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The Frequency of Peak Performance
Player Sebastian Lletget has a lot to say about the importance of mental
acuity and the role it plays in his own recovery. One of the sport’s rising
stars, Lletget was called up to the U.S. National Team against Honduras
in March 2017 and ended up with a Lisfranc fracture of his left foot, in
which the metatarsal bones are displaced from the tarsus. The injury and
subsequent surgery kept him off the field for the rest of the season. “This
game is 95% mental. Five percent is physical and that’s important, but
95% of this game is between the ears,” he explained. “This is why we
have psychologists and things that we have to do prior to games in order
to get attuned to that frequency of peak performance.”
I asked him about the nature of the mentality. Is it confidence, focus,
presence? He said, “You gain all of those things before you even hit the
field. The game starts long before you step on the field. It starts when you
get in your car to drive to the stadium, not just when the whistle blows.”
Mindset Beyond the Game
What Sebastian is telling me is that there is a mindset that extends way be-
yond the actual game. Baggio Husidic, who happens to be the team’s sole
vegan, concurs, “Soccer is such a small part of my life if you look over the
whole picture. My compassionate way of living and eating and thinking is
for the longevity of my life, the environment, and to leave a good picture
for my son and future generations. From the outside in, it might look like
I live a vegan lifestyle for peak performance, but it just happens that my
lifestyle and mindset benefits my game.”
My own 21-year-old daughter conquered some chronic health issues
by adopting a 100% plant-based diet. One of the myths of veganism is
that it’s hard to get enough protein. Baggio explains, “I think the protein
question is just something people are used to asking. My breakfast alone
has 20 grams of protein. My main sources are lentils, beans, nuts, and
seeds. That alone provides more than enough protein. The thing I do have
to watch with a plant-based diet is my Vitamin B12 level. I have zero
deficiencies, and I have one of the lowest cholesterol levels on the team.”
I asked him about endurance as if it would be more of a challenge
for him. It’s actually just the opposite. “The biggest difference for me is
endurance. A big part of that is recovery. I eat so many antioxidants and
anti-inflammatory foods, and that’s pretty much the key to recovering the
muscles. I recover very well. Without the dairy and meat in my diet, when
I go to sleep, instead of digesting it’s actually detoxing and recovering my
body. I get plenty of sleep and deep sleep.”Recovery and Diet
Brooke Ellison, the team’s Sports Performance Dietician, shared with me
how complex it is to feed the team. “My approach is very personalized.
Soccer is a demanding and dynamic sport. I do have to take into consid-
eration the different positions and the demands of each positions. I’ll talk
to a midfielder differently than I talk to a goalkeeper, for instance. Right
now we are in preseason and the load is pretty heavy for every single
player. Our daily approach right now is the same. As the season starts
we switch to a more targeted approach in which I consider recovery days,
game days, pre-game days. I can craft their personal nutrition based on
the data I see in the GPS or the heart-rate monitor. I work with the Sports
Scientist to custom make their pre-game drinks or post-game shakes. It
gets very specific and highly scientific.”“The most important part of the sport is the mind. You have to train the
body, and that’s true, but you have to be more in shape with your mind.”