An Email Exchange RE: Off Season Training

I usually have a handful of emails each week from footballers all over world in regards to training and all it entails. This week i received who had a foot injury this year. He is back playing now but missed a huge chunk of the season so naturally he's already gearing up for a huge 2013.

He inquired about off season training and this is our exchange of emails in regards to various components of training for Aussie Rules Football. This is totally unedited so it might not read real well but will still give you some idea's and hopefully actually make you think about how you train yourself for footy and just in general.

Hey Mate,
 
John (not his real name) here,
 
Do you have any programs for the off season?

For weights (3 -4 days a week) I was thinking something with 3 cycles...Hypertrophy, Stregnth and then a Strength Conversion stage as well..each going for 6-8 weeks..
Then agility and speed work would be 3 days a week also..(various speed drills for about 20 mins).
 
Did u end up finishing any programs?
 
(Please see my new email attached also)
 John


I did a 5 month program last year with some blokes that went well and this year I'll open up a training program for footy players again...i'll hopefully get a bunch of blokes from my club as well a few ring ins hopefully to do some training 2 - 3/week in the studio and we might also do some other stuff outside, depending on what i have tie to do and such

i have a program i'll be doing on my own this year though, last year i did the program the others did

cycles can work but you run the risk of strength falling away in the hypertrophy phase, and hypertrophy falling away in the strength conversion phase etc - you can't just train it and leave it

i'll be doing a heap of off season stuff on the blog in a few weeks time 

so which email is your new one? and how's the foot?

 

This is my email that i am using from now on.

If you would like to trial some programs I would love to get a copy and run it...?

I do understand that being specific to the cycle the other factors may suffer a little, but with proper nutrition and the right order i think it would work out...Here is a basic weights progam that i have come up with...

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Recovery/Basic Strength

Preparation

Competition

Recovery/Basic Strength

Hypertrophy 8 weeks

Max Strength 8 weeks

Convert to Power 8 weeks

Maintain Strength

Foot is all better now and have played 5 matches now...The first two i was playing CHB, but didnt really fit well...
The last three matches I have been moved to CHF...and loving it. 

Over the off season I want to get really fast (agility and speed wise) so im going to focus a lot on ladder work, hurdles, etc etc.

I have also attached a small extract from a training manual i want to work at...

the program can work but i'd do things differently myself

i think a little rethinking might help:

step 1 - what do you NEED to improve the most?

step 2 - how will you do that?

step 3 - how much time will it take?

you might not need an 8 week hypertrophy phase, you might only need 4 weeks etc - you're doing for the training for you so it's gotta fit you...you'll want to go into in season mode once practice matches start too which will cut your blocks down a few weeks and generally smaller blocks are better then long one's so you might go

maybe something like this:

sep - goal 1: hypertrophy / goal 2: strength foundation (depends what you need most)

oct - goal 1: strength / goal 2: hypertrophy

nov - goal 1: strength / goal 2: explosiveness

dec - goal 1: strength / goal 2: hypertrophy

jan - goal 1: explosiveness / goal 2 - strength

feb - goal 1: explosiveness / goal 2: strength

mar - in season mode

there's a million ways you could do this but it comes down to what you need to get better (why do you have to actually get bigger? how will it improve your game?) and then focus on that the most and bring the other goals up bit by bit over the off season

i might use this as a blog post...

Hmmm very interesting....You're actually correct, I dont want to get that much bigger, Just looking to start usng my size a lot more effectively...

Therefore what you've suggested is actually more applicable at this stage IMO. 4 weeks initially will be the go, then do my strength stuff

My strength levels arent too bad ATM, I would love to work on explosiveness and conversion of strength into functional ability.

When working on explosiveness, Do you have any explosiveness workouts that could work 3 times a week? or is it all just about using <50% 1RM, but really fast?

Other than that, i need to bust my ass and work on my agility/running...Twice a week initially but work up to 3-4 times a week during the off season..

Yeah for sure, go for the blog post based on this stuff...its a good time to bring it out IMO.

the dynamic work (50% stuff) is good for developing explosiveness and teaching acceleration for the actual lifts but i'm not totally convinced for transferring gym to the playing field...med ball throws are a better option as it actually leaves your hands which is more sport specific

agility is a by product of strength, no cones or ladders will help for actual agility - the more force you can absorb force going into a turn and the quicker you can turn that decelerative force into accelerative force (i.e change of direction) the faster you'll be in a linear or lateral fashion

that's what's my new program will be about and i'll be dropping a blog post on it later this week or early next week

what sort of "running' do you need? if your chf then long runs shouldn't be too much of your training - more lead up, double back and sprint back sort of stuff

Ahh ok...would be interested to see what a training program outside of the season would look like for u..I would love to work on some explosive lifting..jump squats, bench press throws etc...

By agility I mean to be running and stopping and switching directions and taking off wit the best possible speed I can...

Correct the running I need is explosive over 20-30m so if I were looking to improve that i could find a bunch of American resources to help increase the '40 yard dash' which I believe is a very popular bench mark with football players in the states..

Still searching for programs with intensities, percent of maxes, reps and sets to use...but what I sent in that last email will probly form most of what I do...

when training for the 40, the nfl players do most of the work over 10 - 20m so that's not exactly what you want - it's pretty technique based...yes explosiveness off the mark is what you need but you also need to be able to do it repeated and for longer

True, endurance would be needed also...

This is my plan moving forward on the offseason:

Mon - Speed & Agility (am) / Core & Flexibility  (pm)
Tues - Weights (am) / Skills & Footy Training (pm)
Wed - Weights (am) /
Thur - Speed & Agility (am) / Core & Flexibility (pm)
Fri - Weights (am) / Skills & Footy Training  (pm)
Sat -  Weights (am) / Endurance (pm)
Sun - OFF

Loving the3 commitment of 11 sessions a week but how do you progress on 11 sessions? 12? 13? And I'd be cautious of demanding too much of your foot in sep/oct too - you'll still have some massive compensations that will make something go twang if the foot doesn't

Like I said, there's a million ways to go about these things but some ways just make more sense, are ore efficient and sustainable.

I'm a big fan of efficiently and of getting the most from the least so i'd never do 11 sessions a week (i suppose i do 7 now and it's in season...) but a lot of your stuff will carry over from 1 session to the next meaning recovery will be an issue

speed and agility is a by product of strength (wts) so they can be trained at the same time pretty efficiently

core and flexibility can also be trained in the gym

so maybe set your days up like this, you can do most of it in the gym:

day 1

warm up - foam rolling, mobility, activation etc (10mins)

speed/quickness/jump work x 2 exercises (5mins - also used as nervous system primer)

lower strength exercise paired w/ plyo paired with core paired with flexibility exercise x 1 each

assistance upper exercise x 2 paired with core paired with flexibility exercise x 1 each

day 2 is the same but do upper strength exercise with the other paired stuff then a lower body assistance exercise with the paired stuff

getting stronger on it's own will make you faster but it helps to keep sprinting too so on the other days do 10, 20 and 40m sprints at about 80% but don't exceed 150 total meters on any given day

mon - gym 

tue - sprints

wed - gym

thu - off

fri - gym

sat - sprints

sun - off

that's your basic foundation phase then things would move around as you go through the off season

i just don't think 11 sessions in oct is required...yet

True, efficiency is the go..I will couple the flexibility and core stuff with the speed and agility to minimise the time that i am spending in the gym.  I start work at a gym next week however so I will have no issue spending time in the gym.

when i say speed and agilty i mean being able to increase my speed over a short period..(with ladder work, running technique and various running drills).

So while its all good saying I can deadlift 180kg...that has little carry over to football, right? (or is it a case of as i get stronger the 140kg will fly up a lot quicker?  so its all relative..)

with the sprinting, why wouldnt you be going 100% at times?  and 150M total seems a little short no?  eg 10 x 20M sprints is already 200M an over the 150 mark...?

PS Would love it if you could add this email address to your mailing list

ladder work makes you better at ladder work - when do you ever take steps like that ever? you don't...it can be useful for a nervous system warm up though but that's about it

if you can't express your 180kgs on the ground then it's not doing as much for you as it could

you can't start at 100%, you need room to progress - over the months the total distance would increase but at the start focus on technique which you won't do covering ore distance at a faster speed

Ladder work is great for speed and agility work..
http://ringtraining.com/store/agilityladder.html

never take advice from a sales page...how can small quick steps make you faster?

True man....

But I've been lifting weights for 3 years now, and I'm still slowish...

I want to get quicker around corners, faster braking, pulling away from opponents quicker etc..and I don't see how just running in a straight line will help..

I want to set up cones and run various drills, run backwards, hill sprints, ladder work, etc..

I am big, but I need to convert that to speed and power/explosiveness..

i mentioned this in an earlier email...

changing direction is 3 parts muscle contraction:

1 - deceleration (slowing down)

2 - isometric (the turnaround from one way to the other)

3 - acceleration (speeding up)

Deceleration required great eccentric strength to stop your self as quick as you can.

Isometric strength then allows you to stabilise yourself and waste as little energy as possible as you change direction.

Acceleration requires great starting strength, especially from the posterior chain (glutes/hams)

If you're not great at turning corners as it is, then simply practicing running corners with far from adequate deceleration, isometric and/or acceleration strength will only have reinforce your slow and wide turning circles.

So in the weight room you need to work on eccentric strength, isometric strength and then peak concentric strength.

That is how you get fast AND agile and is the basis of the program that I'll be doing on my own from Sep onwards, I won't have my group do it as you need to be somewhat experienced to eb able to do it. 

Here's what I just posted on the blog:

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/triphasic-training.html 

There's a fair bit in all these emails so if you have any questions on any of it then shoot them through to me.