LadyVol1908
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The humor in Jaime's boot. She showed up with it on the day the team was having to run their annual "20 suicides in 20 minutes".
oh wait...can't call them that any longer....PC-ness requires them to be referred to as "set of lines"!
The humor in Jaime's boot. She showed up with it on the day the team was having to run their annual "20 suicides in 20 minutes".
oh wait...can't call them that any longer....PC-ness requires them to be referred to as "set of lines"!
As an old man that has been around a lot of coaches....I feel confident in saying that "Suicides" have much less to do with conditioning and a whole lot to do with Mental Toughness!
Well as middle aged man, former competitive D1 athlete, and father of college soccer player, I am confident in saying that this is not an either or situation.
If you just want mental toughness, have athletes play intensive games of chess. It is a lot easier to be mentally tough--often a synonym for pushing through fatigue--when you have the appropriate conditioning.
Conditioning also tends to make athletes less prone to fatigue and highly fatigued athletes are more prone to mental mistakes.
There are lots of cliches in sport (and many old school coaches endorse them) and for that reason, it sometimes better to look at what the exercise physiologists say about sports performance.
All I know is Muffet McGraw once said that she was waiting for UConn to sub out their regulars, and they didn't. You have to be ready to go 40 minutes. That takes conditioning. I believe that is head coach responsibility. You are going to leave conditioning to the student athlete? Come on man.
chess builds mental toughness, Mad. Maybe mental agility or mental strength--but I don't think chess would improve athletic performance. I think of mental toughness as showing mental and physical resilience over the course of a game and when things perhaps are not going well.
Where does your son or daughter play soccer--very cool.
On another note, it's interesting that both C. Baldwin and Cousins of the Vol Soccer team are playing with the Under 20 national team. I'm not sure if they're actually on the final squad, or not. They've certainly been to the last two training sessions--one of which is going on now. I'm surprised Baldwin was picked, frankly. I wasn't impressed with her play last year. She's had a lot of surgeries on one of her ankles, so I'm curious to know how she is running, but I thought her play really fell off from what she showed as a freshman. We'll see. If one or both go to the U20 World Cup, they would miss the end of the season--SEC/NCAA tourney, I think. There was a discussion about this on a soccer board, and it was mentioned that Stanford and UCLA players had decided--or perhaps it was their coaches who decided-not to participate with the U20 NT. There was talk of whether players on the NT would go for a redshirt year, but coaches tend not to offer redshirt years too often. We'll see. This is a big year for Pensky, I think. Didn't mean to hijack a bb thread!
"Suicides" have much less to do with conditioning and a whole lot to do with Mental Toughness!
Armchair, my point was directed to HoopDR who said that suicide drills are about building mental toughness more than conditioning. I was countering that it really is not an either or situation.
Sorry but it's a pet peeve of mine when someone misinterprets a post in order to make a "gee, how dumb is that?" retort. QUOTE]
I can relate!
Sorry but it's a pet peeve of mine when someone misinterprets a post in order to make a "gee, how dumb is that?" retort.
Sorry but it's a pet peeve of mine when someone misinterprets a post in order to make a "gee, how dumb is that?" retort. No, I did not say that conditioning should be left to the athlete. However, by NCAA rules there is only so much time that coaches can have with athletes and only so much of that can be devoted to conditioning per se. AND there is an expectation that athletes will do strength and speed training on their own, in addition to what happens in a team context. And let's not forget about Summer and Winter breaks when athletes are, indeed on their own.
My point (and this is based on some direct knowledge) is that athletes who recognize that conditioning is a path to excellence and something to be embraced--rather than a terrible punishment-- tend to do more of it and see it as a necessary part of their daily routine. I can't quite comprehend why some people want to argue against this relationship. Is it a love of the punitive for the punitive sake?
Elite athlete's have an innate work ethic that compels them not to take shortcuts. They are for the most part trained to understand the value of endurance very early, and learn the value of their training early. They also learn the value of off-program advancement in cardio, knowledge and experience.
I have NEVER run suicides or BL-sprints as punishment. When I want to work cardio with my team they will be dribbling the ball when doing so. . . Or I let them have dribble races. The only times you will have trouble with female athletes is if your practice is boring and unimaginative. Then it is your own fault!
Running for running sake, Nope....Layup races with a line of girls at each end, each line trying to make fifty layups before the other line does, YES....They still get a ton of running, but they don't seem to notice that they are running 12-15 lengths of the court at full speed, dribbling and then quickly rebounding their ball and dribbling back to get it to the next one in line,,, when it is a competitive natured drill, you shouldn't have any concerns. If you do, it is not because of them, it is because you don't know how to outsmart and involve them.
Punishment for females players, as a whole, doesn't work for me, as a ,male coach. I get much more out of a lazy or un-enthused group if I just make the "lazy culprit" sit in the stands and watch the rest of us workout.
You are so right! I went into a practice one day when the team was supposed to run the hill. Several girls were sitting in the stands. Turns out they had told coach they had various ailments (cough, etc.) and could not run outside in the cold air. The response, "If you're too sick to run the hill, you're too sick to practice." They sat in the stands the whole practice. No one ever again showed up "too sick" to run outside. And yes, I almost passed out from holding my breath to keep from laughing.
Well as middle aged man, former competitive D1 athlete, and father of college soccer player, I am confident in saying that this is not an either or situation.
If you just want mental toughness, have athletes play intensive games of chess. It is a lot easier to be mentally tough--often a synonym for pushing through fatigue--when you have the appropriate conditioning.
Conditioning also tends to make athletes less prone to fatigue and highly fatigued athletes are more prone to mental mistakes.
There are lots of cliches in sport (and many old school coaches endorse them) and for that reason, it sometimes better to look at what the exercise physiologists say about sports performance.
As an old man that has been around a lot of coaches....I feel confident in saying that "Suicides" have much less to do with conditioning and a whole lot to do with Mental Toughness!
The actual running of suicides does little for cardio, in that it only lasts a short span, and cardio is built on endurance, not spurts,,, So the physical benefits are minimal. However the psychological benefits are much larger.