Healthy Hoboken: High School Pre-Season

As high school athletes start gearing up for pre-season training, I harked back this week to my days of double sessions and 6 a.m. practices as a member of the Parsippany High School soccer team.

While I don't miss them at all, I definitely do miss being in such perfect shape without having to put any thought into it. I just showed up, and my coach–Hobokenite Ken Leeder–had the workout mapped out.

I gave Leeder a call this week to ask what kind of workouts he had planned for the team he now coaches, at Immaculate Conception in Lodi. Turns out Monday night was his first practice, and first time meeting the team. (He previously coached in New Milford.)

If I remember right, he had us doing suicides from day one. He even sent us a summer workout schedule to follow, to prepare for our first official practice.

He must've mellowed out in his old age–it's been nine years–because he said he only planned to give the girls a few words of advice and get them mentally prepared.

What was he mentally preparing them for?

"Three weeks of hell," he said with a fairly evil laugh. "I told them, 'You're going to hate me for the next three weeks, but in three weeks time you'll thank me when we're winning."

Leeder says he approaches pre-season workouts like bootcamp. This year, he will focus on sprints rather than long-distance runs. He has always incorporated sprints into his regimen, but now fully grasps the benefits of sprint workouts. 

"Sprints will change the way your body looks, feels and behaves," says Leeder.

He came to the realization when he started completing the workouts alongside the athletes he was training this summer.

Last spring, he stuck to a workout that many in Hoboken swear by–and didn't see any results.

"I used to wake up in the morning and run the standard 35 minutes on the treadmill. I'd start walking because I'm lazy," he admits.

He also went for extensive bike rides and played on numerous soccer teams, but felt he could be in better shape.

Since incorporating sprints three weeks ago, he's dropped nine pounds off his previously 164-pound frame. "I decided to throw myself into the workout. I did everything I made her [the trainee] do. It was torture and it was hell, but at the end of the workout I felt better about myself," he says.

"You're better off running sprints for 35 minutes than distance for an hour, but it's harder so people don't want to do it."

Whether you run religiously each morning or haven't touched your running shoes since high school, Leeder says everyone will benefit from sprint workouts. He says to start slow, and eventually build up to a 35-40 minute workout. Never rest for more than a minute between sprints.

"Stop making excuses. Get out there, set up some cones and do some sprints."

Here is his workout plan, which his new soccer team will be following by the middle of this week:

"Go to a high school track or football field. Do five sprints of 10 yards, then 5 sprints of 20 yards, 5 of 30, and 5 sets of 40 yards. If you're just starting out, skip the longer distances. That's 20 sprints, jog back between them, wait 30 seconds, then go again. If you really want to be lean and ripped, after each five set, do 20 push-ups and 30 crunches."

I plan on visiting the Hoboken High School field later this week to give this workout a shot–anyone care to join?