08 Sep D1 Soccer Speed and Strength Training: How Girls Soccer Players Can Prepare Now
A lot of girls soccer players want to go D1.
But a lot of them aren’t told the truth about what it physically takes to play at that level.
Hi, I’m Erica. I’m a certified strength and conditioning coach in Tampa Florida who has trained girls soccer players for over 14 years A lot of my girls started with me in middle school and then went on to play at D1 schools like UNC, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, UNC Davidson, University of Maryland, UMBC, Charleston Southern, Brown University, Eastern Carolina, University of Houston, Colorado College, Coastal Carolina, University of South Florida and top 25 D3 schools like Johns Hopkins, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Emory.
I know the strength, speed, and conditioning qualities needed at the D1 soccer level to get playing time, and to stay healthy and injury free from the demands of the college game.
Too, it’s worth mentioning this isn’t just for D1. Top 25 D3 schools like Johns Hopkins, Emory, MIT, Washington University, Messiah, Carnegie Mellon, Tufts, University of Chicago, California Luthern, and Swarthmore all require insane speed and strength to compete with the current girls on the roster. Top 25 D3 is extremely competitive.
If you’re a top level ECNL or GA player reading this, your D1 or top D3 college team will be 100x harder than your club team. The girls will be bigger, faster, and stronger, so you have to go in ready to not just survive, but to thrive.
With college rosters being limited, girls in high school need to stand out now more than ever. The reality is, you’re competing against 21+ year-olds who have had years of formal speed and strength training already, so you need to start preparing now.
Because guess what?
At the D1 soccer level, everyone is skilled. Everyone can play the game. Everyone is technically savvy. But not everyone is physically robust going in. Your edge as an incoming college freshman is your speed, strength and elite conditioning.
What to Focus On
This is going to shock you, but prepping for D1 soccer isn’t complicated, nor does it require you to get all fancy pants and do a revolutionary training program.
This isn’t sexy, but you need to master the fundamentals of strength and speed training, and continue to progress over a long period of time.
Something else that might shock you: in D1 college weight rooms, they’re also doing simple. They’re performing the main strength lifts, such as back squats, front squats, hex bar deadlifts, barbell RDLs, split squats, reverse lunges, pull-ups, bench press, and push-ups. It’s your job to not only be competent in these strength lifts, but to be able to lift heavy before going into college.
Build Strength
You must gain strength relative to your own body weight, and work up to it for years. You must start in high school so that you can gradually put more weight on the bar.
The deadlift, for example, is a staple D1 college lift for strengthening the hamstrings for force production and knee injury reduction. Your goal should be to work up to being able to deadlift 1.5x body weight or more, so if you’re 140lb, if you can get up to a 200lb deadlift, you’ve got some serious strength, making you much more likely to handle the rigorous college game.
For single leg strength movements, like single leg RDLs or split squats, stop hanging out at the 10lb dumbbells. You eventually need to progress to heavier loads to truly build single leg strength. My top college girls are able to split squat and reverse lunge 75% of body weight to 1x body weight at a minimum.
Now, this is the one strength movement all soccer girls ignore and it’s pull-ups. Do not think that soccer is just all legs and you only need to do leg day. Upper body strength helps you to be resilient while shielding in the game, improves posture for speed and change of direction movements, and boosts confidence! In the UNC college weight room, for example, these girls are cranking of 10+ pull-ups without assistance, and one of their top girls got 20. Check out UNC’s strength coach, Elena Cantu, on Instagram to see for yourself HERE. Pull-ups are a measure of total body strength relative to body weight, and there’s no greater feat than being able to pull your weight over a bar.
Here are my high girls lifting heavy and getting pull-ups without assistance like totally badasses:
You can see in this video we aren’t doing anything fancy. We are just doing simple well. We are progressing and lifting heavier slowly over a long period of time. A lot of strongest and fastest ECNL girls train this stuff year-round. They don’t stop. What you do consistently gets results. It’s not about doing random workouts and circuits. It’s about progressing the same lifts and movements so you actually gain strength.
You must train year-round to get the biggest improvements. And guess what? You will train strength in-season 2-3x a week on your D1 team, so get prepared for lifting during the season NOW!
Train Speed
Speed standards at the D1 level are insane. I’ve talked to UNC, Duke, Stanford and Auburn’s strength and conditioning coaches and the majority of their soccer players are exceeding over 18 MPH in peak speed, with some of the elite girls hitting over 19 MPH. Do you know how fast you can sprint? I recommend you figure it out ASAP because this is the standard at the D1 level.
Speed training must be done year-round, and you must not stop doing it even during the busy ECNL season. Please time your 10 yard dash, and 10 yard fly ins so you know where you stand. Some numbers you need to know:
Top D1 girls are getting in the 1.6 seconds or less for 10 yard dash, and in the 1.1s or lower for the 10 yard fly. Please time yourself with an accurate timing system, like Freelap Timing HERE so you know where you stand going in.
Also, one more thing with speed: it’s not tap dancing through ladders. Speed is doing properly dosed plyometrics, technical mechanics drills, and max effort sprints. That’s it. You can expect this at the D1 level too. Below is a sample speed training session and how it should look:
D1 women’s soccer programs do very similar speed sessions. Watch this episode I did with Stanford’s strength coach on how basic their speed sessions are:
Final Warning
Girls soccer players, I urge you, if you’re in high school now, please seek out a strength and conditioning specialist in your area or remotely who understands what you need for the college level.
Most of you are either not speed and strength at all, OR you are training and it’s all nonsense like tap dancing and fancy drills that give off the illusion of “speed training.” Tap dancing through an obstacle of hurdles and ladders ain’t getting you fast for D1. True speed training is plyos, sprints and lifting weights year-round under a progressive program that is individualized to you.
The truth is, D1 prep is simple, but not everyone is disciplined enough to do simple consistently.
All of my girls who went onto play D1 were so thankful they were trained properly because they all went in strong, fast, and conditioned, and impressed their college strength coach because they were competent in all the main lifts.
Imagine the amount of confidence going into college as a freshman you’ll have when you have years of experience with a true strength and speed program.
So start now. HERE is another blog I wrote on how to find a good strength coach and what to look for.
Please avoid impostors at all costs, you know, the dudes who just put you through cool drills to post on their social media and sell their bs training. This type of training only looks good for Instagram. Please STOP doing this:
I can promise you that none of this circus nonsense is happening at the college level. My girls tell me this when they get to campus at their D1 programs, and also, several of my colleagues are the strength coaches at top D1 women’s soccer programs and they tell me it’s about being good at the simple things.
In fact, the less viral the training looks, the better.
Look at any D1 strength program’s Instagram account and it’s very simple. Load the main lifts. Be strong relative to your body weight. Lift freaking heavy. Be able to do unassisted pull-ups and perfect push-ups. Be skilled at the main plyometrics like hops, leaps and bounds. Sprint at over 18 MPH top speed.
Are you disciplined enough and want D1 enough to do simple well and train year-round with your strength coach in high school?
Let’s hope you follow through on your words.
Because everyone says they want D1, but not everyone is willing to do what it truly takes to get there.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erica Mulholland is a former college 3x All-American soccer player and now Hall of Famer from Johns Hopkins University. She holds a Master of Science in Exercise Science and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, who has been helping female athletes of all sports with speed, agility, strength, power, and conditioning for 14 years. She is also the author of the best-selling book Female Athlete High Performance.
Work with Erica in Lutz Florida for speed, agility, and strength training: BOOK ASSESSMENT HERE
Work with Erica remotely: BOOK CONSULT HERE
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