Coaches, You Can't Train Everyone the Same - Here's Why...

We've all got those jets at our footy club, they just have speed to burn and not just speed at a lower level, but speed that would be an asset at higher levels of footy where everyone is relatively quick.

There is a jet at my club, bleeds for the club, is the major sponsor now even, who fits this bill. He's ran an 11sec flat 100m with absolutely no training for speed, it's all natural.

And in his arse. His giant arse!

Off topic quickly, a former CEO named Jack Welch has a book called Winning where he talks about the typical breakdown of employees. You have your top 20% who are your stars, your middle 70% who are your workhorses and your lowest 10% who are your bottom feeders.

I bet you've heard the footy phrase "you're only as good as your bottom 6" and this is along those lines.

Now most people will look at it and think that focusing on your stars is the way to get better but you've all those workhorses who turn up week in and week out, and with enough resources thrown at them they can too become stars, potentially doubling your top end talent. It's a lot easier, and cheaper as L/A footy clubs to build your own starts then find them on the open market.

The 70% is where your potential stars are, and they're right under your nose right now, and it's actually most of your teams success comes from.

Getting back to our stars/jets, they to need something different. They possess a certain quality that sets them apart and is crucial that you continue to develop it, maintain it, or let them express it on a consistent basis.

Generally speed is what sets them apart so you need to make sure there is training time set aside for them to do this.

Doing too much "workhorse" training with them can "run the speed right out of them" and now they are just another workhorse.

Within your playing group you;re also going to get some different cats, at L/A footy level this is just a fact of life you need to get used to and not everyone will fall into line the exact same way we want them to when they are not getting paid to do so.

There is something called the Braverman Test that can help you determine what type of athlete you are based on neurotransmitter type.

Dopamine based athletes will have lots of energy they get stuff done, they can handle and display great intensity but overall training volume can decrease their output drastically. My mate from above is this to a tee.

Acetylcholine based athletes possess great creativity and will respond best to variations in training load. They also like to problem solve so discovery based training is big for them.

Gaba based athletes love consistency and the process of it all. They can sustain greater training loads for extended periods of time but they can't reach the intensity levels of the dopamine athlete.

Seretonin based athletes are you sit back, relax and enjoy life types which we all again, have at our footy clubs.

You add up all the true responses to the 4 sections and here what my results were:

Dopmaine - 22
Acetylcholine - 23
Gaba - 36
Serotonin - 25

As you can see I fit the Gaba mold which is almost 50% of the population - so much for being unique!

SHARE ON FACEBOOK OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION