Random Tip #16 - To Gain an Edge, Train What the Others Don't
Here's 99% of footy trams pre-season training summed up: long and slow runs, some 200 or 400's with no justification for distance or rest periods and some exceptionally poor sprint and agility programming.
Now apart from most teams missing the boat on getting the basics correct why not focus on what they don't train as well as what you must train?
You MUST train aerobic capacity - no argument there. But do you need to spend session after session doing it? Negative.
So with some decent programming there should be time to train some other fitness qualities such as maximum speed, repeat speed, agility, hip strength, core stability/strength (sit ups is not core stability work!) and footy specific variations of all these points.
If you're team hasn't already, then then they should really look into getting a strength and conditioning coach, not personal trainer, or at least liaise with one. Hint - I'm a second away from qualifying as level 1 strength and conditioning coach!
Random Tip #17 - Individualise to Some Degree
AFL strength and conditioning is all about individualisation within a team setting. Players have personal programs that are implemented within their teams training such as specific rehab, gym and fitness programs. Now of course us local teams don't have the coaches and know-how to do all they do (but re-read the last part of tip #16) but for everyone to be successful you need to find a way.
You must have already heard that "you're only as good as your bottom 6 players", and that could not be more true so is it more critical to make sure they improve or the players that turn up year in year out and do a lot of stuff on their own?
Breaking fitness drills into groups is a good start encouraging players to eventually move to the group above them. Auto regulating training is also a good way to ensure most players are training at the level that is suitable for them. I wrote about this years ago and actually got a bit of a bashing on bigfooty.com for it when I posted it over there but low and behold the AFL now do this, calling it max aerobic training (for memory).
Random Tip #18 - Position Specific Training
This is similar to tip #17 and again requires a bit of know-how about what each position requires - but a bit more then endurance for on-ballers. If you have a burly full forward who you want to park in the forward 50 then it doesn't make much sense to have him running 400's with the midfield group does it? And this will possibly rob him of his strength and explosiveness which is what he really needs for 1-on-1 battles and leads.
Random Tip #19 - Assessing and Testing
A lot more teams seem to be doing some form of testing these days which is very good to see. The next step they need to take though is to actually program their training to improve these tests. Teams will now often test a distance run, a sprint of 60 - 100m, some form agility and so called "strength tests" of push ups and sit ups.
This poses 2 questions to me straight away?
1 - Why have they chosen these tests?
and;
2 - Will they actually train them specifically or just train as normal and hope they get better at them?
It seems to me that point 2 is prevalent if local/amateur footy so its time to take the next step with this.
Random Tip #20 - Speed Work to Start Short and Finish Long
During sprinting there are 2 main phases being the acceleration stage and the max velocity phase.
Acceleration usually refers to first 20 - 30m with max velocity being the next 20 - 30m.
Within 100m sprints there are a few more stages like the initial start, the drive phase between acceleration and max velocity and also speed endurance that follows max velocity but for the sake of footy let's keep this simple.
In footy you'll sprint as hard as you can over 10m then you do for any other distance. One can only hold max velocity for 1- 2secs at best before we start to slow down so if you are doing 100m sprints as a test (which I suggest you don't) then it's more a test of who is slowing down the slowest.
Anyway you need to start at the start so start at accelerations over 10 - 20m and work them up to the 40 - 60m mark while layer on introducing some max velocity work with flying sprints over 10m and working up to 30m. You don't really need to go any further with these distances because with speed development it's all about quality of work, not quantity. This also means you need FULL REST BETWEEN SETS!!
Yep, that's so important it needs capitals because if I see anymore incomplete rest speed work I'll shoot someone!
Ponder those til next time - 2 Weeks til Footy!!
No comments:
Post a Comment