Timed mile for high school soccer tryouts?

[Anonymous]

Soccer 90 minutes running running running

Tryouts involve running

running not applicable to tryouts

Thankfully DCUM and all of the Soccer Pro Parents on here have helped clear that up for me. Stupid me thought it was helpful to be able to run to play soccer. Now I know its not. Time for me to enlighten others as you all have done for me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Soccer 90 minutes running running running

Tryouts involve running

running not applicable to tryouts

Thankfully DCUM and all of the Soccer Pro Parents on here have helped clear that up for me. Stupid me thought it was helpful to be able to run to play soccer. Now I know its not. Time for me to enlighten others as you all have done for me

Soccer is not 90 minutes of constant running, especially sprinting. If a player is constantly sprinting frankly, they don’t know what they are doing.

[Anonymous]

So because its not 90 mins of sprinting you believe having a base line of fitness is not necessary?

How in the world can you people even argue that a simple one mile run is not even the smallest of basic requirements to do the job. its running. Its not like they are bowling or playing ping pong.

What does sprinting have to do with it. Cardio, endurance and fitness over a 90 minute game separates individuals and teams. How can one even argue anything different

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our son’s high school has a 2 mile in 12 minute fitness test, as well as the ManU fitness test. Colleges have multiple fitness tests, and the 2 miles in 12 minutes seems fairly common for a number of colleges.

It's called the cooper and its been around for a long time.

Funny hearing all the whining about a soccer player thats asked to run, train, and show some self discipline.
2 miles within the times asked shouldnt be an issue.

[Anonymous]

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Being fit is certainly a part of the game. But having a metric as a selection criteria is silly. Having the metric as an expectation of the selected team is mostly fine.

DP but this seems reasonable. Select the kids who are good at soccer, then make sure they are in shape.

This.

By HS it is a hell of a lot easier to improve the fitness of a already good soccer player than it is to improve the quality of a fit but mediocre soccer player.

This whole timed run just had it backwards when you are compiling a team in a short period of time for a equally short season.

Why do you think the timed run had it backwards? The coach has explicitly said he's not going to cut kids based just on that. It is simply one of the things he will be considering. As it should be.

Because this test simply does not correlate to actual soccer fitness. It is not predictive of soccer performance or soccer ability.

It is a waste of an entire session running kids through it.

Spending time in practice, working towards fitness through running and sprints will also not yield any positive soccer results in a short 3 month season at the expense of working on specific soccer training.

These kids already play soccer mostly year round. They are in soccer shape.

I've seen plenty of players who play travel soccer nearly year round who are gassed after just a handful of sprints because they don't have a good fitness base. Completely useless after 20 minutes. That's not being in soccer shape, and that player has a pretty small window to be effective or make something happen before they're too tired to execute. They could be the most gifted player on the field but they're doing themselves and their teammates a disservice if they tire quickly or take longer to recover because they're unfit.

Soccer has lots of built in recovery time. It is ignorant to believe that a series of sprints is predictive of in game soccer performance.

It's completely ridiculous there are posters arguing against top fitness for soccer players. This is so 2021.

We were expected to play full speed for 90 minutes. And, that entailed a TON of physical conditioning inside and outside of practice, in addition to ball work.

Now for $$ reasons Clubs carry such ridiculously large rosters these kids that are more out of shape than their grandparents were (studies show this) can catch a Gatorade and a breather at 15 min mark.

Go google some of the training videos of professional FIFA players. See the type of conditioning they do.

Somewhere along the way, idiots have touted that the 90 min practices 3 days per week are enough conditioning for soccer players. Christ.

+100

Kids are so much less fit than in the past

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So because its not 90 mins of sprinting you believe having a base line of fitness is not necessary?

How in the world can you people even argue that a simple one mile run is not even the smallest of basic requirements to do the job. its running. Its not like they are bowling or playing ping pong.

What does sprinting have to do with it. Cardio, endurance and fitness over a 90 minute game separates individuals and teams. How can one even argue anything different

A baseline is fine.

Requiring a timed run at the beginning of tryouts is absolutely unnecessary and a stupid waste of time.

Most clubs would use the Man U test as a baseline but hey, when setting a fitness baseline of course overlook the one commonly used baseline test used by soccer clubs both amateur and pro alike.

And certainly waste as much soccer training as possible on something kids can do on their own.

But hey, if a low level travel soccer coach who only knows how to play long and coaches a pretty agreed upon crappy product like HS soccer says a mile timed run is important who am I to argue?

I mean, HS soccer is the absolute pinnacle of youth soccer so by all means, if you want to get better as a soccer player obviously kids should run sprints and lift weights.

[Anonymous]

Why the hate for HS soccer?
My kid plays Travel on her club top team since U9. she opted to play high school made varsity as a freshman at one of the better HS programs in NOVA. She didnt do HS to train and get better. She does it for the HS experience and to be part of a team beyond her travel team.

Lets be honest, HS coaches are screwed from the start. Tryouts happen a week of practice and Game 1 happens within the next week. How do you expect to train and build a team in such a short period of time?

All this hate for HS soccer for what purpose? its HS sports. Do you hate on Field Hockey or Track or the debate club? No you dont. You are just Soccer snobs in a country where Soccer is not the top sport but you in your elitist snob way feel you know better and have all the answers.

Get over yourselves

[Anonymous]

Our soccer tryouts - actually called fitness week prior to try outs - are not timed, but if you're not keeping up with the group, not a good start...so there is some weeding out, even without the time requirement.

[Anonymous]

wait wait wait, are you saying the kids were actually expected to run??
how dare that coach implement such a DCUM disapproved tactic into his/her training
Obviously a product of US Soccer or just a dumb old coach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why the hate for HS soccer?
My kid plays Travel on her club top team since U9. she opted to play high school made varsity as a freshman at one of the better HS programs in NOVA. She didnt do HS to train and get better. She does it for the HS experience and to be part of a team beyond her travel team.

Lets be honest, HS coaches are screwed from the start. Tryouts happen a week of practice and Game 1 happens within the next week. How do you expect to train and build a team in such a short period of time?

All this hate for HS soccer for what purpose? its HS sports. Do you hate on Field Hockey or Track or the debate club? No you dont. You are just Soccer snobs in a country where Soccer is not the top sport but you in your elitist snob way feel you know better and have all the answers.

Get over yourselves

Why the hate? Because it sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wait wait wait, are you saying the kids were actually expected to run??
how dare that coach implement such a DCUM disapproved tactic into his/her training
Obviously a product of US Soccer or just a dumb old coach

Wait, wait, wait. Quality soccer players are capable of running and already do so. Hack low level travel or rec soccer players who practice twice a week are out of shape.

Pick kids from top programs, who know how to play, posses and keep the ball and you won’t need friggin “fitness week”.

Stop picking rec kids who are out of shape because they play rec.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hate for HS soccer?
My kid plays Travel on her club top team since U9. she opted to play high school made varsity as a freshman at one of the better HS programs in NOVA. She didnt do HS to train and get better. She does it for the HS experience and to be part of a team beyond her travel team.

Lets be honest, HS coaches are screwed from the start. Tryouts happen a week of practice and Game 1 happens within the next week. How do you expect to train and build a team in such a short period of time?

All this hate for HS soccer for what purpose? its HS sports. Do you hate on Field Hockey or Track or the debate club? No you dont. You are just Soccer snobs in a country where Soccer is not the top sport but you in your elitist snob way feel you know better and have all the answers.

Get over yourselves

Why the hate? Because it sucks.

So dont watch
its not the only game in town
Let me guess your kid is ECNL or DA or GA or ... and Div 1 scholarship and blah blah blah.
go ahead and enjoy travel then. For those of us that enjoy both why beat up on something that is clearly not travel level but still enjoyable for the kids and entertaining for all.

[Anonymous]

Soccer has lots of built in recovery time. It is ignorant to believe that a series of sprints is predictive of in game soccer performance.


Ok, whatever you say. My son is the 6, playing 11 a side 90 minute games and appears to be running constantly during games. But you do you.


Have you considered that your son’s team should try and posses the ball more?

Perhaps you can train on the side to be fit and not waste soccer practice time on an expectation?

Gee, thanks that had never occured to the coach, us, or any other players, we really appreciate you bringing it up.
He doesn't spend soccer practice time on it because the expectation is that players will be working on it on their own time, and be able to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Soccer has lots of built in recovery time. It is ignorant to believe that a series of sprints is predictive of in game soccer performance.


Ok, whatever you say. My son is the 6, playing 11 a side 90 minute games and appears to be running constantly during games. But you do you.


Have you considered that your son’s team should try and posses the ball more?

Perhaps you can train on the side to be fit and not waste soccer practice time on an expectation?

Gee, thanks that had never occured to the coach, us, or any other players, we really appreciate you bringing it up.
He doesn't spend soccer practice time on it because the expectation is that players will be working on it on their own time, and be able to do it.

It probably didn’t occur to the coach. Low level travel/HS coaches love stop watches. If only their kids were fit they would be a good soccer team.

[Anonymous]

Timed runs are pretty common in scholastic sports tryouts, not just soccer. They are just used as a baseline fitness level. Any top player worth his salt will not be in the bottom 25% of times anyways, so this really isn't a big deal. No coach is taking the top 11 times and making them the starters either. Once they know the kid has at least some measure of cardiovascular endurance then they can start looking at their technical ability.