Block 1 for 2015 Football Season

I played my last game for 2014 just under 2 weeks ago.

I played reserves + over 35's this year so we had a preliminary final for reserves 3 weeks ago (by the time you read this) then the over 35's grand final the following Sunday.

We had a semi final on a Sunday so with a 6 day break I did minimal training leading into the prelim.

From the prelim I had my AC joint smashed about 4 times and couldn't lift it off my hip that night. I also sustained what I can only describe as 2 sprained wrists where I could barely hold my knife and fork that night either.

I wasn't in good shape!

I did my opposite AC joint in the last practice game on a Saturday before our round 1 game the following Friday and it wasn't long enough and as soon as I got hit once, the shoulder was buggered again and I was rendered pretty much useless but it was fine for round 2 which was 8 days later.

So going off this, and with the pain not being as bad as the first AC injury (so I thought) I imagined I would be pretty much good to go for the Sunday game as far as my shoulder was concerned.

Going for a mark in the arm up put an end to that thinking and the fact I still couldn't really gram anything like a jumper for instance again rendered me pretty much useless for that grand final.

Anyhoo, I had a complete week off training which I never do!!

This leads me into block 1 for season 2015.

Even though the shoulder was mostly fine now, I already have the bulk of my off season set in stone and with the bench press being a decent part of it, I need the shoulder to be more then ready to go before I can do that.

Also with the mighty Swans gunning for a grand final, and mt birthday always being within 3 - 3 days of it (if it isn't on the actual day) then I knew I had a big weekend planned (this weekend) and therefore didn't want it to be happening through my main block of training.

So I needed a quick block to get the ball rolling and that brings me to Swings.

You may have done or seen these before and if you have you wouldn't have seen them done with a cable and to be honest, I'm really testing to see how these go. I don't have kettlebells and the "attack the zipper" part of a traditional KB Swing doesn't happen with a db or t-bar, that I currently use for Swings.

With swings come a Dan John program called The 10,000 Swings Workout.

If you click the link you'll find the program which calls for 10,000 Swings done over a 4 week period. The way he sets it out you'd do 500 Swings per session x 5 sessions per week which looks tough on paper in the first place.

The dickhead I am, I only have a 2 week period between my week off after my last game and when I need to start my main pre - Christmas block so that I can fit it all in before Christmas.

So I'm sliding 10,000 Swings into 2 weeks, which includes grand final / birthday weekend (tomorrow).

So really I;m doing all those swings in 11 days!!

That's a lot of Swings - in fact yesterday I did 1220 Swings with 720 reps in the AM and another 500 in the PM. I'll do this a few times next week as well but I haven't done that everyday.

This will end up being my hamstring and max velocity block which isn't really the order I wanted to go with but because of my shoulder I had to move things around a little.

When you do a block of training that results in a state of over reaching (a performance decrease), then in order for you to supercompensate for performance to start increasing again, you need to rest the same time that the block took to get it so any performance increases won't be seen for 2 weeks after my 2 week block ends.

So I'm over half way through total rep wise for this and to be honest it's getting boring, but if there's 1 exercise you can't do too much of, than it's probably Swings.

End range glute activation, over speed hamstring contractions and hip hinge mechanics are all essential to optimal performance.

As I Swing up a storm I;m also putting together a full 12 month training manual which hopefully will be completed in the next week or 2 so look out for that bad boy!

New 12 Month Training Manual Update

I've started putting together the all-new Aussie Rules Training manual and even though I've done 4 of them before, this will be the first one that is a full 12 month manual with off, pre and in-season training all rolled into the 1 manual!

I hope to have this available in the next 2 weeks so as a little teaser here's the intro:

"...Finals are wrapping around the country, the sun is starting to shine which indicates that another footy season is in the bag.

If you’re a strength and conditioning geek me you've already been thinking about you’re off and pre-season training for season 2015.

What I find with most players and even amateur strength and conditioning coaches is that they know what they want to achieve or what level they’d like to get to, they have the commitment and discipline levels to follow the plan, but it’s the actual plan can sometimes be a little flawed.

There are many ways to get the same training effect but for a sport like footy, which pretty much requires every strength, fitness and movement quality known to man, you could be trying to fit too much into your plan at one time or alternatively, too much of some things and nowhere near enough of others.

If you tend to make up your own programs until team training comes around in November then you probably follow the same tried and true stuff you've done in the past. That’s great if you’re happy with the level you’re currently at but if you want to actually get better then you need to bring new stuff in each year.

Other players just do what they have seen others do in the past with a “good enough for him, good enough for me” attitude.

What I would like to see more of is more thought going into why you’re training, what you’re training for and how you’re training to attain it.

Just turning up and doing a 10km jog or some bench presses will not automatically make you a better football player. You might get better at those actual activities but how do they make you a great footballer? On their own they don’t.

This manual will provide with the insight into all the strength and fitness qualities that need to be trained to be the complete footballer. Hint: there’s way more than you think!

I will try and keep it as simple as I possibly can but if I get a bit scienc-y, then definitely re-read the bits you don’t quite understand upon your first read. There will be programs you can follow but if you really want to know the how, what and why’s in regards to training for footy, then educating yourself can make things a lot more efficient and makes it easier to see through a lot of ordinary training practices you see and even might encounter from your own team’s strength and conditioning trainers. This way you point them in the right direction once you actually learn why footballers should and/or shouldn't do certain things in their training..."