SO CLOSE TO MY ULTIMATE GOAL!

As we all know it's speed, speed, speed in regards to my training with the aim to hit a 2-point-something 20m sprint from a standing start, aka the AFL Combine Sprint Test.

My previous best before this off-season started was 3.12secs if I remember correctly.

This off-season I started in September and my initial sessions were with bodyweight sprints over 5 - 20m from a 4 point crouched (sprinter) start position with the best I could manage was 3.21secs. Not great but OK for coming straight out of footy season at 100 years old.

My next block was focusing on optimal force training through sled runs via strength coach Cameron Josse's method, where I did 4 sessions at 48 - 52% of peak velocity then another 4 weeks at 72 - 77% peak velocity (went out on my own on that last bit).

I introduced some standing sprints in this block as well and topped out at 3.15secs for sprinter start sprints (the same start used for the sled runs) and 3.10secs for standing, even though I did only 2 sessions of those out of 8 in this block.

I should add that all sled sprint sessions were performed on grass, not athletic track like the bodyweight sprint sessions.

I was on my way to my goal and happy.

That took me up to Xmas.

Post Xmas it was a bodyweight sprints block that used a lot more standing starts then sprinter starts.

Sprinter start PB for this block was 3.17secs which isn't a deal breaker by any means as it's not my primary goal while standing start 20m timed in at 3.18secs so a fair drop off there.

I wasn't worried here as sprinting can be highly dependent on nervous system and even though I was holidays, I was getting to sleep far too late and still getting up relatively early with Archie home from school.

I can never stay on track with early nights on holidays but I wish I had to take advantage of the lack of work stress like I did last year.

I did also do my anaerobic threshold program during that time as well which probably took some much needed energy resources away as well.

The last block I did was another optimal force training program but I used my PB for standing starts and used that start with the sled instead of the sprinter start from the previous cycle (again going out on my own here).

I did 1 session of sprinter 20m sprints and timed a 3.29secs but at this time I was doing more of a tempo 20m I suppose where I'd start hard and trail off at about 90% at the 15m mark or so just hit initial acceleration in prep for the standing sprints to follow.

My best standing was around the mark again at 3.15secs so not a lot of progress made there either.

In the back half of this block I introduced jump back sprints to the program to allow m to hit something closer to max velocity over 20m from the ballistic nature of the start.

For these I was hitting way faster times over 20m with a slowest time of 3.06secs and a fastest time of 3.02secs which exposed me to a similar speed I was wanting to achieve over 20m from a standing position.

Then along came last Sunday, all 42 degrees (f) of it.

We waited til 7pm to do the sprint session thinking it might cool down a little but it was still 38 when we got there which is simply outrageous.

After some sprinter start 5m sprints as normal, I was feeling "it" to be honest after being on the couch all day literally.

I felt slow the entire the session, well not slow, but not PB fast either until I got home and timed the sprints where I clocked a blistering 3.00secs on my standing 20m - an all-time record and just .01sec off my ultimate goal.

Here's a vid from about 2 weeks earlier of a 3.36sec 20m sprint on grass:

And here's my 3.00sec vid from last Sunday:

I can see a clear improvement in acceleration in regards to speed and how long I can keep accelerating for between the 2 videos and it seems the jump back sprints assisted a great deal with this which is evident through my times as well where I also managed a 15m standing start PB of 2.46secs.

Now the Debbie Downer part of it is what I can't knock that final .01sec off?

I'm starting some lactic power sprints tomorrow and also now footy training on Tuesdays leaving only 1 single sprint session per week but I will be doing some acceleration work on the lactic power days so hopefully I can do it - stay tuned!

PRE-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #25 - GET SPECIFIC

Time flies at this time of the year and it'll be February later this week meaning practice games are just 6 weeks away!

As I've mentioned before once pre-season games start up then you should start entering the in-season training model so it's critical that you now start incorporating some specific training around this time.

Before I go further on that then I want to look at exercise selection based on Soviet Throwing coach Anatoliy Bondarchuk.

He breaks up exercise selection into 4 categories:

#1 - General Prep Exercises that have nothing to do with your sport specifically in regards to specific movement patterns, muscles used or energy systems used so you can use pretty much any exercise here but those that serve restoration or retraining purposes are best.

#2 - Specific Prep Exercises that are similar to those used in competition that use the same energy system and muscles, but not the same action so you might train the sprinting muscles but with squats and hip thrusts but not with sprinting.

#3 - Specific Development Exercises is referred to as specific strength and combines the energy system, muscles used and some part of the specific action like a sled or hill sprints

#4 - Competition Exercise which is the competitive exercise and it's variation so acceleration and max velocity sprinting.

The exercise classification principles from above can hold true for just about any type of activity, including football, and today I want to look at skill work.

Early in the pre-season skill work should follow the general prep which might be a lot of stationary target kicking performed at sow speeds. Kicking can actually put the quads and hamstrings under a a lot of stress and too much kicking too soon can cause soreness which will affect overall training quantity and quality so there's no need to be trying 100m torps running at top speed.

A couple of weeks prior to Xmas you can introduce a more dynamic component by kicking to moving targets and also kicking while moving at moderate speeds. This might also be where you start with post Xmas training, or a mix of gen prep and special prep kicking drills.

Around this time you should be heading into specific development kicking variations with leads coming from all different directions (straight at you, away from you, diagonal, long, short, stab, chip etc) and kicks being performed from all different positions (on the run, after a mark and push back, handball receive, run a hard 10m and kick etc).

Practice games will be the competition version.

Within a training session you would use all of the first 3 variations but emphasise different categories at different times as mentioned just above.

So if you're still warmimg up with 15mins of static kicking now, then maybe re-think it a bit  to get more out of your precious training time.

Sprinting wise you'd look at contact time as how to how to categorise the exercises so you might start with short acceleration sprints from various lying positions progressing to standing start variations over moderate distances and progressing to moving start variations over longer distances as well as max velocity sprint variations such as flying sprints and in and out sprints. Again practice games will be the competition exercise.

Where a lot of athletes all over the world go wrong with this is in the gym as every stays in the general prep category with the age old squats, bench press and pulldown program at slow speeds. You need to be altering your tempo and exercise selections to better prepare you for the demands of footy but even then you' might only get into the special prep stage with your gym work before you'll need to cut it back to fit more special development training into your schedule.

PRE-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #24 - FATIGUE IS THE ENEMY

When most players and coaches talk of increasing endurance/fitness, for reasons I don't know it's all about how far you an push and how much work you can still do even when you're tired, and thus thy train like that.

Skills performed under great fatigue.

Push through hard to the cones.

Follow up your mistakes.

Do extra punishments for skill errors.

It's all fatigue based.

I now it's partly about discipline and things of that nature but you really need to lock this into your brain:

FATIGUE IS THE ENEMY

When fatigue sets in your sprinting speed decreases, your skills deteriorate, your decision making falls right away and thus your overall effectiveness is dramatically.

If it was a game situation and you saw a player laboring heavily, you'd take them off the ground as soon as you could because they can no longer be effective until they have a bout of recovery.

So why train under fatigue when you don't really want to play like that?

It makes no sense but this is what these posts are all about, providing thought pieces for players and coaches to read, analyse and conclude how they see fit.

With players with varying degrees of fitness and abilities, fatigue will be present during training and that's fine but as a coach, you should be wary of what this is doing to player development.

Firstly skills performed poorly, with poor technique and mechanics, is what the body will learn and ingrain which will result in bad kicking even in a state of non-fatigue.

Poor running mechanics will also be ingrained which will result in poor endurance, poor speed and potential increased risk of injury from overuse and overloading of muscles not prepared to be able to do the job.

What should you do?

There's a point in time during the pre-season where training beyond fatigue is a good idea but January isn't it (a post for early next week).

For now you should be training to just under or just at fatigue and then resting, so as to maintain a high degree of skill level, maintain high speed and to maintain good decision making in tactical drills.

If you keep training players in a fatigued state and expect skills and decisions to improve then you need to go back to coaching school, wherever that is.

If you are wanting to induce some fatigue than that's fine but do it after all skill development is completed, after all speed work is completed and in low doses.

Always remember that it takes a lot of high quality input to improve things like speed and skills but a fraction of that in bad quality to undo all of your good work so keep that in mind when doing repeat runs and such at this time of the year.

My suggestion is to continue to focus high quality training until at least mid-Feb, and once skills and once skills have and speed have been improved upon, which they can't be in the presence of fatigue.

The teams I have been doing pre-season training for so all their endurance running at the end of the session without balls - just straight up running which is boring, bit is more effective and efficient then trying to combine methods and getting better at none of them.

Fatigue training probably bests trains the mind to perform at a high level under fatigue but without a high base level of speed and skill, fatigue training makes slow players slower and poor skill levels poorer.

This thought process is a little against the grain so let me know your feedback and questions on this.

PRE-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #23 - TESTING KICKING EFFICIENCY

Doing a sprint session with some teammates yesterday and we had a bit of a kick afterwards.

Being big on skill development I decided to run a kicking test with the boys for shits and giggles.

The kicking test is probably the skill test mostly looked at by recruiters for the AFL and even at local/amateur levels, it is what will determine games won and games lost at all levels.

In some of my previous PS posts I've mentioned that skill work is performed but rarely, if ever, actually improved upon and the best way to demand improvement is to test it.

Yesterday we did a bastardised version of the real test as there was just 3 of us and 1 half pumped up footy.

We had 7 cones that formed pretty much an oval with 3 per side and 1 straight down the middle.

Firstly the marking player would select a hat while the kicker has his back turned to him so he wouldn't know which one to kick to.

Then the ball roller delivers the ball and the kicker must pick it up, turn, local the hat with the marking player on it, then kick it to him, all before crossing the kicking line which is about 2 - 3m from pick up to line.

The kicker turns his back, the marker selects a different hast and repeat for all 6 hats.

The AFL have a 5 point scoring system if I'm remember correctly where a pin point kick where the marker doesn't have to move being 5 and 5 is a very bad miss.

Not knowing where the kick has to go in a brand new stimulus for most players as we always kick from cone to cone, from this player to this player and so on so reaction and decision making, 2 critical components of skill development, are not taken into account and left untrained.

You can have players on all cones as per the test if you have the numbers.

I would definitely try and do this 1 per week and there's a progression of sorts you could roll with.

#1 - Kick to player on the cone who calls for it with all kicks performed on your good side with 1 player on a single cone.

#2 - Kick to player on the cone who does not call for it with all kicks performed on your good side with 1 player on a single cone.

#3 - Kick to a player on a single cone who calls for it with kicks being performed on the each side of the body (left foot kicks to left side of drill etc).

#4 - Kick to a player on a single cone who dos not call for it with kicks being performed on each side of the body (left foot kicks to left side of drill etc)

From there you can add more players in as players now need to locate the option that is calling for it.

Alternatively the ball roller could call out "left/middle" or to direct where the kick needs to go with the call being made just as they are picking the ball up and again you'd work through the dominant and non- dominant kicking leg progression from above.

If you wanted to get anal on the scoring you could score on how fast the kick gets there, how much or far the marking player has to move to mark the ball or any other specific you'd like.

Above all what testing kicking will do is to ensure that "all kicks are meaningful" as there is a scoring system and that should get players concentrating far more on getting the ball to a target with a specific intent rather then kicking long and high where players just stand under the ball to mark it, which would rarely happen in a game without getting some knees in the back of your had.

THE 5 BIG ROCKS OF WOMEN'S PRE-SEASON TRAINING

Most women teams are due back to training in the next few weeks and this is what I'd do if I ran training for them.

There are a few things we need to take into account when training women footballers:

• A lot of women are new to football
• A lot of women are new to a contact sport
• A lot of players might come from various sporting backgrounds but at a more social then competitive level, not that sport can't be both
• The predisposition to ACL injury's (8 x more than males)
• Low training bases

These are the main issues and as teams found last year, you'll keep discovering new things that need to e taken into account (how to tackle properly/safely, how to stop fingers getting jarred when trying to mark the footy etc were a couple of questions posted pin the ART Women's Football Private Group).

There's a lot of things to train for for footy but with not a lot of time, big groups and limited resources, you gotta pick your battles and cover the bog rocks.

BIG ROCK #1 - SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Like all sports the most skillful players are often the best so its always #1. There's a million ways to develop skills but there is a hierarchy you should follow however you choose to do it.

1 - Stationary / Slow
2 - Stationary / Fast
3 - Moving / Slow
4 - Moving / Fast

You could brake them up again and again if you wanted to but the point is to not skip steps, don't progress until some form of mastery has been achieved and make the progressions as minute as possible.

Also perform most of your skill work UNDER ZERO FATIGUE.

BIG ROCK #2 - ACL Injury Prevention

We're local/amateur footballers which mans after the game we need to work to pay our bills so if as a coach you can decrease the chances of your payers doing an ACL and missing 12 months of footy, plus more importantly, 3 - 5 months of paid work then you should.

Each training session your players do, either as a team or on their own should incorporate ACL injury prevention exercises that are progressive in volume, intensity and difficulty.

BIG ROCK #3 - Running Mechanics

Men and women football players all over, could improve their endurance simply by improving their running mechanics efficiency which includes things like being able to stiffen your feet/ankles upon ground contact, front side mechanics (knee lift) and backside mechanics (toe off).

Instead of testing running capabilities with running mechanics that would never get you to the ball in time anyway because your leaking energy each and every step, train mechanics earlier on then do some testing if you really want to.

BIG ROCK #4 - Tempo Running

Once mechanics have been improved upon then incorporate this into actual running using tempo running which is 40 - 100m runs performed at 50 - 65% and no faster. The aim is to now to perform running with improved mechanics in a controlled and deliberate manner/environment.

Each player will need to use their own distance for these as some will be able to hold technique for longer then others as we are re-teaching the body a new running technique, you don;t want to continue to use faulty mechanics will override any new mechanics you're trying to ingrain.

BIG ROCK #5 - Speed Training

You'll see a huge difference in jogging technique then sprinting technique but we're trying to shift running mechanics to a more sprinting style if w can to not only improve efficiency, but to actually use muscles through ranges of motion that usually don't get attention with jogging.

Using more muscles through grater ranges of motion = Decreased risk of pattern overload = Decreased injury risk 

True speed training will have your players training at speeds far higher then training and game speeds which is exactly what you want. This means that games will be played at a sub-maximal speed level then they are truly capable of meaning fatigue will take longer to set in and/or players will be able to maintain a higher output for longer.

You don't need a lot of volume for these either as this high stimulus will result in dramatic improvements in speed quite quickly if performed correctly and frequently enough.

A training session might look like this:

 - Warm Up incorporating ACL prevention exercises x 10mins

 - Skill work under no pressure/fatigue x 10mins
 - Speed development x 10mins (I might even combine skills and sprints to combine the high neural activity of both activities that can potentiate each other)
 - Skills/Tactics x 20 - 30mins
 - Tempo Running x 5 - 10mins

I have room in my schedule for some in-person/online training for individual players and/or teams so if you're interested then please let me know ASAP so we can get to work and organise your training prior to the official start to footy training.

PRE-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #22 - TIME TRIAL

A week or 2 ago I posted what you should be looking at doing from a running point of view between now and practice games.

The first thing to do is to use a time trial of some description, something probably all teams do in some capacity.

Here are some tips for running your time trial:

1 - Record ALL results and make sure very player does it.

2 - Use the same track each and every time for testing consistency so it might be wise to use your footy ground as you'll have easy access to it every week.

3 - Use a test that is repeatable

4 - Train to improve the test in between time trials where too many teams do a time trial, do some training then re-test, magically expecting improved results which is far from optimal.

5 - Make every players results public either in the change rooms, on your teams social media or both. Accountability and competitiveness can go a long way in local/amateur footy. Use +/- score to indicate improvements and detraining.

6 - The crew at Rookie Me somehow got the AFL to change their endurance test from the beep to to the yo-yo test so don't be afraid to search fro a test that suits your tam more then others. Beep tests aren't repeatable for 95% of L/A teams.

7 - If you test with linear/straight line running and use an up and back test with change of directions, then you cannot use the linear testing numbers unless you subtract for turns where players need to decelerate, turn and re-accelerate.

8 - My team has the shortest ground in football history (124m long) so to match up with our main endurance running drill we'll be doing I made our 6min time trial the same as the running drill so our scores match up better. We tested 6mins from goal to goal with turns included in the run.

9 - To make measuring easier I divided the ground into 3 so whichever 3rd you finished in at the 6min mark goes into your score. So if you managed 10 lengths (goal to goal = 1 length) and you finished in the middle 3rd of the ground, then you scored 10.2. It's not a perfect score but it works great on big group settings and you can still see improvements if they reach 11.1 for the next test.

10 - Once each player has a 6min distance then convert to meters per second where FYI, the AFL ave is 5.2m/s.

11 - EXPECT improvements from every player and let them know that is the expectation.

PRE-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #21 - IMPROVING KICKING VARIABILITY DRILL

All things being equal, the most skillful team will win.

Every.

Single.

Time.

In fact the most skillful teams do far less work then other teams due to less chasing and less extra running from chasing loose balls, cleaning up errors etc.

With a huge focus on fitness during th pre-season improving specific skill level often gets neglected and IT SHOULD NOT.

It should be far ahead of fitness in terms of focus.

Fitness can improved rather quickly with the correct program where skills is always a work in progress but because you can't "see" skill improvements like a time trial result, then we just let skill level stay where it is.

Players end up making the same mistakes year in and year out because at training they are set drills that don't address specific skill deficiencies and don't use enough skill variation in regards to distance, depth and accuracy of skills to dynamic and static targets.

There is also zero built in accountability where if you "get over and help" after a bad kick, it magically makes everything alright but on a Saturday that could mean winning and losing or even worse, a Grand Final win or loss.

At most levels training skill work usually looks like this:

#1 - Lane work straight up and down to stationary targets or with players running directly straight to you

#2 - All skill drills being performed at speeds that most players can't produce effective disposal under.

#3 - Limited to zero drills that involve chaos/decision making

#4 - Drills without instruction of how the ball should ideally get to the destination

Here's how to make these points more specific to game situations plus trains players to perform the type of skills they'll need in a game.

#1 - Vary up lane work with angled leads and different kicks (on the run and go back and kick)

#2 - Organise the drills to match the speed of play that allows the highest efficiency of disposal which you might make player specific for some or all of your players if needed. You might also need to adapt your playing style to the skill level of your players.

#3 - Give freedom to your players to make the ball carrier make different decisions in a split second as a lot of skill training drills are going forward at speed unimpeded, which is how we would love it to be, but unfortunately on a Saturday you'll have 37 other players in front of you which cuts off all of these "plays" that we train for before they even begin. But now our players are pigeonholed into doing what they did at training so they either get caught with the ball while they think of a plan B that isn't happening because the players up-field have also had their "training drill routes" cut off, or they just end up bombing the ball down the line which is the easiest ball to defend in footy.

#4 - Practice all types of kicks in your drills - stab kicks, kick to space, kick to advantage, long kicks, short kicks, kicks to all type of leads in regards to distance, speed and opposition pressure.

Below is a full ground, team based drill that touches on all of the above aspects at the same time.

This is just a sample and you can set this up in a million different ways but you essentially break the ground up into 3 parts (back, mid, forward) with position specific players in each section.

You would pre-organise a little "game map" to follow initially but use position specific kicks so players practice the same types of kicks they'll often do in a game.

How the players leads to the ball is up to you as well which you would probably like to match up to your game plan bit by bit as you progress closer to the practice games.

I would also strongly suggest that you literally tell your players to go at a moderate tempo at best as skill level, and target hitting efficiency is the focus of this drill, not how fast you can do it.

As your players get better hitting targets st moderate speeds can they stat training to hit them at high speeds.

Don't skip steps in the hope it will just magically come together because it won't.

You can also use this as aerobic capacity training by repeating the drill for 15 - 20mins at a time that "hides" running volume that bores players so much.

After 5 - 7mins switch the backs with the mids as the mids will often be performing the same kicks as backman when getting back to defend and help out - or at least some of them but maybe keep your permanent backman in the same section to perfect backline kicks.

After another 5 - 7mins you might then switch forwards and mids who interchange between those positions during a game to expose the players to midfield and forward specific kicks, again maybe leaving your permanent forwards in there the entire drill.

So kick 1 goes to group 2 to group 3 and so.

Player 1 goes to group 2 then group 3 but once the ball laves the backline section, they then go back to group 1 and off thy go again so just run all your balls through then reset.

If you have 10 balls and run through them all 50 times, each player should receive ample opportunities to get plenty of position specific touches in a short amount of time.

If possible keep track of how many targets each section hits and let the group know of the results after each 5 - 7min period.

B sure that I haven't ever used this drill so feel fee to give it a go and let me know how it runs.

PRE SEASON TRAINING DON'TS #1 - ICE BATHS FOR RECOVERY

All we see and hear about from AFL strength and fitness circles is recovery, recovery, recovery.

I'm not against recovery when you're training load is ridiculously high like professional AFL players but at the local/amateur level we only train 3 - 4 hrs a week and whatever you do on your own.

Our training volume is generally that that high to what the body can withstand but I guess a little bit of relativity comes in here.

When you train you disrupt the body from a state called homeostasis.

Homeostasis is the your everyday go-along-with-your-business physical and mental state of mind.

You're not stressed but you're not relaxed - your chillaxed I suppose.

It is the point where your heart rate is steady, your muscles are fresh apart from some residual fatigue from previous training sessions and your mind is in a good place.

When you put the body under stress, physical or mental, those markers listed above shift depending on the intensity of the stress.

If you go for a nice easy 3km beach run, they will elevate to a moderate to high level but take a short time to get back to their normal levels.

If you do a sprint session then you'll elevate to high a high or even extremely high level but again as speed training is all about short sets with full rest, it will take more time for your central nervous system to get back to baseline then the other markers.

It should be noted that the CNS takes longer to recover then the muscles do after intense exercise.

If you perform a repeat session, essentially combining endurance and speed then your probably taking your levels as far away from your homeostasis level as possible.

How far you shift away from your baseline isn't the point of this post but how you get back there is.

Most players think ice bath after training but why?

Because the AFL do.

That's it.

Do you know how the ice works in recovery?

More importantly do you know how ice works in regards to adaptation?

If you did then you probably wouldn't do it.

Training causes a inflammation which includes muscle damage, hypoxic tissue etc - a lot of sports sciencey stuff that is beyond the scope of a FB post.

Don't get me wrong, ice DOES help greatly with inflammation and recovery, but during the pre-season you want YOUR OWN BODY to heal itself because this is how adaptation works.

It's a bit like teach a man to fish, eats for a lifetime life lesson.

"Artificial recovery" helps a lot to recover from the muscle damage which during the in-season is exactly what you want, but during the off-season when training is high and the goal is improvement, it stops right there and no adaptation, thus improvements (strength, speed, endurance), takes place.

You MIGHT use it between training sessions when on a schedule of Mon/Wed or Tue/Thu but that's it, and I wouldn't even do it then.

Actual studies have shown ZERO improvements in speed, strength and endurance when using ice baths over relative longer training periods, especially for "under-trained" players like most of us.

When you're already big, strong, fast and fit, then you've already made the adaptations and recovery on it's own is fine.

Ice is also not as beneficial as you think it is in game injuries either but that's another post for another day.

You want to use the #1 recovery mode?

Go to sleep.

PRE-SEASON TRAINING DO'S #20 - POST XMAS RUNNING

We all trained pre-Xmas but attendance was sporadic among the playing group but it's early Jan and everyone is hopefully on board.

During pre-Xmas training the main focus is on base building with basic aerobic capacity training and speed development.

Moving forward we want to build on the improved aerobic capacity as well as to continue with speed development for the most part.

Here's what I set up for the few teams I'm doing pre-season training for:

Endurance Training

#1 - 6min Time Trial first session back for each player hopefully improving on thier pre-Xmas time.

#2 - Speed training makes a subtle shift to static standing starts for acceleration as well as flying sprints to train max velocity starting from the 2nd week in.

#3 - Week brings the introduction of anaerobic threshold running sets which will take the players aerobic capacity to another level. Th distances covered for these runs are taken from the 6min time trial with the entire team split into 3 - 4 groups for individualisation.

#4 - Lactate Retention is introduced mid to late Feb which is the "blow up" training portion which you SHOULD NOT have done, or am doing, right now.

There will be more 6min time trials after the anaerobic threshold running program then after the lactate retention phase.

Sprints will be predominately max velocity come late Jan but acceleration will always be trained in the warm up to max velocity anyway so we have both force and velocity spectrum's covered there.

Between now and your 1st practice game, which is when you should be entering pre-season training mode there's 15 or team training sessions - not many - and without a plan you don't stand much chance of hitting the ground running com practice games and round 1 so if you need some team or individual help, let me know.

XMAS BREAK TRAINING CASE STUDY

Our reserves captain is getting married in Feb, wiping most of Feb out in the process so we dedicated the holiday period to getting some aerobic work in, his biggest weakness and here's what we did.

We did a 6min time trial at footy training where he managed 868m @ 2.58 meters per second, not a great score but this is why we train - to improve.

Session 1 - Sprints over 5, 10 and 20m x 55m total + anaerobic threshold runs 9 x 51m @ 100% max aerobic speed every 20secs with 3mins rest between sets x 2 rounds.

Session 2 - 20mins of aerobic capacity doing an outside circuit consisting of medicine ball throws, low level sprint sprint mechanics drill, boxing, core exercises and change of direction tempo cone work. The 20mins was all continuous without stopping at a 5/10 rpe (rate perceived effort level).

Session 3 - Sprints over 5, 10 and 20m x 65m total + anaerobic threshold runs 9 x 51m @ 100% max aerobic speed every 20secs with 3mins rest between sets x 3 rounds.

Session 4 - 25mins of aerobic capacity doing an outside circuit consisting of medicine ball throws, low level sprint sprint mechanics drill, boxing, core exercises and change of direction tempo cone work. The 20mins was all continuous without stopping at a 5/10 rpe (rate perceived effort level).

Session 5 - Sprints over 5, 10 and 20m x 95m total + anaerobic threshold runs 9 x 51m @ 100% max aerobic speed every 20secs with 3mins rest between sets x 4 rounds.

Session 6 - 30mins of aerobic capacity doing an outside circuit consisting of medicine ball throws, low level sprint sprint mechanics drill, boxing, core exercises and change of direction tempo cone work. The 20mins was all continuous without stopping at a 5/10 rpe (rate perceived effort level).

Session 7 - Sprints over 5, 10 and 20m x 85m total + anaerobic threshold runs 9 x 51m @ 100% max aerobic speed every 20secs with 3mins rest between sets x 5 rounds.

Session 8 - 6min retest x 1157m @ 3.21 meters per second.

We did all of those sessions 1 per day all in a row then had a 3 day break.

Session #9 - Sprints over 5, 10, 20  and 30m x 135m total + anaerobic threshold runs 9 x 64m @ 100% max aerobic speed every 20secs with 3mins rest between sets x 2 rounds. We started an new round of these at the new time trial speed.

RESULTS

As you can see he blew his time trial to pieces going from 868m to 1157m - an increase of 289m. In meters per second lingo he travels an extra 63cms per second.

It must be said that the first round of this was performed at at self rated 5/10 for the 4 sessions and he was pleasantly surprised by the way better time trial score after such "easy" training.

Speed has also improved:

Block 5m x 1.33secs to 1.20secs
Standing 5m x  1.31secs to 1.25secs
Block 10m x 2.13secs to 1.99secs
Standing 10m x 2.21secs to 2.00secs
Standing 15m x 2.79secs to 2.64secs
Standing 20m x 3.41secs to 3.24secs

Pretty good speed results considering they weren't our main focus but it really goes to sow hoe true speed training can provide undeniable results if such a short time if performed correctly, even at pretty low volumes.

In the end great results were achieved in just 7 - 9 sessions in speed and endurance training at low to moderate intensities so why are you killing yourself every session again?

Train smart, not hard.