Welcome to FlipSide,the portal for parents. We will share information that we think you will find helpful .Do you want to know Brandi’s suggestions? Do you want to question our group of health professionals? Do you want to connect with other parents? You’re in the right place!
Here’s a question we’d like to ask you… what is appropriate sideline communication? Is it important to cheer? To correct mistakes? To point out to the coachs or refs what they can’t see?
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Brandi,
My daughter is almost 13 and plays for a club team. Her position is
center-forward, and she has always been very tall, fast, and athletic. She
says she wants to have a future in soccer, atleast through college. My
question is this: I am wondering if she should be working with a personal
trainer to improve her strength and speed, or if young athletes just need to
go to practice and that’s enough. I recently had her evaluated by a sports
fitness trainer(who was also a professional soccer player),and he said that
she could benefit from some core strength building and foot turning
issues(something about compensating). Did you have a personal trainer as a
young soccer player, or did you just go practice with the team like every
other young girl? I would appreciate any advice you could give! One of my
daughter’s teammates recently met you on a visit to California, and she was thrilled!
Kind regards,
Mom in SC
Posted: 10/19/2009 @ 4:35
Hello MOM in SC, Thanks for the question. This is a HOT topic right now and I think that there is NO right answer but I do believe that a project I am working on will assist young aspiring athletes, and those that just want to be healthy throughout life (read here, Older kids like myself). There is absolutely reason to believe that having a stronger core will assist a player on the field, AND with proper technical skill, add power to their game. A colleague and I are in the midst of putting together a strength/conditioning (with a focus on injury prevention) dvd series to address the questions you have raised. I have personally been doing the strength program, and then taking it to the field to work on footwork while running and changing direction. Young athletes are being put into more compromising positions these days strictly due to the repetitiveness of their activity. Times are clearly different now than when I was coming up, and the different sports I participated in gave my body a chance to rest certain muscle groups and strengthen others. It is hard to have that these days, but that is one of my biggest concerns for young kids these days. I never would have been as good as I was at defensive heading at the national team level if I hadn’t played centerfield in baseball/softball. I learned to take a drop step to get ready to catch and throw all in the same motion which replicates the action needed to use momentum to head the ball for distance and power.
As for the strength and conditioning, there are tons of studies and research being done as to why young women are at risk for ACL injuries, so we are in the business to combat those statistics. Bottom line, girls and women get themselves into compromising positions and due to the lack of strength in the posterior chain and core, can’t protect themselves and get out of the position. Eccentric loading exercies, learning how to land and absorb force with big muscles and remapping neurological paths for better recognition is what we believe will change the numbers of injuries and assist making players and those who want to be active for the rest of their lives more equipped to go for it. Look for this series to come out just after the first of the year, but use what I have given you in the meantime to ask questions about those topics to any personal trainer you maybe interviewing. Thanks for checking out Brandi’s World…for the kid in all of us. = ) Brandi
Posted: 10/27/2009 @ 6:27
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