Having players at their peak performance on the night of the match is a critical part of any team’s success. Austin FC’s training staff work everyday to ensure that when the players take the field, they are ready to compete at the highest level.
Austin FC’s Director of Medicine Akihito Tajima is in charge of monitoring players’ sleep patterns -- which was critically important during the Club’s eight-match road trip to start the season -- crafting training schedules to fit each individual’s needs while working with the rest of the training staff and coaching staff to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“After the game it’s the conclusion of the one-week micro cycle and after that the next cycle starts,” Tajima told AustinFC.com last month. “It always starts with a conversation with the coaches and Dave and how they want to structure the entire week of training. Where do they put the highest-intensity training in the week and how many days do we need to have recovery based on the travel schedule.”
Players generally come in for a regeneration session in the day following a match, which could involve jogging outside or working on a bike. Every player is different and Tajima works with each of them to figure out what kind of workout is best following a match.
As the week progresses, the team builds up into more intense training sessions in the middle of the week before bringing it back down in the day or two before a match. This is all done according to each player’s plan as the Club is looking to push them each to the limit without going overboard.
“South American players definitely come from a different culture as well as recent college graduates. Building toughness and resiliency in younger players versus getting them proper recovery, it’s a double-edged sword… Sometimes we just need to push them otherwise they will come back and everything hurts.”
Of course the schedule to start the season -- when Austin played one match per week -- is different from what the team will face in the coming weeks.
The team will have to deal with playing two matches per week, instead of one, though it will not have to deal with as much travel as it did in April and May. Tajima believes the team is ready for this grueling schedule thanks to the work already put in, especially when you consider Wednesday training sessions already closely resemble a match environment.
“I honestly feel like the eight-game road schedule has been such a hard schedule already and I think it’s tough but I’m proud of the players and how they dealt with it and hopefully two games per week is not a huge problem.”
