🏃‍♀️ Want to mix it up? Make training a game.

What’s up y’all? Cici here.

Welcome back to More Her Speed, a weekly no-BS newsletter all about women in coaching.

The Destination is Worth the Journey

The past couple weeks have been so busy out here in Southern California. Y’all wouldn't believe me if I told you!

I’ve been driving all around the area working with our youth athletes. Sometimes I’m driving for 3 hours at a time. The NFL is in-season, which means we get to really focus on our youth athletes.

There are actually a few differences between working with youth and professional athletes (I’ve touched on them in this newsletter before) but, as always, it comes down to controlling a room.

I’m constantly reminding myself of the things I’ve learned from my mentors on that topic.

1. Know where you are in space

2. Loud, concise direction

3. Meet your athletes where they’re at

Sometimes the difference between a good session and a GREAT one is in the little things.

I do feel blessed to have these opportunities. People outside of our industry don’t realize that it’s not just us showing up for an hour session and leaving.

It’s getting there an hour before the session to manually set up and go over the program, and break down and debrief afterwards.

The demands of this career are certainly not for everyone, but to see posts like this make it all worth it.

The grind is real, and it isn't pretty, and requires a lot of sacrifice and dedication, but knowing that you’re making a difference and visibly seeing it translate and make sense to your athletes will pay you back a million times over again.

How to Game-ify Change of Direction

While I was researching different warmup activities I can incorporate with my lacrosse girls, I came across a cool article about small-sided games and change of direction work in correlation to training.

Now this article examined soccer players specifically, and it goes into great detail about the results they had from the different groups.

This concept is something we have experimented with a ton lately; I’m glad we did.

How do we game-ify the experience for our athletes?

Include games that are functional, transitional and get the athletes competing.

But… a big part of it (as corny as it sounds) is having fun.

These games have transformed our training experience in the last year.

We’ve always made our training fun (as fun as sprinting can be), but by adding more speed games and unplanned C.O.D drills:

• It creates a better overall experience for the athlete

• It prepares them for more in-game situations & scenarios

Not every move an athlete makes in game is going to be predetermined, and it is important to safely expose them to this type of stimulus in training. Especially as athletes are nearing the season.

Quote of the Week

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

-William Shakespeare

Appreciate y’all,

Cici