The United States Women’s Under-23 team recently returned from a few weeks in Croatia, where they won the Istria Cup. At the tournament, which was essentially a youth national team international friendly competition, the American squad played three matches in just seven days. The Stars and Stripes went undefeated and picked up a pair of big wins against Slovenia (3-0) and France (2-0) en route to claiming the title.
Given the amount of travelling and time spent on the pitch, the staff needed to find a way accurately monitor fitness levels in order to effectively rotate players. With the help of Seattle Sounders Academy physiologist and fitness coach Brandon Moran, the national team staff used a blend of qualitative and quantitative data collection to compose individualized training and recovery sessions for each player.
With competitions such as the Istria Cup, the point of emphasis for the coaching staff is placed firmly on evaluating player development. Since most of the women in the player pool are part of top Division I programs or professional sides, friendly matches against national teams provide a medium through which the coaching staff can critically evaluate how each player handles the transition to the international scene.
“Working with the national team has been great,” said Moran. “It gives me an opportunity to work with the best players in the country and to help them achieve their goals.”
Moran and his team were tasked with making sure that every player was in peak condition so they could capitalize on any opportunity to demonstrate their ability. With so many situational, social, and individual difference variables to consider, the composition of valid fitness and nutrition programs is an extremely nuanced process.
The methodology implemented by Moran includes two key mechanisms for data collection: Catapult GPS and externally validated self-report surveys. Moran is also primarily concerned with the marginal changes in fitness for each individual. Despite massive samples of data existing for both Catapult and self-report measures, the trends observed by Moran and his team necessitated that all cases were assessed on an individual basis.
Catapult, a wearable technology that accurately records real-time fitness measures such as heart-rate and distance travelled, is used by professional athletes around the world. Since the USSF tracks this data beginning with the U-16 teams, the coaching staff can monitor each player’s fitness levels as they progress through the program.
In addition to collecting quantitative data, Moran used several self-report surveys that tracked a number of individual difference variables within the group. The battery of questionnaires used in Croatia was drawn primarily from a pool of measures employed by most MLS clubs, including the Sounders.
After every training session and match in Croatia, each player on the squad filled out a wellness survey The questionnaire is composed of a series of standardized 1-10 scales measuring key constructs of fitness such as hydration, energy, hours of sleep and mood. Questions that assessed similar constructs were then grouped together to form composite scores for each barometer of fitness.
Since Moran works so closely with both the players and the coaching staff, his role is essentially to serve as a conduit between the two. Furthermore, given the nature of the data that the physiology and fitness team collects, they are unable to establish any normative policies for player welfare. Instead, Moran and his team can collect all of the measures, analyze the marginal trends and then provide suggestions. This enables the coaching staff to craft training sessions that maximize efficiency will simultaneously minimizing risk.
For Moran, the most important element of his role with the national team is the education portion. Since the objective of the U-23 team is ultimately to prepare women for involvement with the senior team, teaching the players about the importance of player welfare as they prepare for professional careers. For Moran, he sees this as vital aspect of his work as the physiologist and fitness coach.
“Even at the [youth] national level, our job is all about helping players get to that next level,” Moran said. “We are still developing elite athletes. Teaching these kids how to take care of themselves and to work towards their goals is the biggest piece.”
