“Let’s GOOOOO!!”
That was the text message I received from a client a couple days ago.
A few weeks ago I started working with young athlete as she prepared for a big tryout with a Canadian national team that would be competing in the World Championships in Germany this summer. At just 18 years old, the odds were set against her as she would be the youngest player – by far – to try out for the team, let alone actually make it.
A couple hours before she sent me that message, she had gotten an email offering her a spot on the team. She had done it. A few weeks after being named the 2018 Canadian Junior Female Athlete Of The Year, she was now going to be playing for Team Canada in her sport.
She’s an incredibly impressive person in a number of ways, but for today since I have to get running to a bootcamp class, let’s hit on the training plan I put together for her to get her ready for this tryout.
We only had 5 weeks to get her ready for the tryout and 2 strength training sessions per week (in addition to her other spots and skill-based practices). Not a huge amount of time, but she was already in good cardiovascular condition, she just wanted to be a little stronger in her legs and work on getting her feet a little bit quicker.
So, here’s a snapshot of what we did:
WORKOUT A
1A. TRX Fall Out – 3 sets x 10-15 reps
1B. Side Plank w/ Leg Raise – 3 sets x 10 reps
2A. DB Reverse Lunge – 4 sets x 4-8 reps
2B. Jump Squat – 4 sets x 10 reps
DENSITY TRAINING – 8 Minutes AMRAP (“as many rounds as possible”)
3A. TRX Push Ups x 12 reps
3B. Wide Out Drops x 12 reps
3C. Single Leg Single Arm Cable Row x 12 reps
3D. Single Leg Hip Bridge x 12 reps
ALTERNATE 40 seconds ON & 20 seconds REST for 4 TOTAL ROUNDS (8 minutes)
4A. Sprint In Place
4B. Crossover Step
I put together 2 workouts with this structure and we rotated through them for 5 weeks, each week focusing on getting stronger with the exercises in section 2 and faster with the density circuit in section 3.
The progress made was substantial, she went into tryouts feeling stronger than ever and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now that we have more time, with World’s being in July, we’ll shift gears for the next couple months to a little more overall strength focus while keeping some agility work at the end.
Program design is so much more than just throwing a bunch of exercises together (at least it is when you actually want results). It can be equal parts “art” and “science” which, aside from seeing the results of my clients, is probably my favorite aspect of what I do.