Before they can start practicing with the team in the fall, each player on the Florida soccer team must pass a test that consists of 15 runs: five 300-yard loop runs, five 120 full-field sprints, five shuttles to the 6-yard box, the 18-yard box, midfield and back. This is the handiwork of strength and conditioning coordinator Karin Werth, who might seem like a slavedriver, but in reality, is just doing her best to make sure every player is capable of performing at her highest level.
More than 90 percent of the team spends their summer with Werth, waking up at 6:30 a.m. twice a week to run springs for an hour. Later in the day, it’s work in the weight room. It is a demanding regimen but it pays off once the soccer season begins.
“Her mentality sets the tone for our team,” said Florida coach Becky Burleigh, whose Gators (10-4-1, 4-1-1 SEC) travel to Knoxville today to face Tennessee. “She doesn’t let anyone slack. She’s tough. But if you ask the players, they love her. She is working to make them better.”
Getting players to love a person who wakes them up at the crack of dawn to run and makes them sweat in the 100-degree Florida summers isn’t a simple task. Werth relies mostly on two factors to motivate her players — her background in psychology and the fact that the players want to succeed so they can start practicing sooner.
“It’s definitely a trick, and I’m glad I majored in psychology,” Werth said. “Every day, I use a little psychology. Every day they see they’re developing, it’s a no-brainer that they’re gonna like you. They wanna do everything to get better, so it’s not too, too hard for me.”
Caitlin Howard, a senior defender, who finished her fourth and final summer workout this year, said that the players react to Werth because of her balance.
Sometimes she will scream with a voice that can be heard across the field, but just as often, she’ll see players struggling and sit down with them to talk and help them improve.
“Karin is actually great at motivating,” Howard said. “Sometimes when we’re running, it’s like, ‘I hate you!’ Afterward, she’s awesome and funny. You feel like you’re running for the team and you don’t want to let her down. If you’re not working hard, she’ll definitely call you out.”
The conditioning not only helps the Gators get into the season, but it helps the team get through it. Burleigh, Howard and Werth all said that they can see certain teams deteriorate during the season — sometimes even in games.
But Florida, thanks to the hard conditioning in the hot summer, sets itself up well for the season physically. Knowing this gives the team a mental advantage — and the heat gives them a distinct home advantage.
“It gives our team a mental edge knowing how much they’ve worked and how much they’ve put into,” Burleigh said, “it makes them less likely to give up on it.
Howard said that she feels the difference late in each game. The knowledge that each player can go for 90 minutes and then overtime prepares them for anything.
“The workouts she designs show us that we can always push ourselves further,” she said. “When we have overtime, it prepares us to go into that extra 20 minutes. She prepares not only to be fit, but also to be mentally fit.”
For her part, Werth is humble, noting that mental toughness is a natural part of college athletics in which the players’ bodies are routinely brutalized.
“Mental toughness is a huge part in any sport,” she said. “We have to keep that sharp throughout the season. We want them to be on edge and tough all the time. They do that in the weight room and at practice.”
All season, Burleigh has said that the Gators are a second-half team, referring to how her team has a tendency to wear the opponent out in the first half of each game. Now that the season is deep into its second half, other teams are facing injury and depth issues and a general fatigue. The Gators are not.
They continue the conditioning that began in the summer on Tuesdays during the season, although at a bit less intensity. Werth monitors each player’s heart rate to make sure that they are beating at about 90 percent of their max (or around 180 beats per minute, on average) and then that they are at 70 percent within one minute of stopping.
“By the time we get to the last few games, we can see the teams that are not only worn down, but also injured,” Werth said. “We’re trying to keep everybody healthy and keep them on edge and hungry. It’s a hard thing to do.”
For the Gators, the hardest part is the most important. If they win the rest of their games, they win the SEC, but one loss down the stretch can hurt the team’s postseason chances. Werth’s work has them prepared to pull it off.
IN CONTROL: Coach Burleigh said that she is pleased that the Gators are in the driver’s seat for the final five-game stretch before the season, but that the team should have had it sooner.
“We’d like to have that the whole season,” she said. “Obviously, though, we gave up that opportunity in our weekend in the ‘sip’ (Mississippi).”
She also won’t let her team use it as an excuse to slack.
“It’s still a situation where we really have no room for error,” Burleigh said. “It’s important for us to play consistently not just for the SEC, but heading into the postseason.”
READY TO PLAY: The most important development heading into the final stretch has been the development of her young reserves, Burleigh said.
“Right now, I’m really excited about our reserves getting closer to the levels of our starters — that’s a testament to them not being content with their role as reserves,” she said.
The play of the backups has bolstered the depth of a team that has surprising few injuries on the season.
“We’re healthy and ready to go as we’ve moved forward,” she said. “You can’t ask for more than that.”
READY FOR THE ROAD?: Burleigh doesn’t think that her team has a problem playing on the road, but she certainly respects the question.
Her team hasn’t won a road contest since the first game of the season at Miami. Burleigh said that each of the past two road trips has been a unique situation that’s not likely to be replicated as her team moves forward.
Still, she hasn’t had any problem using it as motivation.
“That’s something we have to prove this weekend.,” she said, “and it’s something that I’ve told our team. The conditions should be ideal, and if we don’t perform, we don’t have any excuses.”