Where I get my motivation

Hey friends! Welcome back to another week in my life. I thought that once my NFL guys went back to camp that my schedule would free up a little bit, but I was mistaken.. and I have no complaints! I have felt a major shift in my focus and my motivation. And to be honest it has come with confidence. I’ve struggled with confidence in coaching since I got started, some weeks are better than others, and I’m sure we can all relate.

One week you feel like everything’s going great and everyone respects you- the next you’re trying to decide if completely changing your career is such a bad idea. But those are times I try to focus the most and not lose track of the vision.

So I recently started back with one of my high school football teams that I worked with during off season as they brought us back on for the rest of season and THAT IN ITSELF IS MOTIVATION ENOUGH TO KEEP GOING!

In-Season Speed Training?

I feel like in-season speed training is almost looked at as taboo with certain sports or is still somewhat of a new introduction to programming. Some coaches think it's too much, some think it will take away from practice time, etc. Now though I believe both of those can be true when monitored incorrectly- I think the opposite is true when done the right way.

Depending on the sport and their respective season, if the athlete’s aren't getting exposure to the speeds they might have to hit in game it can be a risk. Specifically for field sports like football or soccer, there is a likely chance that they will have to hit a high speed during game at some point. If they have not gotten that exposure during practice or training, it can become a liability during competition.

Of course this needs to be done with consideration of time, practice load and diminishing returns, but dosing speed during season is critical. If we take for example TCU, who made it to the National Championship against Georgia- they were FAST (S/O Kyle Bolton and the Performance Staff at TCU). They trained speed all year and obviously something worked.

That doesn’t mean that linemen were out there running 40 yards at top speed every week in practice- but looking at practice and player load and determining who may or may not have hit a high speed throughout the week leading up to the game, and who may have to, is really important.

Not everyone has GPS and an in-depth Sport Science staff, especially at the younger levels, but looking at intended and actual volume of practice and training can give us a good idea of what stimulus is missing or getting overtrained.

Female Spotlight

Speaking of top tier Sport Scientists.. We all know I love putting the ladies on and this week I want to highlight someone I’ve been following for years but just recently connected with- Sam Contorno. It was only a matter of time because one of my recently-arrived college athletes goes to UT and I had to check in to make sure he wasn’t giving her hell. But I’m so glad I did because I love picking other coaches' brains about speed and sport science and no better person to do that with than Sam!

Sam Contorno joined the Texas Longhorn Staff in March 2023 as the Associate Director of Applied Sports Science for the Football Program. She spent the 2022 season as the Coordinator of Football Sports Science at the University of Maryland and before that spent FIVE SEASONS as a Sports Performance Coach and Applied Sports Science Coordinator for the Stanford University Football Program. While at Stanford, she also held roles as the Football Sports Nutritionist, and Sports Performance Coach for Men’s Volleyball & 8x National Champion (2018 & 2019) Women’s Lightweight Crew. So she has definitely earned her stripes!

Sam and I had such an amazing conversation talking about load management and practice reports and all the things that I don’t usually get to nerd out with other people for an hour on, lol.

If you haven’t heard of Sam I highly recommend following and/or reaching out. She’s a great resource not just for women but for anyone in the business. HOOK EM HORNS!

Quote of the week

“Champions keep playing until they get it right” - Billie Jean King

Appreciate y’all,

Cici

See you again next week!

In the meantime, here are 3 ways you can stay tapped in:

1. Get access to more free game here.

2. Join a group of badass women in the More Her Speed Membership here.

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