Local Footy Gems from AFL/TAC S&C Coach's Burgo and Matty Part 8/9

Parts #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7.

IS THERE A SET DISTANCE OR VOLUME FOR EACH TRAINING ZONE YOU WANT COVERED PRIOR TO THE COMPETITION SEASON? FOR EXAMPLE "X AMOUNT OF DISTANCE COVERED X RUNNING CATEGORY"?  

BURGO:

No, not for me.

I want players be able to exceed their match intensities so that's what I generally focus on.

HOW LON WOULD IT TAKE TO BUILD TOWARDS "EXCEEDING MATCH INTENSITIES? AMD THEN HOW MUCH OF THAT WOULD YOU DO?

Straight away I would exceed match intensities for distance per minute but take a bit longer for other metrics, say about 4 weeks.

We'd do this twice a week in the pre-season but only once a week during off-season.

WOULD THIS BE DETERMINED THROUGH MAS/ASR BY AFL CLUBS AND HOW COULD THIS BE SIMULATED WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY AT L/A CLUBS?

Most clubs would know this by looking at GPS data from games.

L/A clubs would definitely use MAS but otherwise it's more of an educated guess.

MATTY:

Yes and no.

There are volumes that I think develop athletes to get to a certain level and I certainty believe that developing running economy is important and to do that you need to run a certain amount.

But realistically, the minimum amount possible to get an acceptable level to compete is probably the best answer.

If one of our players gets 15 for the beep test, 22 for the yo-yo test and puts pit 150m/min during a practice match then I'm not going to say, my excel document says you need to run 35 more kms this pre-season until you're fit enough.

We will certainty track high speed and sprint meters to make sure they are exposed to levels that are "at or above match demands."

MY SUMMARY

Pretty much the same answer by both coaches on that one and I couldn't agree more.

Too many L/A coaches train like they always have (high fatigue/low to moderate output) then expect to turn into speed, aerobic beasts come game day.

I've got a graph I made up that will be the subject of a blog post in the next week or so that will look at exceeding match intensities/demands and what it actually means and looks like.

Also not too many L/A coaches can actually tell me what intensity is but without going into detail, what they usually refer to is what I call fatigue - both very different things!