I'm heading away for Xmas, back for a few days then off again for new years so I'll double up a bit this week to keep you informed over the break while you're sitting around in a post Xmas dinner haze.
For Women's Football Wednesday (on Monday - I hope to do anothery on Wednesday too this week), I wanna take a look at an article on the Brisbane Lions women's team.
It talks mostly about their tough draw but I found interesting some of the comments from their coach Craig Starcevich who states that his players had already exceeded expectations ahead of the season to date.
He is pleasantly surprised at how fast the girls have improved physically and how that has transferred into improvement technically.
He says "some of the things we thought we might have an issue with skill-wise haven't been an issue and the girls are fitter, stronger and more skillful already."
It goes on to say that the Lions have been doing 3 weight sessions, 2 conditioning sessions and 3 skill sessions per week.
Each player will follow individual programs over the Xmas break as well.
I had 4 or 5 years off playing footy but continued to train like I was playing in that time. When I did come back I was technically as good as I was when I finished as my muscles were already conditioned for high speed movements and the type of "performance' based training I did also meant I was able to maintain muscle co-ordination as well.
If I had only 12 weeks to get ready for footy season, like the AFL girls have, then I would definitely be hitting the gym more often then anything else initially, just as the Lions are.
You can't go head first in conditioning if you're body can't do what you want it to do and there's a saying in the training game - "get fit to run, don't run to get fit."
You could go conditioning first but after initial improvements you'll struggle to make more if you're engine doesn't increase it's size.
After Xmas I would assume there will be a lot more game simulation type conditioning work and less strength training as there using a short build up.
For mine, female footballers are in interesting space right now.
For the next couple of years while the talent field is relatively low, if you're a local/amateur football player then with a precise training regime, you could make HUGE strides in your game and potentially be on an AFL list this time next year. That is not a stretch - I wish I was a female footballer right now myself!
I wouldn't mind getting my hands on few female footballers to train in-person (along side your team training) so if you're in Melbourne and can get to South Yarra 2 times a week for an hour or so, then let me know - I'll be more then interested to help you out.
The full article can be found here.
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