Since the dawn of time the mantra for footy training is how can you go and long can do it for.
I just read an article by a mate of mine Graeme Morris who is a strength coach for a semi-professional rugby team in NSW, who stated that when you are looking to determine the demands of any sport then you must "watch the player, not the game."
This is extremely critical considering that if you watch a game of AFL footy and notice the extreme pace of the game, then take that thinking into training your local/amateur (L/A) team next week, it will end being a clusterfuck of a session with many blokes not being able to complete the work and the one's that do will be wrecked for the rest of the session and the session after.
I play deep forward in the 2's in division 3, I mean I could literally stand in the same spot all day if I chose to.
Moving up a standard or 2 have a look a at div 1 LA footy game and watch the full forward/full back. Not quite standing on the spot but they'd barely get out of the 50 during the game, if at all.
So now does the pace of an AFL game resemble any parts of a LA game?
No way.
Our games are slower and more stop start. There isn't a lot of flooding in your own back line then having to do a 120m sprint all the way back on a fast break to score at your end.
The running patterns are way different.
In LA games, the fastest player will get the ball and burn off some poor bastard in 5 - 10m then essentially his job his done. He can slow down to make the right decision with ball and execute under little pressure.
If he's done all that correctly then he'll probably come to a stop and rest.
That's we how we roll and is why we play the levels that we do.
To train him optimally would you rather feed his need for speed or essentially "run the speed out of him" by doing lots of "middle running" that builds up great fatigue in sprinter types and fatigue will not allow him to display his greatest strength - speed.
On the other end of the spectrum you have your runner types who aren't blessed with great explosive speed but can run at a decent click for the entire game. They love the "middle running" and their strength is to run blokes into the ground over 4 quarters but give them a heavy dose of speed work and they're nervous system will explode and whatever little speed they had will be a distant memory.
By watching your players, how they run and at what speeds they generally run at, you can individualise your training to suit them.
I remember ex-Collingwood strength and conditioning coach David Buttifant talking about training Anthony Rocca who always seemed like he was about to die. He was never going to be an aerobic machine, his body wasn't made for it, he had more of a sprinter set up. His idea was to make him the best power athlete he could - not have him do middle running with Licuria, Burns and Buckley.
LA coaches might think that individualisation is a nightmare to organise and it might be initially, but after your players know what's going on, and the pay off of training your players towards their strengths, will easily off-set any wrinkles that needed to be ironed out in January.
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