5 Things Missing from Your and Your Teams Pre Season Training Program

It's the start of November and with that comes pre season training for every football team in Australia.

In general training for footy at the grassroots is far behind the times with a lot of what's been done in the past still be done today, regardless of it's effectiveness.

I'm sure there's still a team out there somewhere doing the 100 meter sprints x 100 with no focus on quality or speed but just to flog the guts out it's players.

Not a great idea.

#1 - Footy Specific Running

Running the Tan. 3 kilometer Time Trails. 400's. The Beep Test.

What do they really train?

Will running 3.8 or 3kms at a slow to moderate pace be replicated on the football field?

Will run 400m in a straight line all in 1 effort?

Do you start the first quarter off at a walking pace only to ramp up the speed in the last quarter?

I hope not.

Aussie Rules Football has specific running requirements and the above options aren't any of them. That means that each running requirement needs it's own specific training. You can't run the Tan and expect it to make you any better at anything but basically running the Tan, or for 15 - 20 minutes continuously at a slow to moderate pace.

That will leave you with 0 possessions come Saturday.

#2 - Go, Stop and Go Again

This IS the most underrated form of footy fitness by far. The ability to sprint to a contest, contest the ball, get tackled, chase the spilled ball again, tackle an opposition player, get the loose ball and run away with it again is what wins game.

Doing a 100 meter sprint, resting and repeating is not going to help this because with the ability decelerate, stop and go again is crucial, especially in a contested situation.

This obviously needs to be trained through multi directional sprinting, just running one way will leave you gasping for air after 1 effort.

Get better at turning corners 2 or 3 times in a single sprint because you know the next bloke will only have turn in him at most.

#3 - Speed

I think I've posted about this before but there is an element of time in football that no one keeps in mind in that you need to get to the ball or to position first. That means you can't just "get there in the end", you need to get there first to give the best chance of getting the ball.

That means that the need for the speed is pretty much at the very top of the list for football.

I think we all know of the player that didn't make it because he was a step too slow, regardless of his Tan lap time.

#4 - Work Against the Clock

To get better at anything you need to use progressive programming. You can't get around it. You can't just do 10 x 100m sprints at any old pace with the same rest and expect to beat you tan time, get faster and/or lose some weight.

Why?

Because you'll always do 1000m with no change in your training stress.

So what should you do?

Increase the distance per set ? Shit idea because the longer you run, the slower you're running.

Increase the sets with the same distance? No because now your running a little further at the same speed.

What should you do then?

Do more work in the same amount of time or the same amount of work in less time.

#5 - Be Good at All Forms of Running

Piggy backing off point 1, football requires a lot of different "types" of running. There are high requirements for speed, repeated speed, speed endurance, agility and tempo type running.

Do you train any of even 1 of these?

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Stop pounding the pavement and move into the 21st century.

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