YOU HAVE TO RETHINK YOUR TRAINING...REALLY YOU DO

Over the past couple of months I've been posting about stuff I picked up from the book Game Changer by Dr. Fergus Connolly.

It's had a huge impact on how I think team and individual training should be optimised, which always a goal of mine.

If you're a player and you're going to take the and effort to train you might as well do it right hey?

And if you're a coach and you want your players to get better, you have as much responsibility of putting them in positions to get better as they do of carrying out the actual work.

Players will get better at what you get them to do so if that's kick from cone to cone then great, they'll look great in pre-designed drills but without training in a chaotic situation like a game, they'll never get better at what matters - game day.

Enter the 4 co-actives of performance.

#1 TECHNICAL

- Encompasses the player's ability to make proper decisions during the game and to execute appropriate movement skills with the right amount of power, precision, direction etc. to be effective

#2 - TACTICAL

- Encompasses the player's ability understand the game plan and the application of the game principles based on the coach's tactical approach to winning the game.

#3 - PSYCHOLOGICAL

- Encompasses the player's psychological health, specifically how it relates to spirituality (sense of belonging) emotional intelligence and overall cognitive ability.

#4 - PHYSIOLOGICAL

- Encompasses all aspects of player fitness as it relates to having to success on the field, having a sustainable baseline of strength, power, speed, endurance, mobility etc. to perform well in the game

A lot of work trying to optimise these 4 aspects of each and every player you coach no doubt about it but hopefully you can get some support staff that can take an aspect each and cover it within the playing group.

I'd like others thoughts on this but this is probably how much a lot of clubs train these aspects:

TECHNICAL

Amount: Low to Moderate

Sure well do skill training but it's more reps of skills, regardless of actual skill level, rather than a progressive plan or program to improve skills.

Repetition of bad skills will not increase skills unless the skill is broken down and re-built.

I don't think there's anywhere near enough of this happening at any level really and we simply hope that if you play footy long enough you'll develop into the greatest kick of all time but without challenges and failures, it can't happen.

TACTICAL

Amount: Low to Moderate

We do a lot of zone defense kick out drills and all teams go over the set up pre-game but what never gets talked about is what happens after the ball is actually kicked.

We all work on clearance drills but rarely what happens after the clearance has, or has not been achieved at the clearance or in the other parts of the ground.

Essentially we train a lot of "partial tactics" I suppose but you need to start thinking of what is happening in 1 part of the ground and at the same time, how are you setting up in other parts of the ground at the same time so you can cover whether you win or lose the contest.

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Amount: Zero

We're all big on talking about mental health and for good reason, but there needs to be more practising of mental health.

Knowing your players and their challenges off the field can be critical as a coach because it can skew your entire coaching outlook.

If you've got a big full forward who's temperamental at the best of times, but now he's going through a divorce and is really on the edge, then you might use him differently for a short time while he works his way through his off-field stuff.

Another player might be new to the club and even though he came with great credentials and pay packet, he's not performing like you thought he might.

He's a quite character and gets lost in the team bonding stuff so he doesn't really know his spot in the team or the club yet, which is affecting his on-field performance.

Finding what he values within a footy club and then putting in a position to train/play towards those values will see his game day play sky rocket to what it was thought it would be.

This is probably the toughest one of these to do because it's personal and tough conversations will be needed but the solutions will often be pretty simple to implement.

PHYSIOLOGICAL

Amount: Moderate to High

We do a looooooot of this, more than anything else and in most cases sub-optimally because footy coaches aren't strength and conditioning coaches.

Division 1 local/amateur teams will now mostly have some form of fitness coach at the helm but whether that's an accredited strength and conditioning coach, a uni student, a personal trainer of group class instructor - there are still a lot of not-so-great training practices going on out there.

That being said it's not like we don't try in this area, we do more than any of the other co-actives, it's just that we need to recognise what's more useful and what's not (what my blog here was intended for when I started it).

YOUR CHALLENGE

Each and every training session try and include something for each of the 4 co-actives each and every session.

Sit down and plan it out and implement, even if it takes time initially, because the pay off could be club changing for you if you go through the short term pain.