Chan Camp - Summer Fitness Program

Soccer Development and High School Prep Clinic

Girls in Grades 8-12
Director: Chan MacVeagh

Tuesday July 4th to Friday August 11th

Monday through Fridays
8am to 10am @ Downes Field

This year the program will run at Downes (and Skyline) fields and will start Tuesday, July 4th and run every weekday until Friday, August 11th.  Then we will take a break to allow for attendance at the team camp and a short moment of relaxation before high school tryouts.

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To participate, the girls have to agree to complete at least 40 hours of work (2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks).  It does not have to be consecutive weeks but the total time commitment is important.  I strongly encourage coming every day possible as the work builds on itself.

Girls are allowed and encouraged to come for more (T-shirts for the everyone that makes 25 of the 29 days) but I now know that I can't really make any difference if they come for less so I don't want to waste their time (or my time).

2ndly, I will still be tying the fitness work into fund raising for the club/high school.  I am going to ask for a maximum contribution of $350 ($5 per hour) to be given to Brookline Travel Soccer/Friends of Brookline Soccer.

It is far more important to me that the girls work than that we raise money.  No one will ever be denied a chance to train out to lack of money, but it seems like a reasonable way to raise some money for the club so we can continue to get better at teaching soccer in Brookline.   After all $5 per
hour is a lot less than the $50 per hour charged by "personal trainers" and this program is MUCH better.  If you need scholarship help, just contact Rob Sprague and he will arrange it.

3rdly, it has to be the player’s idea to participate. The program is too intense to survive unless it is the player's idea to attend. I kicked two girls out of the program in the first week three summers ago because they didn't want to be there. They were delighted. The parents were mad at me.  Low levels of effort are contagious and I do everything possible to get those players away from the field.

This year we will only run one sessions, from 8:00am-10:00am (Downes).

We work with individuals so that they can understand the specific needs of their own situation.  And if they want a detailed breakdown of what they need to do over the summer when they are not training with me I am happy to provide it.   In general, the summer sessions are focused on the physical and technical weaknesses of each player.   I try not to let them work on their strengths. We do almost no tactical work and very little psychological work.

The structure of each day's practice is 8 12 minute blocks with 3 minute water and shade breaks between each exercise. The water is very important during the summer workouts. Make sure they bring a lot.  Later in the summer we will skip some of the breaks to increase the intensity.

The first 12 minutes are a warm up (dribbling and/or plyometrics),  the last 12 a cool down and the 6 sections in the middle are tied to the physical and technical weaknesses of the group.
 

The structure of the week is based on the idea of tactical periodization and runs as below;

Mon Hard (Max Sprints/Full Recovery, Hamstring/Quad Balance)
Tue Moderate (Core work, upper body strength work, long passing)
Wed Hard (First touch with hard checks, Trap sprint and shoot, Work without rest)
Thu Easy (Core work, Leg Strength, Balance work, Shooting)
Fri Very Hard (Max Effort/Limited Recovery, Lactic acid limits, aka “puke day”)

Sat and Sun---Recovery.

Every day is 70% with the ball.

On the hard days I am focused on training the recovery. We push the pulse rate up to 165-170 for 30-45 seconds and then give the girls a chance to recover in active rest (down to pulse 120). We do no long and slow distance work. The longest they will run without a break is 400 meters during the cool down phase. The model is High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Long and slow will not help.  On the easier days we do a lot of technical, core, strength, and balance work.  It is still tiring but we almost never push the pulse rates past 140.

Each week is harder than the previous week. The girls don't notice.  Most years everyone thinks they are doing less work in the last two weeks when in fact they are doing a lot more. Call me (617-784-1618) if you have any questions.

Finally, I will say this, girls who complete this program will be in better shape than they have ever imagined and their game will improve enormously as a consequence. They are also more likely (but not guaranteed) to survive the crazy high school season (18 games in 10 weeks) without serious injury.

Also, if your daughter is interested in how to build their soccer fitness over 12 months (rather than just over the summer) I am more than willing to take the time to outline the requirements of such a program.  For the most intense players it is often a matter of increasing the rest days, for others it is a matter of understanding that there are no “quick” ways to get in shape.