Up to date training information for Aussie Rules / AFL Football.
Today we look at transition offense which is when we regain possession and have control of the ball - such as the Lizard taking this intercept mark.
WE REGAIN POSSESSION IN OUR DEFENSIVE 50
Scenario...
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This week I'll post some checklist templates you can use to ensure you're covering everything you need while training so your 100% ready for round 1 in around 10 weeks time.
You can add/subtract to this template but just ensure that everyone has a role at all times, it is clear what it is, and that they are performing those roles when they should be.
Also note that A/D123 can be players of any position on the ground and that these roles depend on the ball location so it's essentially the 3 closest players to the ball at any given time.
There are 4 game moments that I'll cover this week and each will be broken into 6 micro-moments.
What strategies/tactics you use around the micro moment is entirely up to you.
Today we'll start with transition defense which is the point in the game where we have lost possession and the opposition are now trying to work the ball forward to create scoring opportunities - or once Gardner takes this intercept mark.
WE LOSE POSSESSION IN OUR DEFENSIVE 50
Scenario...
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Over the 4 main phases of the game laid out below, and that could be extended to 5 if you prefer to divide transition into offensive and defensive, you should have 3 - 4 solid principles for each that you train up and nail for a single season.
Too few and you're not covering enough of what happens in a game and too many and the players just can't take it all in enough to master them all.
If you're still a few principles short of fully rounding out your team's approach in 2026, then scour the options below and get to it!
DEFENSIVE PRINICPLES
TRANSITION PRINCIPLES
OFFENSIVE PRINCIPLES
STOPPAGE PRINCIPLES
Alternatively, if you'd got something you'd like me to look over and give some feedback on then feel free to let me know.
This hot-off-the-presses study looks at quantifying the effects of individual players and teammates on small-sided games through repeated-game observations.
Does 1 or a group of players drive a team's success or do all players need to contribute to become a winning team?
Find out below.
We've made the final part of this series on performance coach Alan Couzens where we've broken down his content into lactate, training zones, metabolic fitness and aerobic development. Today we look at various ways you can train to his principles as well as a bunch of other helpful tips to guide you along the way + a snapshot of how l've incorporated a lot of them myself.
BEGINNER PROGRAM
This is for someone whose walking pace places them in upper zone o/lower zone 1 who is training for a 5k...Have 1 day metabolic day consisting of a 2 – 3hr bike/hike, very easy, just keep moving...Have 2 run days of 75 – 90mins each with 15min zone 0/1, 15min zone 1/2, light dynamic mobility, 10 x 30secs gradual speed increase to 5k effort with long walk recovery, 15min warm down...Do 1 – 2 full body gym sessions/week...Add in 2 – 3 short/easy recovery days x walk/gentle yoga
WALKING
For 90% of people, yes...For very fit people, no...Stroke volume will come very close to maximum levels at relatively low levels of intensity (40 – 50% VO2Max) where there is a maximal stimulation on the stretch of the heart at easy efforts which increases the size of the left ventricle leading to lower heart rates at rest and during exercise...40 – 50% VO2Max is a very easy effort and for a normally fit person with a VO2Max of 40 – 50, this is just 20ml/kg/min and a normal walking economy of just 3.1mph...Only once you reach a VO2Max of 50 then walking starts to be ineffective as its insufficient to reach full stroke volume and you’ll need to walk on solid inclines or perhaps with load and/or jog a little...Even if you’re too fit for walking to work cardiovascularly, it can still work metabolically
The best endurance athletes in the world will do 90% of their work at less than 1mmol/l lactate...Most amateur athletes will struggle to get down to 1 even when walking so just walk
WARM UP
It sets the scene for what fuel the body will burn for the rest of the workout and whether it will be a fat or sugar burning session...For a fat burning session, start with a walk into a light jog then into your normal pace over 15 – 20mins...If you’ve just eaten carbs then it’ll take longer to stabilise and allow for fat usage
If you've only got 60mins then warm up, walk, light jog then reverse the workout back down (walk, warm down)
75 HARD
For 75 days, commit to 2 x 45mins bouts of exercise/day with 1 of them being outside with no intensity floor and make the 90mins as easy as you like = 10hrs/week
HIGH v LOW INTENSITY
Overdo low intensity and you'll lose oxidative power...Overdo high intensity and you'll lose oxidative capacity/endurance...Almost all athletes are relatively high in sugar burning power and very low on fat burning capacity...Fix your diet, bring your overall intensity down and 1/week do a long ride ride/hike in which should be 3x your long-term daily average so if you train 7hrs/week = 1hr/day x 3 = 3hrs in duration...Start easy, just get time in the saddle and then increase intensity gradually
HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING
Increases the amount of lactate you can achieve at the end of a medium duration effort...If doing exclusive base training it might only allow you to reach 175bpm and accumulate 6mmol/l of lactate over a 10km course...After 6 weeks of interval training, it might increase to 180bpm at 8 – 9mmol/l of lactate and it can result in marginally better times (3%) but most of us have a lot more to gain on the base side of things, and only once that starts to plateau should intervals be brought in...If you've started ding hard intervals in October then you're severely capping your overall fitness potential for the season
Will improve heart rate/stroke vole temporarily but nothing long lasting that remodels the heart for increases in VO2Max where you need years of stretch/remodel/stretch/remodel...Uses fast muscle fibers over slow muscle fibers which also means glycogen depletion over fat oxidation so you miss out on slow fibre use and the sustained energy they provide...The highest VO2Max ever recorded is 96.7 and he only spent 5% of his training at high intensity with 80% of it being under 80% of his heart rate max
IDEAL HEART RATE
If you absolutely can’t test lactate then use this to get your heart rate range...((MaxHR – RHR) x .5) + RHR = Lower End...((Max HR – RHR) x .6) + RHR = High End...For me its 119 - 131bpm @ a max heart rate of 180 and a resting heart rate of 57
TRAINING RULES
4hrs of zone 0 movement/day with 10k steps moving every 90mins...30mins mobility/day...2hrs in zone 1 x 4/week...30mins combined in zones 2 – 5 x 2/week...30min full body gym x 2/week...4+hr hike/bike x 1/month
SCHEDULING
You only need 1 long/strong/fast session per week and the rest can be easy/recovery based...If you have extra energy then add in another 2nd fast session
My weekly schedule is day 1 x sprints/lower gym, day 2 all easy, day 3 x upper gym, day 4 x aerobic/lower gym, day 5 all easy but maybe some zone 1, day 6 x upper gym and repeat...All days have zone 0/1 training to fill up my aim of 170mins/day total detailed below
FASTED EXERCISE
Compared to fed exercise the overall difference in fat oxidation is marginal but the difference in time to fatigue and post session recovery is significant...You’re also setting the limiter to the energy in your liver v the energy in your muscles and we’re not training our liver...That being said I do my aerobic session fasted if it falls on a Monday or Wednesday and I train in the AM when my evening is taken out from footy training/work
It makes no sense to do hard workouts when fasted as you've set the perfect scene for lots of free fatty acids availability but if you train at an intensity that is too high then you'll bypass them for sugar and you'll miss both fat burning and true aerobic development opportunities
THE HEART
The ejection fraction is the % of blood pushed out per beat with 50% of stroke volume being good cardiac health...At rest, ejection fractions for untrained people is 50 – 60% of stroke volume and well-trained athletes closer to 70% and during exercise this increases to 70/75% – 80% respectively...The bigger separator is left ventricle capacity which is 100ml in untrained people v 180 – 200ml for trained athletes which comes from having bigger chambers which are developed by racking up lots of beats where the heart is completely full of blood and being fully stretched out on every beat...The heart is most full at low heart rates...The larger the heart gets the higher the absolute energy cost of accumulating those beats where an elite athlete racking up full heart beats at 50 – 60% VO2Max could be expending 15 – 20cals/minute v an untrained person doing less than half of that
HEART BEATS
The more full heart beats you can rack up, the more oxygen you can deliver per beat and the faster your aerobic speed becomes…The more low intensity contractions you rack up the more mitochondria you grow in the fat-fuelled muscle fibers and the less lactate you'll produce for any given speed
PERFORMANCE LIMITER
The biggest one is likely metabolic as the typically metabolically unfit amateur burns through 1000cals of carbs before they even get to footy training, leaving nothing for actual training, but the typical elite athlete won’t have burn through any...The solution isn't for the unfit amateur to eat more carbs, but to become more reliant on using fat as fuel during the day via aerobic and metabolic fitness, so carbs remain largely untouched and are still available for when you really need them
TRAINING RESPONSE
Changes in fitness are much more closely linked to changes in lifestyle (sleep, diet, stress, nutrition etc) then training load
LONG TERM DEVELOPMENT
Train up and master metabolic capacity then aerobic capacity and then anaerobic capacity in that order...The first 2 can be trained at the same time if you're extremely disciplined enough to walk instead of running
INCREASED FITNESS
Means increased glycogen storage where an athlete with a 70 VO2Max will have double the storage as an athlete at 40 VO2Max
LOW VOLUME ATHLETE
They don’t need sustained anaerobic work...Their anaerobic systems are already usually strong on their own but it has to be supported by the aerobic system, which it rarely is...They’ll easily reach double figures in lactate after high intensity exercise v high volume athletes who top out at 5 – 7mmol/L, with their highly developed aerobic system dominating their anaerobic system...The high-volume athlete's absolute glycolytic power isn't significantly different to their aerobic power so train to raise the roof so that anaerobic glycolytic power is no longer the limiter...For low volume athletes their roof is already a long way from their ceiling with an attic of potential untapped, yet they keep banging their head against the 5ft ceiling - this was me from mid 20's onwards!
FAST MUSCLE FIBER ATHLETE
They burn through a crap load of glycogen...Will have a lot of long/slow/easy metabolic work to do to be competitive over the long stuff...Glycogen use at 79% of VO2Max is 65 for fast fiber athlete v 28 for slow fiber athlete meaning that the slow fiber athlete can maintain the same amount of work for twice as long at the same intensity
FATIGUE
Train to the first sign of fatigue, not the last
NORWEGIAN METHOD
Massive amounts of 1mmol/l lactate work coupled with hefty doses of solid aerobic work in and around 3mmol/l lactate
THE MAGIC WORKOUT
Put your bike on the lightest gear, find the flattest most boring road you can find and spend multiple hours ticking along and never letting your heart rate go above your aerobic threshold
RANDOMS
There is zero benefit of spending more than 30% of your training time (72mins) above zone 1 for runners training less than 4hrs/week as harder is not worth more
To even stand a chance of maintaining zone 2 for the full 9hrs of an Ironman race you need to be able to complete 9hrs at zone 1 and 6hrs in zone 2 as singular training sessions beforehand
You benefit from a lot of easy work, and a little fast work, but not from doing your easy work harder...For most athletes, zone 2/3 give no additional aerobic benefit per unit of time than zone 1 but it does delay recovery, negatively affect fat burning and increase injury risk...Zone 1 is about 70% of your heart rate max
Zone 2 costs more than zone 1 but isn’t worth anymore fitness...Zone 3 costs way more than zone 2 but for the same fitness as zone 1...Zone 4 costs even more than zone 3 but only for a little extra fitness than zone 1...Zone 5 is ridiculously priced but for a lot more fitness than zone 1...Zone 5 provides the greatest amount of fitness but you can’t do much of it and is where everyone goes wrong...The more zone 1 you do the more you can do overall but also the more cheaper it becomes and elites can get to the point where it costs absolutely nothing...Zone 5 is always expensive and only gets more expensive the more fit you become as your continually trying to raise the roof but you've barely lifted the floor
You don’t need to push, you need to keep showing up where you are
Most of the time your split should be 60 – 70% zone 1 with the remaining 30 – 40% split between zone 0 (warm up/active recovery) and zone 2 (hills/circuit training/pick-ups)
Your long session should be 33% of your weekly volume so for me 6.5hrs (20hrs/.33)
You don’t get the same positive shifts in fat oxidation if you split sessions up v doing them all in a row
People want a 12-week fix but endurance is a 1000-day project
MY MOVEMENT DAY - 170mins
Everybody's situation is different and I'm no different, with a lot of time spent at home being a full-time carer.
Dog Walk and/or Pedal trainer upon waking x 30 - 60mins
On aerobic day I then head down to the footy oval and do 60mins there followed up by another 15- 20 in the gym once I get back x 60 - 75mins which equates to a good 90 - 105mins all up in zone 0/1 and some 2 depending on how I structure my aerobic training.
Mid arvo Ill jump on the pedals again and/or walk the dog x 45 - 60mins
After dinner I'll again jump on the pedals and/or walk the dog x 45 - 60mins
On gym days I will have done 90mins or so of zone 0/1 earlier in the day, do gym late arvo into another dog walk and then fill up my time to 170mins after dinner on the pedal trainer of need be.
1 day a week I've been hitting the new indoor basketball court over here in the west for 90mins or so that's zone 1/2 and the main training session for that day.
All movement is included in my daily totals such as shopping, gardening and mowing the lawns.
You might not be able to reach 170 but 120mins/day should be doable for most with 30mins before breakfast, 60min main session and 30mins somewhere else during the day or the 2 x 45mins option suggested above - if you want to, you'll find the time to
So far in this this series on Aussie but now American performance coach Alan Couzens we have covered lactate, training zones and metabolic fitness and today we look at the aerobic system in a bit more detail.
AEROBIC THRESHOLD
During a Step Test, if your aerobic threshold is 60% or less of your VO2Mmax power, then you need more aerobic work...If it's over 60% then you should introduce a little more zone 4/5 work...The aerobic threshold is the 1st rise in lactate...Estimate VO2Max power by doing a 5 and then 20 minute all out run then get the average of those runs...You can also use the Karvonen formula to estimate 60% of your VO2Max from a known resting heart rate/maximal heart rate...My max heart rate is 180 and my resting heart rate is 57bpm...The formula is ((MHR - RHR) x % intensity) + RHR so ((180 - 57) x .6) + 57 = 131bpm is 60% of my VO2Max
AEROBIC BASE
Those with a strong ability to use fat as substrate spend more time training at a low intensity/less than 70% of their threshold/pace while also tending to train with more volume...Ramping up training from 400hrs to 800hrs/yr resulted in almost 2x the fat oxidation
AEROBIC CAPACITY
For a typically fit, middle aged dude with a threshold of 5min/km then most of your training should be at 50% or less of your threshold meaning 10min/kms meaning walking and that’s how you get your volume
NASAL BREATHING
If you can nasal breath for the entire session (I do), then that's an excellent sign you're training at your aerobic threshold/1st rise in the lactate curve/max fat oxidation...You can do the most work with the less fatigue here and is the 1st deepening of the breath
This the deepening of the breathe/opening of the lungs is generally felt as a need to move more air through the body so you intuitively open the mouth to help out
The point where you want to open your mouth to get enough air in the lungs is a good proxy for aerobic threshold and it’s quite/subtle/not forced and not a competition to see how much air you can move through your nostrils
As exercise intensity increases, we move from nasal breathing to quiet mouth breathing to loud mouth breathing which is right up at your VO2Max where metabolic acidosis is starting to increase and the body’s response to it is to blow off the increasingly carbonic acid in the form of additional carbon dioxide and is visible in the relationship between total CO2 production v O2 being consumed
Ventilation makes a sharp increase but respiratory rate barely moves and in some cases will actually decrease as now the body’s urge is to breathe out deeper to rid the increasingly acidity of the blood in the muscles and this is often wrongly identified as the 1st ventilation threshold...Athletes spend too much time in this acidic/carb costly state when there is significant benefit to be had being far below it at an intensity that allows nasal breathing
Earn the right to be a loud mouth breather
Yesterday I introduced Alan Couzens, an Aussie but American-based performance coach who specialises in energy systems.
He has totally transformed how I look at aerobic development and although maybe not applicable for team footy training, it's totally what you should be following for whatever energy system straining you do in your own time.
Yesterday we covered various topics around lactate and training zones and today we look at metabolic fitness which will be new to most, if not all, of you.
FAT v CARB OXIDATION
If you overdo dietary fat, then power can be compromised as energy per liter of oxygen is less than 6% lower for fat than carbs so a low carb runner will need a 6% higher VO2Max to maintain the same speed.
If you overdo carbs, then you become a sugar burner you can't burn as many calories per minute as the high fat runner and once you've spent all your carb tickets, your body finds it very hard to then move to fat as an energy source, and you teeter out very quickly.
FAT OXIDATION
Someone with a VO2Max 50 or less, fat oxidation peaks at less than a 4mph/brisk walk, is already down to less than 50% at a 5.5mph/jog and down to 0 at a 6.5mph - slow down to use fat for fuel!
FAT BURNING
2 people can have a very good levels of max fat oxidation but they can also achieve max fat oxidation at different heart rates and %’s of heart rate...Both athletes can also breath at different rates and move different amounts of air through the body...Different athletes can burn different amounts of fat at the same % of heart rate max
FAT UTILISATION
A typically unfit individual burns less then 100cals of fat/hr (1pd/35hrs of exercise) v a metabolically fit individual that can burn 6x that (1pd/5 – 6hrs of exercise)...If you’re looking to use fat fuel then you need to have a high ability to use fat as fuel
IMPROVING FAT BURNING
Even the leanest individual has enough fat stored to run 10 marathons back-to-back but the average individual can only access energy from fat at about 3 calories/min but for averaged sized individuals it takes about 6cals/min for your slowest stroll meaning we have great capacity but low fat burning power to even power a walk...For an average sized endurance athlete expending 2500cals/day, only 5% of them will be from fat stores...You want to be a hybrid athlete, being able to switch to whatever energy blend is needed in accordance with output, on demand
BE A FAT BURNER
A study looked at fat oxidation at rest v 25% v 50% v 70% of VO2Max and some were deriving 100% of their resting energy from fat and some just 30%...Those who burn more fat at rest tend to burn more fat all intensity levels...If you simply flood your blood with glucose then it will never learn to use fat as fuel...Cut sugar from your diet when you're not exercising and to a moderate intake overall...Train more in aerobic zones that keep lactate levels low and cut out the hard stuff until you’ve built a metabolic base...The ideal nutritional balance point for serious athletes is 48% carbs, 24% protein and 28% fat regardless of calorie surplus or deficit
FAT OXIDATION NUTRITION
50g carbs/day is the baseline minimum then add 100g/hr of training for a medium size/medium fitness athlete during low intensity base training...Add 150g for a large and/or high fitness athlete during high intensity phases...Protein x 2g/kg/bodyweight
HOW TO BE A FAT BURNER
Most athletes have a big engine for short duration efforts but have a hard time fuelling longer events and can’t burn fat for very long and chew up carbs…The engine is powerful but the fuel economy is no good so to preserve fuel you need to improve access to another unlimited fuel source by improving fat oxidation – specifically improving fat oxidation at all intensities and also reduce bodyweight…At higher levels of intensity the overall aerobic capacity of the athlete (the ability to hold power at low lactate) becomes more and more important…Aim for 20 – 25hrs of training/week but at very low intensities, capped at the aerobic threshold which is 50 beats below your heart rate max…The key session of the week should be a 4-6hr long flat bike ride followed by a long flat hike x 3 – 4hrs the next day…Combine those 2 workouts with fat oxidation nutrition and your body really no other choice but to adapt
METABOLIC FITNESS
The difference between us and elite runners is not VO2Max but metabolic fitness...Ther average weekend warrior has a VO2Max of 50ml/kg/min v the elite athlete at 70ml/kg/min = 40% difference...The max fat oxidation for a weekend warrior is 3 – 4cals/min v an elite of 7 – 10cals/min = 150% diff...In practice this is a huge difference in the relative intensity of what easy training needs to be to be sustainable between both athletes and much larger than the difference in hard training
A flattish bike ride of 6hrs on a road bike will use up about 3500cals and close to double your glycogen stores so this is going to require a decent ability to supplement the carbs the athlete brings in by burning fat as a substrate
The best thing you can do is to have 1 day/week devoted to long and easy at your maximal fat burning intensity...90mins to 4hrs...Spend the day teaching your body how to generate energy from fat...To find your maximum fat burning intensity in order from best to worse options, 1 - Do a lactate test, 2 - Train at your minimum lactate level as it tends to correlate with your highest fat oxidation level or, 3 - Profile your fitness and train at a fixed % of your max where novices will be 40% of VO2Max or lower, intermediates at 50% VO2max or less and elite athletes at 60 VO2Max or less at. which point use this equation to estimate the corresponding heart rate...Target Heart Rate = ((Max Heart Rate 180 - Resting Heart Rate 57) x .4) + Resting Heart Rate 57 = ((180-57) x .4 + 57 = 106bpm
CARDIO v METABOLIC FITNESS
They are not the same...So much important stuff come from basic metabolic fitness like conditioning your slow fibers to use fat as their primary fuel...A profession triathlete with a VO2Max of 74ml/kg/min looked like he had super cardio fitness but had fat oxidation levels at low levels of intensity of a measly 2cals/min which is really very low metabolic fitness so he struggled over longer races...Zone 1 is superior to zone 2 for metabolic benefit
CARBS
Don’t burn your jet fuel at rest but that’s what you’ll do if you overeat carbs as the body wants to keep blood glucose in a certain range and will burn them whenever it wants in order to do so which also means you'll want to keep eating them
BURNING 1000 CALORIES
Before doing anything fancy, make sure you’re doing 1000cals of work/day which is about 2hrs of purposeful walking at 3.5mph for an 80kg athlete...1000cals/day for general health, 2000cals/day for an amateur athlete and 300o/day for an elite athlete
You'll typically burn 1 calorie per kg of bodyweight per km travelled…At 80kgs you'll burn 80cals/km so to reach 1000cals you need to cover 12.5kms/day (1000/80) in any way possible…For most people you could do a 5km jog coupled with 2 x 40min walks/easy bike
