The calendar has flipped to July, and the Summer months are officially upon us. Depending on who you ask, Summer in Cincinnati has a few different formal start times – the astrological clock indicates a June 21 start, while the meteorological clock has an earlier June 1 date to it.
Regardless, if you had any doubts about the season we have all entered, take about three steps out your front door, and the wave of heat and humidity will greet you with a punch to the gut and a quickly arriving sweat on your brow.
Yet still, FC Cincinnati takes to the training pitch each morning at their facility in Milford, Ohio, and continues to prepare for the restart of the Major League Soccer season later this month.
So while conditions have been brutal, the Athletic Development staff at FC Cincinnati have been working to ensure players are at their best for training and have adapted for every scenario to ensure players are healthy, safe and able to actually take away what they need from training on an intellectual and physical level.
“The temperatures really cranked up, and for me it's impossible to ignore because they are extreme. So, how we manage that with all the (staff) do, with activation, with recovery… I said to the coaches, if you look at this 13 day block of training, what we've been able to get out of them is a credit to them with (players) working through these extremes,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said Monday of the response to the weather.
Noonan also shared on Monday that FC Cincinnati players all returned to training in better-than-expected condition three weeks ago, after their month-long break from action. They also returned in better condition, to a man, than they did earlier this year at preseason, which had a similar but hardly identical month-or-so break from action between the 2025 season and the start of the 2026 preseason.
“That allowed us to push very quickly what we were doing,” Noonan added. “So while it's not always perfect, the application and the energy and the work rate has been very strong from the entire group.”
Typically, The Orange and Blue would be in the middle of their regular season right now and training in preparation for a match on the weekend. But with MLS taking a summer pause for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, FCC find themselves in a different situation altogether and thus need to account for it in training.
“The logistics of the day are maybe a little bit harder because what we're trying to be conscious of is workplace safety,” Dr. Garrison Draper, FC Cincinnati’s Vice President of Sport Performance and Health, said in a conversation this week with FCCincinnati.com on the challenges this heat wave presents to training.
“We don't want our athletes having to deal with is thinking about the heat wave and worrying ‘how do I keep my body safe right along with performing at the highest level.’ We want them to feel safe just thinking about performing,” Draper continued. “And sports performance, inherently, is a dangerous world, so this makes it a little bit of a finer line. But overall the goal is the same. We want to create athletes that are robust, can tolerate different environments, and are able to withstand the large variables that may be thrown at them. So we're always talking about worst-case scenarios in this, or any time in the season.”
An important consideration in this period of training is that late June and early July in Major League Soccer are typically very congested parts of its match calendar, with multiple matches a week on the schedule rather than a month's worth of training with entirely different goals.
Week-to-week training and match preparation, compared to more open, extended ‘preseason training,’ focus on different elements and require different things out of players. For example, two-a-day training sessions are unheard of in the regular flow of a season. But in preseason, it’s totally normal.
“100 percent there are differences. The first big one is July has traditionally been a congested fixture month for MLS, so instead of using this as a preparation and sort of rebuilding phase like we are now, it would be a survival type phase,” Draper explained. “It would be about getting right and ready for the next game. Now we're trying to help build up our athletes, which requires different, sometimes more strenuous, activities.”
“But I think, in terms of where our athletes came back in this ‘preseason,’ I think the break that they got was very rejuvenating mentally and physically. Our athletes put in some pretty good effort during the June break, and that was evident in the way they returned.”
“They came back and the physical testing was great,” Draper continued. “The way they've looked in training, the way they've dealt with this heat wave is all really impressive. I think it's a real testament to their professionalism and their drive to take the next step in the second half of the season.”
While the phrase "preseason" is used somewhat colloquially, it’s important to note that this isn’t a preseason for FCC. All the work done in the first half of the year has made it something else entirely right now, and on the sporting side, FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan and his staff have different things in mind and are working on them compared to a true preseason. They also have different expectations.
“Everybody came in, as far as how we tested them on the return, better than in January when we had a similar test, so that's a positive,” Noonan said. “Now, they also have an entire 15 game block, plus other competitions, this year, so we should be further along…but even still, it’s been better than I expected, to be honest.”
On the performance side of things, this period more closely resembles that kind of preseason flow, even with the 15-game buildup this season. So with Extreme Heat Advisories in the Cincinnati area, FC Cincinnati and their Athletic Development staff are taking every step needed to support their athletes while they train in the heat, and are providing the needed recovery elements to ensure their health through this period and set the players (and thereby the club) up for success in the coming weeks.
Some of the accommodations and considerations are somewhat instinctual and immediately understandable to anyone who’s spent time in the sun and heat.
Training is being broken up into sections, which allows for more hydration and cooling breaks throughout a session. At the “hydration station,” Athletic Development staff have not only water but also shade, cold towels and hydration supplements organized for players to quickly refuel and cool off before returning to training.
“There's certainly a hydration and a pure ‘drink water’ element to it all, and that certainly paramount,” Draper says. “But we’re also focused on balancing how much of it is just straight water, which the body can use to move everything, but then there's the really important part of our electrolytes – which are important in the electrical conductivity of the muscle – and then drinking something with carbohydrates – which is to fuel the muscle. All of which plays an important part of a greater whole.”
Considerations on the Athletic Development side go earlier and later than in training, though; it begins the moment players arrive at the Mercy Health Training Center for work and runs essentially through the time they leave the building – if not beyond.
Upon arrival, players meet with Ally Maher, FC Cincinnati’s Director of Sports Nutrition, to have their hydration levels measured. Players have their weight tracked before and immediately after training, so they can get a picture of how much water they lost during the day and how much they need to drink that night to be properly set for the following day.
FC Cincinnati has also coordinated to slightly accelerate their morning activities to get on the field earlier and, where possible, avoid peak sun time. Similarly, they’ve looked to further optimize the transitions in their training regimen, so they get the most out of the time they have outside without asking players to stand in the elements longer than necessary.
“One thing we have started to do is try and speed up our morning. We're very focused on routine at the club, and so what we're trying not to do is disrupt what the player's routine is and do something totally radically different,” Draper says. “Instead, what we've done is shift our day; film sessions will happen a little bit later in the day, meetings will go after training instead of before, and that's just so we can get on the field a little bit earlier in the routine.”
The Athletic Development staff consults the Wet Bulb Thermometer for data when making weather-related decisions, a measurement tool that better captures the full perspective of the climate rather than just temperature. To the public, the phrase “real feel” or “feels like” is what the Wet Bulb Thermometer typically captures. The tool better accounts for how the human body experiences all forms of weather, including sunlight/UV, humidity, wind speed, geological impacts, surface changes and general temperature, all in one figure. So even while Milford, Ohio may only have a high of 91 degrees, with no wind, no cloud cover and humidity reaching into the 90% range at times, ‘real feel’ shows how things are far more miserable.
On Thursday, July 2, for example, Cincinnati had a high of 96 degrees, with a real feel of 107 degrees measured on that Wet Bulb Thermometer. When club staff arrived at the facility that morning and checked for the “real feel” at 6:45 a.m., it was already registering 86 degrees. For MLS clubs, FC Cincinnati included, anything above 82 degrees on the Wet Bulb Thermometer triggers accommodations to go into effect – like hydration breaks – and with each threshold above that, more interventions are considered. So by the time everyone had arrived, and even before the sun had truly peeked out over the horizon, FC Cincinnati’s Athletic Development staff knew they would need to add things to their typical day to help support their players.
In addition to the more instinctive accommodations, there are more complex solutions at play. Dalton Davis, FC Cincinnati’s First Team Assistant Athletic Trainer and Recovery Science Manager, has helped put FC Cincinnati on the cutting edge of their industry by staying current with research trends and breakthroughs to best position FCC players for success.
For example, at the end of every session, neutral-temperature water baths have been prepared for players to soak in, which helps regulate core body temperature and support hydration. Ice baths are a well-known tool; however, research shows that they can halt the recovery and muscle-building processes that FCC hopes players will achieve. So while ice baths are still part of the protocol for other times, during this period they're not ideal and are avoided.
Similarly, devices that are effectively frozen copper rods have been brought out to the hydration station. Players grab and hold onto the rods for (ideally) one to three minutes, and the conductive cold sent through the palms signals the brain to “dump” heat from the body, greatly assisting in cooling core body temperature and providing players relief.
“It's newer research, but it's very strong research. We're pretty passionate about pushing the things that science is showing and helping educate the guys about why it’s helping them,” Draper explained. “So we’ve had tubs out there, but it was at a neutral temperature. So it still gave the cooling effect we wanted but it wasn't going to drop the body temperature enough to signal a stop to the mTor response and halt recovery or strength building. Things like that are really important. That’s higher-level science that Dalton has started applying and is really key to being at our best and helping our athletes to our greatest ability.”
That said, there is an understanding that when dealing with athletes, you need to work with both the body and the mind. Comfort, relief, cultural habits, personal preferences, and so much more go into how you work with a player and help them reach their best. So sometimes, after a hard week of training, the guys just want to get off the pitch and get into the ice-cold bath to cool off.
“There is tremendous value to training in the heat,” Draper explained. “There's a lot of research there showing the important physiological changes that happen. I think there's also a mental component to it. Part of the goal of building robust athletes so there’s a kind of “I know what this feels like, so I can do it again in games,” and it's not a shocking thing.
“There’s also ensuring athletes are cared for and get the mental relief they need. So we work to balance those things… it’s about mitigating risk and providing the support athletes need to be at their best. But also knowing when things maybe just aren’t worth it, and making adjustments.”
Another example would be how Director of Sports Nutrition Ally Maher meticulously coordinates and tailors individual programs that provide FC Cincinnati players with ‘food as fuel’ options to best serve them in a given day. These programs are far more expansive and a constant element of FC Cincinnati’s player care, but when the heat ramps up and exertion increases, she is there to respond.
“To work with these players is to work with them as people first, because food exhaustion is real. So we want to help build a positive relationship with food that gives the players what they want and what they need.” Maher shared. “Nutrition is evolving but I don’t think it’s at the forefront of people's minds when it comes to their performance on the pitch on a given day. Sure, long term it helps achieve goals, but a lot of people don’t realize that what you fuel yourself with can directly impact how you feel on the pitch that day…so it’s about creating that relationship where you can still have what you want, and feel good eating, but you can also still stay locked in for your performance, your body composition, your health, all of it.”
At the end of the day, the goal is to ensure FC Cincinnati players are available to perform at the level they need at the moment, regardless of the climate, so they can focus on training and the things their coaches are highlighting. But it is on the players to ultimately utilize these services and be at their best.
Some FC Cincinnati are more at ease with the heat, but as temperatures have risen, no one is admitting they are actually comfortable in that kind of weather without some kind of accommodation. One player this week described training in this kind of heat AND humidity (because those are inextricably a package deal for all players) as a ‘mental battle’ and the only way to truly get through it at your best is to find ways to ignore it, otherwise it’s all you can think about.
This heat wave will pass eventually, and forecasts suggest FC Cincinnati will not have to wait long to resume training in more manageable temperatures and environments. As of Monday July 6, the ‘heat dome’ had already broken and temperatures fell into the more manageable 80s, which still require accommodations, but is far more manageable. Future plans may need to factor rain or thunderstorms into the itinerary more, as starting as early as this week, the next eight days have storms in the forecast to some capacity, but the expectation is that highs in Milford are expected to settle into the more manageable mid-80’s rather than the upper 90’s.
But even then, with whatever challenge comes next, the staff at FC Cincinnati will be looking to do all they can to best position the team for success.