Chelsea Ladies v Man City is on the 20th July with a 2pm kick off

two top ladies teams playing each other locally. Chelsea v Man City is on the 20th July with a 2pm kick off at Staines FC. This is a chance to see several England womens team ( mostly from Man City) play at the top level of womens football. 

See as many of you as possible there

pre-season training POSTPONED - to Friday 18th July 5pm broom road

Sorry but due to 5k run in broom road (feel free to attend!) I have to reschedule this fitness session for next Friday (by then week one of training would be well underway ;-))))

Tournament 14th June - DETAILS

Meet for 8/8.30 to have time for a “wake-me-up” warm-up session :)) - I won’t be there but Ed will.

KICK OFF 9am

Denham United Ladies F.C.

The Den

Oxford Road

New Denham

Uxbridge

Middlesex

UB9 4DW

www.denhamunitedlfc.com

end of year Camping :Penneys from Heaven

Penneys from Heaven - Keith Maple

Late because of bad traffic caused by oval ball followers, we left the cycle-infested lanes of Surrey to make our way down the rutted track that led to the paradise that is Penney Fields.

The sun was at last showing its face as we were greeted by the sight of the Teddington Girls having tractor rides around the fields, dangling on tree swings, kicking balls or soaking up the rays.  A line of tents, a log fire, buttercups in the field and the mooing of cows - we felt like extras in an Enid Blyton book. 

A game of rounders was followed by the challenge…”Football - Girls against the Adults”.

The adults rose (slowly) as one. The chance to recreate those lost days of youth, the opportunity to show those young upstarts how football was “back in the day”. No Premier League, “proper” tackles, overweight goalkeepers and men called “Chopper” and “the Vulture”. Ably supported by Christelle, and Louis (Bella’s brother), the mums and dads forgo warm ups and drills, put down their alcohol and lined up to face the enemy. Kicking downhill towards the Stinging Nettle End. the adults were 1-0 up after two minutes. Good work from Charlotje, Lola and Bella and it’s 1-1. The game was literally in tents as one move saw the ball and player pass through the open canvas.  

Then, as if touched by the “Ghost of Matches past”, the adults began to play sublime football. The wing skills of Christelle, the leadership of Mick, the vision of Julian and the defending of Simon “the hatchet” Attoe supplemented by Lorraine’s movement nearly off the ball and our resident Dutchman’s magnificent positioning, the adults scored again and again as the Nettle End goal net billowed.  As the game reached a climax, the girl’s defence crumbled as did the bones of the adults, but as they say form is temporary and class is permanent and the adults just wiped the floor with our beleaguered heroines…… “Your girls took a hell of a beating”.

A magnificent BBQ followed as the adults limped their way to the drinks table and the girls, without wi-fi, phones or TV, played in the great outdoors, tended the fire and had a thoroughly good time.  As the sun set, the festivities continued until late into the night and it was with some regret that I had to leave to pick up my other daughter from Brighton.  If ever there was an example of heaven and hell, then I left the former and entered the latter before quickly escaping back to the Teddington bubble.  My sleep was only disturbed by a strange noise in the night. This turned out to be Ed's snoring, seventeen odd miles away in heaven.

Returning to the farm next day, everyone was surprisingly chipper as once again the sun shown brightly, girls continued playing, tents came down and bacon and egg sandwiches were consumed. As the weather grew hotter, it was inevitable that water would enter the fray and Carlos “the heckle” became Carlos “the kettle “ as he threw water over an assortment of “our finest”.  Then, and I am sure, not for the first time in his life, he was chased across a field by a cavalcade of young women trying to catch him. They did.  So everyone departed, slightly wetter than they had arrived, but with lots more memories from yet another leg of our incredible journey with TAFC.

Our mixture of nationalities from the British and Emerald Isles, France, Holland and Brazil joined together in a pre World Cup celebration and a celebration of a great season and a great team. Words cannot do justice to how well the Penney’s looked after us and a massive thank you comes from us all.

Here’s to the next event (assuming I am not being held captive in a Brazilian jail).

THINKING AHEAD : Get fitter on your own (all of you need to do this)

http://www.thefa.com/GetIntoFootball/Players/PreSeasonTraining/SixWeekProgramme.aspx

This six-week plan is designed to be followed as individual - We will, as a team, organise fitness session but please ALL OF YOU should want to get a head start and do this, at the very least 3 weeks before we start our program

WEEK ONE 
In Week One you want to take it quite easy. The temptation is to really go for it after a long lay-off, but if you overdo it now you will injure yourself or burn yourself out.

Session One

Find a football pitch, ideally somewhere that takes you five minutes to jog to for the perfect warm-up. Then, after a stretch, you need to do some intensive running work. There is a myth that you need to go on long, slow runs to get rid of fat and get fit. In fact, short bursts of intensive work are far better, and ideal for football. Fitness for football is basically all about being able to sprint in short bursts, recover, then sprint again.

• Five-minute jog to park
• Stretch
• Five three-quarter pace sprints from one touchline to the other and back, with 30-second recovery rests between each sprint 
• Two-and-a-half minute recovery (jog on the spot or kick a football about) 
• Repeat the above 
• Five-minute jog home

If possible try to find a training partner, it's great for motivation and you'll get much more out of the programme.

Session Two

One set of press-up/squat circuit.

These circuits kill two birds with one stone. As well as working on your fitness, your heart and lungs, at the same time they strengthen the muscles that you specifically use for football.

WEEK TWO

Session One"Now we can build up the work gradually. By repeating last week's running exercise but shortening the recovery time between sprints, you will see immediate progress."

• Five-minute jog to park 
• Stretch 
• Five three-quarter pace sprints from one touchline to the other and back, with 20-second recovery rests between each sprint 
• Two-minute recovery  
• Repeat the above 
• Five-minute jog home

Session Two

• Two sets of the press-up/lunge circuit.

Session ThreeAgain using the football pitch you will need a stopwatch for this one. Timing yourself is a great way to keep yourself motivated, especially if you are training on your own.

• Five-minute jog to park 
• Stretch 
• One lap of full-size football pitch  
• One lap jog for recovery (kick a ball as you go) 
• Repeat the fast and slow laps four more times, on each fast lap attempting to match the time of the first 
• Five-minute jog home

When you are training, you should be replacing fluids all the time. You need fluids so that you can sweat, and you need to sweat to cool the body down. If you start feeling thirsty while you train it's too late; it will take you 24 hours to re-hydrate properly.

Most people will lose a minimum of a kilo when they are training, and for each kilo you lose you need to drink one and a half litres of fluid. Isotonic drinks (like Lucozade Sport) are better than water as they hydrate you quicker as well as replacing the electrolytes and carbohydrates you lose in sweat.

WEEK THREEIn weeks Three and Four we will really build it up, bringing the training to a peak before winding down in weeks Five and Six to allow the body to recover so that it is ready for the new season.

Session One

• Five-minute jog to park 
• Stretch 
• Five sprints across the pitch and back, with 30 seconds recovery between each. 
• Two-and-a-half minutes rest 
• Four sprints across the pitch and back, with 15 seconds recovery between each 
• Two-and-a-half minutes rest 
• Three timed sprints across the pitch and back, aiming for 30 seconds or less each time. The recovery time allowed between sprints depends on the time recorded (whatever is left out of the 30 seconds). So, a 24-second sprint earns six seconds recovery, a 30-second (or more) sprint earns no recovery. 
• Two-and-a-half minutes rest 
• Five minutes jog home

Session Two 

• Three sets of super circuit.

Session Three 

• Five-minute jog to park 
• Stretch 
• One fast lap of the pitch, timed (aim to improve the pace from the previous week) 
• One lap of jogging for recovery (with ball) 
• Repeat four more times, aiming on each fast lap to maintain the speed of the first 
• Five-minute jog home

Session Four 

• Three sets of either press-up/squat or press-up/lunge circuits.

When you are training it is crucial to eat properly. Often, people try to combine this kind of work with losing weight that they have put on during the close-season; so they train more but eat less. This can leave them without enough energy for the work, and they can easily end up injuring themselves.

During pre-season you should actually increase your portions of food. This applies especially to carbohydrates like pasta, rice and potatoes, which should make up half of what's on your plate.

WEEK FOURWeek Four should be a repetition of Week Three, although you can mix up the order of running and circuit training to suit your schedule.

Typical Week

Saturday - run
Sunday - circuit
Monday - rest
Tuesday - run
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - circuit
Friday - rest

At this stage rest is crucial. You must allow your body to recuperate. If you carried on increasing the workload there would come a point where your body wouldn't be able to cope. Even in the professional game, over-training in pre-season is common.

Listen to your body. If you start to stiffen up don't force it, take a couple of days off. If you don't you will pick up an injury, or over-stress the immune system and start picking up colds and viruses much more easily than you would do naturally.

WEEK FIVEWith two weeks to go until the start of the season, now you need to bring your training down to a level which will leave you feeling fresh and ready to cope with the shock of the start of the season.

Session One

• Five-minute jog to park 
• Stretch 
• Five-minute run around the edge of a full size pitch. Jog along one touchline, then skip, side-step or zig-zag (any movement you would use in football) along the goal-line, sprint down the next touchline, and at the final goal-line repeat the movement you did previously but backwards. 
• Repeat the laps, varying the goal-line movements, for five minutes.
• Two minutes recovery. 
• Repeat as above, twice more 
• Five-minute jog home

Session Two 

• Three sets of press-up/squat circuit. 

Session Three 

• Five-minute jog to park
• Strech
• Five timed sprints across the pitch and back, with 30 seconds allowed for each. Recovery time is whatever is left out of the 30 seconds after each sprint.
• Two-and-a-half minutes rest 
• Repeat twice
• Five-minute jog home

WEEK SIX

Session One 

• Three sets of press-up/lunge circuit.

Session Two 

• Five-minute jog to park 
• Stretch 
• Five-minute run around the edge of a full size pitch. Jog along one touchline, then skip, side-step or zig-zag (any movement you would use in football) along the goal-line, sprint down the next touchline, and at the final goal-line repeat the movement you did previously but backwards. 
• Repeat the laps, varying the goal-line movements, for five minutes.  
• Two minutes recovery. 
• Repeat as above, twice more 
• Five-minute jog home

Session Three 

• Three sets of super circuit.

If you have completed this programme, you should now be able to sprint at a high intensity, recover and repeat it. Plus, by doing regular bodyweight circuits you have improved the strength and endurance of the specific muscles that you need for football.

31st May Camping - Message from the Penney's

Dear Parents & Family of U13 Girls,

Just to remind you, you are all invited to our fields in Westcott, Dorking on Saturday 31^st May 2014. The address is Westlees Farm, Logmore Lane, Westcott, RH4 3JN . It’s about a 35/40 minute drive from Teddington. Let me know if you need a printed map and I can email it over.

Rough Itinerary for Saturday 31^st May/Sunday 1^st June

Saturday

12:30/1:00 –        Arrive at Penney Fields & those of you staying need to put up your tents.

2:00+                     Afternoon of team games, tractor ride and of course a  football match.

5:00ish –               BBQ (Christelle & I are organising food for evening & breakfast which we will split between families). Could each person bring a pudding or salad & obviously drink if you so wish.

Evening –            Bonfire & marshmallows.

Sunday

Communal breakfast of bacon sandwiches cooked over the fire.

Probably leaving between 1/2pm.

If it’s OK with everyone, could one member of each family let me know by email how many adults & children are coming & if you have any special food requirements,  so that Christelle and i can organise food for the BBQ & breakfast.

Don’t forget your wellies (incase of bad weather) & get the kids to wear old clothes that you don’t mind getting muddy & definitely a change of clothes for them too! It can get cold in the evening so bring some warm clothing.

We would really like you all to come and stay if you wish. If you are not a camper we would still love you to come as camping is not compulsory.

We will arrange a port-a-loo for the weekend and there is a barn should the weather turn bad but unfortunately it’s not big enough to sleep in. Really looking forward to it, hope you can all come.

Kind regards

Stewart & Julie Penney

Teddington U13G Blogger of the year awardee strikes again :-) last masterpiece of the season

Awards Night

Carlos the “heckle” in balloon-bursting drama

Oh what a fantastic season. Top three and a great tour. The great and the good of TAFC Girls Under 13’s gathered at the Bushy Park Big Top on Friday for the Annual Awards ceremony. After their triumphant European campaign, the girls were in celebratory mood, though the planned open top bus parade had to be cancelled because the park gates closed at 20.15. We entered the tent to the strains of “We love you Teddington, we do” much to the chagrin of the boys teams who had earlier endured much more sedate ceremonies. Christelle took to the floor and delivered an impassioned speech to much applause. It has been a great season, it could have been better and next year it will be if we keep our concentration and get fitter in body and in mind (and that is just the parents).

The awards then followed with :

• Players Player of the Year going to Lola;
• Coaches Player of the Year to Sophia; 
• Managers Player of the Year to Charlotje.

All three thoroughly deserved their awards. The whole squad then received their own trophies, which on closer inspection seemed to have the bottom half of a man and the top half of a woman (or maybe just a homage to Andy Carroll). Time to thank Christelle, Ed and Mairead for all of their efforts and once more a song before leaving the marquee. Carlos caught up in the emotion of the moment then encouraged our team to take the balloons home, not realizing that they were needed for a similar, albeit quieter, ceremony planned for the following day. After being chastised by ‘someone important’, the balloons were hastily put back, all except one deflated one - our bubble had at last been burst, but it took a Brazilian to do it. 

Have a great summer