In this episode, Host and CEO of The Freshman Foundation®, Michael Huber reconnects with performance coach Erica Mulholland for an honest conversation about what young female athletes REALLY need to perform and grow — on and off the field. As a soccer dad himself, Michael brings personal questions to the table: How do you support without pushing? When do you step in — and when do you back off? Erica shares wisdom from 12+ years of coaching girls in strength, speed, and confidence. From speed training myths to the power of parental involvement (without the pressure), this episode is packed with takeaways for anyone supporting a teen athlete.
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Timestamps & Topics
00:00 – Reintroduction to Erica: Michael welcomes his first-ever returning guest and explains why this conversation is personal.
01:20 – Why Parents Matter More Than They Think: Erica breaks down how parents can be part of the athlete’s “team”—especially with nutrition, rest, and recovery.
06:00 – The Problem with Misaligned Messaging: When coaches, parents, and specialists aren’t on the same page, the athlete suffers.
07:30 – A Smarter Way to Create Behavior Change: Erica shares how she gets buy-in from athletes and parents without pushing supplements or rules.
10:00 – Visual Learning and the Gen Z Athlete: Why showing — not telling — goes farther with today’s young athletes.
12:30 – The Long Game of Nutrition and Growth: Erica and Michael share their own experiences navigating nutrition and behavior change over years, not months.
15:30 – When the Feedback Hits Hard: Michael shares a story about his daughter’s speed limitation—and how she wasn’t ready to address it yet.
17:00 – What Proper Speed Training Really Looks Like: Erica explains how most soccer players train speed incorrectly—and what actually works.
20:15 – Why Consistency is the Secret to Progress: Like mental training, speed and strength gains come with regular effort over time—not quick fixes.
22:00 – Competing Against Yourself: Erica encourages athletes to track personal bests instead of comparing themselves to teammates.
25:00 – The Role of Decision-Making in Speed: True speed isn’t just physical—it's cognitive. Reaction time, anticipation, and awareness matter.
29:00 – What College Coaches Actually Want: It's more than just speed. Erica shares what college and club coaches look for beyond athleticism.
34:00 – ACL Injury Risk: What Can Be Done?: Erica outlines practical ways to reduce injury risk, including strength training, sprinting, and nutrition.
39:30 – The Fitness Test Trap: Obsessing over fitness tests can lead to overtraining and underperformance. Erica recommends training for the game, not the test.
42:55 – “What Should I Do as a Dad?”: Erica offers one piece of advice to Michael—and every parent—on how to support their athlete daughter the right way.
00:01.51
Michael Huber
Hey, Erica, how are you?
00:03.49
Erica
I'm doing great, happy to be back.
00:05.77
Michael Huber
ah Yeah, my first repeat guest. And you know I reached out with for a very specific purpose, which we'll talk about in a bit here. But just for those listening who maybe didn't hear our first episode, but I think was back in 2021, just tell people a little bit about yourself.
00:22.57
Erica
Sure, so I am a performance coach to young female athletes. I've been doing it for over 12 years and I got into this because I saw the benefits that I got from doing strength and speed training when I was a young soccer player. And I just really want to pass that on to female athletes of today because it is really powerful for performance, injury reduction, but also mental health and confidence. So yeah, just really grateful to be doing this work and spreading the message.
00:52.81
Michael Huber
Yeah, and and i i I love the message and I love the work that you're doing. And I think your perspective is strong and unique and is what young women need. And and and frankly, the reason I reached out, and i I've told you this, but for listeners, like I reached out to Erica because I wanted to have this conversation on air as a father to a 14-year-old soccer p player who has aspirations of playing at the college level and has put a lot of her time and energy and identity into the sport.
01:22.08
Michael Huber
And i think one of the areas of. Deficiency and not necessarily in a negative way is that are the things that i could just explain right the speed the strength. Kind of the other stuff not the ball at her feet stuff but the stuff that's gonna be required to make it to the next level and understanding as a father like what can i do to help my.
01:42.24
Michael Huber
daughter you know and to encourage her but also not push her to give her good information but also let her find her own way right and as somebody who does this does this work for a living maybe that's a good place to start somebody who works with this age group and does that for a living like what are some of the challenges you see with the young people that you work with in terms of them buying in and maybe their parents
02:04.58
Erica
Yeah, I think that's such a great point that we need to bring the parents into this discussion on why we do strength training, why girls need to be proactive with their nutrition, making sure they're getting enough recovery and sleep.
02:17.75
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
02:18.45
Erica
I think everyone at this point now knows why these things help with performance and injury reduction.
02:22.91
Michael Huber
Yeah.
02:24.66
Erica
So it's really important that with our young female athletes, we have a team for her. So we have her performance coach, her team coach, but also her parents are part of her team for her to be successful at these things. And we can't just put full responsibility on a 13, 14, even 15 year old girl because she has to really learn the way and be role modeled some of these behaviors, whether it's from her coaches or from parents in the household because once she's exposed to those environments and just being surrounded by this team of people then that's really going to set her up for success and um I always try to have parents understand the importance of what we're doing but also some things they can do at home to help her especially nutritionally just making sure that first and foremost she's getting enough calories so that means
03:22.72
Erica
things like not skipping breakfast or not rushing in the morning and really front ending those things and maybe preparing breakfast the night before, setting the table with the cereal bowl or whatever you do to just save some time in the morning so she can get calories.
03:37.96
Erica
So there's just some like really easy tips to help parents and kind of make it fun with their girl and be like, Hey, let's get breakfast ready tonight.
03:41.88
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
03:46.85
Michael Huber
Yeah.
03:46.90
Erica
Or let's maybe wake up just 10 minutes earlier. It's not going to kill anyone. Wake up 10 minutes earlier. and and we do this together. And I actually was really inspired ah by my mom when I was young because she's very over prepared in everything she does.
04:03.51
Erica
So we would cook together, we would pack lunches together. And, um you know, not only was it good for my soccer performance and making sure I was getting the calories, but it also was a really good bonding moment for us to just learn these things together and be a team.
04:19.27
Erica
And I always look back on that and I just think it's such ah a powerful thing to get parents involved because oftentimes, and this is a big challenge, parents will say to me, well, my daughter doesn't eat healthy or my daughter doesn't eat enough.
04:32.92
Erica
And I'm like, well, she's a teenager and she does need to be guided in some ways.
04:33.78
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
04:38.58
Erica
um we We can't, again, put that full onus on her. she has to be shown the way and then eventually she will gain that autonomy and get into those good habits and it'll become second nature maybe when she's 17, 18 years old or even in college and she's learned these skills.
04:56.02
Erica
um So I think again it really comes back to that team effort, the whole household has to be on board, the coaches have to be on board and we just have to support these girls.
05:07.14
Michael Huber
Yeah. So I think that that second point, that sort of autonomy motivation piece is a big one and and I want to get to that because as ah as a parent, it can be really hard sometimes because you want to push them to do these things, but sometimes they're not ready, right? So I kind of park that for a bit, but I like what you said because I experienced this in my work, right? So as a mental performance coach, what I am experiencing more of is there are teams of people around young athletes right it's not just i go to my school team or i i don't just go to club i've got these other people who are helping and it's great right because you've got resources but i think one of the things that's starting to come up for me particularly is
05:47.50
Michael Huber
communication, right? They have a team, but not everybody's communicating. And there's also conflicting information that's being given, right? Someone comes to me and I'm giving my expertise and ah experience to help them.
06:00.44
Michael Huber
And someone actually on the other in in that circle might be contradicting what I'm saying, and we're not talking to each other.
06:01.45
Erica
Thank you.
06:06.71
Michael Huber
Do you have that experience? Or are the teams that you're working on for your athletes, is everybody sort of working together to sort of pull in one direction?
06:15.70
Erica
Yeah, we're all working together, whether it's me and the kid or me and the parent. And I'll give just ah an example of um a behavior I wanted some of my female athletes to change, especially post workouts. I want them to consume protein within the first 30 minutes after working out so that they can start the recovery and repair process. and make that workout useful and start to rebuild those muscles.
06:39.58
Michael Huber
Right.
06:40.59
Erica
So instead of telling the girls, hey, you need to have more protein after the workout. Instead, I brought samples into our gym of chocolate shakes and protein powders that actually taste really good.
06:53.31
Erica
And I'm just like, after our workouts, I'm like, Hey, just try this. And they'll try it.
06:56.59
Michael Huber
Right.
06:57.26
Erica
And they're like, Oh, wow, that's really good. And then I start to say, Okay, well, here are the benefits of doing this. Here's why I do it after a workout. Here's why Alex Morgan does it after a workout. Um, and then when I go outside and say hello to the parent, I say, Hey, just letting you know, we provide a protein samples in the gym today. You might want to try this powder because your daughter thinks it tastes really good. This is a powder that I think is clean and it's really, ah really great supplement post-workout. And then the parents like, wow. Um, yeah, like send me the link for that. I will buy that. so
07:30.25
Erica
And I don't sell these supplements.
07:30.26
Michael Huber
Right.
07:32.22
Erica
I'm not an affiliate.
07:32.64
Michael Huber
Right.
07:33.10
Erica
I just give what I think my girls like and they're going to stick with and um just putting them in that environment. So putting the protein shake in front of them helped with the behavior change and then telling the parent about it.
07:44.81
Michael Huber
Sure.
07:47.35
Erica
So that's just like kind of one example how I do it.
07:50.56
Michael Huber
Yeah. Yeah. So really you're creating the conditions, right? For that behavior change, right? It doesn't guarantee it, but certainly you're moving them in that direction by creating the environment for them to at least engage and experiment, which I think is great. Now I know you do a lot of, um,
08:09.99
Michael Huber
virtual coaching, right? Does that change for your virtual coaching clients because they're not physically in a facility? Is it harder to kind of lead them in that direction?
08:19.88
Erica
Um, so for my virtual clients, I still include the parents in the conversation. So when athletes sign up with me virtually, I have both the parent and the athletes sign a contract. Hey, like it's your responsibility to take charge of these workouts and feel your body. And with that being said, remote training is for a very specific person.
08:42.34
Erica
um It's not for everyone. Some athletes are motivated by going in person and they just need to know that. um I'm very clear on my consults. If you are not a self-motivated athlete and you don't like working out on your own or being like completely left alone, then this probably isn't for you.
09:01.60
Erica
So find someone in person to get into these good habits and then maybe you can come back to remote if you choose.
09:07.57
Michael Huber
Right.
09:09.14
Erica
Um, but I send all of my remote athletes a nutrition guide. And I think with girls, it's really good to explain to them, Hey, here are the consequences for performance and injury. If you're.
09:21.49
Erica
not eating this or if you're not hydrating throughout the day and letting the parents know those consequences so they can get involved, not micromanaging their daughters and um you know giving advice, but kind of like my mom did, just getting involved, cooking the meals with your daughter, preparing lunches, or you know getting the hydration drinks ready for the tournament.
09:23.30
Michael Huber
Sure. Yeah.
09:45.33
Erica
I think it doesn't need to be this thing where you nag, you just you just do together. um I think that goes a much further way. And um a lot of these girls are visual learners, so they have to be shown these habits because no one likes being told what to do.
09:57.06
Michael Huber
Sure.
09:59.58
Michael Huber
Yes.
10:01.75
Erica
Even you us adults as professionals, we don't like people.
10:04.18
Michael Huber
Nope. Nope.
10:06.38
Erica
Yeah, no one does. But um I think when you show or you explain or even ask questions is a good one.
10:17.02
Erica
I've had some girls where They forgot to eat breakfast and I just say, well, how did you feel during the school day? And they're like, well, I had a headache and I was tired. And and then they kind of answer it themselves.
10:30.05
Erica
oh So those are just some ways to to do it.
10:30.03
Michael Huber
Yeah, exactly.
10:34.04
Michael Huber
Absolutely. Right. And I think you I've been doing a lot of work and research and some speaking around sort of working with Gen Z athletes, right? Which is basically the teenagers that we work with. And those three of those things that you just rattled off are right in the and the and the and the wheelhouse of, right? Like,
10:55.30
Michael Huber
um visual learning, right? Explaining why, right? Asking questions, right? You're kind of, you're you're planting those seeds, but you're also not telling them what to do, right? They're figuring out for themselves based on the information and the questions that you're asking, they're starting to formulate like sort of these, you know, behaviors. And it feels like they're their own behaviors, right which they are ultimately they have to execute, but like we're planting the seed and they're going, oh, that's my idea versus like some adult is telling me what to do and I'm going to do exactly the the opposite of it, right which is something I do with my own daughter. right i Her eating habits are not great.
11:36.53
Michael Huber
Well, rather than like scolding her or shaming her for what she's eating, you just say, hey, you need to understand like, this is the consequence of eating this thing. Or if you don't eat breakfast or you eat this thing, right? Like sugar, right? Like, oh, I like sweet stuff. Well, okay, you're 14, you could probably handle it, but here's how it's gonna affect your performance or your energy is gonna crash because you ate this thing. Now you're starting to give them the information to go like,
12:03.62
Michael Huber
hey maybe i am more aware of the fact that i just ate something that was complete junk and it made me feel like crap and i don't want to feel like crap because it's gonna affect my play now they're starting to formulate those decisions on their own and seeing it as adults it takes patience for us to let them formulate those ideas in their own head over time, because right away they may be like, I'm not ready for this. And we have to watch them go through some of the struggle before they get to the light bulb moment of like, Oh, I need to do this. You know, and we have to be okay with that.
12:36.37
Erica
100%. And a lot of these behavior changes, especially with nutrition, it does take a lot of time. And for me personally, my nutrition journey has taken until I turned age 30.
12:49.68
Michael Huber
Right.
12:50.20
Erica
You know, I started to figure it out a little bit more in college because a lot of the things I ate in high school I could no longer get away with.
12:57.40
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
12:57.45
Erica
And I wanted to get to the next level and I wanted to feel good and not fatigued all but all the time.
13:00.22
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
13:02.81
Erica
So that consequence, I kind of had to make those changes on my own. And then when I graduated college and got into my late twenties and thirties, then the hormonal problems came in.
13:12.70
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
13:13.85
Erica
And then I was like, Oh my gosh, I really need a tweak again and eat even better and hydrate more and have more protein and more healthy fats and less sugars and stop drinking alcohol.
13:26.33
Erica
And these are hard decisions and they take discipline, but I would rather get rid of my symptoms and feeling like crap than just getting that instant gratification from having something that that's not going to make me feel good for the long haul.
13:28.77
Michael Huber
Yes.
13:41.04
Erica
So I think it's just a long process. and
13:43.45
Michael Huber
Sure.
13:44.66
Erica
Some people have to go through those natural consequences to make a change. And like you said, have that light bulb moment.
13:49.22
Michael Huber
Yes.
13:51.42
Erica
But I do think it is worthwhile with these girls when they're young to start planting these seeds so that maybe they come to this realization a little bit sooner than in their late 20s.
14:04.40
Michael Huber
Yeah, yeah. and i And I think you said something there right from your own experience, right? And this is something that i'm I'm very big on, which is like, if I think I want to be a college soccer player, then I need to understand that the behaviors that I exhibit today are connected to that. Now, when they're 14, they may not get that or they may not know. They might not be experienced enough. They might not be mature enough to understand that what you're telling them is true. They need to figure it out for themselves, but eventually they'll start to go like, hey, this isn't going the way I want to. I'm not playing the way I want to. I'm not progressing the way I want to. I'm not getting recruited. Maybe there is something
14:44.97
Michael Huber
to what that adult said to me before and now I'm ready to adopt it because I want to get here, right? That takes a little bit of time. So that kind of leads me to something that I'm certainly going through right now and I think it's it's a different topic but it's connected in terms of motivation. So my my daughter plays in a club where she's a 2010 She has kind of sniffed 2009 with the club, the older club where she's played on that club. And that's sort of like her like, I want to say it's her fixation, but she's always like, I want to play up. I want to play up for whatever reason. Right. And it's a very good team. They've been together and they're successful. Um, but she went to her coach and she said, Hey coach, like, why aren't I getting more attention from the club owner? And he said, number one point blank, you're not fast enough.
15:32.94
Michael Huber
right? You're a good player, you're a leader, you're a talker, you're skilled, like we like you in the back. She's the center back and she's sort of like the quarterback, but she's not fast enough to play the style this older team plays. And so she was like, okay, well, now I know. And I'm like, well, do you want to get some coaching to become faster? And and she was just like, nah, I'm good, you know, which I was like, okay, that tells me a lot.
15:55.47
Michael Huber
Like I want to know the answer, but I'm not ready to change. And I think part of it is the discomfort with now I have to adopt a different training style that I'm not comfortable with. Or now I've got to like address the shortcoming that's going to make me feel bad about myself. I like to focus on the things that make me feel good, right? The things I'm good at versus addressing the things I'm not so good at.
16:16.75
Michael Huber
and so like that's been a kind of an issue and I see her like jogging more and which I kind of plant the seeds in her head like if you jog yeah it might help you but like you're you're you're actually slowing yourself down right you want to train faster to be faster that message hasn't clicked yet so like when it comes to speed like do you see that like that like That may be reluctance to train differently to get a different result from young people, or do the athletes you're working with buy in right away to the idea that, hey, I've got to train a different way to get faster.
16:49.49
Erica
Well, it's very interesting, especially in the soccer community. A lot of them are not training speed properly. so When they come to my sessions, they're like, what is this?
17:00.32
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
17:00.94
Erica
um Because they're expecting a certain thing. They're expecting you know doing footwork and in ladders for the full hour. I'm not totally against ladders, but if I have limited time with athletes to develop speed, then I'm gonna do something else that is going to develop more of their fast twitch muscles and also really fire their nervous system because that's what speed is about.
17:25.53
Erica
And I also want to do things that build stride rate and stride length in sprinting because that's what sprinters need to be fast. um So we are doing a lot of jumps. We're doing a lot of time sprints, especially sprints that are over 30, 40 yards in distance so athletes can reach full top speed and really raise that ceiling on how fast they're running. So yeah, I just find that a lot of soccer players are asking questions in those first few sessions, but then eventually a lot of them grow to love speed training because
18:00.59
Erica
It's a lot of high intensity outputs for six seconds or less where they're going as hard as they can, whether they're timing a sprint or racing against someone else. And then we rest for three to five minutes. So the sessions are intense, but there's a lot of recovery within them because you can't develop speed without recovery because the body doesn't replenish ATP that fast in between those sprint sets. So you have to have the recovery in between to get that adaptation.
18:30.53
Erica
um So yeah, my athletes grow to love speed and they don't run like that at practice because most of these teams are practicing on like a quarter of the field because there's so many teams in the club or
18:33.00
Michael Huber
Yeah Right
18:44.24
Erica
not even using half the field. So when my athletes run that 40 yard sprint, they feel free, they feel like they're finally flying and picking up some speed. So yeah, they grow to love speed, even though the first session, they're like, I don't know about this. But I just tell them just stick with it. You have to trust the process. Speed is also something that you have to be consistent with.
19:08.34
Erica
year round, it's not developed within even one month's time. I mean, three months, you can get a little bit faster if you're consistent with twice a week training.
19:19.28
Erica
But even chat GPT, if you Google it right now, AI will say it's like the top thing it says, you need to do speed training consistently. And I'm like, even AI gets it.
19:29.60
Erica
So you have to keep sticking with it even
19:30.07
Michael Huber
yeah
19:33.22
Erica
My track coach colleagues who work with the fastest athletes in the world, the fastest Olympians in the world, they say you have to just keep showing up and just plowing away at that speed and you keep getting incre incrementally better.
19:47.19
Erica
And I think some soccer players just think it's going to happen so quickly. But I'm telling you, this is a several year process to reach your speed ceiling.
19:55.03
Michael Huber
Mm hmm.
19:56.98
Erica
I didn't reach my ceiling probably till I was a senior in college. That's when I think my speed actually peaked because I had all those years under my belt through my growth and development and getting those fast twitch inputs into my body. That's when I really reached my peak. So yeah, you just have to stick with it.
20:16.78
Michael Huber
Yeah, no, I love it because actually it's one of the things you know from a professional standpoint that I struggle significantly with on the mental training side. It's the same thing. That consistency is something that is really hard to communicate of like, you need to be doing this, like maybe not 12 months round, but you need to be working on this consistently every single day for extended periods of time. This is not something you just do for two months or three months and say, I'm fixed. Cause as soon as you go back out and you're not practicing it, you fall back into the old habits of thinking. Same idea, right? Like, and I think what you said is really valuable because it's also about adopting a growth mindset of like, hey, this is not about being fast today. It's about getting faster to when I really need it, which is when I'm playing against better players in four, five, six, eight years. And I'm always trying to challenge myself um challenge myself to get better. And I think what you said about
21:14.25
Michael Huber
The nature of the training makes complete sense, right? Like from an attention stand span standpoint, it actually is like, hey, we're doing these short spurts and then you're getting five minutes or three minutes off. Like that actually fits your personality as a young person versus, hey, I'm going to go jog for 30 minutes and be bored out of my mind and be thinking about all this different stuff when I could actually just work hard for six or eight seconds and then be done.
21:36.44
Michael Huber
and then rest and talk and whatever you know drink my water and it actually fits their profile but they've got a i think a lot of times or at least i'll just take my daughter i think there's just a fear about doing something she's not good at she loves to do the thing she's good at and she hates to do the things that she's not good at because it makes her feel bad about herself which Obviously it's something that's you got to work on. I mean, do you see that? Do you have athletes who come through your programs or are like, Oh, I want to do the things I'm really good at. And I don't like this thing that makes me uncomfortable.
22:08.44
Erica
um Yeah, I'll sometimes see it, but within speed sessions, yes, I want the athletes competing against each other, but speed is something that's so different across every athlete because some athletes are just genetically very fast.
22:21.93
Michael Huber
Yeah.
22:22.22
Erica
So they're always going to get the fastest times, even if they don't try as hard. Whereas the rest of us actually have to work hard and really show up.
22:26.09
Michael Huber
Yeah.
22:29.45
Michael Huber
Yeah.
22:29.86
Erica
And I always tell athletes with speed, yes, you want to race and compete and try and win, but you also want to beat yourself. So over time, you want to track the times of your sprints.
22:42.25
Erica
You want to look at those incremental improvements. You're not going to PR and get a new, like best time every single week. It might come every few weeks initially, or the longer you train, the less those PRs come around because you adapt. So yeah, you just want to keep your eyes on your own paper and just look at where you started on day one. So if you're timing your 40 yard dash.
23:05.23
Erica
look at day one and then evaluate three months later, did I get better? And that can give the athlete confidence that look, speed can be trained. I can always improve the the more that I stick with this. But again, it does take some time to transpire to like see those drastic results happen.
23:25.00
Michael Huber
Yeah. And I think a question that comes up for me, again, as a father who knows enough about soccer to be dangerous, but is not a soccer expert, which is from a speed perspective, are there positional differences and are there style of play differences, right? So for certain clubs, they might play different styles of play. Does that factor in at all? Or does it not matter?
23:51.45
Erica
For our young athletes, I don't get that too detail-oriented right away.
23:55.17
Michael Huber
Okay.
23:56.54
Erica
When we're first starting out, my goal is to get them to be fast twitch and to get them exposed to those longer sprints because they're not getting ah enough of those within practice.
24:04.05
Michael Huber
Yeah.
24:07.52
Erica
Their hamstrings are not getting those inputs enough in practice. um But once they've like trained for a while or they've done a full off-season program, then as we get closer to preseason we do more of those specific speed drills and we just make them more reactive in nature. Sometimes we'll do curve sprints like in the game, um we'll do a lot of like mirror drills and just reacting to different cues and visuals so that so that translates.
24:35.07
Michael Huber
Okay.
24:37.33
Erica
But usually the first phase of speed training is just that general phase, running in a straight line as fast as possible and timing it and getting that sprint exposure. um I think athletes should worry about the details after they master the general phase and they've done that for many, many months.
24:49.16
Michael Huber
The basics.
24:55.34
Michael Huber
Okay, that that makes that makes a lot of sense. But i I am interested in what you said there about the visuals, right? Because there's also, it sounds like there's an element of decision-making that's tied to it, right?
25:06.82
Erica
That's it.
25:08.24
Michael Huber
like And I love that.
25:08.46
Erica
Yeah.
25:09.32
Michael Huber
I'm a big, i'm a big believer in that proponent. I try to train some of that in my my mental performance coaching athletes, whereas decision making, especially under stress and under when you're fatigued is really, really critical, right? So being able to sort of play at a high speed rate of speed while you're also still able to sort of make good choices, right? So can you I just want you to talk about that because I'm curious about it.
25:32.44
Erica
Yes. And this is another overlooked part of speed is that decision-making, that tactical component, because oftentimes you'll get the evaluation back from the team coach and in the physical section, they're like, your daughter's slow.
25:46.37
Erica
And it's like, okay, is it she's slow as in just her absolute speed? Like her, have you timed her speed?
25:52.77
Michael Huber
Mhm.
25:54.31
Erica
Most coaches don't time forties or their 10 meter flies. So is it maybe she's slow tactically and she's not learning the game well enough or she's not a few steps ahead of her opponent.
26:04.21
Michael Huber
Mhm. Mhm.
26:07.60
Erica
So both of those components are key in training speed. um You do want to have that fast twitch muscle development, but you also want to have drills where there is that thinking involved, there's a variety of different cues, whether it's audio or visual or the athlete's head has to constantly be on a swivel.
26:29.01
Erica
um I mean, sometimes even with my teenage girl athletes, we do games like handball and dodgeball because there's just so much chaos going on and so much you have to react to.
26:36.64
Michael Huber
Yeah.
26:38.06
Erica
And in those games, you have to keep your head up. and too many soccer players keep their heads down. So just finding games or drills where they're forced to keep their head up, have good posture, and constantly be looking around at their surroundings, you definitely have to marry those two components.
26:54.48
Michael Huber
Mhm.
26:59.52
Michael Huber
All right.
27:02.13
Erica
If you're just having your athlete sprint in a straight line for like five years, it's not, it will help, but up until a certain point, you need to have that, that cognitive component as well.
27:13.76
Michael Huber
100% yeah and i's it's such it's such a big deal right and what you just described is sort of like weight training right we don't load the bar until we learn how to hip hinge but we don't hip hinge the bar for five years right eventually you put a weight on it and we try to progress it right so really what you're talking about is progressive speed training where you're start in a straight line, let's get the basics, but now we're gonna start to incorporate some of these more nuanced elements of, hey, I want you to operate a high rate of speed, but you also need to be able to like do that while your head's up and make a decision and put the ball here and see this person and put your head on a swivel. And I think that sort of, for lack of a better way to put it, that integrated cross-training of doing other things is a great way to like elevate that, right? So I i guess the question I have,
27:59.88
Michael Huber
next as sort of this conversation moves forward is like what, and whether it's from your own experience as a college athlete, as a college soccer player, which obviously informs a lot of this, but just from the relationships you have, like what are the some of the things you see coaches, college coaches looking for, or even high level club coaches at the high school level? Like what are some of the things you're hearing from them that are like areas of emphasis that are really, really important?
28:26.50
Erica
I think what we've just been talking about just, I mean, college coaches love speed. I think they'd be lying if they said they don't. ah You look at some of the the top D1, D2, and D3 programs and you have girls coming in who are running above 18 miles per hour, 17 miles per hour coming in. and Yeah, they're just beasts. They're athletic, they're strong, they're robust, but they're also technically sharp. And these are girls who, for many years, they became best friends with their soccer ball. um If you want to be technically good and be confident in your first touch and in your passing and and you're receiving, you need to go out and play wall ball or
29:09.28
Erica
you need to get touches on the ball several times a week. And that's something I did when I was growing up, I had a kickback goal in my front yard, I was always out there juggling. And it was even it was just for like 30 minutes a day, nothing crazy, but enough to be best friends with the ball and be comfortable. And college coaches also want you to be tactically sharp and like we were just saying, being two steps ahead of the play.
29:34.92
Erica
um Even if you might not be the fastest player with absolute speed, I've seen some players who don't have the best timed 40s, but they can think fast and get ahead of that faster player, which is very interesting.
29:47.39
Michael Huber
Yeah.
29:48.95
Erica
So just really keeping that in mind and um Just making sure you're on a team that has a coach who really teaches the decision making of the game and runs off the ball and the different formations and the creek the creativity of playing the game of soccer.
30:04.64
Erica
I think that's so key, especially in those like middle school, high school years because not every coach is is teaching the game of soccer well. So that that's critical of that.
30:15.34
Michael Huber
hu Yeah. So, so, but, but I think like what you described there about like, you may not be the fastest time on the clock, but if you can anticipate, right? If you're, if you see the play before it gets there, you can beat the faster player to the spot or understanding angles, right? Like I've got to take this angle to beat this person, right?
30:37.23
Michael Huber
That's how you compensate for some of those sort of physical deficiencies to kind of go back to what you were saying. right like One of the things I talk about with athletes right is but what you can what you can and cannot control. and Part of that is genetics. right You might be five foot three and your parents are not athletic and you're you know you're short and you're not muscular. and you You're fighting against something you can't do anything about, and the player you're playing against is 5'9", has like you know legs like a deer and can run for days. but like That's just a fact of life. You can try to compensate for that, but how do I accept that? but How do I also make the choices to try to to beat that person by using my strengths?
31:18.76
Michael Huber
which might be tactical speed and decision making and those kinds of things, right? That's also an element of this, which is kind of what you're describing, which I think is important. That's how we become better athletes. We we start to think on our feet. We start to anticipate, which is something that I don't know if you have a view on this and it maybe it's kind of going in the wrong direction.
31:37.19
Michael Huber
But as as a dad, as a former athlete, as a mental performance coach, I feel like anticipation is something that is not coached at all almost exclusively. right like They're not teaching kids how to play to where the ball's going. They're teaching kids to play to the ball. And for whatever reason, those instincts don't exist. I mean, do you you have a view on that? I guess I'm indulging myself on this one.
32:00.54
Erica
Yes, I think it's multifaceted. I think you have some coaches who just aren't teaching it, but then I know some who do a very good job of teaching it, especially at the younger ages using different small-sided game design and just different cues to get the kids to be aware of their surroundings.
32:14.36
Michael Huber
Okay.
32:18.37
Erica
But I also think there's something to be said about having creative play and free play in those younger, impactful years helps with anticipation because when you're playing when you're young and you're in a multitude of environments, you're kind of forced into problem solving.
32:26.49
Michael Huber
Yeah. Mm hmm.
32:36.56
Erica
You're forced into being creative and thinking on your feet. I mean, nothing made me think on my feet more than playing four square in the driveway. I don't know if you heard more of that game.
32:44.82
Michael Huber
yeah Yeah.
32:47.41
Erica
Yeah, like Foursquare and even Capture the Flag and trying to dodge the other team.
32:50.55
Michael Huber
Yeah.
32:52.87
Erica
And I just think there's something to be said about what's going on and in the younger years to teach anticipation. And I think a lot of people want to early specialize and they think that they're going to get better at soccer if they just do soccer. But in the end, they don't actually get better at the actual thing that they're trying to work on when they really need to kind of get away from that environment sometimes and be in another environment.
33:18.56
Erica
because kids brains at least from ages 6 to 12 are just so plastic and they're just developing so many different cognitive skills and motor skills and just they even their emotional intelligence so I can't emphasize enough the importance of play and even our older high school girls can do it.
33:27.38
Michael Huber
Mm-hmm.
33:37.28
Erica
I think they can still work on that anticipation by just getting into different environments than their primary sport um and it's kind of breaking away from just the
33:43.69
Michael Huber
Yes.
33:47.64
Erica
rigidity of it. And um again, I think creativity is something that we're losing now because girls are specializing or they have too much of year round sport and they're not able to get out and do these things. But I encourage all ages to do it because it's so important.
34:06.28
Michael Huber
Yes, I love that. i'll And my my daughter played flag football and basketball, and I just loved it, right? It was just a different way to move the body. So a couple more questions before i i let you I let you go here. So I wasn't thinking of this until what you just said, but one of the things that I've observed, at least as a parent from afar, is seeing some of the girls in my daughter's club go through ACL tears at a very young age.
34:33.47
Michael Huber
And I don't know if, you know, ah just in terms of like, and maybe there's nothing that can be done. But again, in my simple mind, knowing what I know, a lot of it is due to overuse with the same movements playing soccer year round or a lack of away training or whatever. Like, are there things that you recommend as a way to obviously can't guarantee it, but like to sort of prevent against that natural disposition to maybe tear an ACL at a very young age?
35:00.95
Erica
That's an important point. It can't be 100% fully prevented because we don't know the 100% cause of individual case.
35:08.02
Michael Huber
Yeah.
35:09.98
Erica
i mean I had an athlete a few years ago, right before COVID, she got an ACL tear from a contact. a scenario where she was tackled from behind and the other girl got a red card.
35:20.87
Erica
So it was like a very high velocity tackle. And she did pretty much everything right based on textbooks. She did her strength training.
35:31.45
Erica
She did plyometrics. There were some load management issues in there, but we don't know for sure what caused it. I mean, sometimes you have these freak accidents
35:39.42
Michael Huber
Right.
35:41.69
Erica
So I think for girls to put themselves in the best position possible to reduce the risk, they definitely have to strength train and really get those muscles strong that protect the knee. So the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, but also making sure you train your upper body as well, because that helps with your stability and balance. um And then making sure that You're working in recovery days throughout the week. Nothing increases injury risk more than when you're in a state of fatigue and not able to handle load. So you want to have that a period of recovery where the muscles can repair and there's less loading on the joints and making sure you're also doing speed training. So reaching those.
36:25.13
Erica
40 yard, 50 yard sprints to really get used to those higher velocity movements. And those are really great for hamstring strengthening as well. And we know that strong hamstrings help reduce ACL risk. And then the last one, this is another big rock is girls need to make sure that their nutrition is dialed in. And I would just start with making sure that they're eating enough.
36:49.04
Erica
and and getting enough calories for so that the muscles are building and repairing during the adolescent years, you want to be building like you want to be building muscle, bone, making sure your joints are healthy. So eating enough for first and foremost, and usually girls would have to work with a registered dietician for this to know what their calorie needs needs are.
37:10.63
Erica
But you'd be surprised that most cases when I talk with RDS, girls are not eating enough. I don't think I've had one RD tell me that they've worked with a female athlete who was getting her calorie needs.
37:21.98
Erica
so
37:22.30
Michael Huber
I totally believe that.
37:23.97
Erica
Yeah, and and it's unintentional.
37:24.10
Michael Huber
Yeah.
37:25.69
Erica
It's actually most of the time unintentional.
37:26.24
Michael Huber
Yeah. Yeah.
37:28.48
Erica
It's not always due to disordered eating. um Most of the time it is unintentional because girls just don't know. They don't know how many calories they're expending and skills training and soccer practice and games.
37:36.55
Michael Huber
Yeah.
37:41.47
Erica
So they just need that guidance from someone and then
37:43.74
Michael Huber
Yes.
37:44.99
Erica
they They work on it and it gets better. With the more intentional cases, that is going to take a team of not just a registered dietician, but also maybe some therapy and and your physician.
37:57.27
Erica
So those that's a completely separate case.
37:58.51
Michael Huber
Yeah.
37:59.41
Erica
but Just making sure girls are eating enough to support the growth of the muscles, the recovery and repair of the muscles, and just making sure that they have energy to sustain the the full game um and and the full day that is school and then soccer practice, then club practice, then whole market at 9 p.m.
38:19.25
Michael Huber
Yeah.
38:20.36
Erica
at night. So um I would say those are my big rocks for ACL injury reduction.
38:24.65
Michael Huber
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's ultimately about a lack of awareness, right? It's not willful or it's not, it's just either I don't have the information or maybe I have incorrect information or misconceived information. And it's just a matter of getting that info that can allow you to start to make better choices. And to your point, right?
38:44.60
Michael Huber
There's no guarantee this stuff's going to happen. So injuries happen. We can't expect that they're not any sport, right? Contact, non-contact, what have you. There's also a genetic element for injuries, right? Some people are more predisposed to injury just based on their like musculature. And they're like, what do they call it? Anthropomorphic kind of, you know, that's a word that I've become familiar with, right? The way they're kind of built and and that, that happens, right? But we can do some things to be able to prevent that. So.
39:10.15
Michael Huber
One more question, and then we're going to wrap up. So the other thing that I thought of is I've I have worked with some female soccer players in my own work. um And one was a college athlete and her biggest challenge through her four years of college and she played in the ACC, so high level player.
39:27.56
Michael Huber
her passing her fitness and passing fitness tests was like the bane of her existence. It really hindered her experience as a college athlete where she couldn't pass the fitness tests and it was taking away her playing time but then it also took away her confidence to the point where she was broken in a a lot of ways mentally because of these fitness tests. So can you talk talk about that in terms of how you manage that in your in your work, in terms of like getting kids ready for what they're the reality of what they're able to face, but also like not having them be so like stressed out but by fitness tests, that becomes a mental block.
40:07.78
Erica
Yeah, fitness tests are a tricky one because I know a lot of female athletes get so fixated on passing the test that it takes away from training to be a good soccer player. So me personally, I approach it in training girls to be good soccer players. so We're working on qualities like speed and strength and speed endurance. And usually when we work on those and we're also ensuring good recovery during those summer months before preseason, most girls do go and find to fitness tests and feel great. I think one of the biggest mistakes girls make when doing fitness test training is they run the fitness tests like five days a week, the whole summer,
40:52.60
Erica
and they freak out about it. And that turns into a situation of overuse and under recovery. So they might be going into that pre-season fitness test where they're not fresh and they're gassed by that time.
40:59.11
Michael Huber
Yeah.
41:05.68
Erica
So they're not able to perform. So if girls can start the summer with, okay, How can I have an off season plan where I am becoming a fast, strong, robust, fast thinking soccer player, conditioned soccer player? And if you do that, most of the time you should be able to pass that test. Um, and if you don't, if you miss it by a little bit, then that's fine because at least you train to play the game and the coach will notice that.
41:34.95
Erica
The coach wants to win. So if you trained appropriately to be a good soccer player that summer, then you'll see the field. um If you focus too much on that fitness test, you really risk overuse and fatigue and not recovering enough.
41:50.49
Erica
And it's really going to slow you down too, especially because some of these fitness tests are like longer endurance runs.
41:52.40
Michael Huber
Right.
41:56.21
Erica
so
41:56.58
Michael Huber
Uh-huh.
41:57.66
Erica
Yeah, it's a very tricky situation. I get why people do fitness tests. I understand it, but I think, you know, we can change the conversation around that too, because
42:08.16
Michael Huber
Uh-huh.
42:08.57
Erica
my My Johns Hopkins coach, he canceled fitness tests my senior year and it was our best season. Yeah, we went 21 and one and we all came in in shape because we were all just fighting for playing time.
42:19.00
Erica
Like we trained during the summer because we wanted to play. So I think coaches fear if they don't give a fitness test, no one's going to train, but we're motivated by playing time here. so
42:29.10
Michael Huber
Yeah. I love that. I love that. And I think what you just described is like academics, like teaching to the test versus teaching the material and letting the the the learner then go apply it. You're probably going to get a good outcome, especially if you give them that autonomy really is what you're describing there. So last question. Um, I always ask this question at the end of my podcast interviews, but I'm going to be very selfish in this one.
42:55.44
Michael Huber
As a soccer dad, what's the one piece of advice that you would give me knowing the little bit that you know about my situation now? Like, what's that one thing you'd say about, hey, you got a 14-year-old daughter who wants to play in college? What's that one thing that you need to know as a dad to make it a better experience for her and help her?
43:16.17
Erica
I think just get involved in a way that is fun and just kind of coming back to what we were talking about earlier, just getting involved together as a team with good nutrition habits or maybe going for a recovery walk together or doing a game that's other than soccer to get that variety. Again, I think when we show female athletes the way instead of tell, that's when it clicks for them. um And yeah, I even remember my dad getting involved just enough, not not too much.
43:52.53
Erica
enough to just help me make a change and um my mom as well I think both parents can do that but yeah just get involved and ah lead with great example continue to be positive and supportive and yeah that's my advice yeah it's
44:10.82
Michael Huber
it's good advice it's It's good advice. It's also a fine line to walk as a parent, but absolutely. So Erica, thank you so much for coming back on. um This is extremely helpful for me. Again, I'll be a little bit selfish, but I'm sure it'll be helpful for our listeners and I'm looking forward to putting it out.
44:27.17
Erica
ah Awesome, thanks for having me.
44:28.68
Michael Huber
Thank you so much.