I'm not sure how I'll go with this but I am extremely interested in the stories behind all women footballers, how they started, why the stopped, why they started again etc.
We hear of them from the AFLW and they're great to listen to - the perseverance, the never say die attitude - all the things us male footballers believe we have in spades.
Except I doubt whether we have actually faced anything like the challenges women footballers have faced in simply being allowed to play football, let alone getting their position in Australian Rules Football recognised and put on center stage.
With my small crop of women footballers I'm training right now, I'm asking them to give me their football stories to post here on the blog and we start with Sarah Andrews, who featured on this blog a couple of days ago when she broke every one of her personal speed records in the 1 session with me on her quick trip to Melbourne.
We are both very happy with ho she is tracking after really only 3 and a bit weeks of training under her belt as we both know that she is a bit of a project with the fact that we are pretty much teaching her nervous system how to run again from years of skating!
"Righto, to put it into perspective, for the past 30 years of my life I've trained my body to be a fucking rock.
I've come through eventing and dressage, to trying, and failing to sail around the world on my own after sinking my boat in the Pacific, through to Roller Derby.
30 years of having half-tonne horses, 41 foot boats, huge swells and 100kg angry derby girls on roller-skates throwing themselves at me day after day.
I started playing footy last year and I guess I was drawn to it for a number of reasons
I love contact sports, love trying things I can't do, I love girls in tight shorts.....but people said "you can't - you can't run or jump".
I 've never played a ball sport before, I've never watched a game of footy - but fuck it I can do anything right?
Anyway - the thing is that I tried, I trained and I practiced away bit I could not bloody run or jump, I've never needed to.
I remember last year trying to run with my wife and she told me that I looked like a baby giraffe trying to walk.
I worked like a dog at a bone on this last year with a number of coaches on a number of footy conditioning programs with no success.
If anything my ruck jumps were worse at the end of last year than when I started.
What a downer.
I've always been able to able to smash whatever I've put my mind to, but my body just wouldn't come to the party on this one.
I'd been following Troy's blog for a while and I figured I'd get in touch because what did I have to lose?
I'd been already looking at quite a few of the footy fitness blogs and programs but I could already do all of the strength stuff they were prescribing and it still wasn't helping me.
Troy seemed to take a more dynamic and individual approach and seemed genuinely interest in my personal shortcomings and how we can improve them.
A month in and it's hands down the best thing I ever did.
I get now why I couldn't get my body to do move the way I wanted it to and give it a few more months and it will.
I've fallen into a training pattern which is getting huge results, and few days of Netflix and chill every 28 days (ladies you hear me?!).
I've started to literally 'bounce' around which feels slightly weird, and all my numbers are moving in the right direction.
I've fallen in love with footy, my team and my body, it's actually super remarkable, I was just giving it the the wrong stuff to do at the wrong times.
Girls, if you've got goals, and you're actually serious about achieving them then get in touch with Troy, this bloke knows what he's talking about and if you're willing to put in the work you'll smash it.
It's the best thing I've done since I picked up a football.".
I spend a good chunk of Sunday training Sarah in-person for the first time during a quick trip over the Tasman and we got into a bit more of her story since she wrote this for me.
During her primary school years she was actually banned from Netball because of her physicality where all the other parents pretty much "revolted" against her!
She excelled at the contested ball test at the AFL Combine Talent Day she attended where the she literally scared the other females off from going near her.
At one point we were going through some ruck strategies and she stiff-armed me into next week without even trying - like a female Dustin Martin!
I actually can't wait to see some footage of her physicality because she could really make her mark in women's football withca trait that only a small number of women have.
There are plenty that go in hard, but to be just able to (wo)manhandle players through contact would be frightening to see.
Let me know your women's football story at aussierulestraining@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment