The Lesson of Tom Blazina

Back in 1982 I was building one of my first businesses, a business dedicated to training top-caliber local athletes. I started the business with $50 and an idea, a story in and of itself, and before I knew it we were wall-to-wall athletes, budding young super stars wanting to make the team, not only to make the team but start, not only start but dominate, not only dominate but be noticed by the top universities in the country.

In other words, they wanted to make an impact on and in their sport…which is their community, the only one that matters to most of them.

You see, an athlete’s sport is the foundation of their identity, their performance defining who they are in every way that matters…to them.

Right or wrong, that is the perception of most top-caliber athletes…they are athletes first, everything else flows from that.

Enter Tom Blazina. Tommy to those who knew him…

Tommy was a young kid.

They all were really.

Tommy was from one of the less “known” high schools in the area. The town he was from considered a “cow town” or out in “the sticks” by most, a “hick town” by more than a few. It was certainly not a St. Ignatius or Cincinnati Moeller level program, even in 1982 two of the biggest high school programs in the state of Ohio; and, emerging as national powers…even back then.

The town Tom was from was barely a blip on the map compared to the bigger cities with their Division 1A programs, their top-tier athletes, fancy uniforms, ultra sophisticated training facilities…the whole shooting match!.

Let’s call Tommy’s hometown Homerville…it kind of fits with the stereotype back then.

Not now…but then!

So anyway, enter Tommy Blazina, a freckle-faced kid with red hair, no kidding, and a slight build. My manager and I took one look at Tom, scratched our heads, and wondered simultaneously where this kid had come from. Even back then, in the beginning, we were selective about the athletes we took on.

After all, we were building a “brand,” although we had no idea what a “brand” was back then…we just called it a reputation.

And we were selective about the kid of kids we took on so we would be able to point to the end product, a physical dynamo in their sport, and claim to have “done it all!”

We weren’t really that bad…but we were being careful and Tommy just didn’t fit the mold.

I made an excuse, went to the phone, and called the sales rep who had signed Tom up for our program. After he settled me down a bit, he explained that he had talked to his coach, his teammates, his parents, and to Tom…and Tom had “something.” None of them, including the rep, seemed to know what the “something” was…but they were certain he had it, it just took someone like us to bring it out of him.

“Someone like us?”

Heck, we were still figuring out just what “us” was!

And there were people out there assigning miracle worker status and abilities to “us” already?

Well, I agreed but with a stern warning to the rep to talk to me before he went out of a limb like that again with our reputation. And, I went on to say, if this comes back to bite us in the butt…it would be his head! I was a bit of a hard-charger back then. I guess I have mellowed some over the years but back then I was real quick with an opinion, particularly when I thought someone else’s opinion was in error and it would affect me and my business.

The ignorance of youth at its best!

My youth, not Tom’s!

Tom was a quiet, respectful young man who fit right in, never complained, and did exactly what I told him to do. In short order, Tommy did fit right in. He would come in, do his exercises, always give 110%, as my people were fond of saying, and left it all in the gym. When Tom Blazina finished a workout, there was nothing left for Tom to give until he recovered; and then, usually in corner of the gym for 20-30 minutes before being able to drive home.

48 hours later, Tommy would do the whole thing all over again.

Well, after a while Tom being Tom just kind of blended into the scenery. He neither stood out for being remarkable or for being a dud…he just merged into the program, did everything he was told to do to the best of his ability, and went home…to return 2 days later and merge again.

By the middle of August, it was time for the football players to go on to their respective programs, high school and college. We didn’t have any professionals that first summer, it was more or less our test season. The kids we trained were our test-cases, our guinea pigs, used to see if what we were advocating, our somewhat unorthodox training methods, worked.
One day, an off day when even the kids who were continuing until basketball and wrestling were off, I sat down with my team and we went over each athlete, their initial test scores on day one, their final evaluations, and our expectations for them for the upcoming season.

Interestingly, when we came to Tommy Blazina we all kind of shook our heads…we just didn’t know!

Tom had come and gone with barely a ripple, and yet he had done everything we told him to do and more. Tom was, quite literally, the kind of kid who would, if you demanded it of him, go out into the parking lot at high noon and bark at the moon…just because he was told to! Tom Blazina put himself completely in our hands, trusting us to do the right thing by and for him.

Why did Tom do it all with such blind faith and obedience? Well, part of it was just his nature. And the rest of it was the realization that he didn’t know what to do to get where he wanted to go, combined with, and here is what none of us got (his coach, friends, teammates, parents, and even Tom got it, but we missed it), Tom Blazina had a white hot desire to be “the” guy! Tom wanted to matter, he wanted to be the king of his world, but he didn’t know how to get there…and he felt we did!

So, Tom left us, we all worried and wondered how he would do…and we waited.

It didn’t take long!

The headlines started in week one:

“Senior Phenom Comes Off Bench and Leads Homerville to Victory”

“Blazina is the Real Thing!”

“Real deal” wasn’t used much back then…but would have been, if someone had thought of it.

By the midpoint of the season, they were talking about Tommy for All-State honors and there was a mention that some of the Big 10 schools were starting to notice this kid from “the sticks.”

By the end of the season, Tom Blazina was one of our poster-athletes, and we had quite a few….dozens!

Tom had quietly put himself in our hands, quietly went about the task of becoming who he envisioned himself to be all along, and then made his statement on the field. Tom Blazina remained a quiet and unassuming young man throughout the season and beyond. Tom was humble and a pleasure to be around. But Tom Balzina had also become the person he envisioned himself to be, quietly and with purpose! Tom had kept that to himself the whole time but he must have had that white hot desire burning in his chest…because he succeeded in a manner none of us, even those who worked with him every day, day in and day out, imagined.

The lesson? Well, there were many!

All the apparent ones:

• Desire…Burning Desire!
• Vision
• The power of envisioning a future outcome or event
• Goal setting
• A mastermind group

Those were all there and worked for him, helping him to achieve his goal.

But he also used us, in a good way, to get what he wanted. He put himself in the hands of a coach, a mentor, and a trainer…sometimes all in one, and did exactly what was asked of him…demanded of him…until he made it! He never argued, he never once said

“Yeah…but!”

He simply enrolled, turned himself over, trusted, and acted!

I think there are several lessons here, and it is my hope you will take from this what you will. Tom’s story is not unusual but it is unique. Think about that one for a while! I have coached a number of Tom Blazina’s over the years and most of them are successful even today, in business and in life. Some are business people, some are coaches themselves, and most are amazing men and women who know the value of a white hot desire combined with the right coach and/or mentor. That combination, along with the willingness to take action, will turn desire into reality every time! Tommy Blazina learned it. I learned it over and over again from the Tommy Blazinas who came across my path and elbowed their way into my life forever…and so can you.

It is never too late!

CoachZ

John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., PhD
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com

Why would a sex-specific, soccer-specific strength and fitness trainer go off the reservation, so to speak, and post a video about small sided games and training?

The answer is really very simple! I was speaking to a group of soccer coaches recently about soccer-specific strength and fitness training and during the question and answer portion, someone asked my my opinion on the use of small sided games as a coaching strategy. Well, he did it, he asked my opinion! During the next 45 minutes, we discussed all aspects of the small sided game technique, pros and cons. I have to tell you, it was a heated discussion.

Small sided games versus the traditional mode, drills!

Frankly, I believe there is room, and in fact a need for, both. That being said, I weigh in heavily in favor of small sided games and, as the title suggests, letting th e kids play! I have used a video, clearly not my own, to illustrate the small sided game technique. The video is a rather tame version of what I used to do as a coach. In all fairness to Jeff, he was teaching them a new technique and, as such, the kids weren’t really up to speed yet.

Speed of play and touches on the ball!

The main benefit to small sided games is in getting your players as many touches on the ball as possible. As the game progresses, the emphasis can change and the restrictions focused so you have to touch the ball once, twice, three times before passing and you need to complete five successful passes before trying to score. You can go two versus three, you can have a neutral midfielder. In other words, mix it up, depending on what your team needs, your weaknesses, and your strengths.

Fully adaptable model!

The real benefit to the small sided game is that it is fully adaptable, quickly and, in many instances, on the fly! You can see a need during training, adjust accordingly, and proceed with training. With drills, kids stand in line, wait their turn, and have limited touches on the ball. The small sided game eliminates this draw back and keeps the kids playing. The latter is far more intense and effective in so many ways.

Small sided games and the D License

I remember way back, well over ten years ago, I was in a coaching clinic for the D license and Tom Turner of Ohio Youth Soccer Association-North (Ohio-North) was the instructor. At the time, the debate about the small sided game technique had reached fever pitch, with Tom being one of the chief proponents, particularly in Region II but nationally as well. The emphasis of his classes? You got it! Small sided games. Well, the crowd was about 70-30 against until the end of the clinic. By then, every coach save one was sold. There’s always one, isn’t there! And this was an intense class, every soccer coach from just about every premier club (top level club teams) in Ohio-North was in that class, and a few coaches from nationally ranked high school and college squads, like Walsh Jesuit. So, it was a tough crowd, but Tom won almost every coach over, not by instruction but by demonstration.

Small sided games gain in popularity and favor

Well, it’s been ten or fifteen years now and the small sided game is the model. The drills of the past? Some things linger and sometimes the terminology remains but the practice defined is different. Unfortunately, drills has remained firmly entrenched in our lexicon. The military connotations notwithstanding, the word drills should be put to bed once and for all. In fact, one of the coaching methods I am currently advertising calls his program 20 drills! UGH! But the guy is good and he has some really helpful strategies. Do I think it could be better? Yes! Are there better programs out there? Not many! So, if you have specific questions you can always contact me, otherwise click the link below for one of the programs listed or the side panel Soccer U.

Three programs to get your team going, made for coaches starting out or wanting to step thing up a notch!

CoachZ
John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com

Youth soccer-specific strength and fitness training always demands the utmost attention to the client’s outward appearance and unconscious signals. Failure to pay proper attention when working with any individual, particularly with kids, because kids are so eager to please, they will often go beyond themselves in order to do so, and that’s when injuries occur.

Brian’s Soccer-Specific Strength and Fitness Training Begins

Brian showed up right on time, Lombardi Time, fifteen minutes early dressed and ready to begin. I sat off to the side and watched as he, without prompting, began the series of stretches we’d covered twice now…he did them flawlessly. Up until now Brian was being tested. And, while testing never really stops, Brian showed me he had the heart to do what I was about to demand of him. You see, so many times it’s the parents that want the program, not the player. If I find that to be the case and I determine that the child is just not into it, I find a way to disqualify the individual, always after a heart to heart with all concerned. There are enough athletes out there who want the best training available without having to force some poor kid against his or her will!

After Brian hopped off the Lifecycle, 20 minutes at random 3, the kid was sharp, I grabbed my clipboard (we document everything) and nodded towards the leg extension machine. Brian smiled and was up on it without hesitation. I watched as he began to adjust the seat so the back of his knees were tight against the seat, just like I showed him. This kid will be working out on his own soon, I thought. I then proceeded to explain to Brian the idea behind leg extensions and the proper form for carrying them out. I told him we were not interested in how much weight he could lift or even how many times! “I don’t care and your muscles don’t care. All I want from you,” I told him, “is to give it 100% until I tell you to stop.” Brian nodded without saying a word and proceeded to do just what I told him.

NOTE: As noted previously, I never take a young athlete to failure with heavy weights, it can damage the growth plates and injure muscle and connective tissue. We are not in the business of producing powerlifters, although I have worked with some of the best, some of the strongest men in the world, literally. However, with young athletes care must be given never to risk injury to growth plates, muscles, tendons or ligaments. Let me say that again…NEVER!

Next, we went straight to the leg biceps (hamstring) curl, followed by the abduction and adduction machines. The only rest Brian had was the time it takes to move from one exercise to the next, he was doing what I call a rapid-cycle circuit. After the first couple of times through, I was setting the proper seat position for the next exercise, always keeping a close eye on body positioning and body language, while he finishing up with the previous exercise. So, after the abduction and adduction, we went to the leg press machine, then on to the hack squat, which we do face-in for quickness, power, and explosiveness. By the time we are finished with the legs, the athlete is looking pretty worn out, Brian was no different…but he was still game.

Upper body:

Brian hesitated a bit when we got to the first upper body exercise. I could tell something was on his mind, so I said “What gives?” He hesitated again and I nodded that it was OK to speak up, and he did. He asked why he needed to work his upper body when he was a soccer player. I smiled and asked him if he had watched any professional soccer, men’s or women’s, or any national team matches. He said he hadn’t, except once in a while he watched the US Men’s National Team and that he would rather be playing than watching it. I smiled and thought to myself that I had been the same way when I could play. Why watch when you can be playing? So, I gave him an assignment: I told Brian he had to watch fifteen minutes of professional soccer or national team play I didn’t care what teams, just fifteen minutes, and give me the answer to his own question in a week. Brian winced but he said OK and we continued with the upper body workout.

The upper body workout focuses on big muscle groups down to the smallest, and in…out. The workout begins with the back and then the chest (in), then works to the shoulders and out to the arms and forearms. Finally, after we had moved from back to chest to shoulders to triceps to biceps to forearms, we go back in and work the abdominals and obliques. By the time we finish, and if the athlete finishes, many times the athlete does not finish, at least for the first few times through, we have worked largest to smallest, largest to smallest, and then core. The workout is intense, focused, and usually takes now more than thirty minutes…after the warm-up.

I would love to tell you Brian finished the first time through but I’d be lying.

Brian stopped halfway through the chest exercises. In fact, Brian didn’t make it all the way through the first four times, then he never stopped again. It was as if he made a decision that he was not going to be beaten, and after that, he rarely ever was! After the first workout, Brian was shot. I mean he could hardly stand up for a few minutes. Then, seeing his mother walk through the front door, he got up, went to the locker room, showered, got dressed, and came out looking like he had been on a stroll through the park. He was not going to show his mother how tired he was. I found out much later that he didn’t want his mom to interfere; she still wasn’t sold on the whole idea.

I smiled at Mom, told her Brian did “fantastic,” and set up his next workout for 48 hours later. She smiled, messed up his hair a bit, and they left the gym with Brian walking just a little bit gingerly. I made a mental note of it, would watch the next workout, and moved on to the Rosen twins…6’6″ twin girls who played basketball for the local high school and were being scouted by every major university in the country.

Brian spent the next week watching professional soccer, and a US Women’s National Team match, he said he liked Michelle Akers, said she was awesome. After the week, I asked him if he needed me to explain to him why soccer players should work out their upper bodies. He smiled, shook his head no, and commenced to work harder than ever on his whole body. Brian was that rare kind of athlete every coach dreams of being able to work with, I was just one of the lucky few to actually have an opportunity to work with him…and many more like him.

Brian started to grow, not only up but out. He was growing taller and, in terms of muscle, width and depth, Brian was getting big! Brian, still not even a teenager, was turning head and would have made any football coach’s dreams come true. But Brian was a soccer player, a dominant one in his age bracket. Soon however, Brian was playing two and three years up…making a huge impact. You see, Brian’s strength and fitness gains were incredible and soon the word was out, we were turning away athletes. As a business, we would have loved to sign every one of them. But as an athletic training company, we could only train so many and do it effectively. We weren’t going to hire just anyone off the street to work with our clients. Many have, we wouldn’t.

Next:

Brian makes the jump to premier (club) soccer, and gets an amazing invitation.

Thanks for looking in! We will begin to discuss actual workouts soon, for those of you who would like to have that sort of information. Please, keep in mind that these workouts were conducted under experienced, adult supervision. Do not attempt these or any other workouts without first getting clearance from your family physician. Every athlete we every trained, and train to this day, has had a thorough physical before beginning our program. No physical? No program!

Take care!

CoachZ
216-712-6526
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com

Brian’s First Workout: Soccer-Specific Strength and Fitness Training and the Making of a Champion!

BUT FIRST: I need to apologize for not getting back to Brian’s Story sooner. No excuses, I just should have and didn’t for a number of reasons. If you stay with me, I promise, it will be worth it. It’s a great story!

If you remember? Brian had finished his soccer-specific strength and fitness training test and was one very shot young man, particularly after his ride on the Lifecycle! But Brian made it, got a slap on the back from everyone, a handshake from his Dad, and his next appointment from me. Dad gave me wink on the away out, Mom kind of shook her head, and Sis was still giggling…yeah, she did that a lot.

Brian’s Appointment: The Next Day

The day after a testing is crucial for a number of reasons but one of the most important is to get them back into the gym and stretching. Why? Well, the story is probably the best answer to that, so here it is:

The next morning early, remember I lived at the training facility so I was there all the time, but it was early, maybe 6:00am, and I got a phone call from Brian’s Mom. No sooner had I said hello, she gave it to me…both barrels! I get a few call like this, and I am never surprised. I can usually tell who is going to call me way before it happens. And it is always the Mom! It is not a knock on moms, I miss mine terribly, but when it comes to protecting their little ones, no matter how big their little ones are, they can be terribly protective. In this case, she was HOT!

Brian’s Mom started with the same script, I could do both sides of the call, I’ve received it so many times. It went like this:

“What have you done to my child?” She just about screamed into the receiver. I should say, we laugh about this call now…but at the time, oh boy!

“What do you mean?” I always play dumb because every call will take a life of its own, and I don’t want to create problems that don’t exist.

“He can’t walk!” Always an issue but never as catastrophic as the moms perceive it to be.

“OK? What do you mean, he can’t walk?” I am trying to find out if he’s sore, in pain or ready for the emergency room!

“Well,” she said, “he’s walking funny and says his legs hurt!” Now, this is a kid who has been playing soccer since he was 4 or 5 and running several miles per match, supposedly.

“OK? Then he is walking, he’s just sore?” I try to put the pain in a different perspective, as soreness and not pain.

“Yeeessss buuttttt!” At this point she was, I found out later, wondering why she was worried about it at all…or as much as she was, anyway.

“OK? Well, he’s due to come in today and I’ll make sure I take extra time to get him loosened up, so he’s not as sore.” Again, I wanted to reassure her and minimize the state he was actually in.

“Well, OK, but I am still not sold on this whole thing!” The truth at last! It is more about her uncertainty with the program itself and what it will do for Brian…and the significant investment involved. Once I get to the truth, I can deal with it. In Brian’s Mom’s case it took time and visible results, nothing more…nothing less.

“I understand, I wouldn’t expect you to be 100% sold until you see for yourself, then judge.”

“OK, what time is he to be there?”

“10:00am but have him here 15 minutes before, so we can talk and he can stretch.”

And that was it, she was fine and Brian was there at 9:30am, not 9:45am!

The First Soccer-Specific Strength and Fitness Training Workout Begins

Brian looked a bit forlorn, even worried, as he stood next to the Lifecycle after stretching for a good 15-20 minutes. Up he went, punched in Random 3 for 20 minutes, and was off.

After 20 minutes he slid off the seat and was, miracle of miracles, walking fine. He didn’t hurt any more! I asked him if he wanted to work out, he hesitated for a moment and then said, “Sure!”

I laughed and told him to hit the whirlpool. The relief on his face and the sigh said it all…Brian was tough enough to have a go if i said he had to but he was also honest enough in his expressions to tell me he was happy to have the day to recover.

I would never have worked Brian out two days in a row like that, never! But I needed him to get in, stretch, and do a little light Lifecycle workout to get the lactic acid that had built up in his muscles as a consequence of the carbohydrates, converted to glycogen and broken down for fuel during the workout, thus causing a build up in his muscles, to be flushed out…at least in part. The lactic acid build up caused at least part of the soreness after a good soccer-specific strength and fitness workout. That, and some micro-tearing of the muscles as they are stressed in a new way, and then under go a process of adaptation and rebuilding, will cause the athlete to experience some soreness. Pain is a different matter and I have known too many strength and fitness coaches who think it’s funny if their charges can’t walk right for a week! They need to be out of the business, now!

Soreness is good! Pain is NEVER good!

Brian’s next workout, the next day, would be more intense. But on the day after testing I needed to see first hand how he was, and if he needed an extra day…Brian did not! He was game for a workout that day, he would be even more so the next….

Brian’s Mom, seeing her boy walking normal again seemed to be happier, and somewhat relieved as well. I knew tomorrow, Brian would be even sorer than today due to something I call the two-day lag principle. Basically, it just means that it is not the day after but the second day that is the most painful. There are a lot of reasons for it but if anyone has ever been in a car accident, they have experienced the same thing…the two-day lag!

In spite of the two-day lag, Brian was in for a real treat tomorrow!

See you then!

CoachZ
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com

Laying a Foundation and Setting the Pace: Brian’s Introduction to Strength and Fitness Training for Soccer Athletes

The night before had been a difficult one for both of us and I wasn’t sure whether Brian would be up for his testing. The testing for soccer-specific strength and fitness training is not really that different from testing for any other sport, it is demanding and takes the athlete to the limits of his or her strength, fitness, and endurance. Soccer-specific testing, many would argue, should be based more on the lower extremities because soccer is played primarily with the legs, ankles, and feet; this is, unfortunately, the prevailing mindset.

Prevailing? Yes!

Correct and proper? No!

For one thing, anyone who thinks soccer is only played from the waist down hasn’t watched too much soccer. Additionally, there is a secret to working out and getting optimal results.

The secret? No, not the new-age “Secret!” Although this secret is perhaps as revolutionary or at least as controversial, particularly among those less-informed. The secret I am referring to is something discovered years ago by bodybuilders. Yes, those heavily muscled hulks, male and female, who work out for hours and pose in front of the mirror a lot. Another stereotype!

Am I going to get cards and letters, phone calls and emails, IMs and smoke-signals about that one!

Anyway, back to the secret. The common perception regarding working out is that if you work out a particular body part more than any other part of the body it will continue to grow and develop until you look something like Popeye (forearms) or Tom Platz (thighs).

Platz? Google him! My age, actually, and an absolutely dominant force on the bodybuilding stage in the late 1970s to mid 1980s. Platz was known for incredible, some argued too incredible leg development. Google him and you judge. He competed with guys you may remember. Arnold? Lou (speaking of Hulks!)?

Back to the thought behind Brian’s soccer-specific strength and fitness test.

The secret? If you don’t find a balance, a proper ratio in the focus of your workouts, upper body to lower, your development and your progress will not be to the levels possible with a well-balanced routine. Hence, Brian’s testing, and subsequent workout programs, were an overall, holistic approach to development focusing as much on the upper body as the lower.

Now that the theory is behind us, only one more thing must be noted before we continue. No one, and I mean no one, who isn’t experienced working with young athletes should ever go any where near them in the context of a strength and fitness coach. Let me say that again in a slightly different way: Do not attempt to train an athlete, particularly a young athlete, particularly a prepubescent adolescent, unless you have extensive, and I mean extensive, knowledge and experience working with kids!

Brian Arrives!

Brian walked in to the facility at a little after 10am EST on an unseasonably cool morning for Northern Ohio, it was mid-May. Funny thing? Mom, Dad, and Sis…still giggling… were right behind him. Mom and Dad thought they’d stay and watch, just to make sure Brian worked hard and did his best. Not on a good day!

Something I learned almost day one in training athletes: loved ones stay home, especially parents! Why? There are a thousand reasons and, believe me, they are all valid. Two stand heads and tails above the rest. One, I tend to get very intense when I work with athletes and, while another coach or athlete will understand this and handle it properly, moms definitely do not! Two, they are a distraction! Moms, dads, wives, and especially girl or boyfriends are strictly forbidden, they are the kiss of death when it comes to intensity. Case closed! So, Mom, Dad, and even Sis were sent packing. I told them to be back in an hour. Mom looked a bit perturbed. Dad was grinning, I think he had an idea why I sent them away and he wasn’t arguing. Sis was oblivious but somewhat disappointed that she wasn’t going to get to see her little brother get worked out…and over!

Brian by this time had returned from the locker room with his gym shorts, t-shirt (no tank tops/muscle shirts), white socks, a clean pair of Adidas, and two towels. He was also instructed to bring two more towels and not to eat anything for two hours prior to his strength and fitness testing.

It’s funny how big a young soccer athlete looks when on the pitch, challenging for a ball or diving for a save. When with their peers, in uniform and competing, even a young boy or girl looks somehow bigger. However, on this particular day, standing in front of me, towels, fitness survey, and doctor’s release in hand Brian looked all of ten years old…and scared to death!

I took the forms, made sure they had been signed and notarized, and set them aside. I asked Brian if he had any last requests. I laughed! He didn’t. I then took one of his towels and set it on a flat bench half way through the circuit of machines set up specifically for testing, the other I wrapped around my neck. I looked at Brian and nodded towards the Lifecycle…he followed.

I take on a slightly different persona when training an athlete. Before and after the training session I am relaxed, even jovial in tone and temperament. My intentions? Simply put, they are to put the athlete at ease. During the session, testing or training, it is all about the work, the challenge, getting the athlete to step up and even out of him or herself…to strive for something greater than anything they have done before. That’s not to say we don’t have fun, we do, but there is a fire just below the surface, a sort of slow, intense burn, and it is that burn I tap into for 30 seconds to a minute, fifteen to thirty times during the test.

The test is intense, Intense, INTENSE!

After Brian did his 20 minutes of LSD (long-slow-distance), he hopped off the Lifecycle and I could tell what he was thinking. He told me later I was right! Brian was thinking, “This isn’t going to be so bad, I can handle this…no problem!” I have been training athletes for thirty years and you can see it on their faces every time; they all have that same look after the Lifecycle. He was even beginning to get a bit of that strut back in his step, in his talk, his manner.

After the Lifecycle we stretched for another ten minutes. I was beginning to see it on his face, that look they all get, the “When are we going to lift!” look. Brian was getting bored, even a bit aggravated…it was all over his face. After all, he was thinking, it’s been thirty minutes and my Mom and Dad will be back in a half an hour. We haven’t even started lifting yet. He kept looking towards the back of the facility where some of the high school football players were putting each other through the paces. That’s where he wanted to be, with the jocks, not up here with me and all of these sissy machines. Stretching!

Brian’s Soccer-Specific Strength and Fitness Training Test Begins

It was exactly 10:34am EST when I nodded toward the first machine, the Kaiser Cam II leg extension machine. Brian looked at me and the look said it all. He hesitated and then asked, “where are the weights?” I smiled and told him not to worry about it and to hop on. Brian looked at me, still not convinced, took a seat and I turned the knob. Immediately, there was a hissing sound, something like a snake…or a ticked-off Brown fan…a compressor in the back kicked on. I told Brian what I wanted him to do, “We are going to go from machine to machine, as quickly as possible with occasional detours to that flat bench where your towel is resting” He nodded and we started.

I pushed Brian from the leg extension to the leg-biceps (hamstring) curl, to the leg press, then over to the bench in about 4 minutes. Brian was a nice rosy shade, somewhere between pink and fire engine red, breathing heavily, sweating, and a little unsteady. I told him to lie on his belly and to bring his left leg up to his buttocks, now he was really looking at me funny!

A couple of the veterans (12 & 15 years old), they had been through the test the week before so they knew it all, had gathered. The veterans, knowing exactly what was going to happen next, were all grins.

Failure the Ultimate Soccer Training Strength and Fitness Way!

I took the towel and wrapped it around Brian’s right ankle and told him to resist, to not let me pull his leg down. Brian did so. I found him to be remarkably strong for his age. Resist down and then pull the leg back up against my resistance on a six count. We did that until he couldn’t lift his leg on his own. Then we switched to the left leg and did the same thing…to failure! As soon as both legs had been fully exercised, we immediately moved (I moved, Brian kind of shuffled) to the machines for the back, three of them, then on to the machines for the chest, two more, all the time returning to the bench to take the muscle group to failure with nothing more than my hands or a towel.

Finally, we got to the bench for the triceps, it was 10:48am EST or 14 minutes into the actual test, and that was it. Brian was done! Or that’s what he thought! Quite red from the exertion and almost totally out of breath in 14 minutes. Brian bolted to the locker room and made it just in time! It seems Brian figured he would eat anyway. After all, he was in shape, he thought. He’d eaten before practices all the time. Besides, Mom said it was OK, he needed his energy! So, Brian had only himself, and his mother, to blame. He confessed after the test and promised to never, ever eat before a workout again. I didn’t say a word!

A few minutes later Brian emerged from the locker room and you could tell by the look on his face, color almost back to normal, that he thought he was done.

Wrong!

I pointed to the Lifecycle and he groaned. That’s right, he actually groaned! It seems someone had told him about the last part of the test. He figured because he had broken the rules and gotten sick as a result that I would feel sorry for him and let him slide. I told him that almost everyone gets sick the first time, mainly because no one is in the kind of shape they should be in, I don’t care if they run fifteen miles during a match!

Brian hopped up on the Lifecycle; a crowd had formed by then and all of them started cheering and clapping! I told him to start pedaling, that no matter how hard it got to never stop pushing those pedals! Pedal as if your life depends on it, and he did…for 12 seconds at level 10 manual! If you know anything about Lifecycles, level 10 manual is a bit like cycling up Mount Everest, particularly after a strenuous leg workout, even one that only lasted all of 6 minutes, with the “failure bench.”

Brian slid off the bike to rousing cheers and applause…he had made it, he was one of the Ultimate crowd now. Brian had passed, he hadn’t quit, he had lost his breakfast; and, he was on his way to becoming a real champion, he just didn’t know it yet. I, on the other hand, did!

Brian’s Mom, Dad, and Sis walked in just as Brian was pulling himself up off the floor. Mom looked at Dad, who was laughing now, and just shook her head. Brian, color almost back once again, stumbled over to his parents, gave them a big hug, and thanked them “for the best gift” he’d ever received. He loved it!

Next? Soccer-Specific Sex-Specific Strength and Fitness Training: Brian Begins the Ultimate Program and Defines the Word Champion!

NOTE: The testing techniques I use have been developed by watching, learning, and employing the techniques of the very best in the world for more than three decades. I was at the gym working out the day the first Nautilus machine was delivered (1976), and then the entire circuit. I watched and read as Penn State went from almost completely focusing on Nautilus when it first came out to moving back to a mix of machines and free weights. The following year they were NCAA National Champions and everyone in Happy Valley was Papa Joe Paterno’s fan, buddy, and pal! I had the pleasure of having one of Penn State’s best training with us at our facility that summer, 1982, just before the championship season. I have never, and I am including professionals I’ve had the pleasure to work with, ever witnessed anyone work harder than that young man. Ohio State told him that at 6’5″ and 265 pounds he was too small for their program! So he went to play for Joe Paterno, became a national champion, and played in the Senior Bowl. Bravo! And go figure!

ON TRAINING AND FAILURE: When I take an athlete to failure I am aware of several things. I won’t go into all of the conditions here are two: One, he or she is already a conditioned athlete and we are not starting from scratch; Two, I am taking them to failure not with a machine or free weights but with my hands or a towel. In doing so, taking them to failure in such a way, I am in total sync with how their body is reacting and how they are dealing with the stress every step of the way.
One more thing! I never take an adolescent to failure with heavy weights and low repetitions, machines or free weights.

NEVER! Workouts for soccer athletes vary and can range from fast-paced circuit training to high repetition, machine and free weight training; and, occasionally, heavier training is employed with older, mature, and seasoned athletes. The program and the intensity varies from athlete to athlete and situation to situation.

The ULTIMATE result of Ultimate Soccer Training, the Soccer-Specific Sex-Specific Strength and Fitness Testing and Training, is an athlete who is faster, quicker, more powerful, more self-confident, and, probably most important of all, more INJURY RESISTANT than ever before! This can be particularly important when training female athletes, given their increased susceptibility to knee injuries. I have never, I will say that again, NEVER, had a female athlete suffer a knee injury requiring surgery after training with me for a significant period of time! Strength and fitness training is not only appropriate, it is essential for today’s soccer athlete, male or female!

See You in the Championship Circle!

CoachZ
216-712-6526
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com

Brian Begins, Quits, and Begins Again: Soccer Strength and Fitness Training Begins!

The first thing I do, I’ve always done, with all of my clients, and Brian was no exception, is to sit down for an hour or so and just talk about soccer, his team, his coach, about school, about life, his goals, and about his family. There are a number of issues I wish to get clear during my initial conversation with a prospective client. And yes, at this point Brian was still a prospective client. First and foremost, I need to find out, one-on-one and without parents present, if the athlete really wants to be there, I mean in that situation and facing a training program that will be both demanding and time consuming. I can’t stress this point this enough during the first visit because it sets the template and establishes the tempo for everything that follows. The soccer-specific strength training and soccer fitness training I’ve developed is different from any other kind of progressive resistance exercise that I know of and, for that reason, the athlete, and his or her parents, must be on-board 110%! If any one person in that dynamic is not totally committed, the enterprise is almost certainly doomed to fail, regardless of how much I know or how hard the athlete trains.

I want to be clear about this, I am not a sports psychologist, although I have been able to get athletes to do things most coaches, teammates, and even parents just shake their heads in amazement over. I’ll tell you why that is in tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow! I am certainly not a priest, a reverend or a minister, although everything, and I mean everything, a client says to me stays with me! No exceptions, ever!

I did have one borderline incident, not with Brian. A young lady I was training, a swimmer, had just lost her mother and there was a sense that her life might be in jeopardy. I had to step forward. Thank goodness nothing happened and she never knew I had spoken up to protect her! Even in such a situation, it is tough to regain a child’s trust after “telling on them.”

Anyway.

Brian and I spoke for almost two hours! We talked about almost everything. I say almost everything because every athlete I’ve ever trained has held something back, initially. The final barriers come down but they come down slowly with time, trust, and mutual respect. Kids, in particular, while easy to win over if you show you respect them and their space (literally and figuratively), are absolutely unforgiving if you violate that trust, ever!

So, after two hours Brian and I decided to give it a shot, there was something about this kid, I didn’t know what it was, but he seemed to have a fire inside, just out of sight and well guarded…but there. My challenge? Get Brian to believe in me, so I could help him to believe in himself! Once that seemingly simple task is accomplished, everything else falls into place. Strength and fitness training is the easy part, it’s the head game that takes time and effort.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy with Brian, not at all. Frankly, it never is!

After the initial consultation, I sat down with the family…even his sister who giggled and rolled her eyes a lot, she was all of 8 (and a future client!). The purpose of the final meeting was to clear up any last minute questions or concerns and to lay the groundwork for the first stage in the process of developing, what I always hope will be, a champion. Soccer, football (American), basketball, track and field, triathletes, marathon runners, male, female, young, not-so-young, amateur, semi-professional, and/or professional, they all begin the same way…with a written statement describing, in detail, their immediate (day, week, month, season), intermediate (1 to 3 year goals), and long-term (3 to 5 years) goals. I realize 5 years isn’t long-term in terms of life-events…but in terms of an athlete’s career, it’s definitely up there.

In the personal statement, I try to get the athlete to be as specific as possible and to really spell it all out, nothing is out of bounds and nothing is discouraged. I want them to think, to dream, and eventually to focus! The written statement was our first step, after getting to know each other during the interview phase, in building a plan that would take shape over the first 90 days and carry us for as long as Brian, or anyone else for that matter, stayed with me. Soccer training had always been about the ball and running for Brian. Over the next few months Brian was going to find out that in order to be a true champion he had to gain control of his body as well.

Brian’s personal statement was a real piece of work. I still have it around the house, all ten pages of it, somewhere. I don’t need it, though, I can see it in my head. Brian wanted to make his Bayview’s travel squad, he said he was tired of playing with a bunch of kids that really didn’t care about the game, he knew he wanted to be a great soccer player and the first step was to get off of that “little kids’ team.” “Then,” Brian continued, “I want to make my high school’s varsity team as a freshman!” This was quite a goal because up until that time, no player had ever played soccer on the Bayview varsity squad as a freshman…there was even an unwritten rule to that affect! Those were his short-term and intermediate goals, along with wanting to play with his friend Paul’s premier club team. Paul was two years older and played Under-11 for the Westside Cobras Premier Soccer Club. Brian wanted to be just like Paul, wear that cool black and red uniform with the cobra, and all! That’s how he described it, too. “I want to have a uniform just like Paul’s…cool.”

Finally, Brian stated for his long-term soccer goal, and it was a doozy! Brian wanted to play college soccer and go to school on a “full-ride,” so “my parents won’t have to spend their money to send me to college.” The final goal told me what kind of a young man Brian was, and, as I remember, it brought a tear to my eye at the time! Brian, it seemed, was a very thoughtful young man.

Well, we had Brian’s goals pretty much mapped out, and now it was time to get down to business. Soccer-specific strength and fitness testing…into the whirlwind! It was the night before the test and I was asleep, tomorrow would be the day. Out of a dead sleep I heard the phone ring, at first I thought I was dreaming. I remember it like it was yesterday. Heck, I remember most things about my experience with Brian that way. You’ll understand why as time goes on.

Soccer Strength and Fitness Training Begins…except….

Anyway, I thought, “Who the heck is calling me here at this hour!”

I was actually more than a bit aggravated and it must have come across in the tone of my voice because whoever it was hung up as soon as I said hello…more like yelled hello! Well, I hung up the receiver, tuned over, and put my head back on the pillow. No sooner had I gotten comfortable, and halfway back to sleep, the phone rang again! This time it was Brian, he sounded upset. I looked at the clock radio next to the bed, I was living at the training facility at the time, trying to put everything I could back into the business, and sleeping on a fold-out couch in the office.

It was 1982 and it was 1:00am! Of at least those two things I was sure. Oh yeah, I remembered my name, too!

After my mind cleared, I asked Brian what was up. He said he was sorry for calling so late, and I said not to worry about it. Then, and I’ll never forget this, he said “Coach Z, I found out how much money my parents are spending for this program and I can’t let them do it. I’m going to have to quit.” Then, he hung up before I could say a word.

While I was still trying to figure out what had just happened, trying to clear my head so I could think about what just happened, the phone rang again. Yup! It was Brian. The phone went dead for a moment and I thought he had hung up again. Then, faintly, I thought I could make out what sounded like sobs and sniffles. Yes, I could hear him clearly now, he was crying. I waited until he was ready and we started to talk. It took a while but he finally settled down a bit. I could tell he was holding something back but didn’t want to push it. Besides, this was a discussion beyond his years, one that should have been between his parents and me. But Brian wasn’t going to let this drop and I could tell he had more on his mind, that money wasn’t the whole story, so I pushed a bit.

I said, “Brian, your Mom and Dad only want the best for you and this is the best program available in this area right now. Besides Brian, they’ve already paid me.” He didn’t say anything for a moment, then a moment turned into a minute; and, finally, after what seemed like an eternity he said, “Well, you’ll have to refund their money because I am not going to do it! I can’t!” The receiver went dead again and this time Brian had hung up on me. He was finished talking..or at least I thought so.

By this time it was close to 3:00am and it was clear that sleep was out of the question, my mind was racing, going in a thousand different directions at once. So I got up, put the sofa bed back together, and headed for the showers. Oh well, we’d be opening in a couple of hours and I could get my work out in beforehand. I was just drying off after working out and showering, it was almost 5:00am, when the phone rang again. I knew who it was, so I wrapped a towel around me and ran for the office, getting there just as he was about to hang up (I found out later). I must have picked it up on ring fifteen or twenty! Clearly, Brian wanted to talk.

Once again, I waited for Brian to begin speaking. After what seemed an eternity, Brian told me he was afraid his father would be laid off and they wouldn’t be able to live there any more, the only home Brian had ever known. You see, Brian had listened in on his parent’s conversation about how they were going to make ends meet, put him through my program, and still keep the house if there were any more lay-offs at the steel mill. You see, between 1980 and 1984 almost everyone was laid off at one time or another at US Steel or the Ford plant where a lot of his soccer teammates’ dads worked. The same was true across the rust-belt but Bayview had been hit particularly hard.

A Child’s Solution.

Brian, hearing this and wise beyond his years, took it all in and decided, entirely on his own, that he would step in and fix things for his Mom and Dad. Brian was going to give up his soccer strength and fitness program and, to his way of thinking, his dream of playing soccer beyond his community recreation league team.

Of course Brian’s thinking wasn’t informed and it wasn’t based in fact, at least not all of them. It was, however, based on Brian’s love for his family and his tremendous sense of obligation, unless I could make him understand that things would be OK, he was lost to the program. Trying to think and open the business up for the early birds, I knew what I had to do. I told Brian things would be fine. After a moment to work things out in my head, sell a Gatorade and a PowerBar, and give someone a spot, I promised Brian I would work things out with his Mom and Dad so that if his Dad was ever laid off, and couldn’t afford the program for Brian, I would indeed refund all of his fees and continue to train him, as well.

At first, nothing. I mean not a sound! And then, he started to whoop and holler and cheer and yell! Now, keep in mind that it’s 5:00am on a Saturday morning and his parents have been asleep through this whole thing! I can only imagine, I now know, what Brian’s Mom and Dad thought as they jumped out of bed to see who or what was attacking their son.

Me? I couldn’t stop laughing! Out of joy? A sense of doing the right thing? Relief? Lack of sleep? All of the above? People all over the gym are looked at me like I had a screw loose or something. In the span of about 60 seconds, the tension broke, the problem evaporated, and I convinced a champion, because in every sense of the word he was one, that people do care for each other and he could achieve his goals, if he worked for them. It was all up to him.

Brian had, through his sense of responsibility and duty to his family, shown me, his coach for the next few years, what a true champion is made of long before his next match was ever played. The soccer specific strength and fitness training would contribute to his play, even to his confidence, but Brian’s championship character was cast in granite and formed long before we ever met. What happened next was amazing and….

Next: Brian’s Soccer-Specific Strength and Fitness Physical Test…and a new rule. No more eating before work outs!

See you on the pitch!

CoachZ
216-712-6526
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com

Brian and Motivation: To Believe in One’s Self!

When working in the area of sports motivation, a coach is presented with myriad challenges almost at once! This is particularly true when done in concert with, and in the context of, sport-specific, sex-specific strength and fitness training. In this case, I was working with a young boy, Brian, who was 10 years of age when we started working together. In Brian’s case it was crucial to develop a motivational climate that was both positive and encouraging in nature. The challenge when dealing with high-performance, top-caliber athletes, even at Brian’s age (or perhaps even more so!) is to balance positive feedback with constructive suggestions meant to develop the athlete physically and psychologically. The coach must strive to encourage and develop an environment, a relationship, more carrot than stick.

Just entering adolescence, and puberty, Brian had a particular constellation of challenges that only an experienced fitness instructor/strength coach should have gone anywhere near! Fortunately for both of us, some of my most difficult clients ended up as my finest students and life-long friends! This would be the case with Brian, a diamond in the rough, a jewel to be treasured years into the future. His children have been my clients, and now, Brian is talking about his grandchildren, when he has some, becoming part of a legacy that started with a quiet, shy, even nervous young kid. A young boy who would become a champion. A champion in every sense of the word!

But that part of the story begins later today….

Tomorrow: Brian Begins, Quits, and Begins again!

Until later today? YUP!

See You in the Cheap Seats!

CoachZ
216-712-6526
coachz@ultimatesoccertraining.com