As Julie Ertz prepares for an Olympic year, and her husband a potential NFL playoff run, each can draw on the other’s experiences at the pinnacle of their sports.
Ertz and husband Zach, a Philadelphia Eagles tight end, discussed swapping training ideas, among other topics, on The Peter King Podcast.
The full 53-minute episode is here.
Ertz said she has grown to love watching match film after seeing Zach’s passion for studying.
“How important it is to pay attention to detail, even through route running,” she said on the podcast. “If somebody’s in the wrong spot, the whole play is kind of messed up. Every play is different, and in soccer it’s obviously a little bit more fluid, but it allowed me to stay more aware of where I am on the field.”
Zach said he was driven by training with Ertz, especially through core work. They’ve done yoga and Pilates together. Mentally, he can appreciate an athlete who trains for one or two major events every four years.
“The World Cup and the Olympics are what you’re going to be judged on as a player in her sport … it’s twice every four years, and so those two years you don’t have a quote-unquote big tournament, you can let your preparation lack if you really weren’t dedicated, if you weren’t fully invested,” he said. “But the way I see Julie train each and every day, she’s always training to be the best person she can be. She’s not training for the end result. She’s training for being a better player today than she was yesterday.”
Ertz, 27 and the 2017 U.S. Player of the Year, was part of World Cup title teams in 2015 and this past summer, but she doesn’t have an Olympic medal.
The U.S. was upset by Sweden in the quarterfinals in Rio. Ertz kept a photo from the match as a screen saver on her phone as a reminder of unfinished business.
“It was a horrible heartbreak that I’d never had before,” she said.
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