While the details surrounding COVID-19 and the return of sports in the U.S. remain largely unknown, the Rapids are moving one step closer to returning to play, with voluntary individual workouts now permitted for the team.
MLS made the announcement last week that teams are allowed to begin these individual sessions, if the clubs make sure to adhere to strict social distancing guidelines. In the announcement, the league specifically stated that as part of this, teams must, first and foremost, follow the laws put in place by each club’s local governments.
The current stay-at-home regulations in Denver and Adams County are set to expire on May 8. Rapids head coach Robin Fraser plans to begin offering individual training sessions to the players on Wednesday, May 13. He described his thought process this week on Altitude Sports Social and on a call with the media.
“I think [the sessions are] completely open to interpretation,” Fraser said. “It’s whatever each coach and each staff thinks is the best way to go about gaining some sort of advantage as you go forward and really trying to make gains.”
Upon seeing the above video from Atlanta United FC, who returned to training this week, Fraser confirmed that this is the type of training his team is considering as well.
“That’s, in a very raw form, how I would see things being for us,” he said, after watching the Atlanta video. “If there’s zero interaction, then it’s important there’s a board to bounce things off. As much as we like to touch the ball, the game is about passing, receiving, moving, changing directions, changing angles. If you don’t have someone to pass with, you at least need something to pass off.
“Even as you sit there and watch the player from Atlanta, he’s not getting much, but he is moving, he is changing directions, he is getting lots of touches, he is using lots of surfaces on his feet. It’s never going to be perfect right now, and we know that, but we want to make it as good as possible.”
A lot of planning and consideration has gone into and continues to go into the strategy for training. Most importantly, the team wants to make these sessions valuable for the players. Since the workouts are voluntary, their interest and buy-in is crucial.
“It’s not just go out, and kick a ball around. We certainly like to make it so that they really feel like they’re gaining something out of training when they come out. We just want to make sure that if they are going to come out to training, that it is going to be something where they really feel like they’ve gotten something out of it.”
It appears the Rapids will begin these sessions next week, and while they are a step in the right direction, the future continues to be unknown.
“I feel like everything now is all so new to us, that we are still trying to navigate these waters and we have no idea when it’s actually going to be safe. We see the country trending towards opening up. We hope that this all goes positively, and if it goes positively then we will follow that trend as well."
The hope is that these trainings allow the players to get up to speed physically and the Rapids are confident the other aspects of their game has stayed sharp.
“I can’t help but feel that we are making gains mentally, which, at the end of the day, is the most important thing. Everyone is fit and strong, can dribble, shoot, and pass. The best players in the world think the fastest. If there is any of this that is going to enable us to think faster, recognize situations sooner, then I will feel like we will have made very good use of this time.”
In addition to a timeline, the way in which the league will return is currently in question. Teams being scheduled for multiple games a week appears likely and talk of increased substitutions being allowed per game is also in the conversation.
“I think it bodes well for us. I like the depth of our team and I like the ability to mix and match… The more I think about what this truncated season may look like, I get excited about it because I do think that we have a number of players, at least 2 players in each position that on any day we would be comfortable starting.”
