It should be a matter of course that women receive the same appreciation as men for their achievements in soccer.
It should also be taken for granted that a training program is geared to the needs of female anatomy and physiology. That is exactly why we have Gamechanger training programs for winter break, preparation and season specifically for women developed.
You can find out more about this in today's blog post
“It is simply good when it is absolutely self-evident that girls kick” — with these words Freiburg's coaching legend and Baden's unique piece, Christian Streich, broke a lance for women in soccer. And rightly so, we think!
And just as it should be taken for granted, that women receive the same appreciation as men for their achievements in soccer, should it also be the case that a training program should be based on the needs of female anatomy and physiology.
That's exactly why we've developed Gamechanger training programs for winter break, preparation and season specifically for women.
Women's soccer is different. Also because women are different — anatomically and physiologically. That is why training for women's soccer must also be different. A comparison between the two disciplines therefore makes no sense at all. Sprinting halfway across the playing field at the same speed as Timo Werner, simply not possible for women to this extent.
For this reason and precisely for this reason, you shouldn't make the mistake of looking at a women's Champions League game through the eyes of a men's Champions League game, perhaps even comparing it directly. Due to different entry requirements, it would in no way do justice to the players' extraordinary achievements.
The fact is: Female soccer players are constantly experiencing structural disadvantages — and these are even increasing.
With our gender-specific performance program Gamechanger Woman, we want to do a small part, our small part, so that women can train, work out and improve at the same level as their male counterparts. Taking into account gender differences in anatomy and physiology.
80 minutes of play, a 2-1 lead in the back, a foul at the middle line, minute injury break. If you measure the time that fouled male players huddle on the pitch in pain, you might think that men are injured more seriously in professional soccer.
However, studies show that men — in relative terms — claim longer injury breaks, but the severity of injuries among women is higher.
Dramatic suffering is therefore no evidence of the severity of injuries. One thing is definitely significant though: Anterior cruciate ligament ruptures are four times more common among women — in terms of game and training times — than among men. A finding that has also been proven for ankle and meniscus injuries.
If you summarize scientific studies, they are primarily muscular disparities, i.e. inequalities, between stretching and flexor muscles. In technical language, this is also known as the H (hamstring) -Q (quadriceps) ratio.
The female anatomy is therefore responsible for a more pronounced front of the thigh, which leads to greater stress on the cruciate ligament. In a stop & go sport such as soccer, such a neuromuscular imbalance represents an enormous risk, as more than two thirds of all damage occurs when stabilizing after jumps, actions after abrupt stopping, or immediate turn-stretch movements.
In addition, women tend more towards X-leg positions of the knee joint, which — even accentuates when moving — makes the anterior cruciate ligament even more vulnerable.
Women, as the male population is likely to be aware of as much as possible, generally move more elegantly — even when playing sports. However, this advantage becomes unfavorable when it comes to changing direction. Players often complete their change of direction on one leg, which results in a strong rotation. Men, on the other hand, tend to achieve the change of direction with both legs.
Wrong footwear According to some studies, this combination can lead to serious knee injuries.
According to experts, simply taking the small size of a men's soccer shoe is not possible. The reason: women have a different foot shape with a lower instep and narrower foot.
If these “fake” men's soccer shoes are also equipped with cleats that are rigidly connected to the sole, they look like barbs in the ground. As a player, a change of direction or a rotation now requires significantly more effort — unfortunately, you have only limited constitutional effort.
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Women versus men — although a comparison on the playing field seems absurd, it must be drawn in training science. In order to create the perfect training for women, the first step is to analyze, evaluate and pay attention to injuries and their consequences in the future.
The following will therefore show which injury characteristics actually differ and what are the likely causes of these and which factors are considered injury risks in women's soccer.
Investigations by the women's soccer Bundesliga found a 53% probability of getting injured in soccer during a season — in game and training.
Compared to men, the probability of injury is higher, namely almost 75%. It is possible to speculate about the circumstances.
A more athletic and aggressive playing style as a possible reason is at least underpinned by the causes of injury. Although both sexes have their main cause of downtime in duels, those caused by direct contact with the opponent are far higher for men than for women.
The question of why the incidence of injuries among men in professional sports is now so higher cannot yet be fully determined.
However, the increased performance and therefore mental pressure from professional players should never be missing when the body suddenly strikes and quits its duties.
On the other hand, the data on the severity of injuries is different. Despite being less susceptible, women in this category have a 5 percent higher proportion of serious injuries. This includes all sports accidents that make participation in training or gaming operations impossible for a period of at least four weeks.
You won't have to have a master's degree in sports science or clairvoyant skills to be able to explain to yourself that most lower extremity injuries occur in soccer.
And yet the location of the serious injuries is interesting. Women primarily injure their knees and ankles — men injure their thighs and groin.
This makes an important, gender-specific difference: muscle injuries, primarily on the back of the thigh, predominate in the XY chromosome and ligament and joint injuries in the double X chromosome.
In the same sense that training should be tailored and adapted to female anatomy, training must also be adapted to the menstrual cycle.
For all female soccer players, it is absurdly obvious: The physical condition depends on the menstrual cycle. Sometimes you're fitter, sometimes you're a bit more exhausted — levels of expression vary from person to person, of course. And it is just as logical that this also has an effect on sporting performance. It is therefore obvious that this would be particularly relevant for performance-oriented female athletes.
FC Chelsea, second in the Women's Super League, has recognized the power or impotence of the cycle on sporting performance and has therefore equipped its players with individually tailored training plans. With the goal: more performance, less injury.
According to the British Telegraph, Hayes came up with the idea of including her players' menstrual cycles when they lost to Arsenal in the final in 2016. “Many of our players were having their periods at the exact time. I remember watching the players (...) and thinking that everything was either reactive or not ideal.”
During the menstrual cycle, a woman's organism is subject to hormonal fluctuations. In a period of 21 to 36 days, you notice changes due to more or less pronounced symptoms.
During this phase, there is often water retention, emotional lability, head pain and tiredness. Medicine has a technical term for these symptoms: premenstrual syndrome (PMS for short).
If you now examine the incidence of injuries in women's soccer in relation to the menstrual cycle, there is a higher injury rate before and during menstruation. Although this can be phasically reduced by taking the pill or the incidence of injuries can also be reduced, the pill cannot be said to have a preventive effect from a scientific point of view.
Some studies have shown that significantly more cruciate ligament ruptures occur in the first half of the cycle. Scientifically, the aim is to explain this phenomenon with fluctuating sex hormones.
In particular, since estrogen is increasingly produced in the first half of the cycle, research suggests that this significantly reduces the strength of band structures. This increases the range of motion in the knee and in other joints.
In addition, muscle relaxation should slow down at certain points in the menstrual cycle and muscle fatigue should occur more quickly.
Incorporating the menstrual cycle into the training of female athletes is an approach that has received more and more attention in recent years, but is far from being common practice. One of the few other teams that it is known that the concept also plays a role in training is actually the US national soccer team: And they are, after all, the current world champions.
Anyone who thinks that simply changing the workload and et voila they have designed a gender-specific training program has probably just skimmed over the past pages.
Soccer training specifically for women must be adapted to the anatomical-physiological needs of female players — the workload, however, hardly differs.
Anatomically, in a training program for female soccer players, you have to compensate for the imbalance between extensor and flexor, correct the leg axis and thus the X-leg position, and banish muscle fatigue as far as possible from play or training.
In the game changer specifically for women, this was completely taken into account.
This includes a number of exercises that specifically strengthen the back of the thigh muscles and the vastus medialis muscle in particular. This alone can reduce serious cruciate ligament injuries by more than 50 percent. In addition, the female version of the performance program includes strengthening and plyometric exercises that are based on the requirements for female soccer players and achieve neuromuscular improvements — in particular for supporting joint muscles during landings, sprints and changes of direction.
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