AFL In-Season Training w/ Darren Burgess Port Adelaide S&C Coach.

You might remember in February this year I did a series of interviews with AFL, VFL and TAC strength and conditioning coaches to give us local/amateur footy players an insight into what elite preparation looks like.

Now being just past the season's mid-point, plenty of rain and heavy grounds meaning plenty of collisions, recovery and in-season training/preparation is crucial to not only getting to the last round but also fully fit and ready to play your best football come finals time.

I thought it was the perfect time to follow up with some in-season training questions but this time I managed to get ab hold of the head of the Port Adelaide strength and conditioning team Darren Burgess, regarded as one of THE best s&c coaches in the entire world!

Here's what he had to say.

What differences are made to training compared to the off and pre-season training periods?

There is a lot more recovery in-season. During pre-season we train heavily 3 - 4 sessions a week whereas in-season there is 1 heavy session then the game.

Further Reading: Train Monday Instead of Tuesday? It could be said that local/amateur football, with far more collisions then elite level football, and relative fitness levels that come with the varying grades of football might be more demanding. Add to that the fact that we have to work 5 - 6 days a week and deal with a lot more outside stressors then AFL players and it might be a good idea to have 1 main session each week.

What does a full week look like?

Saturday - Game
Sunday - Recovery
Monday - Light Session
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Heavy Session + Gym
Thursday - Gym
Friday - Light Session
Saturday - Game

Further Reading: My Game to Game Weekly Lay Out. Right now it's Saturday - Post game recovery as per blog, Sunday - Rest, Monday - Active Recovery for legs and Strength for Upper, Tuesday - Low Volume Speed + Aerobic Power, Wednesday - Off, Thursday - Low Volume Power (gym based) + Aerobic Power, Friday - Upper Power (gym).
 
Do you have any specific requirements for players to abide by from Thursday to game day?
Nope, just plenty of recovery

What does game day look like?

I leave the players largely to themselves. We have some nutritional demands as well as warm up routines but largely the players prepare themselves.

What recovery interventions do you put in place immediately post game as well as in the days following? Do you do these as a team or leave blokes to do them themselves?

Mostly nutrition as well as ice baths post game. Active recovery and additional hydrotherapy in the days following.

What types of personal/wellness/readiness testing do you do during the season?

They fill out short wellness questionnaires once or twice a week depending on the phase of the season.

Further Reading; Player Monitoring Parts 1, 2 and 3.

You've got 6 - 7 weeks until finals and you can still make some alterations that WILL make you a far better player when you really need to be when finals start.

I'd like to Darren on giving up his time and Intel to do this, we greatly appreciate it!