How do you start from scratch with a PRO athlete who had a bad S&C exp?

I had an MVP caliber player who only did TRX movements for his strength training at his previous club.

The same 3 movements 1x/week for a full season.

In some settings S&C in soccer is still behind.

There are 3 things I investigate with new players:

1. Injury history
2. S&C experience
3. Mindset of additional training outside of the sport

There are more, but this is a start

This athlete was incredible on the ball and had a high IQ on the pitch.

The past few seasons he had struggled with an injury that had a failed rehab, to a surgery, to another failed rehab and then finally moved to another team.

From my list:

Injury history
S&C experience
Mindset

He was willing to do anything to stay healthy and get back on the field.

A great opportunity and responsibility for me. I take these situations to heart from my own injury struggles.

This was the main program:

Goblet Squat —> Split Squat
Inverted Row
1 leg RDL + (high F ecc ham work)
DB Bench Press
Loaded Carries
Medball Throws
Jumps/Hops/Bounds
Sprints

I varied these 4 things throughout the season:

VOLUME

DIRECTION

VELOCITY

INTENSITY

It was not complicated. It was digestible for the athlete. And the athlete saw RESULTS.

Yes there are other great things we could have added in, but this worked for him. He was not overwhelmed. The movements were spread out throughout the week. It was all he needed at that time

The key things you did not visualize in this thread:

1. We were PATIENT with progressions of movement and volume. I was trying to develop trust in a short time.

2. I had daily COMMUNICATION with this athlete to see if he enjoyed the program and felt better on the pitch.

One more thing. There is a mindset war that goes on in an athlete during a rehab.
Don’t take it personal when they have bad days, they are human.
Have compassion when they are struggling to test a movement. Everyone progresses at a different rate.
Don’t get stuck by the book.