A peek at how buzzworthy workouts are helping a UW soccer player prevent chronic injury

SHOREWOOD ‒ Will Smith is Mr. Everything.

Prep All-American, Great Lakes All-Region team honoree, first-team all-state, first-team all-conference and conference player of the year, Smith was the captain of a top-20 ranked soccer team in the nation – Whitefish Bay High School, the state tournament runner-up a year ago. And if that wasn't enough, the three-sport athlete also played basketball for Whitefish Bay, and at the state track meet took fifth place as part of the 400-meter relay and second place in the 200. And he's a great student.

But the now 18-year-old freshman for the Wisconsin men's soccer team was, in high school, dealing with injuries – to an ankle, and then to his back. Dealing with pain is nothing new to athletes, but Smith's body was trying to send clues that something was off.

Rather than ignore it and power through, Smith started training after injury rehabilitation. Besides devoting time to his skill work, team practice, individual drills and film study, Smith invested time in very specific exercises that are buzzworthy in sports today.

“He’s a shining example of do multiple sports and … move your body correctly,” athletic trainer Kevan Creighton said.

We hear these terms all the time now: Soft tissue treatment, fascia treatment, pelvic realignment, injury incidence reduction, foam rolling.

They originate from the trainer’s table and the gym. In the world of professional and college sports, this behind-the-scenes effort is getting attention and headlines as much as mental health because it is so important to an athlete’s overall well-being:

Packers' Christian Watson looks to use offseason to eliminate soft-tissue injury issues - January 2023, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

LeBron James' Ankle Injury Explained After NBA Star 'Heard a Pop' - February 2023, Newsweek

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks says it often: The work he does in the gym allows him to be an elite player.

But is it completely clear what this kind of work is?

Most teams don’t allow media access to their athletic trainers or medical staff, so stories usually come from an athlete’s social media posts or anecdotal descriptions.

But Smith, embarking on his college career, credits his work at Structural Elements in Shorewood with Creighton, the owner, who was once on staff for the Milwaukee Brewers, and Connor Leichtle, to learn how to best care for his body, how to move properly, how to get ahead of problems before they become chronic injuries.

Smith was willing to demonstrate what the work behind the scenes looks like.

Stressed fascia, or connective tissue, is 'the root of all evil'

Fascia is not muscle or bone; it’s the flexible connective tissue throughout the body.

When fascia gets stressed, it is “the root of a lot of evil, when it comes down to a lot of issues with hips, back and knee problems,” Creighton said.

“We treat that fascia to get more length out of it, more elasticity out of it,” he added.

That is done with tools, or with dry needling and acupuncture, or manually with the trainer’s hands.

It might seem crazy that someone as young as Smith has adhesions in his fascia, but it’s common.

“We all do, even real young people have these,” Creighton said. “People, we are creatures of habit. Very routine oriented, even if we think we are not. Or, we sit all day. Or, we stand all day.

“When we sit a lot, it’s pretty wild how tight everything in the front can get. And then he needs to be upright and go kick a ball, so he’s going to compensate, and our fascial system will lay down adhesions that will basically allow him to compensate so he can get the job done.”

Pelvic realignment and rebalancing are first steps

Whenever a trainer analyzes an athlete, especially today, this is a common starting point – checking for balance and pelvic alignment. Imbalance and misalignment affect so many athletes and can cause so many problems. Creighton looks at an athlete’s posture and movement to see if an adjustment needs to be made.

“Feels kind of chiropractic-like,” Creighton said. “But really we are just trying to set back to what neutral is. We take in all that information to get to the root of what is going on.”

Said Smith: “I got in here and I was better in two weeks, and back on the field in two and a half.”

Rebalancing Smith was the first step to relieve some of the tension and let the nerves calm down, which reduced the pain.

“We operate from the idea of, it’s great to know what’s wrong,” Creighton said. “It’s great to get the X-ray. But I want to know why it happened. And if I can answer the why with how do we correct you to be moving better? We will take care of whatever it is. A narrowing area, muscular spasm, fascial adhesions that are creating a message to the brain – something's wrong.”

Basic fitness helps with sport-specific movements

When Smith started training with Leichtle to manage some emerging injuries, they started with basic movement patterns: squatting, hinging like deadlift, balancing and jumping.

“When you get these solid, when you get to Madison, you’re going to know what you’re doing, and you’re going to be moving well on the field,” Leichtle said.

With that foundational fitness, the moves can get more advanced.

But Creighton and Leichtle are also aware of training Smith at the right level.

“It definitely is a balance,” Leichtle said. “He’s a very explosive athlete. His hamstrings are considered tight; we don’t want to necessarily take that away from him, because it’s something that makes him a great athlete. But from a lifting standpoint, let him run with it as long as he can have good technique. If he’s starting to get super heavy and his technique starts to break down, we don’t want to do that.

“We want him to get the strength and also move it fast. Playing soccer is an explosive movement.”

Said Smith: “First of all, I just love being in the gym. My mentality is also like, if I’m going to be here, I’m only going to be here for like an hour, hour and a half. I still have lunch to get to and school. I might as well make it short but make it as hard as possible.”

“Yeah, it’s hard," he added. "But you get through it in an hour – tops – and the rest of the day you feel like a million bucks."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin soccer player Will Smith's workouts help prevent injury