You Must Train Like This In 2012

The 80’s is where it all went wrong.

In the attempt to becoming more professional and with football slowly becoming a full time job, the training volume, and especially running training volume, got way out of hand.

I’m not sure how many 40 – 50 year olds read this blog but if they were past footballers then they surely would have been subjected to “hell on earth”, 100 x 100 meter sprints.

This was either used to develop speed, endurance or simply punishment. Either way, it was doing more harm than good.

Moving to the 2000’s, the game shifted with a huge emphasise on “gut” running thanks to the likes of Ben Cousins, Robert Harvey and Shane Crawford. This also made a shift in the training by players of all abilities that decided that running short marathons was the best way to get fit for footy.

Now long distance and long duration running can have its place in a footballers training program but as training has become more and more scientific, and where the need for training efficiency is of great importance, this again is probably doing more harm than good.

So what is the best way to train in 2012?

Well let me throw this idea at you.

Long distance running refers to slow pace running and the longer you go, the slower the pace will be. Now if football was played at a snail pace, and a consistent snail pace, then this player would be All Australian every year.

The big problem here is that you may be able to “run all day’ but if you’re not quick enough to get to the ball then it doesn’t matter a lick. You’ll be a kick behind play all day.

So you need an element of speed.

What’s speed though if you can only go fast for a single bout and then it takes you 10mins to recover to go again at the same pace? That will mean hellava a lot of bench time so there is also an element of endurance needed as well.

I would day that less than 5% of amateur and local footballers in all of Australia actually train for speed. I mean pure speed. Considering the players are basically getting drafted for their speed means there is a lot of players far behind the mark. You can teach skills and build endurance quickly; speed is a year to year proposition.

As the AFL teams continue with extremely high player rotations each year, so are local and amateur football teams. Why do they do this? If you can maintain a high quality if work rate from all 22 players, you’ll more often than not, win the game and avoid a high injury toll.

Dane Swan is the perfect example. He starts on the ground, does a hard 3 – 5mins and takes himself off for a 2min spell. This is done for basically the full game so he never really enters a period of being “blown up” to the point that he can’t quickly recover and go again.

It also of great coincidence that Collingwood do absolutely no time trials or long distance, long duration running drills at all during their pre season. You probably are.

So if the game now is all about a high quality work with short rest periods then it must mean that you need to be able to go fast for a short period of time, not slow for a long time.

So how do we train for that?

First and foremost you are after quality, not quantity. All “shit running” needs to be avoided. It will take a little bit of getting used to but auto regulation is a great tool to use for this. Shit running refers to the type of running you wouldn’t do in a game situation. Jogging slowly for 20mins does not happen in a game so why do it for training?

Auto Regulation refers to setting a baseline and / or a drop off training point for each session you perform and once you reach it, the training session is over.

Here’s a step by step guide of how to do it:

Step 1 – Set Your Baseline

Simply sprint as fast as you can for a long as you can. Don’t start off at 70% to “finish fast’, you need to start fast and maintain “fast” for as long as you can. Once your speed drops to about 80% of your maximum speed reached during this sprint, stop the test and record your distance and your time.

Step 2 – Set Your Drop Off Point

There are 2 ways to go about this. You can either:

Option A – Sprint for the same amount of time that you tested for and once you can’t reach 90% of that distance in that time, stop the session.

Or;

Option B – Sprint for the baseline distance you reached and when you can’t finish that in 110% of the baseline time, stop the session.

Say for example you tested at 150 meters and 20secs you would do either:

Option A – 20sec sprints aiming to reach 135m

Or;

Option B – 150m in 22secs

For option A do sprints x 20secs and once you can’t reach 135m in any given set, the session is over.

For option B do 150m sprints and once you can’t finish 1 set in 22secs, the session is over.

Obviously your aim is to increase the amount of sets you can do before you reach the drop off point. 

Generally you’ll beat your best effort 6/10 times, equal it 2/10 and not beat your best effort 2/10. If you find yourself getting fewer sets more often than 2/10 times, just readjust your figures slightly and see how you go.

What this method of training will ensure is that you are working as hard as you can each set with an actual goal in mind, not just running to get puffed.

Remember, run long but run it fast!!