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Today in 5 minutes or less you’ll learn:

• Mark Anthony Kaye’s comeback story

• The SAQ Framework

Q&A With Mark Anthony Kaye

Mark Anthony Kaye has an incredible story. He has battled back from a ton of adversity, being cut from his home academy team and having a complex lower body injury. I have personally witnessed his drive and motivation through rehabs and can confidently say he has one of the strongest mentalities I have ever worked with. Mark is an amazing man who is loved by all his coaches and teammates. I know you will enjoy his experiences in the Q&A below!

What are underrated tools that are indispensable for your job?

Recovery boots by Gladiator, mainly because of my previous injuries and my joints swelling post-flights. Anything that can help me manage my swelling and puts me in the best possible position going into games. I also have a setup in my house I use everyday. The other thing would be my mental resilience coach, Matthew Caldaroni (Molliteum), I have added that into my regimen in the last year in preparation for the World Cup. It has done so much for my career on and off the field. The ability to unpack the weeks and days that go into a season and in preparation for every game.

What advice would you give to Mark Anthony Kaye as a collegiate player or young pro, when you first started?

Take real good care of your body because you only get one. If you are trying to be a professional in sports, you need your body to push physically through a lot of stress. I have made it to where I want it to get, but I know I could have done more to make sure my strength and mobility is in a good place. I wish I would have had a real routine when I was in college. The other thing would be to not compare yourself to others and really focus on your development. Just focus on growth and getting yourself better and your moments will come.

What are the biggest misconceptions about your job as a pro athlete?

The biggest misconception is that people think we are not normal. We make a lot of money and everything is easy, but until you are there, you don’t realize that your life is still challenging — whether it's relationships, family or money, we deal with a lot of the same things that non-professional athletes experience. I think because we get glorified in the sports lens, people can forget to humanize us.

How has your understanding of S&C changed since you first started, to where you are now in your career?

I have always surrounded myself with people who have a lot of knowledge and I have been able to create good habits from those experiences. The big thing I learned over time is that strength work is not just about getting big, it's more about getting your muscles to be resilient to the demands of the sport. Also, learning how to assess your body in specific situations to understand your needs. The best thing I ever did was learn from top strength and conditioning experts about the strategies to support my body through the different seasons of my career.

Who or what was influential in your development as a young player or in your time as a college player?

My college coach, Carmen Isacco, really helped guide me in both aspects of my life off the field and on the field. He instilled real belief in me that I could be a good player, but kept me humble to want to work hard. He was in my corner every step of the way and got me an opportunity to try out at TFC. From there my soccer career took off and James O’Connor taught me to treat every training session like it’s your last. Then with Bob Bradley he really opened my mind to new football ideas, helped me understand how to progress my career and how to play football at the highest level.

What are early setbacks in your career that later gave you an advantage?

An early setback was when I was released from TFC, my home club. At the time I didn't think it was the right decision, but it set me up on a path that really pushed me to perform at a higher level. It was definitely harsh in the moment, but I was very determined to prove to myself that I could play at a higher level. I really dug deep in that moment and left my comfort zone, which is really important for young players. If you are able to adapt and grow, it ends up serving you way more. Also, breaking my ankle in 2018 in my first MLS season, it was tough but it taught me the resilience you need to be a top professional. The comeback made me way stronger than I was before.

When was your moment you hit the next level in your career?

I feel I was playing at a new level in 2019, after returning from my ankle injury. I was really thankful to be playing again and enjoying my football. It was weird because I had not played for 6 months, but my mindset was to enjoy every day of training and that was when the rocket ship took off.

The SAQ Framework

There are three words every sports coach wants to hear from their Performance Coach:

SPEED. AGILITY. QUICKNESS

These three words must be involved in the performance plan or they will lose interest quickly. It's not that we (Performance Coaches) don’t use these words, but it's that they have been corrupted by the public over the last few decades. The problem is every time you say those three words someone brings out a speed ladder! So, let's talk about the best ways to develop speed, agility and quickness without a speed ladder.

**This will be a multi-part series as this subject of training has a lot of layers to it. To start, we will focus on a framework to develop SAQ.

My framework to develop SAQ involves: movement skill and movement integration.

The Two Phase Model

1. MOVEMENT SKILL focuses on learning and acquiring the necessary shapes or positions the body needs to know in order to best achieve the movement solution on the field.

   This might mean focusing on the components of a shuffling movement through lateral single effort pushes. We will dig into the aspects of shuffling in another newsletter, but simple actions like marching, and band resisted lateral pushes are great tools to teach and prepare the body for a multi-directional speed session. See an example below:

2. MOVEMENT INTEGRATION is the act of taking movement skills into a position or field specific situation. There is a continuum of movement integration.

   1. The first one utilizes preprogrammed drills. These drills are typically performed without competition, are non-reactive and are given a clear start and finish to success. An example of a preprogrammed drill would be the 6 cone drill linked here:

   2. The next phase along the movement integration framework involves reactive work. Reactive work is attempting to move closer to the demands of the game. When we talk about reactive work, think about the chaos of defending or attacking another player. You have to read the actions of another athlete and respond (react) to those movements. Reactive work has a wide spectrum of intensity as well. The easier stages would be an athlete reacting to a coaching cue and the more intense stages would be an athlete competing against another athlete.

If you are designing a framework to incorporate this into your team training here are my suggestions:

1. Incorporate movement skill into every warm up. Think of it as constant exposure to foundational movements. If you can create themes in your training, it makes the athlete understanding of the movement skill improve when applying it into the integration actions.

2. Utilize a range of preprogrammed drills during early stages of development. This should still be combined with reactive drills, but the preprogrammed work allows the athlete to practice the movements with less chaos.

3. Introduce reactive work when it ties in with the goal of the session. Remember, the athletes will get a large volume of reactive work during the session simply by playing the game! So these reactive drills are great in later stages of movement integration application.

Once you understand the SAQ framework, the planning of the sessions becomes much easier. It can be as simple as planning a 4 week block, with 2 weeks of preprogrammed drills and 2 weeks of reactive work. Identify the development needs of the athletes and apply the appropriate volume of movement skill and integration. Then progress as appropriate with the level of maturity of your athletes. Stay tuned for future editions of periodization on Speed, Agility and Quickness models!

We made it to the end! Congratulations, you're officially part of the exclusive club of people who read to the bottom of the newsletter.

But seriously, thank you for being a subscriber and taking the time to read my perspective. It means a lot to me that you find the content interesting and valuable. I am constantly striving to bring you the stories and strategies, with a dash of humor and empathy.

I appreciate your support and look forward to bringing you more front row insight into pro training. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to reach out to me. Thanks again, I’ll see you next week.

-Daniel Guzman-