Coach of the Month: Liz Blount
Each month we feature one ASA coach to learn more about his or her background and personal story and this month we’re featuring Coach Liz! What programs do you coach at ASA and how long have you been coaching with our club? I have been coaching with ASA since July 2013, almost 5 years! I mainly […]
Pre-session Mental & Physical Routines
Jennifer Schwartz is a Master Level Muscle Activation Techniques™ Specialist and certified Exercise Physiologist. She oversees Alexandria Soccer Association’s Injury Prevention and Fitness program and her exercise and rehab practice in Alexandria. What is the best warm-up for our ASA players? The answer is, it depends. It will vary across the curriculum. The goal of […]
Futsal Success at State Cup
Over the weekend eight Alexandria Soccer Association Futsal ID teams competed at the 2nd Annual Virginia Futsal State Cup, hosted by Publix. The format for State Cup is different than outdoor tournaments in that a team’s games are played in one day. The boys competed on Saturday and the girls on Sunday. We knew the […]
ASA Fitness Baseline Tests
by Jennifer Schwartz, Alexandria Soccer Injury Prevention & Fitness Most soccer parents are familiar with the fact that soccer can create a variety of knee issues. In fact, a longitudinal study identified High School girls soccer as the sport with the second highest rate of knee injury behind football (Sports Med 2014). Of the 186,000 […]
The Key to Summer Training is Specificity
by Jennifer Schwartz, Alexandria Soccer Injury Prevention & Fitness As many of the Academy players have heard me say, 98% of the game (individually) is spent without the ball. There are multiple phases within the game and training activities that each player must understand if they are going to be successful in the ASA Academy […]
Pre-session Routines | Good for Injury Prevention & Much More
Co-authored by Jennifer Schwartz, Fitness and Injury Prevention and Robyn Kenney of Mindfulnessathletics.com A Pre-session Routine is a specific process that prepares athletes to have the most productive and focused session possible. We are recommending a recipe of specific tasks that a player can adopt before beginning each training session. If done routinely players will […]
The New Way to Treat and Recover From Concussions
Co-authored by Jenn Schwartz and Noelle Ekonomou DPT of One2One Physical Therapy There is an abundant amount of press and information about concussions and how often they are diagnosed. There is NOT an abundant amount of treatment option information outside of, “rest until your head stops hurting.” This is outdated information and certainly not sound […]
Lessons Learned — Advice from a first time volunteer soccer coach
Our Recreational Soccer League is made possible by our volunteer coaches. Every season parents step up to coach and co-coach their kid’s teams. We often answer questions from apprehensive parents who are unsure whether they are qualified or have the time to coach a team. We thought it would be helpful to hear from someone […]