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Athletic Performance Podcast
The Athletic Performance Podcast: we discuss all things performance-related, with a focus on pushing the boundaries of speed, power, and strength.
Athletic Performance Podcast
Built to Last: Confidence, Creativity, and Durability in Athletic Development w/ Erica Mulholland Ep 55
What separates athletes who last from those who burn out?
In this episode, Coach Ryan Patrick sits down with strength coach and former D1 soccer standout Erica Mulholland to unpack the real D1 Durability Formula.
They dive into the psychology and physiology of building durable and resilient athletes. They explore how confidence, creativity, and consistent exposure build athletes who can handle the demands of elite sport.
From ACL recovery realities to youth sport specialization, this conversation bridges science and coaching experience to help parents, coaches, and athletes understand what truly drives long-term performance.
Here's what we tackle:
- The role of free play and creativity in developing movement confidence
- How to prevent burnout and overuse injuries in youth athletes
- Why strength training is the foundation of athletic durability
- What "never go to zero" means for in-season training
- How to balance intensity, recovery, and joy for sustainable performance
🎧 Watch or listen to the full episode to learn how to build athletes who are not just strong, but built to last.
Guest:
Erica Mulholland | Strength & Conditioning Coach | Former Johns Hopkins All-American | ACL Prevention Specialist
📸 Instagram | Website | Book
Connect with Ryan:
Instagram → @coachryanpatrick
⏱️ Chapters
0:00 – Introduction: What is the D1 Durability Formula?
2:45 – Erica’s journey from D1 soccer to strength coach
6:10 – Why today’s youth athletes lack confidence
10:25 – The role of play and creativity in development
14:40 – The lie of early specialization
19:25 – How fear and comparison kill progress
23:05 – ACL injury realities and return-to-play mistakes
27:30 – Why "cleared" doesn’t mean "ready"
32:15 – Managing preseason spikes and overtraining
36:50 – What strength training really does for durability
41:20 – "Never go to zero" and the truth about in-season training
45:15 – Balancing joy, discipline, and longevity
49:30 – How to pick the right coach and program
54:10 – Final thoughts on building athletes who last
learning how to react. In a chaotic setting. So I frame it as a question on what are we returning to? And then I say, okay, does the one rep max leg press make sense as a clearance for you to return back to what you just said? And they're like, oh, that doesn't make sense.
M-2-peakfast:Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm.
Ryan Patrick:Hey, Erica, welcome to the Athletic Performance Podcast. I'm a big fan of your podcast, um, and I'm super excited to have you here. I know there's a lot of ground that we're gonna cover, um, but just keep it really simple for the intro and the the origin story. Why don't you just give us a quick background on you, kind of bring us up to speed professionally, what got you into the field of strength and conditioning and, um, you know, we'll kind of kick off from there.
Erica Mulholland:Sure. Yeah. I do love sharing my story because it's a little bit different than what the young athlete of today is going through. So I, I did start soccer at a really young age, at age six, but it was recreational. I didn't enter the travel system until I was 13 years old. And up until that point, I played rec soccer. I tried lacrosse, uh, track. I had an older brother I played in the neighborhood, uh, with him and his friends, baseball, tackle football, um, capture the flag, all the fun games of the nineties. So I just developed a lot of athleticism doing all those things. I was a very active kid and I just love moving. And then, um, by the time I turned 13, I really had fallen in love with soccer, and I was the one who said to my parents. Hey, I want to take this more seriously. I want to try out for travel soccer. And they were encouraging, they were supportive of it. And they took me to my first travel tryout and I did really well. And I made one of the best teams in the state of Maryland and all through high school, um, I played on that high level team and I started to like focus more on just soccer since I was in those specialization years. That should be the specialization years. Yeah. And um, I got a lot of offers from, uh, big 10 schools, a CC schools. A lot of D one programs, but I actually ended up choosing a D three school, Johns Hopkins University, which a lot of people think is really insane, but I just wanted a small school. I really enjoyed my campus visit when I went to Johns Hopkins, I liked the, the girls, the culture of the team, the traditions. So yeah, I ended up choosing Hopkins and some people thought I was crazy for turning down D one schools, but that was my own journey and I really had an amazing. College career. I had so much fun with the team. I got to play a lot. I got to impact the program, which was really important to me. I did want to continue to play a lot of minutes and still develop and yeah. And then after college, I, um, got into coaching full-time. Started off as. A skills trainer, but then realized that there was a need for more of the strength and conditioning and preparation mm-hmm. Off the ball. So then I got, um, my strength and conditioning certification and then went back for my graduate degree in exercise science and started doing strength and conditioning ever since. So I've been doing it for about 14 years now, and I love it more and more each day. And I'm just really trying to get the message out there that strength and conditioning is really powerful for young athletes. I did it myself starting in middle school as well, to all the way through high school and college, and saw a lot of benefits from it. So now I just really want to share with athletes the power of strength training for staying healthy and continuing to improve performance.
Ryan Patrick:We are gonna dive deep into that because it's a topic I'm super passionate about. Um, I unfortunately did not have the athletic success that you did. But I do wanna highlight something, uh, that you mentioned that I think is maybe just missing in general from what people experience on the come up now. And that's just the, the unstructured play, the wrestling with the big brothers, the playing tackle football. When I was, you know, young up until about fifth grade, we kind of, we lived in the hood like it was right next to the trailer park. And so, you know, like we'd have to make up games in the street and there were kids of all ages playing in, you know, it was like a single car wide driveway. We'd play basketball there and you got like the wall of the house right there. And I mean, there were crazy fouls. There were kids five, six years older than me. Like, there's something to be said about just getting out there and having like that unstructured free play, especially with people who are so physically superior to you.
Erica Mulholland:Oh my gosh. There, there's so many benefits and I think it, it really helps with creativity and like you said, coming up with your own games and, and leaning into that creative side because all field and court based sports involve a piece of creativity and decision making and being spontaneous in the moment. I mean, that's what makes sports so great. They're not robotic. They're, they're structure, but there's creativity within it. Mm-hmm. So I think that's one piece of it. And then also just getting comfortable with. Physical contact. So if you're playing a collision sport, then you have to know how to be, get in there, get into tackles and no amount of queuing from a skills coach saying play more aggressive is going to help. Eventually you have to do the do and get in there and and do some contact. And luckily I just naturally got that from wrestling and rough and tumble play when I was really young. It's actually really healthy for kids to do rough and tumble play if, you know, we wanna look at the mental side of it, but it's really helpful for just like managing emotions and building emotional intelligence. So I don't think people discuss the mental health aspect side of it, but yeah, it's just, I'm grateful I had the childhood I did and I just kind of look around today and I. Feel sorry for a lot of kids. I feel sorry that they're just kind of inside on the iPad and then the only time that they're moving is at an organized practice. Mm-hmm. And it's no wonder we're losing a lot of these creative players, uh, nowadays. And kids are afraid of making mistakes or they're afraid of taking risks.'cause they've never been in a lot of these settings. It's always been, they're told what to do, how to do it, where to run. And by the time they get into a game setting, some of them just freeze. Or I've heard there's no confidence in kids anymore. Mm-hmm. And I really think I got a lot of confidence too from that free play. I,
Ryan Patrick:I had this conversa exact conversation like just a week or two ago with a parent where, you know, they, they want their athlete to be faster. And I'm watching her and I'm like, she's not necessarily slow, but. When I watch her, or even when I ask her to do a new drill or try something that's maybe a little outside of her comfort, comfort zone, you can see, uh, the apprehension and how tentative they are to just explore movement, to experience something that, you know, for them. It, it just really showcases their lack of confidence. And I think it's just, I think it's, to your point, they just haven't had enough exposure. You know, I, when you say creativity, I remember, you know, trying to climb around my uncles or, you know, race dad or something. Like you, you try all these like squirrely moves'cause they're just, you know, they're, they're so physically. Uh, much bigger and faster than you. It's like you're trying anything you can just to, just to be, you know, create something genuine, um, from a movement strategy standpoint to try to beat them. Of course, it never worked, but I see, like, I feel like it's an epidemic. When I watch young athletes play now, they're so skilled. Like if I just watch'em in the corner with a ball, like they're, they're a elite, but then they get out on the field and, and it's so almost robotic and predictable the way that they're going to move and, and kind of solve these problems.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, it robotics a really good way to put it. And I really see that a lot too. And I, I think one of the number one complaints I get from a lot of sports parents is my kid just lacks confidence or come game time, they just freeze. They don't do well in games. And I really think a lot of it is because these kids are always told what to do, where to go, and they can't think for themselves and like come game time, your coach is not really there to instruct everything that's going on in the field. It's not a practice. You have to make a quick decision. In the moment and be a few steps ahead of the play. And that's another thing is that lack of anticipation. If you're not exposed to a variety of environments and stimuli, then you don't learn that anticipation. You, you don't have any awareness of your surroundings or your eyes aren't up, or your head's not on a swivel. Um, that's another thing that just other activities helped me with was just that, that awareness and playing lacrosse, especially. Helped my soccer performance. And a lot of people are like, well, how's that lacrosse is done with your hands? And I'm like, that's, that's the point. Like your eyes have to be up to catch the ball in the stick and the throat. Like your head is always up. But in soccer trainings, your head is usually down a lot, but you don't want to have your head down in a soccer game. And I really think lacrosse helped me with that hand-eye coordination and always keeping my head up and on a swivel and aware of my surroundings so that in soccer I could be ahead of the play.
Ryan Patrick:Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have a thought for you, Erica. You've got a lot of experience with this. So do you think like the. The amount of play that athletes are doing now is actually detrimental to this. So I think about, okay, let's imagine I'll use basketball'cause I'm a little more familiar with that. I did play soccer, but, um, we're talking about a kid, they're constantly getting trapped in the corner, you know, and that's a hard thing. You gotta protect the ball. Maybe you're stepping through the guys to make a pass. It's like, how many times are they really getting that specific scenario when they're just playing tournaments all weekend, three, four times maybe. So it's like, are we missing out on the opportunity to really develop these skills in more isolated or kind of small sided scenarios at the expense of us thinking that more competition and more play is, is really gonna actually do anything for us? Because I feel like it's just, we're missing so much of that.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, I, I 100% agree. I, I think like the old school thought as well, you have to do 10,000 hours of like practice at this one skill. But if we look at it from just an education standpoint, we don't tell a kid, Hey, just do only math since age six and then that's all you're gonna do the rest of your life. Well, okay, if one day they want to become a doctor, they have to know more than math. They have to know science and the different like biology, anatomy, chemistry. And they also have to know how to read and write because they're, uh, reading patient forms or writing orders for prescriptions. Mm-hmm. Like, even like doctors have to have a broad skillset, but then eventually they specialize in their thing. So it's like, why are we doing this with movement? Right. Why are we only like so narrow with how we're training kids and not developing that wide foundation of them to have coordination and balance and be comfortable with contact in their sport and expose them to these different situations? Because the truth is. No game is going to be the exact same. Mm-hmm. Every game is going to be a different scenario against a different opponent, whether they're bigger or, or stronger or older than you. It's always going to be different. Sometimes games are more fast paced than others and you have to think quicker, so. Mm-hmm. I just don't get why in the sports and youth training world, we feel we have to be so specialized young when we would never do that in the education system. If our kid wants to have a certain career one day.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah, it's, you know, I think parents watch one kid getting lessons and at a young age, like you're gonna pick up a lot of skills really quickly, right? So then it's this scenario of, oh, my kid is getting left behind now, so I need to do this thing to keep up. And it's like, it's almost just like a vortex. Like you just get caught in it and then now you're just kind of right in the wind, so to speak. And nobody can, I feel like, can never really step out of it to, to assess the situation from like a much broader perspective. Yeah. Like we have.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, it's crazy. And you have all these amazing stories of professional athletes who also had that broad range of mm-hmm. Development young and they tried different activities. Alex Morgan didn't get serious about soccer until high school as well. She has an amazing story. Uh, Abby Wamback played other sports. Mia Ham played legit tackle football with boys. And you have all these amazing stories. And then beyond the anecdotes. The research behind it is there. I, if you look at the, the literature on early specialization and overuse injuries and burnout, it is overwhelming. So people are ignoring all the amazing anecdotes and the actual research and it's so interesting. I just feel some people will defend. Early specialization until their eyeballs like pop out of their eyes. Like you have these zealots that are just like, well, the times are different. We have to be on the U eight travel soccer team young. We only have to do soccer. It's the times. And I would argue, no, it's not the times you're just getting sucked in, like you said, into this vortex of messaging that mm-hmm your child, if they're not on the best team at U eight, then they're not gonna be. Good at U 13. That's not true, and I share, I actually shared my story today on Facebook and on Twitter, and I posted a picture of myself playing soccer at age six, but then I was like, Hey, I played rec until age 13. I didn't specialize early. I did ballet, gymnastics, track lacrosse. I played in the neighborhood and did all these games. Then I got serious about soccer. Then I got D one offers. Then I played at Johns Hopkins and became a Hall of Famer and All American, and then I played semipro. So it's like people still get triggered by my story because they're like, well, your time was different. And I'm like, no, it's not. We live in the same times now, and you can still get recruited at showcases at high school games, but just because you're not on the best team at U eight doesn't mean college coaches aren't ever gonna look at you. That is the biggest lie that youth sports parents are told. And I think a lot of parents of really young ones, like under twelves, are preyed on, they are preyed on and they're being lied to.
Ryan Patrick:Mm-hmm. I, I couldn't agree more with that. I mean, I, I think back as some of the, you know, the athletes that I looked at when I was on the come up, like Bo Jackson, uh, David Justice, you know, you can even throw Michael Jordan in there to be bad at baseball. To be bad at the major leagues is still a really good athlete overall, and I just don't think people really consider that. And I talked to, um, Hank Koff on the podcast several weeks ago. It's been a couple months now and I can't stop thinking about this. One thing that he said, and it was so off the cuff, but he worked with Nelly Cuman, who at one point had the 60 meter, um, Trek, fastest time in the world. She had the world record and he's like, ah, we kind of started working with her when she was pretty young. She was like 16. And I, to me, I'm like, like if you are not ready to go at 16 in a a u in travel in America, you're, you're not getting looked at for scholarships, like you're done. And for him to be no. So nonchalant that, yeah, she was really young, you know, we didn't really know what her ceiling of potential was gonna be. I don't think anyone in our inside of the, the, the US. Thinks that way about athletes.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, that's such a good point. And I think a lot of people don't give late developers enough credit. Actually, the research is there that people who are developing late actually come around in the end and do very well. And I had Mike Boyle on my podcast and he was talking about one of the best, um, lacrosse players in the women's game right now. How she didn't really pick up a stick until she was 13 or 14 years old.
Ryan Patrick:Oh my gosh. That's crazy.
Erica Mulholland:And she just developed, I know. And she's like one of the like biggest names right now in women's lacrosse. Like one of the best players in the country. And. Up until that point she was just like playing other sports. I think it was like ice hockey and, and maybe something else. And she picked up a stick at age 13, 14, and she was actually better than girls who had been playing lacrosse since age six. And like, I'm just like telling people, guys, it's possible, develop athletes young, give them a wide variety of movement, build their motor skills and athleticism in different situations. And if it's meant to work out, it will work out in the end. It doesn't matter if they start late. There's a ton of these stories. And I don't think people talk about these stories enough because clubs aren't gonna talk about travel. Clubs aren't gonna say that. They're gonna say, no, you need to be with us Young on the travel team. So that's why you don't hear these stories so much because they're just, the clubs are just so loud with the come with us, like, don't fall behind. Like, and it's just, it's a disaster.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. Well, hey, I wanna shift gears so we can actually get into some of the questions that I had that I had planned for you. This was a, a detour for anyone listening. Yeah. Um, you and I are both passionate about ACLS prevention, uh, return to play. It's, it's a huge issue, especially with women's sports. But, you know, we can look at these great progressions based on time, based on the milestones that we want to hit. But I want to talk about a scenario that I experienced so often, and I think it really plays on what you were just talking about with these clubs where the, the directors and the coaches are like, come with us. Don't get left behind. We see a lot of young females and some guys too, who tear their ACL and they have never done strength training, not an ounce. And I am, you know, when their parents come to me, I'm like, oh my God. Like we have like. The question is always like, asymmetrical or symmetrical and weak or asymmetrical and strong because, you know, we have newbie gains, right? So they're gonna get strong super fast. And so it's, it's very hard to fit into the mold of what we would consider like a traditional return to play protocol. And so I'd love to hear from your perspective, have you come across this and what are some of the unique challenges that you found in this situation? And how do we really communicate this, like to the parents and the athletes of what they should expect?
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, well, I'll talk about the reduction side first and then return to play. But yeah, so I am in, and, and I am really sad that I'm in this group because I just see the worst things. But I'm in a Facebook group. It's, I think it's called like the parents of ACL recovery athletes. Mm-hmm. And I see things in there, I just don't want to see. I see, oh, my 11-year-old son towards ACL playing football, 11 years old. She's, and then for like the girls, it's a lot of like 12, 13 years old, like right during that growth spurt and on the cusp of puberty. And, um, someone asked in the group the other day, what are some of your biggest regrets or changes you would make prior to this injury happening? Here were the top answers from these parents. We would've strength trained sooner. We would've given our kid more of a break when they were complaining about just fatigue and, and chronic soreness. And then the third was we wish we would've taken minor injury seriously. For example, one mom said, well, we, you know, she rolled her ankle a little bit, but we just let her go back into the game. And then that led to compensation that blew out the ACL. So those were the top three. They regret not taking strength training seriously, um, not listening to their kid about needing more recovery and then not taking minor injuries seriously. So I think those should really like raise some red flags for just parents listening of, of healthy athletes. I know like if parents have never gone through a, a major surgery or rehab like this with their kid, it's hard to understand. But I'm in these groups daily. I hear these parents like their sadness just in like what they're writing in this group. And it is not fun. It is a long recovery. It's awful seeing your child go through this. And if I can tell parents if you can. Get your kids strength training now, like sign up tomorrow, do it. If you can look at their schedule and make sure they're getting at least one to two recovery days a week where they're not going to a practice or a skills training or a game, you have to give them that recovery. And it's not enough to say, well, they're kids, they're, they're malleable, you know, they can handle it. No, they're, they're going through growth spurts. So we have to keep that in mind that they still need that recovery. And we don't want overuse because an ACL injury is the result of fatigue as well and taking a wrong plant, and then also not being strong enough to handle it. So if I can warn parents, you have to take care of these two things because this is a very real problem. And I'm not trying to fearmonger, I'm just trying to really empower athletes to be proactive with this and take it seriously.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. So, man, so many directions to go with. With that in mind, um, how do maybe one thing that we need to communicate to parents on like the, um, return to play side, how do we explain to them that just passing PT doesn't really mean that they're anywhere close to being athletically ready?
Erica Mulholland:Yeah. So I like to frame it as a question. I ask the parent and the athlete, it's a return to what, and they're like, the game. And I'm like, what happens in a game? And they're like, well, it's a lot of like running. And I'm like, okay, we're onto something. It's a lot of running. It's for soccer players, couple of miles a game or more. Mm-hmm. Uh, hundreds of, uh, accelerations, decelerations changing direction. Um, and then the cognitive piece and learning that again, learning how to react. In a chaotic setting. So I frame it as a question on what are we returning to? And then I say, okay, does the one rep max leg press make sense as a clearance for you to return back to what you just said? And they're like, oh, that doesn't make sense. Yeah. So I'm like, okay. So then the clearance has to be mimicking the game. So have they built up the conditioning enough to get back in the game? The, the mileage, have they gotten their heart rate up enough? Um, have they built the single leg strength? And those decelerations, have they really worked on getting those exposures consistently? Mm-hmm. And then have they also worked on consistent exposure over several weeks in a chaotic setting, uh, whether it's with the strength coach or the pt or easing back into practice before you enter in a fully competitive setting, that is a full game. This is one of the biggest mistakes in rehab and why a lot of repairs happen is because that rehab towards the end is incomplete and a lot of girls go from zero to 100, and the first thing they do back is a full game. They haven't had those reps in practice gradually. And I like to layer it in. I like to start with, okay, you can go back to practice, but you can do all the walkthrough, unopposed, technical drills. Yeah. Okay. Then the next layer, get into a small sided game, but wear a penny and no one can like cut you right now and just go at like half speed. It doesn't need to be full out, like go for a ball. Just kind of be idle, but like move a little bit and then the next layer is, okay, take the penny off. Some more contact, but still not too high speed yet. Don't like tackle your most physical girl on the team yet. And then the final layer is full blown like chaos. We're back in. So it, it, it really has to come in layers and I, I like to do it in a few weak blocks to see how they respond to it before we move on because. If the girl is having any reluctance in like the unopposed setting, or she has pain in the unopposed setting or some swelling, then it's like, we can't do this. Like we, this is negligent if we move on. So that's the biggest mistake, is not layering in the sports specific skill and practices.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. That, that leads really nicely into this next topic that I want to ask you because, um, you're on the, you're kind of right at the preseason. Our preseason starts in July for soccer. Um, so it's, you know, high heat, high humidity where we live. So, you know, you're going from maybe not a lot of activity to, to that, or even just transferring right from ECNL, but I always think of the, the first couple weeks almost as like hell week because the coaches wanna see who did stuff in the off season, which just from a progression standpoint is really backwards. Like you don't start with very high intensity. I digress. I als I also had to confess, and I told you this offline, we, we had an athlete Retear kind of in this preseason scenario. She went from training with us about three days a week to open gyms, doing strength training with the team, doing outside training with the team, and then also doing like speed and agility training. I mean, it was the biggest spike in volume going from the team doing nothing to literally five, six days a week. And I just, I told you I had that uhoh feeling like I just was not feeling good about it. I should have said something I wish I had. But there's always that obligation of, I've gotta show face for the coach. I've gotta be present. Um, that, that I think is hard for some athletes and parents to overcome and be like, Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna press pause here, but. My question for you, in this scenario, we know athletes are gonna be encountering these kind of load spikes. Preseason is very demanding. How do we best prepare athletes with previous ACL tears or not for, for this high intensity, um, these high intensity pockets of time. Yeah.
Erica Mulholland:Well, yeah. If you, if you know that the preseasons going to be just wild and you do have a girl returning from an ACL, um, I recommend reaching out to the coach. Um, I actually, I had a, I called a high school coach this morning at 7:00 AM I was like, I need to get on the phone with her because, um, high school season is starting in two weeks here. Mm-hmm. And I have a girl coming back from an ACL, who's she's. 13 months in, we, we've layered in the soccer, but we're, we haven't gone full blown yet. And I did not want her first full blown to be a high stakes tryout. Uh, and she's a freshman. I did not want it to be a high stakes tryout against 18 year olds. Mm-hmm. So, and that, that would've been her first scrimmage back 11 B 11. And I had to call the coach and be like, Hey, this cannot be her first scrimmage back. Like, here's what she can do during tryout week. And the coach was actually really understanding after. I explained it, and I think most coaches are, um, it would be crazy if they're not understanding and they don't get how, um, just grueling the rehab is and why we wanna be cautious going back. But yeah, you just have to talk to the coach if you know it's gonna be a crazy preseason and, and they're going back. And then for the healthy athletes, I mean, you, you just have to do the best you can, uh, train them well in the off season. And then a week or two leading up to their preseason, I like to just deload so they just go in fresh to this nonsense happening. Um, and then I can't really control what the coach does in preseason, but um, I can prepare my girls the best. A lot of them did do fine. They had some soreness as to be expected, but mm-hmm. Uh, told me that a lot of their teammates got injured and dropped like flies. And sadly I wasn't surprised, um, that I heard their teammates were dropping like flies. I mean, just some of the stuff I was told that was going on, it was just, just too much volume too soon. And I, I, I don't know why there's a love affair with wanting girls to be in like optimal shape on week one. I mean, it's a really long season. Let's start low to medium intensity and then build them up throughout the year because that's true player development. True player development is this long-term process where the health is first and foremost for your players and that longevity of the season. So I just never understood it and it's, it's also an epidemic that I'm trying to speak more about.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah, I, I hate spending time in the off season working on conditioning because I feel like it's such a waste of time. Obviously it induces a lot of fatigue, which then impacts recovery, which impacts and takes time away from what I feel like are the most valuable things, which is speed, power, and strength. And I try to tell parents like, you know, conditioning from a developmental standpoint can really happen on the shortest timelines. You know, you can go in six to eight weeks, you can get in pretty darn good shape. But on the other hand, I know I'm like, fatigue is a massive risk factor and I just want my kids to be resilient. So like on one hand I feel a little like almost resentful, like, Ugh, we gotta do more of this stuff. On the other hand, I don't think athletes, especially if they're playing as much as they are, should really be ever be that out of shape.
Erica Mulholland:No, they, they shouldn't. And uh, what I often find is a lot of them, it's not that they're outta shape, it's just that they're doing too much. Mm-hmm. And they, they lack that recovery. The only girls I'll do conditioning with in the summer is those who actually are off from. Practices and games. And I do have a few who are, um mm-hmm. Who are on some like lower level teams and their coach just gives them off, which is great. And yeah, we, we maintain conditioning, but it's more like speed, endurance and repeat sprint ability instead of like, more of like the aerobic stuff.'cause a, the aerobic stuff, it, it doesn't, you don't lose it that fast. It kind of hangs around longer. Yeah. But it's more of like the speed, the speed endurance, the repeat vulnerability that goes quicker. So that's really like the only conditioning we do. And then everyone else who's still doing games and practices all summer, they really just do the speed, strength and, and power work. So, um,'cause they're practicing like three times a week in the summer and they're doing a lot, so we really don't need to do conditioning with them.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. Our schedule here is, is kind of unique I think, compared to Tampa. We talked about, you know, the overlap of like ECNL. You guys are getting ready to start in the fall. So for us it's ECNL is frequently overlapping with, uh, high school tryouts. And one nice thing we're seeing a little bit more, some girls are opting out of high school to have a little bit of time off and work on development. I kind of like that'cause it gives us some more time. But for a lot of athletes that we work with, it's, you know, ECNL overlaps high school starting in mid-July. It's running through, let's call it, you know, October, maybe early November. If they're going, you know, deep in the state tournament and then clinics and tryouts and skill stuff is happening all winter in like January, they're, they're back at a full force. So it's a perpetual in season. Um, how do we move the needle on development with such limited bandwidth to train? And I'm still thinking about how you talked about these parents saying they wish they would've strength trained more and earlier. Do you think these athletes are leaving too much on the table if we're not finding these pockets to really push the physical capabilities?
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, I, I love this question because I, I really think everyone can fit in strength training year round, and I'm here to tell people it's not overdoing it in season. Uh, even during, when the school season overlaps with club, actually a lot of club teams will just have optional practice or some coaches are very, they're getting smarter now and they're just like, you know, we're gonna kind of take off during the high school season. Um, so that's hopeful. But, um, I always tell girls during the school season, just try and get in the gym one to two times a week the best you can. And I, I really don't know if it's an over. Training problem. I think it's more girls are under prepared to handle all of the soccer stuff that's going on. So I believe if girls maintain their strength, continue to improve it, continue to raise the ceiling on their sprint work and do, uh, PIOs year round and stay fast and twitchy, then they're gonna do really well with how crazy these schedules are. Mm-hmm. The, the problem lies within the girls who don't do any strength and development all year and it's only soccer, that's when they're more likely to get those soft tissue injuries or it leads to something more catastrophic like an ACL just because their bodies too weak to handle it and something breaks down at some point. So yeah, I've had a lot of success with my in-season athletes, thankfully, knock on wood, we've had no issues for the girls who legit trained year round one to two times a week. And I'm not talking about the girls who popped in and out like. Two months here and then took three months off. Like I'm talking about girls who I kept track of who did the whole year in the gym. They have all stayed healthy.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. You see it. I, I try to communicate to them two things. One, like please and I, I plead with them. Just never, never go to zero. Like, yeah, it, you're going to regress. You know, it, everything is going to go backwards.
Erica Mulholland:Mm-hmm.
Ryan Patrick:Please find a way to get in. And the second thing I try to kind of frame their mind around is when you go to college, like training is a part of your job. It, it, some of the athletes don't understand how much stronger and faster they're going to get in college because they have to train. It's not, it, it's no longer, uh, an option. It is an obligation.
Erica Mulholland:That's a good point. That's the, a lot of girls want to play in college and that's the level they're preparing for no matter what division, whether it's division one or going to junior college, it's competitive and it gets more demanding because then you're an 18-year-old competing with 21, 22 year olds, maybe even older'cause of graduate transfers. But, um, yeah, it's, it's more demanding and girls really need to prepare for that so that they have a healthy career at that level. And they don't get hurt in college preseason when the demands are really high. You thought. Yeah. You know, club preseason was hard. College preseasons insane. So you have to be ready for that. And then you also have to be ready physically to compete against these 21, 22 plus year olds. Yes, and just be able to be physical, um, compete with the speed that they're running at. I just started a new series on my podcast. I'm having a bunch of division one strength coaches come on to say, Hey, here are the numbers our girls are putting up. Here are their speed times. Here's the top speed and miles per hour that they're reaching in games. And a lot of young girls who aren't training that now, they're not there yet and they might not get there if they're not putting in the work with that speed training. And it has to be consistent because speed training, um, it needs to be done at least every seven days to get that exposure without losing it. If you stop speed training for just a few weeks, you're already losing everything that you've built. You're losing that twitchiness. So, um, yeah, I can't just repeat enough why it's so important to have that consistency at that level. All the strength coaches who have come on my podcast at the D one level are like. It really matters how consistent incoming freshmen were through high school. Not just doing an off season program, but like consistently doing speed and strength year round all through high school is huge.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah, it's tough and there's so many competing commitments, right? It's, these are high school kids, they're trying to figure out like the awkwardness of just being a, you know, 14 to 18-year-old. They have clubs, they have dances, they have friends that they want to go support who are playing other sports. There's so many things on the schedule, but you know, with that in mind, like, okay, so we know these girls going to, to D one or these, you know, to the next level, whatever division it is, they're, they're training year round. What do you think one of the biggest maybe misconceptions for these athletes or their parents about what a real off season of training and development should look like?
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, I'll get into that. I do wanna touch on the schedule, so. I want to clarify that when young athletes are young, like so prior to age 12, 13, mm-hmm. It should be like, have as much fun as possible. You don't need to make all these like crazy sacrifices at that age. Like, it's not as like, you know, like cut and dry, like you need to do this, this, and this, but when you get to the high school level and you want to play at a high level in college mm-hmm. You have to make sacrifices. Like I, I remember when I was doing like my strength and conditioning and doing my soccer skills training, I said no to a lot of things with friends. Like, don't get me wrong, I still like did homecoming and prom and I did fun things, but not all the time. There were some days where I made sacrifices because my end goal was I did wanna play in college and I realized that some sacrifices do need to be made along the way. So. I hate to say it, but like screw like busy schedules. Like you, you do have to make a sacrifice to fit this stuff in. Mm-hmm. To get to a certain point, if you're telling me you want to play for Stanford Women's Soccer, but you can't even run a 15 mile per hour sprint when girls on the team now are 18 plus miles per hour, then you're crazy. You need to start working on it. So yeah, there has to be some sacrifice involved in this. Like it's just not gonna come with you sitting around and not putting in the work.
Ryan Patrick:Mm-hmm. We had a, a girl that went D one and, uh, I remember this so clearly, she was. Maybe, I don't even think she was driving yet, so she was probably like 15 at the time. And she was like, you know, we're gonna go out. I'm going to go whatever, but I'm coming home at 12 because I need to, I want to get up. It wasn't even, I need to, it was, I want to get up and train on Saturday morning because it's the only time I have, my friends are going out till two to the after party or whatever it is, or who knows what kind of BS they were into. But she's like, no, I'm not, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna come home and make sure I get enough rest so I can train. And I was like, that's exactly, I did that too. That's why you're, that's why you're doing the things that you're doing and a lot of the, your peers are in the rear view.
Erica Mulholland:Yep. And I, I, I commend that girl. And I think people need to realize that. It's like, well, what do you, what do you want out of this? And what are the sacrifices you're willing to make? And I never was, uh, in the party crowd in high school. I always went to bed at 9:00 PM as soon as I finished my homework and I wanted to go train the next day. And then in, in the summer, my strength and conditioning off season program was at 8:00 AM Monday through Friday in the summer. I could have slept in, in the summer like every other high schooler. But no, I didn't. I drove to my strength and conditioning coach at 7:00 AM'cause it was an hour away. And I made the sacrifice. And people now are like, well, we can't get to you because you know, it's a 45 minute commute and it's on a p. And I'm like, you, you're telling me she wants to play D one. But your actions are saying the opposite. And I think like high school girls really need to get serious about it. And again, like, I wanna clarify, when they're young, it's not like this. Like just let them explore, have fun, because they'll fall in love with it. And then when they're in high school, since they have that natural passion, they're willing to make those sacrifices because it wasn't forced on them. They want to do it and they want to make the sacrifices. That's the difference.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. My son is 10 right now, and it's, for me, it's all about let's figure out something that you are passionate about, like play flag football, play lacrosse, play ice hockey, whatever it is. Um, get into theater, get into the arts. I don't care. Like, I want you to find my wife's in the arts, so it's like, it's implicitly what we're doing in this family, but I want them to find something that. He is kind of pulling me along and I see that so rarely with athletes. We had, we had this, um, this young athlete, he's, you know, um, maybe 11 or 12, and it was, it was the funniest thing a couple weeks ago. He, he was like, just, you know, you could tell school had started, soccer had picked up, it was now practices and games. Plus he was still training with us a couple days a week. And I just started to get a sense like, it's, I think it's a little too much for this guy. You know, it's like. Maybe we should chill. So he came into the session and, and he just wasn't having it that day, you know, just kind of kicking the turf with his, you know, looking at his shoes. I'm like, he's bro is just not here today. And I love this kid. So, um, I'm totally okay with it. But he ended up like literally like kind of running out of this session. I was like, Hey, hey buddy. And he like, didn't wanna do anything else, so he like sprint it out to his dad's car and I thought it was so funny, but I emailed his dad. I'm like, Hey, I think, you know, there's just a lot of things that maybe changed in the last couple weeks. I do not want this training to be punitive for him. I do not want it to feel like another thing on his schedule. So like, I just want you to check with him, make sure that he still wants to do this. It's totally cool at his age if he feels like he's doing too much. And they talked about it and a couple things kind of normalized and he ended up coming back in, but at a lesser amount, which I think is is perfect. There's so many times I'll see the opposite, where a parent's like my kid's seven and he's losing a step. I'm like, bro, he just needs a nap.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah. Right. That's so, it's so true. And yeah, when you, um, just allow the kid to find like, what's my passion and to explore those things, and then they find that thing, it's so powerful because they have that thing by the time they're in high school, that they naturally love themselves. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't any adults in their ear. They're willing to plow through during failure or when obstacles happen, they're willing to make more sacrifices because they love it so much and they have that, that, and they have that internal drive. That's the difference. That's why I, I always tell parents, you, you can't choose the sport for the kid. You have to let them explore because maybe they really love something else and you don't have to nag them to go practice it. They just do it because they love that thing. And I think that's what what parents really need to keep in mind. Because when you get into high school, when you get into college, it gets hard, training gets hard. Um, you go through a lot more. The stakes are higher. And if you don't love it by then for yourself, you're gonna quit.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. I can pick the athletes out right away who I just don't think, think, wanna do it. And we have like, we put, do the work on our wall and I tell the athletes like, look, I want you to do the work. Like we take the work seriously. We don't take ourselves seriously, but if you don't want to be here, like it's cool, we can dab it up. We can part ways as friends, but if you do want this. Like, I will mirror your effort, but I am not gonna drag you across the finish line. And usually pretty quickly they, they understand, you know, yeah, I am. Either I want this and I'm willing to put in the work, or, you know, maybe on second thought, I'm just like, I'm not that serious about it.
Erica Mulholland:No, I think that's great. And I, I really don't think you can teach passion and having that internal drive. And I, you know, I think for a lot of parents they have to real, like, you had a conversation with your son, you have to have that conversation where you check in mm-hmm. And be like, okay, how are you doing? How do you feel about this? Do, are you having fun? Do you wanna stick with this? And, you know, take this far and like really understand where they're coming from and you'd be surprised some of the things you hear. And then for the parents who don't ask and just assume. That their kid loves it. I've seen this too. Yeah. By the time the kid's 18, they shock their parents out of nowhere and they're like, I'm done. I don't wanna play in college. Mm-hmm. And the parents like, what? Like, we thought you wanted this. Like, but no, it was really the girl just going through the motions and trying to please her parents.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah, we've seen that. It's a lot, plenty, plenty, plenty of scholarships left on the table. We've seen kids go one year a lot and then drop it like one year all conference and like, I'm done. I just want to join a sorority and have some fun.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, I, I've seen it so many times and look, there's nothing wrong with that.
Ryan Patrick:Mm-hmm. Um,
Erica Mulholland:you know, I, I wish like this had been done maybe sooner and they, the parents would've had that conversation sooner. But I don't think parents should think it's a failure that their kid didn't end up playing in college. And they, they quit at age 18 right before they go off to school. It's not a failure. It means they just want to find something else that they actually really like and that's their own.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. Yeah. I totally get that. So, kind of shifting back to the, the performance setting, um, I'm curious your thoughts on, on kind of this, I I would say more of an emergent problem that I'm seeing. Um, one. You know, I don't know what it's like in Tampa. I assume it's very similar. We have, it seems like more and more pop-up sports performance places are coming on the map. More and more skills coaches are emerging. It's just, it seems, there just seems to be a lot of flux. And so I see a number of athletes who are just bouncing all over the place. I don't know if their parent is looking for the secret weapon. I don't know if it's just convenient.'cause now there's a new place closer. But they're just, I feel like every time you're, you're shifting coaches or programs, you're just starting over again and then you do that for a couple months and then it's like you're going back to square one. The second problem, and this kind of ties in a little bit with this, but a lot of schools and clubs are outsourcing training. And so you get these massive groups, um. And the only thing I feel like can really be done in those scenarios, especially in some of the smaller places, is it just looks like glorified conditioning to me. You know, everything's on a circuit, it's timed,
Erica Mulholland:it's always a circuit.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. And in our area, I don't know if you have this, but there are a couple places they just, they, they throw it on their Instagram of like, kids puking. And I'm like, what, what, what are we doing here? Like, what, why, why is this like, and some parents love it, they love it. They're like, oh yes. It's like, who can out grind who? And um, it just drives me up a wall. But, um, you know, I feel like my athletes have pressure again, kind of to, to some of the stuff we've talked about, to show face for the coach to be present to, you know, be in these high stakes situations. Like, Hey, I'm jockeying for a starting position or a roster spot. So I guess with all of this said, my question is. How do you approach the athletes who have all these outside commitments or things are being constantly added to their schedule when you know you're, you're investing time, you know what this athlete needs, you have a relationship with them, but they just kind of feel like they're, they're being pulled in other directions.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, so I, I just think, um, there's just too much out there and I really blame social media. Like you said, there's a performance gym at every block in every main city, and there's just so much popping up now, and I always tell parents, your kid will get better with what they're consistent at. Mm-hmm. You have to pick a path, you have to pick a program and a strength coach or skills coach and stick to that. And I, I'm very clear on my website and in my process that like, my training is not like you just pop in and out. This is a, a long term. Commitment because that's where you see the most improvements, is from that consistency piece. And um, usually like the girls who come to me, I'll, I'll also ask, Hey, have you had like any previous strength training experience? And some of them will say, yeah, we have like. We tried this facility and then we did this other facility and immediately I'm like, red flag, red flag. Like he tried like five facilities prior to me. This is gonna be a problem. And usually those people don't stick around with me because they're so used to just bopping around, like trainer hopping, program hopping, because maybe they get like three weeks into a program and they're like, I'm not seeing it on the field. Or like, you know, I'm not improving. And it's like, you only were there for three weeks and showed up one time a week. How is that? Mm-hmm. The trainer's problem, like please explain. Yeah. So yeah, those people are red flags. I try to weed them out like really early. And I just, I really like reiterate the consistency piece for people. And I, I really recommend parents like, get off social media. Stop looking at your, for you PH, because you're gonna see a ton of like different training videos in your area. And you're always gonna think the grass is greener and this trainer's doing this and this trainer's doing this. Oh, we need to try this. And then you end up going somewhere without getting anywhere, like, because you're just hopping from program to program. Nothing has really transpired. No improvements have been made because there's been. No consistency and commitment to picking a path and picking a program with a strength coach. So I recommend parents get off your for you page, stop looking around at all these other trainers and find one trusted strength and conditioning coach in your area that you're just gonna pick a path with and go and be consistent. And same with the skills coach that you pick. Pick the same skills coach and just train with them consistently. Like stop thinking that the grass is gonna be greener with a new program. Kids need consistency nowadays and they need a coach. They build a relationship with over a long period of time and build that rapport with and trust. So that's my 2 cents on all of that.
Ryan Patrick:No, I think that's fantastic. You're like a woman after my heart because I like, just wanna record that as like, hey, if you're thinking about training with us, and I had to make the decision a while ago, and I'm sure you did too, where. There are plenty of gyms that are larger or programs near me that are much larger, but I had to decide, like I don't, I don't want every athlete, I want the right athlete. And to me it's very simple who that athlete is. They are on a path and we essentially, like, I have three paths. They're coming back from injury and I really want to help them because you, some of them are not gonna go to college and you only get four years in high school. In high school sports were some of the best times I had outside of the actual game in the competition. Like the goofy stuff that happens in the locker room, traveling with the team team practices like that was awesome. I wanna help those kids. The other two are like either, Hey, I'm going next level, or Hey, my high school team is really good and like I want a roster spot. Like I wanna be a part of this. I don't care if they're the most elite, but that's not every kid. Some kids have a lot of talent. Some parents I could do without, you know. But I've seen the same thing you have where some of these athletes come in and they're like, we're gonna try this out for one day a week, and then we're nine weeks down the road and they're like, we're not really seeing results. I'm like, well, you guys have done nine sessions. I mean, if I eat one salad a week, like I'm not gonna drop a ton of weight. So I don't know what you're expecting from like doing one, one training session a week, but I don't know, I guess some people have these, um, just visions of grander of like putting in a little bit of work or maybe throwing money at a performance coach and thinking it's gonna turn the athletic career around for their kid.
Erica Mulholland:Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I, I would also say with like the one time a week, like that's fine if you do it for longer than 12 weeks, right? Because then you have more sessions under your belt. You've learned the lifts, you become competent in them. So that's something that's a win. Yeah. You're learn, you're learning weightlifting, and then you get those gradual improvements. But if it's like. Once a week for just a month. It's like I had hardly anything to work with. So, um, I just wanna say that, and then I agree with you. I mean, I used to work at a huge facility. I used to be in that world where, you know, you have like 40 athletes at a time come in super high volume. Mm-hmm. The music's loud. And look, it's a cool environment and some kids love that environment and that's fine for those athletes. Like, I'm not gonna like try and be like, Hey, come with me and train in my small gym. Like some athletes need that environment and that's okay. But I had to downsize because I just felt in that environment, like athletes weren't getting. The individualized attention in a smaller space, and it was just kind of like, okay, everyone, like come in, like do a cookie cutter workout and get the hell out. And it was just like mm-hmm. Turning people in and out of the gym and I just didn't like it. Um, you know, that's not to say like all big facilities are like this. I, I do know a few that do a good job with like individual program cards. Mm-hmm. Keeping it individualized, but it's few and far between. And then for like the club wide strength coaches where, you know, a soccer club will hire a strength coach to do like the whole club, like you said, it's not individualized because that club strength coach only sees a lot of these teams for like 30 minutes a week. And like he can't really do too much in that time and he can't really make it individual. They can't progress in those heavier lifts. And, and like you said, it just turns into that circuit style workout where, you know, it looks like the strength coach is doing something, but it, we're really just getting the heart rate up and really nothing more. We haven't built strength, we haven't built power, we haven't developed speed. And yeah, it's just, I mean, it's better than nothing I guess. And like people are trying, but sometimes I feel it's like clubs trying to check a box that mm-hmm. Oh, we're doing strength and conditioning and like, quote unquote injury prevention.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah, it'll, it'll be interesting, um, because we're, we're heading into a partnership with, um, an organization where they've got several clubs inside of their facility and we're gonna be taking over some of that training. So I have been thinking mightily about this, and I may have to, to circle back and, and just kind of pick your brain on some of this stuff, but Yeah, for
Erica Mulholland:sure. Um,
Ryan Patrick:it's like, you know, we've got limited time and I don't, I don't want to just, you know, wear the kids out, like getting tired is not necessarily the goal. Mm-hmm. Um, but on the other hand, people associate value with, oh, my kid came out red faced. So, you know, we're always kind of fighting that good fight. And I think to your point, it just comes down to like preaching the word, telling people what's what, and just, you know, the right ones will understand and make the improvements.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah. I, I agree. And I had a, I had a mom the other day. Like she, I like posted on my Instagram story, like one of our workouts. And like, I just caught her daughter at a bad time. But I was filming another girl, like doing a set of her deadlifts. And then the mom's daughter was resting in the background during her set and just sitting there with like, kind of like a, a resting bitch face. Like it, I caught the girl at such a bad moment. Like it was so bad. But I was filming the girl dead lifting. I just didn't realize she was in the background. And the, the girl was like, yeah, my mom was like, what am I paying for? For you to just sit around? And the girl explained to her, mom, mom, I was resting after a set of deadlifts. Like we don't bounce from station to station, like we're lifting heavy. We usually rest for a few minutes in between. And then the mom was like, well, you're not sweating after these workouts and. The, the girl goes, Erica's gym is set at 67 degrees air conditioning. It's freezing in there. Like we're not sweating. And we're also like doing slow strength training. It's not meant to obl obliterate you. It's meant to get you better and to get you stronger. You can't get stronger if your nervous system is taxed and you're not resting. And I just thought it was funny, but the girl stood up for my program because I've educated the girl on why we rest so she can relay the information to her mom. Mm-hmm.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah, I am. I am fully convinced that parents and probably 99% of gen pop clients do not understand what high intensity is. No. They understand intensity of effort and they think they know what high intensity training is, but I'm like, there ain't nothing intense happening here. You know? And I wish people. And maybe it's just'cause their nervous systems aren't wired for that, but they just can't tap into that gear that athletes can. And, and it's almost like, I don't know, I feel like sometimes it's explaining water to a fish. You just, they have no clue what you're even saying.
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, yeah. And I think it, it's really like that, like intentional work that's so powerful. And I, I think a lot of people are under the impression that a good workout is you sweating or being sore. But my question is, well, did you really get better from that? Did you really execute your strength lifts with good technique? And focus and were you able to lift this heavy weight and go up this week? And you can't be sore doing that. You can't have a tired, central nervous system doing that. So, yeah, I, I'm just trying to spread the message of like why we train, how we train. Um, that's not to say like a lot of my conditioning days, the speed endurance days in the summer, they're brutal. They're, they're really hard, especially in the Florida heat. So yeah, we're sweating during those workouts'cause it's fricking humid outside. It's a hundred degrees. But yeah, I just think people like don't understand the strength piece and why we have to rest long in between sets and go slow during these lifts. This is not a circuit or orange theory class, so I'm trying to explain it more to my girls so that then they can explain it to the parents and everyone is on the same page.
Ryan Patrick:I love that. Well, Erica, we're coming up on an hour and I appreciate you tolerating me bouncing all over the place with questions. I do wanna, I'll stick to the script here, but I wanna finish with a few kind of rapid fire outro questions that I think maybe kind of interesting and help us learn just a little bit more about kind of how you think and a little bit about your process. So the first one is, what are the biggest misconceptions people have about you and your training or your coaching philosophy?
Erica Mulholland:That I think what we were just talking about that we're not working hard.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. Yeah.
Erica Mulholland:Because we're, I'm, my goal of workouts is not sore or to puke or, um, a lot of my workouts are, are fun as well, especially our speed and agility days. And I think when parents look at those sessions from the outside, they're like, oh, they're not really working. They're just having too much fun. And that's the biggest misconception in my community in Tampa, Florida, especially with the younger ones training I do. Yeah. They think they're not getting a good workout, but during a lot of those fun games, those girls are huffing and puffing. They're red in the face because it's a lot of conditioning within those fun games. But we're racing and we're doing tag and like people don't see that as hard. Um mm-hmm. So that's the biggest misconception that I've fought in the Tampa area.
Ryan Patrick:I love that you've done a lot of work for female athletes. You have two books now?
Erica Mulholland:Yes.
Ryan Patrick:Okay. When we look back 10 to 20 years, what do you want people to say that you changed for the female athlete?
Erica Mulholland:You mean in my coaching?
Ryan Patrick:Just in general, what I, what impact do you wanna have? What do you want to be known for with regards to how female athletes approach training?
Erica Mulholland:I think the biggest one has been just really getting girls excited about the gym. Mm-hmm. And a lot of girls I've worked with in the past several years is they're at first reluctant on day one in the gym, but eventually they just grow to love it. Mm-hmm. And I think that's because I explain it really well on how it helps them with their performance. Staying healthy. But I also explain, okay, this is why this is important just for life in general and when you're done playing. So I think, um, that's been my biggest impact. And I've had a lot of girls who I started training young and a lot of them are done playing college soccer now. And they still lift, they still take care of themselves. And I think for me that is like more important than, you know, of course I'm happy, you know, they went to like great colleges and played at great programs. Mm-hmm. But I get more excited that they still do this stuff even now that they're retired.
Ryan Patrick:Yeah. When I was at university, you know, the downstairs was the weight room and you rarely saw females down there. The upstairs was all cardio and that's where all the females were. So the more of the girls that we can get into the weight room, I think the better. And in my experience, they end up loving it.
Erica Mulholland:Oh yeah, it's their favorite. They love the gym.
Ryan Patrick:I know some of'em are just like, I'm, I'm kind of a recovering meathead. I love to lift. Yeah. Um, I love being fast, but I'm not that fast, so, um, it's great. But yeah, I, I find girls got a little bit of that, that bro in'em too, where they like to, to sling some weight. So that's you. Yeah. I see you. Um, and la last thing I wanna ask you is if we, if you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the youth sports landscape, what would that be?
Erica Mulholland:So, I mean, so much, but how do I pick wand, right? Yeah. Um. It's really hard to change early specialization right now. I think we're kind of in a deep hole with the way most clubs are structured and how the younger teams are only travel teams now and rec is kind of just getting lost in the weeds. Yeah, so I think my solution to that is I wish clubs would invest more in. Having an athletic development facility. And I, I liked, um, to model after some of the youth soccer academies in Europe where they are doing this. They have jungle gyms and gymnastics and mats and places to tumble and climb and roll around because all these kids in these European youth soccer academies, they only play soccer. But these academies recognize that they need these other things too. And I think clubs in the states, if they can invest in that athletic development instead of maybe some other things that they're just throwing money at, it's, it would be so huge just for the physical and mental health of these kids who are early specializing and parents who are kind of like stuck in that system and they can't really get out because I really think we're in a deep hole right now. And I think it's really gonna come down to clubs, just investing in the right things for kids.
Ryan Patrick:We just need Jeremy Fri to go to scale. I know,
Erica Mulholland:I wish.
Ryan Patrick:Okay. All right. What projects do you have coming up? Is there anything you're excited for and where can we find out more about you?
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, so I've been doing a lot more speaking. I'm just trying to get the word out more at live events and just, um, spreading the truth about female athletes, strength training, youth, long-term development, and just meeting people in person. I think that's still powerful now. And also doing, doing my podcast and having longer conversations with experts. And I just want my podcast to be one of the few places parents go to for really good, reliable information instead of just paying attention to all this noise on the internet. Um, I really think people just need to like, like we mentioned the episode, pick a path. Yeah. And find people in your circle that you really trust to develop your kid and keep them healthy.
Ryan Patrick:That's amazing. And is Instagram the best spot?
Erica Mulholland:Yeah, Instagram at Fit soccer queen. And then if you go to the link in my bio, you'll find like the books, the podcasts, and my website.
Ryan Patrick:Awesome. I'll make sure we get that into the show notes. Um, but thank you so much for coming on and tolerating me, bouncing around, but it was a great conversation. I hope you felt like you were able to share some, some really powerful stuff and maybe a few different things than you're used to. But this was awesome. I appreciate your time so much.
Erica Mulholland:Thank you so much.