Inside Athletics | 7/22/2016 10:22:00 AM

With stops at the Celtic FC Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Football Association Spire Perform, Birmingham City FC and Great Britain's U20 National Team, and thanks to the continuing support of the Salquist family, Leach will be meeting with coaches, physiotherapists and other experts in the professional soccer and sports performance world in continued efforts to keep USF's Athletic Performance team at the forefront of their peers. Read more on the trip >>>

Stop No. 2 - Liverpool Ladies Football Club

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  After a successful visit to Celtic FC and navigation down from Glasgow to Liverpool (there are so many round-abouts and I am still getting used to driving on the right-hand side of my rental car and on the left-hand side of the motorway), I was excited to meet with another pro club,The Liverpool Ladies FC, members of the highly competitive Women's Super League 1. The Liverpool Ladies FC club practices and play their home games at Select Security Stadium, which is just a short 30 minute drive from downtown Liverpool, home to that world famous 4-man 60's rockband.  Select Security Stadium is used by several clubs, including Liverpool Ladies, Everton Ladies and is actually home to the Widness Vikings, a rugby league club that plays in the Super League, the top tier league in rugby.  

As I arrive, strength and conditioning coach, Alan Jordan, is working with members of the club during it's regular 30-45 minute pre-training session.  He refers to this pre-session as an activation and mobility preparatory session that involves a series of movements that help to improve hip mobility, flexibility, muscle activation, dynamic stability, as well as movements that emphasize ACL injury prevention.  As each athlete completes their circuit-style activation session, they grab their GPS monitor and sport vest and head out to the field, where the team begins a more dynamic warm-up session to prepare their bodies for today's training session.  This is followed by movement-based hip, quad and hamstring flexibility. A reactive speed and quickness session follows the brief flexibility session as the players are reacting off of Coach Jordan's verbal and directional cues by navigating through a pattern of cones and finishing with a series of juggles and headers in preparation for the small sided game session that is to follow. As the training session continues and we discuss training plans and his methodologies, Coach Jordan will look at his watch and logs on a clipboard the time and length of each segment of practice so that he can place time stamps on the practice session to correspond with the data being collected from each GPS unit.  This allows him to effectively monitor player output during each session of practice and compare that to the coaching staffs' goals for that session.  As practice finishes up and the players circle up for a warm-down static stretch, Jordan works his way around the circle with each player and asks them to give him an RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) score for today's practice session, which is a subjective valuation of each player's physical activity level.  Jordan logs these internal load figures and then uses them to compare to external load data that is being collected from the GPS units that he also collects and will download to an excel file, which he uses to generate a report that he will review with the coaching staff prior to the planning of the next practice session.  

It is impressive to see the trust that Liverpool Ladies Manager Scott Rogers has in Coach Jordan, who is entering his second year with Liverpool Ladies after a successful stint in building a strong strength and conditioning culture with the Everton Ladies program. Roger's trust in his coach allows him to better focus his attention on the technical and tactical development of his squad.  It is evident that Coach Jordan has built a strong rapport with the Ladies and that has really helped to solidify the culture he is now building with the Liverpool club.  In addition to the work he does with the team prior to each training session, he is also responsible for the development and implementation of year-round strength training sessions, which consist of 30-45 minute session 2x/week.  He points to consistency as the key to the success of the program.  Despite the various schedules of each team member and the fact that the strength sessions are held at a local gym because the stadium does not currently have a weight room on site, players are committed to 2 strength sessions during the season and typically 2-3 sessions during the off-season.  Sessions are carefully planned based on player workload, schedule and regular meetings with the coaching staff to plan subsequent training sessions.  This culture of consistency, commitment and communication are clearly key factors that have contributed to a 6-game unbeaten streak( at the time of my visit) and certainly position the Liverpool Ladies FC for future success.  

Next stop, The FA at St. Georges Park.
 
July 19-20 - Celtic Ladies Football Club

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The Celtic FC Ladies Team is professional club with a U20 developmental squad. They practice four times a week with matches on Sunday.  The Celtic FC Training Center is shared by all the clubs, ranging from youth academy level up to the Premier League men's club. The Center is set in a beautiful rural countryside of Lennoxtown, just Northwest of Glasgow, Great Britain. A few of first teamers play and practice for the Great Britain National Training Team in Edinburgh at the National Training Center. Alastair Taylor is the data scientist and handles fitness and conditioning through the planned integration of Playertek GPS wearable devices that monitor each player's volume and intensities of activity during training sessions and matches.  He meets with Celtic FC manager, David Haley, to discuss the goals of each training session and that helps to guide the integration of each fitness session.  Andrew Wiseman is in charge of strength programming, individualizing each players' twice a week program based on the developmental level, position, and goals for each player. Each player is accountable for getting their respective workouts completed, around their tight schedules. While this is a professional team, most all of the first team players hold jobs and fit soccer into their schedules, while the developmental squad is comprised of university and high-level high school age girls. 

Although soccer is not a full time job for most players, do not mistake that for a lack of professionalism nor a lack of seriousness...a perfect example of this was during the pre-session Beep fitness test when players are required to make two consecutive 20 meter sprints within the allotted beeps and a 10 second rest between each two sprints. With each increasingly difficult level, the beeps get closer together.  The player is allowed one miss and is out at the preceding level when she cannot make it through the start line before the third beep sounds. As Coach Taylor gave first warnings and called out players as they finished, players screamed in disbelief as their respective names were called.  It appears that a post-season intensity is already making herself heard and the second half of the season has only just begun.

As we drive back to my hotel, Celtic FC Ladies Manager David Hale, praises the collaborative work of his fitness coach/ data scientist and strength coach and really attributes the success and buy in of the total performance program to the relationship building efforts with the Ladies. They really are key to our success,  he adds.  It seems that, while technology is important in helping collect useful and actionable data, it is still integral to have the right people on the bus in the right positions to ensure a productive and successful trip.