Season's End

On Thursday, ETSU men's soccer was beaten 3-2 by the College of Charleston in the first round of the NCAA Division I national championship. It was a very emotional loss as we were so close to coming back from 3 down at half-time. Unfortunately the 3rd goal eluded us despite a very strong second half surge.

At the beginning of the season we set our goals:
1. Defeat the remaining A-Sun teams that ETSU had not beaten before
2. Win the Atlantic Sun tournament and go to the NCAA tournament

Now whilst it is disappointing that we lost on Thursday, it does feel good to reach all of our goals for the season. After a short period of rest and recovery for the players, we will start our preparations for next season. No one will take us lightly in 2011, and Florida Gulf Coast University will be eligible for the playoffs so we HAVE to improve in order to have future success.

Brief soccer sport science interview

Yesterday a student-athletes interviewed me for one of his classes and so I thought I would post it here. The interview was very hastily-done, but thought some of it may be relevant here. I haven't been putting much content up of late - for this I apologize. Hope all is well wherever you are!

Soccer Sport Scientist

•                What are your responsibilities as a soccer sport scientist?

To measure the physical abilities of the player and create a training program that best addresses weaknesses with a goal to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury. This must then all be integrated in the big picture - playing and winning games and also team training. Monitoring the Intensity and volume of all forms of training is crucial in this.

•                What are your goals for the fitness program you implement for soccer?

To improve performance and reduce incidence of injury in the squad. These two factors will help the team develop and win games in the long run.

ETSU Men's Soccer wins the Atlantic Sun Championship

Check how quickly my fellow sport scientist Satoshi Mizuguchi gets to the pile-on! He certainly blew by me!

This is a special team that I am so proud to be a (small) part of. 

The players and staff were able to celebrate last night, but today the preparations start for the NCAA tournament. 

When we created our season plan in July, we assumed that we would play an A-Sun 1st round game. Once we earned a bye through to the semi-finals, the plan had to be modified. Now that the season continues next week we have to adjust and plan accordingly so we can perform optimally again. We are not going to be happy just to show up, we want to win some games on the national scene.

Thanks to Chris MacDonald for filming this, and to Jeremy Gentles and etsubucs.com for the photos.

Guest blog post: Guy Hornsby on the coach - sport scientist relationship

Following the recent blog post, the relationship between the sport scientist and the coach, ETSU PhD student & strength and conditioning coach Guy Hornsby and I have had a few discussions on the topic and I am very happy to have him contribute some of his thoughts here.

This certainly is a generalization of what is going on out there in sports. Guy and myself are actually very lucky in our situation at East Tennessee State University as we are very close (location-wise & relationship-wise) with the majority of sports in the athletic department.

Over to Guy:

Coaches, and sport scientists often disagree when it comes to how to best prepare and develop their athletes. Sadly, this can eventually lead to a tethered relationship. Often these disagreements originate long before any discussion, or discrepancy actually takes place. These disparities stem from many, many years of differing backgrounds and experiences and as such, are at the root of the problem.