E55 | Erica Suter: High Performance for the Female Athlete

[00:00:00] Donnie: Welcome to the team behind the team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Maib. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team based model approach to athletic performance, strength and conditioning, sports medicine, sports science, mental health and wellness, and sports nutrition.

Hello, and welcome back to the team behind the team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Maib. And man, this month we are already cruising into spring break and I got Joe Krawczyk in the house, our co host. Big Joe, what is going on for spring break? You got any big plans coach? What’s going on? No big plans no

[00:00:40] Joe: big plans probably rest up a little bit for sure be a light week, but Exciting very exciting track shifts from indoor to outdoor.

We have the huge Texas relays event going on at the end of the month So I am I’m always really excited about that all indoor season. We don’t have an indoor track So I really never get to see them compete in person. So Texas really is huge. I finally get to see the kids compete, uh, live. So I’m really excited about that.

[00:01:06] Donnie: Good stuff. I know, uh, I’m looking forward to a little spring break. My wife and daughters may leave town for a little bit, so I may be a little alone, get some quiet time. Um, but with that, um, so excited about our guest today. Before I introduce our guest, I met our guest. at the NSCA conference in Orlando.

First time I’d ever met our guest and she was absolutely amazing. So Erica Souter, Coach Erica Souter, welcome to the show.

[00:01:33] Erica: Thanks for having me. I’m really excited and grateful to be here today.

[00:01:38] Donnie: Yes, man, we, uh, thank you for your time and just a little bit about Erika. Again, I’d never heard of her until I heard her speak.

Uh, she, she gave a phenomenal presentation on the menstrual cycle and the female athlete in performance and was blown away and then just started kind of, kind of looking into kind of her bio and whatnot. So just a little bit about Erika and then we’ll let you get into it, uh, coach. Uh, Erica Suter is currently the owner of ES Performance.

For the last 12 years and has been a been training female athletes at all levels. She is a former college all american from josh or from john hopkins and semi professional soccer player who is now a speed agility and strength coach. Uh, dedicating her life to training female athletes, which I love that because I have four daughters in addition to your business, Miss Erica coach Eric, you have just authored your new book came out recently.

The strong female athlete and female athlete, high performance. Uh, you have your master’s, uh, in exercise science and performance enhancement and injury reduction. Uh, you currently live in Tampa. And you continue to work with athletes from TBU, Florida Premier FC, West Florida Flames, Lutz Rangers, and Clearwater Chargers.

With that, Miss Erica, give us an update on what have you been up to? How are you doing? What’s been going on? Give us a little update.

[00:02:59] Erica: It’s been a crazy year, but in many good, good things going on. I just had my wedding a few weeks ago and we started planning a year ago and it just went by so fast the days over before you know it.

But, um, you know, we’re excited for just real life and we realize that a wedding is like a one day fairy tale and then it’s back to reality and we’re excited for it. Um, and I think that kind of reflects my, my coaching philosophy a little bit, how I like to keep things simple and just really embrace like the basic things in life and training and nutrition and recovery.

So I’m sure we’ll get into all that today.

[00:03:43] Donnie: Good stuff. Just quick, you know, being married myself and Joe, obviously married. It’s funny how coaches, um, you know, you start looking at your, your, your personal life, right? And, and, and people realize this, like, man, if you can win in your personal life, it will definitely help your professional life.

I’ve seen so many coaches that just cannot win in their marriage, but it’s simple, right? If we’ll just invest time and energy in building that marriage, man, it’ll help all things be better. So congrats to you on your marriage. Thank you. Uh, talk to us a little bit again before we get into these questions.

What about your, your book just came out when, when, when did that come out?

[00:04:23] Erica: Yeah. So I just released my second book, female athlete, high performance in December of last year. So 2023. And I, um, had another one come out a few years ago called the strong female athlete. And that first book was more of. Just the research behind female athlete training and why strength training and proper plyometric training and progressions are really good for female athletes for injury reduction performance.

So the first one was more like the studies and science based. And then the second one, there’s definitely More details and up to date research in it. But in addition to all that, it has a lot of practical programs female athletes can implement from like speed development, conditioning strength and also nutrition menus and just like sample programs there.

So it’s more like action based compared to the first book.

[00:05:25] Donnie: So you would not espouse that stuff. I have to hear all the time, even today in 2024. I’m still hearing like coach don’t train them too hard because they’ll get big or they’ll get muscly. Don’t don’t do too much of that like that man. Like they put on some weight What are you doing with him in the weight room?

What would you say that erica? What would you what would you say? Help us out

[00:05:47] Erica: It’s really a shame in 2024. We’re still dealing with that, right? Like, I, I think it’s better than it was. I think there’s more girls in the gym than ever before because a lot of them have realized that consistent strength training has really helped raise the ceiling on their sports performance.

But Social media doesn’t help either with the body type ideals and all the nonsense you see there. So I think some girls kind of fall prey to that and they think that loading with weights is going to make them really big, which is not really possible, especially for the girls who play sports where there’s a ton of running and cardio like soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, even volleyball with all the explosive actions.

It’s just really hard to get like Bodybuilder bulky, which is what I think a lot of girls fear, but. Um, yeah, if as long as they stick to a, a smartly designed strength program, um, with proper progressions in place, and at the same time they’re practicing good nutrition, they’re going to be set up for success and they’re going to have a body composition that is muscular, athletic, and robust so that they can play their sport and also be resilient to injury.

[00:07:10] Joe: Yeah. You kind of mentioned some of the. The negative social media pieces to, you know, the female image and everything. Like, was that part of your motivation behind writing these books? Because I bought the second one and it’s, it’s a hefty book. It’s not, it is packed with information. It’s a lot of work.

So, I mean, yeah. What was your motivation behind writing those?

[00:07:29] Erica: After the first book, I was like, I’m never writing another book again. But yeah, so I, it wasn’t planned to have this book come out, but, uh, in 2022 into 2023, I was starting to see a lot of messaging on social media or even like coaches and parents and other adults having some of this like fear mongering message with, uh, female athletes, um, about like, Weights not being good or slowing them down or, um, being more susceptible to injury because they’re female and they have wide hips or being at a higher risk of ACL because they have, uh, menstrual cycles, um, which is not true.

So I was really inspired to really shift that messaging into something that wasn’t fear mongering, but more empowering and that female athletes can really. Take care of their health for, um, proper sport performance and just really empower themselves with good training and nutrition. And they don’t have to fall prey to this idea that, you know, they’re broken as females and it’s their anatomy or their periods, because there is a lot in their control where they can kind of offset all of that.

[00:08:47] Donnie: All right, coach Erica. Next question. Biological differences create different challenges for both male and female populations. What challenges do things like nutrition, menstrual cycle, as you mentioned earlier, load management pose for female athletes? What’s some challenges there you would address?

[00:09:06] Erica: So the first one I would say is the nutrition piece.

There’s been a lot of lies that girls have been told about how to nourish their bodies. And one of the biggest ones is not having enough protein. A lot of girls tend to shy away on like the meat and the healthy animal based proteins out of fear of. like getting bulky, uh, when actually it’s the opposite.

They develop a very athletic, lean and muscular physique and body composition plays a huge role in being explosive and fast and We shouldn’t lie to female athletes about how like, Oh, well, body composition doesn’t matter at all. It kind of does. Um, it’s just basic physics, but as long as girls have like a very protein forward, um, nutrition lifestyle, I don’t like to call it a diet.

I like to call it a lifestyle because it should be something you satiating as long as they have a protein for lifestyle, then they’re going to build that muscle so that they are. powerful, strong and explosive, but also their recovery is a lot quicker. So protein is really needed for that muscle recovery and making sure that girls aren’t constantly in chronic soreness or getting.

Just stupid musculoskeletal overuse injuries that a lot of girls are getting nowadays. So protein first. And then another lie that girls have been told, and this kind of gets into the hormonal discussion, is that you should avoid fats. And of course, there’s certain fats like ultra processed fats that you should definitely limit like, you know, your ice creams and brownies, like you shouldn’t be chronically consuming that stuff from time to time.

Sure, like enjoy Halloween candy or Christmas cookies, whatever, you’re not going to die. But the healthy fats that girls should be getting on a daily basis is things like your avocados, um, like your egg yolks, uh, salmon, even like, Fatty steaks or like chicken wings. It’s just really good for their mental health.

Um, since the brain is made out of fat And a lot of girls have to make decisions in their sport So we want to make sure that their brain is really sharp and then for hormonal health Um, a lot of the the sex hormones are actually made up of cholesterol So that’s I think you know people still think Cholesterol is the enemy.

I mean, you’ve probably been living under a cave for 20 years. The science is updated now and says that females especially really benefit from cholesterol to have balanced hormones like progesterone and estrogen and not too much of one or the other, just to really ensure that They have healthy and regular menstrual cycles, but also they can avoid some of those really icky PMS symptoms like cramps or bloating or fatigue or migraines.

I mean, a lot of girls think those things are normal and they just have to deal with them. And I used to think that too, until I started to look into the research of healthy fats and higher protein within my nutrition.

[00:12:28] Donnie: 1, 1 thing that’s so powerful. I’ve I’ve seen again. I’ve been coaching 30 years. Almost probably almost all those years.

I’ve worked with female athletes, but 1 thing I’ve seen. Even recently with, like, force plate technology, we’ve been able to measure, you know, force they can produce, but also, more importantly, how they absorb, how, how, when they, when they land on the ground, because I work with college volleyball players, I’m not worried about how high they jump.

I’m worried about how they absorb when they hit the ground. So, to your point. If I don’t properly fuel, I’ll drop lean mass, which they become less bulletproof, right? They’re more injury prone. So not only am I more injury prone, I can’t create the force. Now I can’t absorb the force when I land. And so you start looking at overuse injuries, uh, different tendinopathy, things that flare up.

So to your point, Eating really healthy, clean meals, uh, staying away from fad diets. I know one, one year, uh, Erica, we had this, one of our starting, uh, kind of opposite middles went home for a break Christmas break, I think it was. Her mom got her on some crazy fad diet where she dropped all this weight and came back.

Yeah, she was lean, but dude, she was more injury prone. And like, it took us a while to like get her to buy back into like eating healthy for sport and for performance. Not just for like, you know, going to the mall and going shopping for clothes. So it was a different challenge for us. So good stuff.

[00:13:56] Erica: Yeah, the nourishment is so, so important and another thing with the fats is they actually help girls to absorb all the fat soluble vitamins like A, D, K, and E.

And vitamin D especially is so important for bone health. And a lot of girls don’t have durable bones, um, especially like adolescent, uh, and some college girls. So that vitamin D is so important and the fats just help you to absorb all these amazing nutrients. And I think the thing with fats too is a lot of girls think fats make you fat, which is not true.

I mean, there’s so many things that can change body composition and make you bigger, but it’s definitely not. Healthy fatty acids. Um, I think girls, if they really want to raise their performance, they really need to consider decreasing ultra processed foods. Um, and, you know, I’m not trying to fear monger people again, like, Have them from time to time.

If you’re someone who can moderate and, you know, not go back into a full on binge, you have to know yourself. Some people are moderators and some people just need to abstain altogether. Know who you are. Um, but if girls chronically consume a lot of these ultra processed foods and sugars, then it just opens a can of worms of potentially autoimmune dysfunction, uh, pre diabetes and diabetes.

They can’t help but suffer some of these things down the line, uh, when they graduate college and become adults or even having menstrual disorders like polycystic ovarian syndrome or just irregular periods, it’s really that like high, high sugar is what really gets these girls and. A lot of dietitians are coddling around this topic and they say, well, there’s no bad foods, but there are bad foods.

And I think we need to be stricter with our female athletes. And I’ve seen so many girls with hormonal issues. And it’s because they’re eating these ultra processed foods plans and they’re, they’re wondering why they’re, they’re not getting better. Um, I’ve seen girls with poor mental health and sugar is not great for your brain to have all the time.

Um, it’s, it’s just as addictive as other drugs. Um, and it’s not great for girls who suffer with, um, OCD and OCD is actually the root of a lot of eating disorders. So if we really want to. deter girls from having eating disorders, we want them to have very nutrient dense nutrition lifestyles because a lot of people blame mental health disorders on imbalance or chemical imbalance or whatever, but why is that happening in the first place?

It’s from your food. And, uh, Dr. Georgia Ede is one of my favorite psychiatrists who touches on this. And she actually just came out with a book called Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind. And I encourage every female athlete to read that book. Yeah. And

[00:17:01] Joe: I, I kind of like to piggyback off and kind of where you’re, where you’re going with this.

You sort of mentioned the menstrual cycle, you know, what challenges does a menstrual cycle play when it comes to working with athletes and strength conditioning? And, um, something I’m curious about is what, I guess how do you go about communicating those kinds of things with the athlete, you know, whether you have to change something up in a workout, or I know not all my female athletes communicate that with me.

Some do. Um, I, I don’t really ask, um, maybe I should, but, or maybe I shouldn’t, I don’t know. Um, but so I know some girls are very open with it. With me, uh, and others, you know, I don’t ever assume, you know, because some, some athletes just aren’t feeling well that day or they’re just having a bad day or something like that, you know, so I guess, what are your thoughts on that?

[00:17:49] Erica: I would prefer, uh, female athletes 1st and foremost, aren’t so reactive with their menstrual cycle, but they’re rather proactive. So reactive is. When like the luteal phase or their period comes and they’re feeling bad, they cut back on life. Like they’re like, all right, I’m getting rid of all stress. I’m going for self care.

I’m going to close off. I don’t want to do this workout or coaches say, don’t be a part of this drill. I don’t think that’s great for female athletes because When we kind of like baby them, it’s just like really not empowering them to like really take control of their health and be proactive. So I would prefer instead of, um, you know, just bringing up the menstrual cycle first and foremost, getting them.

Eating proper nutrition because once they get that down, then a lot of these symptoms start to subside. Um, no girl’s ever going to be perfect. I mean, you might get some fatigue here and there during certain weeks in your cycle, but you can absolutely feel way better. Um, and me personally, when I was going through high school and college, I had very painful, um, like week before my period and Like migraines and feeling nauseous like I had to throw up and just painful cramps and I just kind of resorted to like popping like Tylenols, which also wasn’t great for my health and my gut function.

So, um, but, you know, I kind of dealt with it for so many years because. I was told that’s what I had to deal with, and I think girls now are still being told, well, you’re just going to have to accept these symptoms when in reality, you can really turn it around. And again, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of high protein and getting those omega 3 fatty acids, um, because All that’s very anti inflammatory, uh, it calms the body down, and a lot of girls do start to feel better once they up those things.

So, I would prefer girls just get the nutrition down first, and I always tell my girls, like, before you download a period tracking app and get all complicated with the science, Put more protein on your plate first, like just get the basics down. And I think that’s also an easier conversation for all coaches to have is the nutrition conversation instead of like talking about the menstrual cycle.

[00:20:09] Donnie: I wouldn’t mind, um, kind of bridging the gap a little bit here. So nutrition is definitely. That is so good. Some of the stuff you said there, uh, definitely see that with, with our athletes today. And, uh, literally I’ve seen, uh, somebody sent me a video recently. One of our athletes, I think back in 2017, 18, um, transformed her game just by changing her nutrition, you know, and that’s all she did.

She just bought into eating healthier and not being, being all over the place. So, in addition to the nutrition, I’d love to just unpack a little bit about in your book. The female athlete high performance, uh, want to talk a little bit about the mental high performance and female athletes. I love in your chapters.

You talk about building unshakable confidence, which we see in in females a lot just when they lose their confidence, they lose their ability to perform. Maybe talk about that. About how do you get girls out of performance ruts, you know, and comparison. Um, and then also just, I know I’ve got four daughters.

I’ve had to deal with a lot of mean girl drama over the years, and that’s always a difficult one. So any of those you’d love to just kind of unpack for Joe and I and for our audience, that’d be awesome.

[00:21:24] Erica: Confidence is one of the biggest ones I get questions on and why a lot of people sometimes hire me to coach, coach their daughters to really help with that confidence.

But I think confidence is built definitely with age. You know, I think a lot of girls are kind of awkward in puberty and adolescence, but then kind of blossom in college or when they reach the pro level, but even at the higher levels. You can get shaken up a bit, and I think confidence is really about, um, mastering your craft.

So doing your, your technical work and getting the reps in and getting that muscle memory, but that alone is not going to, to get you unshakable confidence. You got to really take those skills and get into an environment that is uncomfortable or an environment that is going to be harder than match day.

So I always like to give my example like preparing for college preseason. I played with boys division one players who were three years older than me before I went into college and we played pickup soccer the whole summer until I went to Johns Hopkins and It was hard, but I really learned how to play quicker, how to think three steps ahead, how to make my runs more strategic, and I learned a lot, uh, technical wise, like being creative and taking people on 1v1, and then when I got to college, I was like, oh, wow, like This is easy.

Like, and Johns Hopkins was a good program, but I was like, wow, this is a piece of cake compared to what I was doing in the summer in that environment. So I think confidence, you kind of have to get uncomfortable at first for it to really blossom. And I also think self talk does help. Um, it’s kind of like the icing on the cake.

You need to do those other two pieces first, but it does help to say to yourself before competition, like, I got this like I prepared for this moment and it really helps to just train your brain and just to kind of calm it down and just be really convicted with who you are when you step on the field or the court or wherever.

[00:23:39] Donnie: Joe, she makes a good point. I’ve seen I think that’s so powerful what you said about the confidence, you know to be confident I mean part of you’ve got to go through some testing, right? I always I always like to tell our athletes like you you’ve got to be tested if you want to have a testimony Right, if I if I don’t go through some struggles and because I think in those struggles you figure out your identity, right?

You figure out kind of what you’re made of and it develops care and character to me Like when you start talking about character and confidence in athletes, we want to just push a button today and everything, just wave the wand and sign, sign somebody up for a program and they go to six weeks of that and we’re good now.

But sometimes to your point, coach, that was so powerful. Like it takes, it may take some maturation and going through the fire a little bit and struggling. And then, but man, when you come out the other side of that, I’ve seen it happen. We had a. We had a young lady here, 2015, Amy Neal, ended up being, uh, All American.

She was undersized, outside hitter for us. Big, she ended up being Big 12 Player of the Year. I mean, if you talk to Amy, if she was on with us today, she almost quit and left because she lost her confidence. But she had to fight and not give up and go through some hard stuff to become a better and more mentally resilient player because she believed in herself more than her coaches did.

Then she started playing. She had the tools. She had the physical abilities, but mentally she was blocked. And man, once she finally got through that struggling season and got her confidence back, dude, she was unstoppable and amazing leader for us. So, so good. Yeah, I think,

[00:25:13] Joe: I think we’re getting better as a whole.

And I mean, I’m gifted to be able to go on this podcast and talk to a lot of people who are good at giving back to their athletes, you know, we, we give a lot to our athletes to help them grow, but. And what ways do we coddle our athletes or is, is this like a, just a performance thing? Do coaches do it? Are doctors doing it?

Chiropractors doing it? I mean, is, in what ways are athletes getting coddled all over, I guess,

[00:25:41] Erica: where do I start with this one? I mean, so I, I work with a lot of young ones, so ages like nine to 12. I think first and foremost, we’re seeing a lot of coddling of our younger kids in training and adults, like, really pushing kids into this, like, very, like, structured, like, specialized setting where they’re not getting out and exploring and making friends in the neighborhood and, and playing as much as they used to.

And I remember growing up, like, I was so grateful for all that play and even like the, the rough play. Like. We used to, like, wrestle each other and, like, play dodgeball, but, like, I became a good athlete from that, not just physically, but also mentally, uh, competing against the boys in the neighborhood and my brother’s friends.

Um, so, I, I just don’t see a lot of that now, and when I coach the younger ages, My sessions are really about, like, getting them in these uncomfortable environments. Like, we do play dodgeball. We do do tug of war and all these old school games where they have to, like, really fight and compete, but it’s, it’s fun at the same time.

But you’d be surprised. I have a lot of parents who question me on those things. And they ask, well, why isn’t my nine year old doing, like, A skips and learning like sprint mechanics, and I’m like, this is the problem. Like we don’t want our kids to grow up too fast. And when we rush them through that development, they actually fall behind.

I think a lot of parents believe they’re actually going to get their kid ahead. If they do what the older kids are doing, but it’s actually the opposite because they risk injury, they have a childhood void of play and creativity and experimenting, which is really bad for the athletic skills needed to perform.

So yeah, I think a lot of coddling has happened happening at the younger ages specifically, and it’s a constant battle I have to fight and it actually gets worse. The more I get into this, like every year in coaching, I have to tell parents, no, like to help your nine year old with speed, we have to race.

We have to compete against other kids. We are not going to do track drills. So I think that’s like really the, the root of this problem. Um, and Donnie, maybe you can chime in on this, but a lot of D1 athletes, uh, at least soccer girls in the top 25 teams. They had a playful childhood. They tried multiple things.

And I’m curious if like the girls you coach now, uh, if that was the case or if it’s, or we’re starting to see that like specialized generation.

[00:28:24] Donnie: No, that’s, I mean, I can speak to that. I’ve had, like I said, I got four daughters at home. All four of them played club sports coming up through high school and middle school.

Um, so I’ve seen the crazy parents. I’ve probably been the crazy parent to be quite honest. So just be transparent there, but here’s what my kind of perspective has been. Being a coach here and with working with college athletes and then having daughters in that system, and this is the only way I know how to explain it is like, we’ve got the club system currently in America, whether it’s basketball, soccer, whether it’s volleyball or whatever you want to put in there, whatever label.

What I’ve seen is that system really is designed and developed for an Olympic style athlete like an ages 18 to like 24, 25 year old athlete. So we’ve taken a professional model and we’ve implemented in a youth age range. So these kids are like you said, they’re, they’re keeping score. They’re training like they’re older.

Their body’s not ready for it to your point. And they’re mentally, they can’t handle it because now it’s becoming. You know, you’ve got four or five different tier levels like elite super elite, you know Whatever big name they put on it and you start having these different levels of athletes So they’re comparing themselves to other girls and if they don’t make the top team their world is ruined because that’s where they get their Worth and value from in their parents eyes and from their peers to be honest And so this system is set up.

It’s really for an older athlete, but we’re using a younger athlete So they’re overdeveloped in their sport and they’re under trained and underdeveloped physically and mentally And so we’re taking them trying to force them into this system that really had set up for failure now To be fair and to be honest It’s built for money.

It’s built for parents to just, the cash cow, just keep giving money, you know, and that’s what, and that’s what it’s built up. It’s a cash cow model. Uh, it does not, in my opinion, always put the athlete first. And so, kids suffer because of that, and there’s just so many challenges. And, and to your point, Joe, depending on the club, those athletes may be coddled by the time they get to college, they’re not prepared because That’s what they, they were putting some money.

They’re treated like a rock star and let get away with stuff. So when you get on there diva, right, it’s not their fault necessarily, but they just haven’t been trained and equipped for the challenges because the parents their manager. They manage everything from their schedule in the mornings, their training, their nutrition, their education, their classes.

The kid is not equipped to handle life. They’re trained like a professional athlete, but their parent handles everything for them. And you send them off to college and man, sometimes it’s a big dose of reality hits them and they run into a lot of bad stuff.

[00:31:12] Joe: Yeah, it feels like a vicious cycle too. And coach, you’ve kind of taught me this along the way is a lot of these club athletes.

Um, they’re also kind of taught to just keep doing the same thing like, like for the volleyball girls hit, hit, hit and they don’t ever kind of reverse those patterns or anything. And then they develop injuries, which kind of segues in my second part of this is how do we cuddle athletes, uh, through injury coming back from injury and things like that.

[00:31:38] Erica: Well, I, I do want to add to the youth discussion. I think if kids are not growing up with that play and that variety of movement, they underdevelop a lot of muscle groups. And I think that’s one of the biggest contributing factors to not just overuse injuries, but even ACL injuries. So we see a lot of girls with underdeveloped like hamstrings and glutes and just Yeah.

Overall body control because their training is constantly tell them telling them where to go and how to like position and they’re not becoming these like pliable like supple young kids who can thrive in all types of settings and turn and twist and roll and tumble and do all these things and I yeah with the injury discussion I mean it is multifaceted but it Um, I saw a tweet a couple months ago, it was from another performance coach and he said, what do you think is the biggest factor in a girl’s ACL injuries?

And, um, one guy, Jeremy Frisch, who I really respect in youth development. He said it’s everything they didn’t do when they were kids, but everyone else on the thread commented, Oh, you know, girls aren’t doing enough, like single leg strength or plyos, which is true. We do need more of that, but no one even thinks to bring up all those years of childhood and all those inputs to the body.

That they didn’t get so I think it’s really interesting to bring that, um, into the injury discussion and then Donnie to your point about how athletes, uh, younger kids, especially are, um, really basically pros. I actually think some kids play more games and matches than pros and college athletes. And I mean, it’s just bad for girls, especially going through puberty and their bodies are changing and they’re getting kind of awkward and their balance is a little wacky.

So, I think that year round schedule is, is definitely not helping and. I don’t think the female body is like made to handle that, and it’s not saying that, you know, girls are weaker, it’s just girls are made differently, and we have to really emphasize the importance of recovery and having a true off season, not just for kids, but even in the college space, um, I know at least some soccer programs are doing like two or three games a week, I don’t know if it’s the same for volleyball, but I imagine they jam it, it’s Into just a, like, three month period.

[00:34:07] Donnie: Yeah, no, you get, you know, club volleyball, you’ll get big tournaments. Three days in a row, three mat, three to four matches per day. And if you get to the gold medal bracket, you get another day. So you’re looking three to four days in a row on concrete and these, they’re not even gymnasia. It’s a gymnasium.

It’s usually like a convention center with plastic sport court down and they’re playing on concrete for three or four days in a row. We literally had, you just jog my memory. We had one of our stud outsides years ago, come in and had a, had a huge fracture in her tibia, uh, because she was just doing too much.

She was under fueled. Number one. To your point earlier, we’ll go back to your conversation. She wasn’t eating healthy, and on top of that, so her body doesn’t have the nutrition to handle the performance, and then on top of that, she hadn’t been trained properly. Uh, she had some buckets in there, training coming up, just doing one sport only, being an early sport specialization.

So those are just the big pillars that set you up for a collapse and a big train wreck of an injury of some part, some part. She ended up having to sit out the full year in red shirt her first year. Uh, where that, that, that stress fracture was. So it was crazy. I’d never seen nothing like it in my whole career, but you’re seeing more of this stuff kind of crop up as normal

[00:35:20] Erica: now.

That’s a really interesting injury for volleyball. Um, even like volleyball players getting ACL tears. I’m like, that should not be happening. Um, I’ve seen softball pitchers get ACL tears. I’m like, how’s that happening? There’s no one around you. Like, it’s just, it’s so insane. But it’s definitely that, um, that under fueling, uh, not proper strength training.

But. You know, with with all the load that these girls and college women are undergoing, I think they can have a fighting chance against it all, but they have to be really dialed in with their nutrition and getting to bed early.

[00:36:00] Donnie: Yeah, I mean, real quick, Joe, one more thing before we go. The next question.

Just I thought you I loved your point about just your movement literacy, right? Like, how many of our athletes today just don’t have a very broad and diverse movement literacy that just to your point. They’re trying to do all they’re playing this one sport. They’re trying to do all the. Traditional stuff that’s on social media, but they haven’t played different sports and moved in different directions, and so their body’s just not developed, and they’re just lacking in capacity.

And so if you don’t have, it’s like, it’s like, uh, I don’t know if you’ve ever, me being a typical guy, if you take a small engine and try to put that in a big vehicle, you’ll burn that engine up fast. So you’ve got to match an engine to the frame of that car and the size and weight of that car with the shocks and everything, the right differential, right?

The right, uh, clutch, the right acceleration gears on that. If you don’t have all that, that engine will burn up so fast and it’ll ruin the car. And so our kids, if we don’t have that movement capacity and literary 1st. We’re worried about competing too much and doing that volume. We’re, we’re heading down the wrong path versus like you said, we need more time to play.

Just, just normalize training. Doesn’t have to be super crazy intense, just normalize that and stack it like you’re building a foundation on a house. And it’ll last for years if you build it right, so it’s a good point. Yeah. And, um,

[00:37:29] Joe: that’s going on to the next question. You know, we, we covered social media quite a bit.

And mostly we speak to a lot of collegiate folks. There was some challenges that arise with social media and athletes and what they see, but as a, as a private sector coach, um, you could also use social media to your advantage as well, you know, as part of running your business. But what, so I guess what are some ways you use it to your advantage and then what are ways you have to counter kind of like what you brought up earlier?

You know, some girls kind of look for that, maybe. 10 second quick fix off of a social media post or something like that.

[00:37:57] Erica: I’m starting to use social media less and less. Um, well, I, I’m really mainly on YouTube. I guess that’s considered social, but I like to post a lot of long form content like podcasts or presentations with a screen share and like deeper discussions because I really just want people to learn.

Like, I don’t think you can learn too much from. A 30 second reel and someone like dancing and pointing at things like you just kind of like scroll through it and yeah, you’re not really learning about something deeply and I really want people in my audience to want to learn and to like hear some things that maybe they haven’t heard before that kind of go against the mainstream of sport performance and nutrition and I truly just want them to make a transformation.

I think social media can be used for either instant gratification or you’re actually making a transformation by consuming the right content and really researching. It’s becoming really dangerous for so many reasons. A lot of people want that, that quick hit or they just want to be like entertained for 30 seconds.

Or, um, you know, they take everything they see as truth and those short reels and something goes viral, um, before they like really look into the matter and, and research it. And this just doesn’t go for sport performance and training, but it goes for like politics and everything else in the world. Um, so it’s really important that people like understand how they’re consuming content and if it’s like truthful and if it’s like really helping them.

Yeah, I think what’s even

[00:39:43] Joe: scarier is like, if you look at some of the newer apps, it’s, it’s for shorter videos like TikTok. I mean, they’re all really just five second flashes of content. And I mean, what can someone really get from that? But that’s what people are kind of moving to. It just seems like our attention spans are going shorter and shorter.

And especially with the phone, all we want to do is just You know, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe onto the next thing and it just seems like, uh, you’re right. I feel like it’s also becoming a dangerous landscape.

[00:40:14] Erica: There’s a lot of FOMO to, uh, there’s a lot of girls, especially in the youth sports system, like they look around at like other clubs and they always think like the grass is greener at another team or their friends are having more fun and they forget to water the grass where they are, um, even in college to, I mean, the transfer portal is out of control and I think everyone thinks that there’s always going to be something better and they don’t focus on being consistent at where they currently are or players like it.

Program hop training programs and they try it for a month and they’re like, this isn’t working. I’m going to do another one because they see something else on social media. It’s so dangerous. And it doesn’t help instill like dedication and commitment to something. Um, and it goes again. It goes way deeper than sports.

[00:41:02] Donnie: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just bought a book. I’ve not read it. I’ve read. I’ve heard some snippets from it. But, uh, the book is called the shallows. And it’s all about what the internet is doing to our brains today. And Joe, you nailed it. Um, the way the algorithms are, and, and to your point, Erica, like it does, you good to stay off social media as much as you can.

Not just for us, but our athletes too, because it’s just the dopamine, the, all the endorphins that come from the social media is all gearing you to. This like shorter attention span, which actually is like, uh, neurally, it’s just rewiring your brain of how it thinks and operates. I remember reading, uh, uh, Joe, the Senate, but Joe dissenters, the guy started the Spartan races.

He’s a little crazy, just little disclosure. He’s a little crazy out of his mind. Extreme. But he talked about in his, one of his first books, how they used to train, uh, ninja warriors. And what they would do, it was simple. And this, this would be interesting to do a test with our athletes today. They would have to spend three to four hours of building a sandcastle, this meticulous sandcastle with no distractions wasn’t to teach you the skill of building a sandcastle.

It was to teach you the mental resilience to focus on one task for a long period of time without being distracted. And. I totally could see in the future, uh, athletes, we’re going to have to shift where we have all this social media and dopamine. We’re going to have to do courses and classes and training with them to teach them how to focus for a long period of time on one task.

I could see that be in the future if I had to look into a big crystal ball. So we’ll see, Joe. We’ll see,

[00:42:46] Erica: Erica. That’s a really good one. So, I mean, it sounds fun, though. Sounds actually really enjoyable and relaxing.

[00:42:54] Donnie: I don’t know if I would pass it right now, but yeah, I definitely do better than most. So I’ll say I’ll

[00:43:00] Joe: I’ll admit, like, even as somebody who’s I mean, I don’t want to say old school, but someone who doesn’t like to be on social media as much either.

I, I can find, I see why it is addicting. Like I can see, you know, I can almost feel myself getting sucked in. Like I’ll, I’ll read a book just to read a book,

[00:43:16] Donnie: you know, if I’m interested in like old military books and stuff like that. I’ll read

[00:43:21] Joe: that just because it’s something not social media just

[00:43:24] Donnie: to get myself away

[00:43:25] Joe: from it, um, and not have my eyes on the screen if I can just do it for one hour, you know.

[00:43:31] Erica: Female athlete hypothermia, so increasing the muscle mass on your body to just be an overall healthy person for sports and for life. And I also really like Dr. Jamie Seaman. She is probably one of the only OBGYNs I trust. I wish she were in Tampa, but she’s like one of the only OBGYNs who I’ve. heard actually talking about nutrition impact on hormonal health and the menstrual cycle and also fertility.

So very important resource there. She’s also a beast. She works out. She lifts like she just looks like this very healthy, vibrant woman. So definitely a doctor I’d want to hire. And then, uh, Dr. Georgia Ede, who I mentioned earlier to really help with the mental health of our girls. She’s one of the only psychiatrists who’s talking about.

Nutrition impact on the brain and how we can put a lot of mental health disorders into remission through our food

[00:44:29] Donnie: good stuff And if they want to reach out and just connect with you, what’s the best way to reach you coach?

[00:44:36] Erica: Just my email, uh fitsoccerqueen at gmail. com. So yeah happy to answer any questions and provide any more resources

[00:44:46] Donnie: Stuff.

Well, coach Joe, you got anything else for us before we we wrap up?

[00:44:51] Joe: No, I’m all good. Erica, it was great having you on. Really appreciate you coming on. Thank you.

[00:44:55] Donnie: This was, uh, this was powerful and very, not only educational, but inspirational. So, I mean, like I said, I’m always, uh, I have four daughters and I work with female athletes and anything I can do to help empower them and educate them to be the best, uh, bosses they can be, I wanna do that.

I wanna see them flourish. So thank you for sharing all that knowledge today.

[00:45:18] Erica: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me on. And yeah, this was a great discussion. Good

[00:45:22] Donnie: stuff. Well, hey, that’s it from the team behind the team podcast. Hey. Catch this episode share with everybody on your socials and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Y’all. Take care. Hook’em! Hook’em! Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of the team behind the team podcast for future episodes Go to iTunes Spotify Google podcast or stitcher. We definitely want to keep having great guests on the show and great content So if you have a moment, please go to iTunes leave a rating and review and let us know how we’re doing I’m Donnie Maib, and thanks so much for tuning in.