Episode Details

The World Cup is the pinnacle of the soccer world.

You have the best athletes in the world, representing their countries, and doing everything they can to perform at the highest levels in the biggest moments of sport.

And while I love nothing more than watching these incredible athletes play, I also love talking to the coaches BEHIND those athletes – the people that help support these amazing athletes in their quest for soccer immortality.

And that’s why I’m so honored to have two members of the US Men’s National Team Performance staff on today’s episode – Steve Tashjian, Head of Performance during the last World Cup cycle, and performance coach Darcy Norman.

Steve Tashjian was a soccer hack that got a taste of what bad rehab looked like and wanted to make things better for the athletes he worked with.

He started his coaching career in the MLS with the Columbus Crew, then spent 5 years working in England at Everton Football Club, before coming back for a second stint with the Columbus Crew.

And not to be outdone, Darcy Norman has spent time with prestigious clubs like Bayern Munich and AS Roma, and oh by the way, he also won a World Cup with the German Men’s National team in 2014!

So needless to say, this is an awesome episode and one I think you’re going to love!

Once they saw it operating, and how we operated, then everyone was aligned and we were great. The interactions with the clubs from a compliance and data-sharing standpoint was 95%. – Darcy Norman

This Week on the Physical Preparation Podcast:

• What’s new with Steve and Darcy since I last chatted with them.
• Reflecting on the World Cup experience as a whole.
• Selecting the performance staff for the USMNT, and the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved.
• Thoughts on creating an athlete-centric system where you can have open and vulnerable discussions with top-shelf soccer clubs across the globe.
• The onboarding process that the athletes were taken through prior to getting started.
• How you effectively manage (and keep tabs on) 40-50 athletes who are playing games across multiple continents.
• Developing a fitness/physical preparation program that supports the coach/manager’s preferred style of play.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), and how Darcy and Steven went about blending subjective feedback with objective, data-driven tools.
• Game prep: What do you do to help ensure your athletes are fit, fresh and ready to go on only 3-4 days rest?
• A final debrief, and what the future holds for both of these awesome coaches!

Connect with Steve:

• ElevationProX.com
• Steve on LinkedIn

Connect with Darcy:

• Darcy on Twitter
• Darcy on LinkedIn

Related Links:

• Steve Tashjian on Logistics, Integration and High-Performance Teams
• Darcy Norman on the Value of Working with Interesting People