Good morning!
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a special event to learn more about how the New England Revolution train for competition.
When I arrived at Gillette Stadium, I joined a group of media folks at the Revs field to watch their morning practice. It was a really hot and humid day, so you could tell just how hard they were working!
After that, we toured Gillette Stadium and saw where the team plays and trains.
Then, we headed into one of the media rooms (where Bill Belichick talks to the press after Patriots games – including “Deflatgate”) and snapped a quick photo of the group (yes, I donated that dress as soon as I saw this pic – haha!).
Over lunch, the Revs strength and conditioning coach Nick Downing and Revs defender Kelyn Rowe gave us an overview of how the team maintains their physical condition in preparation for competition.
They talked about the Revolution’s schedule first. The team practices Tuesday through Friday with Saturday games. (Sunday and Monday are rest days.) Each session is typically 90 minutes and tapers in volume (and time) as the week progresses. So, for example, Tuesday and Wednesday are often the toughest workouts of the week. By Thursday and Friday, the workouts turn more tactical and often the duration is decreased to 75 minutes, so the athletes have time to recover and gear up for game day on Saturday. The goal is to have “full fitness” when it’s time to play.
Soccer players are among the most fit athletes in all of sports. In fact, it’s estimated that soccer players run between 7 and 9.5 miles per game, but the Revolution’s workouts are anything but long distance running. In fact, someone asked what the longest distance was that they typically run, and Kelyn said it was just 30 minutes during pre-season. The majority of Revolution workouts involve short, quick movements (sprints) with very little rest time. When we watched the morning practice, no one was standing around waiting for someone to make a play. Everyone was moving.
When the team is in season (and, boy, do they have a long season – last year it was March through December), their training is all about consistency. It’s not super grueling because they want to keep their players healthy and injury-free. They typically keep lower body strength training to a minimum (no heavy lifting) and use a lot of resistance bands in their workouts (i.e. glute activation) to decrease the risk of injury. Upper body conditioning is usually body weight movements like pull-ups or TRX. (During the off-season, players focus on getting stronger and boosting their aerobic base.)
By mid-season, the Revs’ workouts focus more on recovery, including placing a larger emphasis on nutrition and sleep. A lot of the players use food journals to help them dial in on their diets.
The training staff is big on making sure that players are well before game day. For instance, Nick said there are a few new dads on the team, and if they had a couple of sleepless nights, he’ll scale their workouts or simply send them home to sleep. It’s really great that they think about the whole athlete when it comes to training and potential injury.
If you would like to train like the Revolution, check out this link for a workout from Nick. It’s a circuit of different movements, each with a slow component, followed by an “explosive” version of the movement. It’s actually a great alternative to running!
Questions of the Day
Have you ever played soccer?
If you’re a soccer fan, who is your favorite team?
Me: I played from when I was 8 years old until a few years after college. I miss the game quite a bit. I am definitely a soccer fan (how cool was the Women’s World Cup?!), and I’m becoming an even bigger one. Our old neighbor is a HUGE soccer fan, so he and Mal would often chat about the Premiere League. Now we cheer for Southampton.
