What Your Footy Coach Doesn't Know (But It's Not Their Fault)

Back in the day there was the coach, and he was everyone.

Coach.

Captain.

Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Maybe even head trainer in some cases!

These days you have a separate coach, a separate captain, and separate trainers.

But why is the coach still slugged with strength an conditioning duties? I mean they're highly qualified to teach the skills and tactics of footy as to coach you require a minimum level 1 coaching qualification (which I have).

At the highest levels of footy (AFL, VFL, SANFL, WAAFL etc), all coaching staff will have at least a staff member (2 - 4 in some cases) who possess a strength and conditioning qualification through the various peak bodies in Australia - mine is through the ACSA.

The very local and amateur teams that you and I play for have more money then ever (well not mine as we're known for some of the worse facilities in the land) and should be thinking strongly about the preparation of it's players.

With the points cap coming into local/amateur footy in the coming years, it's essential to retain players which means your club will be in charge of them for successive seasons so you have the best chance you've ever had to really develop your players from within.

I have had numerous coaches in my 50 years of footy and only 1 of them had any idea about strength and fitness and he actually set up a gym at our club over the summer for us to train in. I put on 7kgs in about 3 months that summer because of that.

Getting back to team coaches, they are hired to put a team together via the current playing list and any recruits they can bring in, put together a game plan that will hopefully win a grand final or improve your ladder position from year to year.

With footy becoming more professional across all grades, coaching time has gone through the roof even for local/amateur footy, which you can read about at this link:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/localfooty/local-football-coaching-becoming-a-fulltime-role-as-mentors-juggle-family-and-work-with-club-duties/news-story/cde3950d56cb064fdb7ee2b7445e0623

So 30hrs of coaching a week plus work plus family - that's hardcore!

So unfortunately that leaves less then zero time to dedicate to catching up on the ins and outs of strength and conditioning.

So as the title says, it's not their fault.

Far from it.

Clubs need to look at finding something, or someone to assist with the conditioning of their players for 12 months of the year.

With player payments being as high as they are these days, it's essential that the club gets their money worth.

On the other hand, a player likes to earn his cash through his performance and a club with some form of existing strength and conditioning program would be a positive point of joining a club for a free agent football player.

Knowing that player and club needs can be met by each party means success can be the only result.

Here's a list of strength and fitness qualities that all need to be addressed for a football player of any grade:

Acceleration Speed
Max Velocity Speed
Aerobic Conditioning
Anaerobic Conditioning
Lactic Conditioning
Mobility / Flexibility
Recovery
Preparation
Strength
Hypertrophy
Agility
Competing Demands of Training
Player Readiness
Consolidation of Stress
Training Residuals

If you're simply training for football via team training means then you're leaving plenty of your own potential in the sheds.

Enter the Aussie Rules Untouchable Training Program.

A program where all of thes qualites are trained and planned around.

A program that will take you to a level you never knew you had.

A program that will make you UNTOUCHABLE!