Back in January I put up a post that looked at a female's menstruation cycle and how each of the phases of their cycle can have implications on how they should be trained at that time.
I've also posted about the ACL epidemic as well which also ties into this as there are certain times during their cycle that women are even more pre-disposed to ACL injuries then normal - talk about bad luck!
This should be across the board for all female players but what I want to talk about today is the ridiculous number (in a good way) of new players starting footy in the coming weeks.
Most of these girls have come from non-contact sports and very social sporting backgrounds.
One of the reason's that a lot of women are turning to footy is the aggression factor - they've never had an outlet like this before and you can see form the AFLW players that some girls thrive on being able to be relatively physical and dominant.
We have also seen the players new to footy in the AFLW having problems with tackling and protection of them and the opposition at times.
I think local clubs should be teaching this type of stuff in some capacity, especially the protection part.
Kicking is the basis of footy and its a bloody hard to skill to pick up and do well at in a short time frame.
As 4 year olds we all didn't end up kicking like Sam Mitchell in 12 months time and it's definitely a work in progress for a lot of women players.
That being I believe that coaches should be trying as hard as they can to teach the technique of kicking constantly by providing something like kicking time each and every training session where the emphasise is on the correct kicking technique irrespective of the result.
I'd even decrease fitness work to focus on this if you had to because better kicking will mean that running won't be as full on a requirement as if you're chasing kicks everywhere.
For years GPS reading shave shown that the top 4 AFL teams do less running then the other teams from superior skill levels.
Ball drop is probably by far the biggest thing to focus on for mine as you can see the AFLW who drop the ball properly, hit targets over good distances far better then those who don't.
In "How AFLW Players are Conditioning Right Now", it looked at article on the Brisbane Lions and how their players were training pre-Christmas with far more strength and conditioning work along with skill work then true fitness work.
I know teams aren't at that stage right now but it shows that being prepared for football requires far more than running and kicking.
As the saying goes "get fit to run, don't run to get fit."
Now coaches I understand you have heaps on your plate right now but I just wanted to put some idea's out there for you to ponder and if you'd like a hand on how to implement the stuff mentioned above but don't know how to then feel free to reach out to me.
I'd like to become your 'assistant coach" of sorts by you putting all strength and conditioning work into my capable hands leaving you more time run the skill and tactic stuff.
My next WF post will look at how you're implementing training during the in-season training period which actually starts when you're first practice match happens.
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