In my previous Women's Football post, I looked at some of the real specifics in regards to training female footballers, uncovering what I think are the BIG ROCKS that should be covered more, and before plenty of other things that get a look in.
My BIG ROCKS included:
- Individualising training for each and every player in accordance with their menstrual cycle, especially those who really suffer during that time.
- Teaching players how to tackle/collide with opposition players to protect themselves and the opposition.
- Nailing kicking technique and not just having a "close enough is good enough" thought process. Getting ball to boot is one thing by getting to able to boot to teammate is another.
- Get to Fit to Run, Don't Get to Get Fit (a future blog in itself)
AFL Teams have data for everything which from L/S point of view might seem like overkill but let me put it this way:
L/A teams head to the beach and incorporate ice baths on game days but why? The science behind it doesn't stack up (another future post in the works) but because the AFL teams do it then we should too. Well player monitoring is "my" ice bath I suppose.
AFL players have nothing to prepare for but footy with all outside stressors kept to an absolute minimum, and for good reason.
Us L/A footballers are filled with outside stressors and I'll use myself as an example.
My wife is disables and unable to work leaving me as the sole bread winner, she also has chronic fatigue which can result in literally days in bed without getting up. We have a 6yr old boy who needs to be on the move 16hrs a day. We have the studio that is always a battle as all small business are. I'm up at 5am every weekday even though I die a little inside each and every night I set my alarm. I train 5 days a week plus games now and I'm 38.
Personally I have high physical and mental stress.
Taking games away do you think there's a small chance that some of those aspects from above could impact my readiness to play top notch footy come a Saturday?
I'd say it does, but who would I know?
The many women footballers have now gone from very social physical activity, if any, to 4 - 6hrs of relatively high intensity activity per week now that games are starting.
This will wear them down if not accounted for as they are simply ready to sustain this volume of activity before something gets injured or they get sick.
A few ways you can at least monitor where your players at is through:
Heart Rate Variability
Rate of Perceived Exertion
Wellness Surveys
Points of Recovery
Diet - part of wellness survey
Player Load - part of rate of perceived exertion
All this might seem impossible for 30 - 50 players but here are your options:
#1 - Bite the bullet and do every player which will be a shit at the start but like everything get easier and easier each week until it becomes clockwork.
#2 - You could just do your senior team who will have far greater output compared to your reserves and thirds players because of greater fitness, more training etc.
#3 - You might decide to do a select group of your senior players because at L/A level, it;s these players that win you games and when they don't play, you're really down 2 - 3 players rather then 1, so it's crucial to at least have them play every game, or close to.
What you're looking for with your data is not so much acute peaks and valley's but rather patterns. So if you're primary mid-fielder's HRV is decreasing from week to week, then it's a sign that his recovery is not matching his output and he's in danger of injury or sickness until an intervention is applied. This might be as simple as having him miss a Tuesday training and not even go into the club to freshen his body and mind up.
Your data points can start improving in just a couple of days if you know what you're looking for and apply what you need to, when you need to.
Throw all this stuff I've just talked about on a girl going through her follicular phase and you're potentially asking for an ACL injury. Females are 8 x more likely to tear an ACL then men at the best times and this risk goes through the roof at this time.
Knowing their cycle will also let you know when you can get extra work into them to make up for the low training week as well.
I actually now have an actual social media expert launching my Women's Football Training Program on Facebook which will probably start early next week so if you want in before all the spots are taken, then definitely book your spot NOW!
No comments:
Post a Comment