Local Footy Games from AFL/TAC Fitness Coaches Burgo and Matty Part 5/9

Part #1, #2, #3 and #4.

HOW WOULD YOU DECIDE RUNNING LOAD/INTERVAL SPECIFICS IN REGARDS TO VOLUME PER SESSION WEEK, REST PERIODS (HEART RATE OR TIME BASED), DROP OFF POINTS FOR POWER OUTPUT ETC?

BURGO

At Port Adelaide of it would be determined by objective measures like GPS.

It would also be dependent on the time of the season, previous and future opposition as well as player wellness scores.

At PAFC, how do you decide running load/interval specifics in regards to volume per session/week, rest periods (heart rate or time based), drop off points for output etc?

MATTY

At the Bushrangers we are lucky in a sense that we have some GPS units and we have some historical data so I can set a framework of "OK, we have 15kms to cover in 2 sessions, the coach wants x, y and z, we know certain drills give us x amount of meters so what else do we need to get the loads that we want?"

We will usually have one longer session with more total meters and more craft work then another shorter session with more high speed meters to give the players training variety.

We generally will go up in volume for 3 weeks then deload them.

Our rest periods within the drill will be dependent on the energy system we are targeting and between drills something I'm big on is getting all groups (we can have 5 groups of 10 players each) finishing at the same time, getting their break, then getting straight out and increasing the density of the session rather then letting them finish whenever the coaches feel like it and potentially having 1 group standing around for 5 minutes.

L/S TEAMS WON'T HAVE ANY TECHNOLOGY SO COULD YOU EXPAND ON THE "15KMS IN 2 SESSIONS PART?" HOW DO YOU GET TO THAT FIGURE AND COULD THERE BE A SOME DATA COLLECTED, ANALYSED AND RESULTING IN SOME SOLID RECOMMENDATIONS FOR L/A TEAMS SUCH DETAILING HOW MUCH VOL YOU SHOULD COVER AT WHAT SPEED ETC?

Yep, I completely understand what you;re saying but you won't any text anywhere that someone will put their arse on the line for and say "all you need to do is follow exact numbers and you'll be right" because 1 - what works for them won't work for you and 2 - people are protective of their IP. 

It's much easier  to talk in broad terms and avoid any kickbacks.

I think there could be (and should be), better guidelines for L/A coaches but I know they cover some basic stuff at he Level 2 and 3 coaching courses.

The easiest way without technology to is to use Fosters (RPE x Duration / 90min session x 5/10 rpe = 450 points) where if we want a 1000 point week we now have 550 to play with for our second session of the week so we can either go at 110mins at 5/10 or 70mins at 8/10 to bet there.

Next week, we increase it by 10% to get to 1100 points.

I think it's achievable for any coach at any level, its not hard, although there can be obvious problems with using RPE as everything is 7/10 for some reason!

MY SUMMARY

I have racked my brain to come up with some solid recommendations for L/A coaches to train their players under but I just can't seem to make it implementable. 

I'll continue to work on it though!

Again simple player wellness and training scores can help you develop your training over the short and long term to ensure all players maintain optimal fitness levels throughout the season.

Here are some blogs I've done on player monitoring from this time last year:

https://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/player-monitoring-system-now-available.html

https://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/what-i-do-with-your-player-monitioring.html

I'll be making this available again this season so if you're club is interested in tracking these things then we can set up a spreadsheet where we can both enter values, I can analyse it for you and provide training recommendations for individual, groups or teams of players.