Training Load → Stress
I had a conversation yesterday with Tyler Wickham (@twickham06), assistant mens soccer coach at Notre Dame College, and he made a remark to a comment I made about “monitoring player training load”.
Tyler said “increased load leads to increased stress”.
But it’s what he said next that really caught my curiosity.
“The body does not know the difference between the stress the player feels on the pitch, versus in the gym lifting weights, to dealing with school expectations, along with every day life stresses.” — Tyler Wickham
Here is my takeaway: As a coach we have to be smart(er) when dealing with the overall player training load for our teams.
Note: Training load must be something we account for beyond the pitch.
A couple of scenarios I thought about with regards to Load →Stress:
- Plan training sessions and lifting/conditioning sessions purposefully. One cannot run a high intensity training session on the pitch, and then walk into the gym and begin lifting weights. The load on the pitch plus the gym will lead to increased levels of stress on the body.
- Player Mindset is super important. Have you ever thought your team looks sluggish and slow? It may not be physical stress as much as mental stress. Tough test in class during the day or thinking about game scenarios over and over during the day can lead to lessened mental capacity.
Our body can only handle so much stress (load) before there is a decline in development and processing. This decline can lead to injuries and other issues.
So I went to google to see if what Tyler had shared about stress and the body was, in fact, true.
Below is a post I found called “Recognizing Stress”.
Tyler … was correct!
Recognizing Stress
Key Points in Identifying Stress
- Stress is a physical and emotional response to a situation. The situation may be positive, like a new baby or a job promotion. Or it can be negative, like a traffic jam or a fight with your teenager. Your body actually doesn’t know the difference, it just knows that something is happening and it should get ready to respond.
- When the body perceives stress, it responds by sending out a flood of hormones. These hormones prepare the body to do what is required to adapt and survive.
- Acute stress comes from brief situations like being stuck in a traffic jam.
- Chronic stress comes from situations that do not have a quick resolution and may last months or years. Examples of chronic stress are unemployment or caregiving for a disabled loved one.
- When the body experiences too much stress or it lasts too long without time to rest and restore, our health may suffer. Health affects linked to stress include risk of insomnia, digestive complaints, depression, heart disease, and other conditions.
- We each respond to stress differently. Some may clench their teeth, others will yell and others may withdraw. It’s important to recognize how you respond so you can identify when you’re stressed as early as possible.
Monitoring Team Stress Levels
How often do we ask how our players are doing?
How was your day? Stressful or easy?
How do you feel physically?
What is your mood?
These are questions Tyler used in the past with his Chillicothe High School girls team prior to coming to NDC this year. These questions gave him feedback as to the intensity he could use for a session and also opened up the lines of communication between coach and player.
“The body does not know the difference between the stress the player feels on the pitch, versus in the gym lifting weights, to dealing with school expectations, along with every day life stresses.” — Tyler Wickham
