club with the 05/06 top age group was an option, but unfortunately, the speed of play and skill level were not even close.
I know the last post was a month or two ago, but I just saw this thread. D is leaving for her first fall season in 10 days. Her running packet is rigorous. Sheâs a very active athlete too; sheâs in a college/pro strength training group 2-3x per week, plays in a college league (current college players) one night per week (2 games each time), does a few high performance skill sessions in a small group specific to her sport per week, and does the running packet given to her team. The coach said if they are actively playing their sport then reduce the running packet from 4x/week minimum to 3x, so sheâs been doing that because physically, she canât do anymore. Hereâs the thing: she has been doing the max running session in the packet (the hardest/most challenging one to work up to by the last week before pre-season) for the past month at least (she never even started at the lowest session since she knew it wasnât challenging), yet she still canât get to the needed running test repetition number. I feel like it must be mental, given the amount sheâs playing and the fact she can do (and has been doing) the max running session. Any suggestions? Sheâs leaving a week from Tuesday and this is a source of stress for an otherwise very confident player/athleteâŠ
A lot of those tests are also tactical. Have her talk to her conditioning coach about how to pace herself and how to correctly push to get max results.
Also make sure her measurements are correct - daughter was doing her test with the incorrect measurements the first two times and was really discounted in results - ends up she was running to fat in each interval
Yes, that makes sense. Weâve read that a lot of the test is pacing. Weâve suggested she meet with a college coach she works with on and off to test her a couple of times this coming week and give her pointers regarding pacing, etc. To clarify- when you say her measurements were off and she was running too fast, are you saying both of those separate things were occurring?
Oh, ok. I think hers uses the lines on the field, so not sure that specifically, will help. I do think pacing, breathing, etc. is likely slightly offâŠ
Yes, when one started doing these as a u13 at her club she would often go out way to fast and effectively crash and burn, or she would line up with someone and pace off them instead of using her own body as a guide. Her trainer worked on her with this.
When working alone, both during covid and earlier this summer, she initially spotted the marks too far apart, just a little off but it can make a difference
Keep in mind, for the majority of athletes, the tail end of the beep/pacer/yo-yo test is about grit and suffering. It requires people to really push themselves.
Also, my college soccer player son never made the Beep test threshold when running by himself over the summer, but did make it (twice now) the 1st time during preseason. He says itâs easier when you are doing it with a bunch of people. (Note, I didnât say it was easy :-))
Yes, thatâs what Iâm hoping. Weâre just trying to help her now, because I see that itâs weighing on her, and itâs not as if she hasnât spent all summer preparing herself. She doesnât want to look ill prepared. Also, her coach is having the incoming freshmen do the test separate from upperclassmen. Not sure if thatâs the norm.
Sound like the yo-yo intermittent recovery test? If she has been trying on her own through the training, the accumulated fatigue will keep her from a max performance on the test. A bit of rest in the week beforehand will help. Full taper would be maintaining intensity but cutting back volume for 7-10 days in advance, but that seems counterproductive to overall goals besides test performance. At least make sure she gets a full day off two days before the test and a light workout the day before.
My D23 has multiple former club teammates who have already done their yo-yo test (everybody calls is the âbeep testâ) in the opening practice session for their new D1 teams in the past week. One at a top-tier D1 with a very high minimum threshold goal for the team (stage #40) was able to reach it and had improved about 10% from the number she was able to hit on her own about two weeks prior.
