In part 1, I wrote about the aspects of footy you need to do in your own time to fully reach your potential as footy training only allows 2 - 4 contact hours a week and is no where near enough time to cover everything.
We looked at max speed, agility, aerobic capacity and movement efficiency while also looking at how decision making and exceeding intensities/velocities can be performed at training (but never is as well as touching on a thing called homeostasis and how it related to getting bigger, stronger, faster and fitter.
In part 2 here we'll look at what I've just named "levels of training for performance" - yep I rattled my brain forever coming up with that.
These principles of training aren't new, they've been around for decades in elite sport under different names and systems and I'm just making this post as footy specific as I can so it hopefully resonates with the footy masses.
LEVEL 1 - TRAINING TO TRAIN
I am far from any sort of elite status but I do train like I am so I'm going to use my own training as an example throughout this post I think.
Once our season ends then I have a week off and then I'm back into it. We've made finals the last 3 - 4 years so that means By October I;m back in the swing of things - usually after AFL grand final weekend actually as I have a big one that day!
Now just remember that I don't train with my team because I work evenings so my I cover everything in my own training except skills and tactics which isn't ideal as skills is THE number 1 thing to train above all else, but I'm lucky in that I'm 38, I've played a million games and I don't lose touch without handling the footy like most players do.
Training to train refers to preparing the body for pre-season training. At a minimum that's all you've got to do between September and mid-November.
Generally pre-season training in the phase before Christmas will involve some low to moderate intensity running, a fair bit ball skills (hopefully!) and some cross training methods like bike rises, beach sessions etc.
So to prepare the body for that type of activity you need to hit the gym. and in the gym you'll need to look at the following:
- Regaining any lost mobility from the previous season
- Increasing body mass/armor for the up-coming season
- Increasing/regaining max strength levels form previous or up-coming season
- Train through as many different ranges of motion as you can
- Address, or start to address, any personal weaknesses that stop going to another level in your footy (speed, aerobic capacity etc)
What you don't need to but what everyone seems to do is;
- Endless endurance runs to get fit for footy training - don't you go to footy training to get fit?
- Only focus on getting bigger in the gym, not stronger, which is far more important for any sport, not just footy
- Do not ignore rehab, even you don't have an injury - the stress of beat up local footy grounds and poor recovery can result in the body "taking the path of least resistance" to get the job done which means it will only use the muscles or joints it feels are the strongest to do a certain job, regardless if they are meant to do the job or not. This results in mobility and flexibility deficits and increase your risk of injury at anytime, but trying to go straight back to 100 mile an hour in October without re-servicing your body, will end up in an injury at some time.
Getting back to the "getting fit for footy training' point, if you're coach has done it correctly, then you should be able to complete they set out at all training sessions. You should never not be able to complete a drill that they ask you to do.
If they intend on pushing the envelope a bit in regards to intensity then that's fine if they either let the players know that come December we're gonna up the ante a fair bit so do some extra work now, or they build up to it gradually from when they start in November.
Apart from that I would save your time and energy resources into training other stuff you won't do at footy training, as mentioned in part 1.
LEVEL 2 - TRAINING TO PLAY
So we've done some pre-Christmas training to prepare ourselves for the 10 week slog that is the pre-season period covering January to practice matches in March.
You've developed the base of all strength and fitness qualities last year so now you're ready to go up a level which refers to:
- Exceeding game intensities/velocities (refer to part 1)
- Improving the ability of your muscle fibers to contract and relax at extremely fast rates (that is what sets elite sprinters/athletes apart from us and why it looks like they are doing it easy)
- Game simulated training drills progressing from pre-planned to chaotic to enhance decision making and skills under pressure.
- Fatigue build up
Let's look at the fatigue build up bit in a little more detail. Most teams train with the aim to smash their players with as much fatigue as possible in the hopes that that will make them better players. This is only partially true.
In my post a little while ago titled "watch the player, not the game", as a coach you need to know the difference between game movement and player movement.
Someone who has not watched a game of AFL will immediately think "shit those players run forever" which some do but at the L/A level, it's more sprint to a contest, battle it out for 2 - 3secs then walk/jog.
So are all those 400's doing you any good or are you better served improving your acceleration/speed over 20 - 30m to get to that contest first then sprint away from them?
Train slow to run slow is very real thing.
LEVEL 3 - PLAY TO PLAY
This obviously refers to practice matches where all your training until now has been to prepare for them, not round 1.
The arousal you'll reach for these games will be much higher then training and therefore intensity and output can be greater.
Couple this with great fatigue from said increased output and heavy contact and that first practice game can put you bed 5mins after it's finished (like me this Saturday after 32 degrees I suspect!)
As game simulated as you might try to make your training, it cannot, and will never match a real game at the L/A level, which is why practice games are vital as they are the bridge from your training to round 1.
Without these practice games then you'll struggle through the first 3 - 5 games of the season which 255 of the season wasted essentially.
On top of that your injury risk is higher as you're going from level 2 to level 4 (games), completely missing level 3 (play to play).
Simply turning up to footy training and doing the same old thing every year will not make you a better player. You need to develop new capacities, new power and new skills. You cannot do the same thing and expect a different result.
Being a reserves footballer I see this with almost every player I play with and that's fine, most aren't as invested as I am in training for footy, but if you want to win premierships at any level, and I;m pretty my reserves team wants to after blowing our best chance 2 years ago, then you need to get better.
And that means doing stuff on your won away from footy!
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