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Today in 5 minutes or less you’ll learn:

• Ali Riley’s Steps to Success

• Travel Strategies for away matches

Q&A With Ali Riley

I met Ali Riley this year when I had the opportunity to support Angel City FC in their preseason. Ali was someone who I immediately saw as a leader, achiever, connector of people and growth minded individual. She gave me insight into her journey as a pro and how she navigated her career around the world. Ali is also the Captain of the New Zealand National Women’s Football Team and is an extremely impressive individual. Enjoy her Q&A and take notes!

What are underrated tools that are indispensable for your job?

There are a few items that fuel my performance on a weekly basis. For me it's the Whoop, I love using recovery boots and cupping therapy. Also, I find a lot of value in acupuncture and dry needling to help the most with my muscle recovery.

What advice would you give to (Ali Riley) as a collegiate player or young pro, when you first started?

When everything started off I had a very linear path to success, I was starting and playing a lot of minutes for the teams I was on. My advice would be to utilize the understanding about training, S&C and sports science and use all those tools to continually improve. When a coach's decision doesn't go your way, you can still always be ready by maximizing your work on and off the field. My first really bad injury would have led me to give advice to take things day by day and take the small wins in the process.

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

A big misconception is that we earn a lot of money, because we don't! And that we don't have to work after our athletic career because we do! And while we are playing pro soccer, most of us have side hustles that we run outside of our training schedule.

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

When I first started I thought S&C was about lifting a lot, lifting super heavy and getting really sore in the off season and then not lifting very much in-season. Now I have grown to understand that there are a lot of different theories and approaches about athlete development. In the evolution of my career, I learned to have an open mind and listen to my body to do what's best for me, combined with listening to my coaches and what they think. It's a collaboration now, where before I just listened and did whatever they said. Now I realize maybe I can have a say in my athletic development plan as well.

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

David Copeland Smith who runs Beast Mode Soccer is like a brother to me. He has been the most influential to my development, especially when I was in highschool. He is the reason why I have become a more technical player, because I was initially just taught to kick the ball and run. He taught me how to cross and use different techniques of passing, that I wish I would have learned at a younger age. Also, Paul Radcliffe at Stanford gave me a lot of feedback and even though I started, he always held me accountable. He would tell me when I needed to do something better, but then he actually gave me the tools to take action and improve.

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

My career was really linear in college and pro, but I didn't even make a club team until I was 14. I tried out twice and didnt make the team because they said I was so small. Now in my career, being fast and a physical player, I have done a lot of work with power and speed training, and I'm not saying I wouldn't have had that if I didn't make the team, but I learned what a person thinks or says about you is just their opinion and doesn't define you or your career.

When was your moment you hit the next level?

I had already done well in the US and when I got to Sweden, I would play in rondos and I was always in the middle. The girls were even surprised when I was under pressure in the box, I always cleared it and wouldn't look to combine or play out because that was all I knew. When I developed those skills and went to Germany, which was another level up, I could hold my own and I realized I had changed as a player and that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

TRAVEL STRATEGIES

When I was working with LAFC, we would travel anywhere from 1-5 hours on a flight for an away match. Knowing we had 20+ away trips each season, we needed to develop a performance checklist for each athlete. As a staff, our goal was to check all the boxes throughout the day to continue to support the players in the final 24 hours leading up to the match. This included specific meal plans, personal hydration strategies, completing muscle regeneration plans on the plane and post-flight movement sessions. At any level, traveling to a match will occur and strategies need to be in place for these moments. A few things to consider: sleep, meals, hydration, muscle and joint restoration. When you have a match in your home field or local area, you can stick to a similar routine. However, on the road everything becomes more complex, so let's simplify it!

Let’s take a step back and construct a system that can be personalized in any scenario. In your system you want to establish a timeline that works backwards from the match. In the match day timeline we look at 1 hour, 3 hours and if there is time for a meal before that, then another 3-4 hours.

1 hour Pre-Match: Focus on a safe snack to satisfy any final fueling needs. A few examples our Nutrition staff would use were: toast, banana smoothie, banana muffins, fruit cups. When it comes to physical prep, this is a great opportunity to work through a progressive activation routine. Think about the basics: soft tissue prep (foam rolling/trigger point), muscle activation, mobility-flexibility in the ankles, hips and back. Finally, some athletes perform their mindset work during the final hour, which could be prayer, meditation, reading affirmations or speaking with a support person.

3-4 hours Pre- Match: The Nutrition staff would schedule the pre-match meal during this time window. Most of our matches were at night, but if there was a mid-day match then this meal might be breakfast. A lot of the pre-match meal comes down to personal and cultural preference, but most players I worked with would go carbohydrate heavy here (seek a Dietician or Sports Nutritionist for specific fueling strategies). The movement strategies included a light walk or in some circumstances a team movement and mobility session. Anything to get the players out of the hotel bed and on the ground moving. If you are at a tournament, this is where your “recovery pack” would come in useful. We gave each player a recovery pack that included a trigger point ball, miniband and air compression boots. We chose items in the pack that gave the athletes autonomy to work on themselves throughout the trip.

Overnight stay: I want to add a note about overnight trips. Whether this requires a flight or long bus ride, there are a few major items to consider. First, a proper hydration strategy including pure water and electrolytes leading up to the match. Again, for specifics around hydration, consult a professional Dietician or Nutritionist for your individual needs. Secondly, it is really important to do some movement once you arrive at your destination. No matter what time of day/night that is, find 15 minutes to walk, stretch and open up those hips from long-duration sitting. Lastly, if there are time zone changes you need to consider what strategy will work best for you or your team. A lot of the teams I worked with, chose to stay on their home timezone schedule. If we traveled from LA to Miami, and we normally eat breakfast at 8 am PST, we would then be eating breakfast around 11 am EST while in Miami. This strategy gives athletes the opportunity to stay on a similar sleep schedule for a short trip. We know sleeping in a different bed can already lead to some sleep disturbance, so a final strategy could be to bring your own pillow. Ultimately, you need to be a student of your own body and identify your needs for an overnight stay.

Post-Travel Movement Strategies

_{Here are some basic movements to perform after a long day of travel.}

A short walk outside or in the hotel, combined with some easy stretching is a very simple routine that anyone can adopt, even the coaches 😁!

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-