I am looking back at a carreer of 13 years and I beg to differ. 
1 Like
Well, maybe it was more the distance running and cross country.
But I did once have a coach for a couple years with an almost maniacal obsession with conditioning. On top of regular “punishment” during and after training and a deathly weekly conditioning at an indoor track in the winter, we had three-week periods twice per year where we went to a park and ran sledding hills, crazy sets of stairs, and zig-zag trails for 2ish hours, 5 days/week.
It was absolutely ridiculous, though I can’t fault him entirely for such an extreme approach. He once told us that he didn’t want conditioning to hold any of us back like it did in his athletic pursuits. Tough love…
3 Likes
I think I’m just not made for conditioning.
I always had to work extremely hard to have my baseline at a point where I could play the full 90 minutes at a good intensity. I definitely had to do more than most of my peers. And I was an inner defender, not a midfield player or anything, haha.
Most of our training consisted of brutal conditioning and running in the woods. If we saw a ball pre season, we would get suspicious, haha. Additionally I would also do long distance running on the side. Our trainer was of the opinion that we didn’t have a lot of talent for the sport and our best chance at success was to be tougher and able to outlast our opponents with endurance. Not sure if that was a good strategy. We lacked tactics and a real play style but we definitely were a tough team to play against.
So I can relate to your coaching experience, haha.
1 Like
When I started playing for that coach I was in bad condition and remained so until about a year afterwards when I was more in the middle of the pack, and that was because I did a pre-preseason… running on my own to get myself ready for those deathly sessions.
It’s funny though because as I got older and played for increasingly better clubs/teams, my coaches didn’t care to address conditioning much if at all. One of them trusted us to do the work on our own so we could spend training working on tactics especially. It makes sense because most players are pretty serious at that point. Also there comes a point where perfecting team chemistry and set pieces will more likely make or break a match than conditioning, barring extreme circumstances
I could definitely believe that about you. When I was younger I played winger a lot but by the end was more of a central defensive midfielder.
2 Likes
8s intensification
52 pull ups
Press
35x5
42.5x3
47.5x3
52.5x3x8+ (9)
70 dips
10 more pull ups
59 lateral raises
20 narrow push ups
128 band pull aparts
Not a good time on the press… I’m wondering if I lost more strength here than expected during weight loss. Got 15 reps on my first set of dips though, so that was cool.
I’ve been feeling kinda fluffy the past few days, which I know objectively is silly. Need to ignore it and really prepare for the next 1.5 weeks. The upcoming weights are a tad scary, and in the realization phase I have a chance to set some PRs.
2 Likes
Yeah definitely agree with that and that’s how it should be done, especially in higher leagues.
I spent all 13 years in the same club, same team with the same coach. Here on the country side it’s very frowned upon to change clubs and play against your own village. So not many different philosophies in terms of play style.
I take it you played more professionally?
Not much of a technician or a sprinter but very good in duels. My style of defense was very physical… on average about 30-40% of fouls against us were on me for “überzogene Härte” - excessive roughness/ force (not sure how to translate).
Haha fun to reminisce.
1 Like
I just have one soccer experience worth retelling and that’s playing against a bunch of vegans. I basically just had to stand in their way to snag the ball as I was the heaviest on the field so it was as if they ran into a wall if I managed to intercept.
2 Likes
It’s funny how different youth sports are organized here versus there.
Nope. In my last few years I was playing for a team that played in a regional league, which was a step down from a national league. So, lots of traveling. But I was never anywhere near the best on the team. Though I always had strong technical abilities (could juggle a football 3600 times in one go by the time I was 13), I can’t say I was a good athlete. By the time I was a late teen I wasn’t strong or fast enough to compete against top girls. And if you can’t hold your own there as a 5’3 athlete, things will get tough. I suspect I would have strongly benefited from having a coach like Joe DeFranco or whomever.
I was going to walk on to my college’s team (not a Big 10 athletic school or anything), but I ultimately decided to stop given impending academic rigor. And even though I had moved far from them, my parents were long-time severe critics of my performance so much that I think my heart wasn’t in it anymore.
You so seem like the type, hahaha. Why’d you stop playing?
@Voxel Thank you for putting that image in my head. How on earth did you find yourself in such a situation?
1 Like
@Voxel that made me laugh. How were all the opponents vegan? Was it actually a team of vegans?
Wtf?! That’s crazy!
True. I never really understood the system in the US. Seems to be much more connected to schools.
I moved town. Simple as that, haha. But I also got more and more into lifting and eventually took that up to compete in. I played a bunch of sports growing up (tennis, table tennis and soccer competitively). I took up tennis again this year but otherwise it’s just strongman nowadays.
Damn, you guys are all so sporty. I thought lifting was meant to be for the nerds who didn’t have the coordination for other sports?
5 Likes
I thought it was for those who are to beaten up to continue playing sport.
… or those that don’t want to or can’t run that much anymore 
3 Likes
Ditto 
Even running is very technique intensive!
1 Like
Yeah if you run like me you get back pain for example, haha.
2 Likes
My cross country coach used to make me run with a metronome while yelling cues while I was dying during sets of 400 repeats
Clubs dominate for sure. Once players reach high school, one season is usually spent with the club, whereas the other season is with the school. Some exceptionally talented players may choose to continue playing in a year-round national league instead because the competition is generally not as good in high school leagues.
At this point the cream of the crop are generally plucked by Big 10 or Pac-12 schools to play at the highest college level, and then some are selected to play professionally, usually domestically. The best players who would be called up for national play might only seldom play for a school if at all though.
Seems like strongman suits you a bit more. I think competing in something again would be cool, but it’s not a priority for me.
What about the other stereotype that meatheads are dumb jocks? Anyway, I think it’s less rare today to find former team sport athletes excelling in strength sports like weightlifting. Still, we don’t see as many young Americans choosing strength sports because, well, team sports are not only normalized but also more lucrative.
3 Likes
Pretty sure a vast majority of the league actually. It’s a very nonlinear story that makes perfect sense if you came from my city. Vegans, straight-edge, all really big subcultures here. Almost main cultures.
1 Like
Same. I could barely continuously jog 4.4km (2 laps where i jogged) during post grad when I decided to get back in shape. I don’t know if it was because of childhood asthma, or I was just a pussy about pushing myself.
I seem to do better with short bursts of power output than prolonged ones. I do miss having a resting heart rate in the high 50s or low 60s though
Yup. Besides, if you don’t do your homework on the side, it’s definitely gonna show
… or those still in denial about not being able to keep up with college kids anymore 
3 Likes
Your most recent pic suggests that you are a long way from fluffy!
Go for the PRs!
1 Like
The hierarchy of youth sports competitiveness can be good in this way, much like other endeavors. It’s a shame though that participation costs are such an inhibitor for talented young athletes in the US though.
I honestly think if I still played soccer, I would be better now than I ever was before. Surely not a pro or anything but still.
@omats The power of a single photo at a single good moment 
120 cal assault bike in 14:47
50 band pull aparts
Still have hamstring DOMS… next 6 sessions will be grueling.
Edit: Think I’ll join the T-ransformation thingy within the next few days to keep my spirits up. I should get better photos of back and legs (twigs). Since I haven’t gained an extreme amount of weight yet, I’ll keep on for at least a couple more months. I haven’t pushed the scale to 130 in several years, so that might be a good checkpoint for me if I don’t freak out too early 
4 Likes