One thing my mom taught me was to follow my heart. While she supported me throughout my entire career, she never coerced me to do anything. Every decision I made in my youth soccer journey was my own, and I'm glad she gave me the freedom to...
One thing I pride myself in is content creation. With over 700 blogs, 800 YouTube videos and 20,000 Tweets on youth female athlete performance training, there's not shortage of workouts and routines for girls to do. But how do you piece this all together? How do...
Talk about big changes during the growth spurt and beyond. Disrupted coordination. Longer torso. Wider hips. Hormonal changes. And so much more. Since this is such a dynamic time physiologically, coaches need to tweak training for young girls so they are safe and develop quality movement. I wrote an article for Stack.com...
This much I know: plyometrics can make or break a female athlete. You will either wear them down, or build them up. You see, plyometrics can be central nervous system heavy, and they take a lot of exertion. The tendons, muscles and bones take immense amounts of...
The human body doesn't work in isolation. It's one magnificent system that works simultaneously to bolster human movement and performance. If the feet, ankles and calves are weak, the pelvis is impacted. If the pelvis is flimsy, the ankles are precarious. If the shoulders and back are weak, the...
I love core training. Similar to the trunk of a tree, a sturdy core allows us to move our limbs freely. But not freely as in awkwardly, freely as in smoothly. Here's what I mean: the core encompasses the lumbo-pelvic area, which is an area that needs to...
I have always marched to the beat of my own drum. If I have a vision, I go for it. If I am challenged, I plunge into it. If I fail, I overcome it. If I'm told what to do, I do something else. If the crowd walks one way,...
I try to keep things light on this blog. With all of the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Beyonce references, my mission is to write about youth athletic development through the lens of simplicity and levity. Writing in pop culture references and sentence fragments...
The hips don't lie. If they're weak, unstable and or lack multi-planar mobility, female athletes will have a tough time handling high forces in the game (at the knee joint), accelerating rapidly, and changing direction at bolstering pace. The hips need to be the strongest and most...
Or, should I say footballer? Any time I have a podcast discussion with a lad across the pond, I have to catch myself when I say soccer, and remember to speak their lingo. This was an excellent discussion on ensuring young girls take training gradually, learn the...