SEASON 2018 WASH UP

Last weekend saw my team play their last game of a forgettable season.

We started behind the 8 ball and we had the single worst season of injuries possible with 35 players unavailable at one point during the year!

On top of that the league got a hellava lot better and we didn't.

That all equals a long season but we never chucked it in, even when the league took a home game off us when they deemed our ground unsafe to play on even though it has been in the exact same condition for the last 10 years without issue.

In the end we finished with a poultry 2 wins as yes, somehow there was a team worst then us!

Personally I had quite a mix of a season where with all our injuries I actually made my return to the senior team after last appearing 4 - 5 years ago.

I played the 1st games in reserves at full forward, managing 5.1 before getting a call up.

I then played the next 12 games in the seniors where I also doubled up in 1 game to help out the ressies.

I was unavailable for seniors and played ressies 1 week then played the final game in the 1's.

All up in the 1's I managed to score a total of 5.4 and 6.1 in the 2's.

Nothing super but as a forward where we often had 4 or 5 v 6 plus games where the entire team could only manage 3 - 4 goals, I was never going to win the goal kicking award.

I also played 5 over 35's game this season where again I played mostly forward with some stints as a half back/on-baller where I managed to kick 2.3 but I tend to hand them off as we're the top or second best team so there are options a-plenty most of the time.

On those weekends I'd play Saturday and Sunday's - no mean feat for a near 40 year old.

This past weekend I backed up our last game with a 9am Prelim final for the over 35's where I kicked 2.2 to help us into the Grand Final not this weekend but the next.

This will be the first game this year I've played over 35's fresh as a daisy so I'm looking to be running on air for the GF and hopefully be able to snare that elusive premiership medal.

I had a few niggly injuries this year which was a bastard as they were not anything to miss games over, but affected my training mid-week. 

I jolted my lower back in round 2, strained a calf in round 3 prior to quarter time, strained the opposite calf in round 15 in the final minute of the game only to manage about 8mins the next week before it went again.

The calves were funny as I could run on them come the following Thursday and they really felt like a cramp that wouldn't "uncramp" more then anything.

Is that a sign of ageing? Who knows but I was still one of maybe 5 players over seniors and reserves to play every week this year, out of potentially 100 players who suited in 1's and 2's, not to mention all the call ups the thirds had!

Was it a successful year? Yes and no.

Team success-wise it definitely wasn't but we can only work with what we have and I won't win any individual awards come presentation night either unless there's an oldest player at the club trophy being handed out.

I suppose keeping myself prepared and ready for anything, such as a senior call up and the ability to play 29 games (seniors/ressies/over 35's and practice games) without dying can probably be classed as a success.

Right now I'm preparing to peak for next Sunday after suffering a medium corky last Sunday which wasn't helped by Silly Sunday straight after the game where I'd normally go into recovery mode.

The image above is the weather I did some light running in yesterday to get the last bit of soreness out of the corkie and from here I'll ramp up the intensity for a hard and fast sprint session Sunday/Monday then another on Friday/Saturday next week.

How would you describe and class your 2018 season? Let us know over at the Facebook page.

GAME DAY NUTRITION

Finals are just around the corner so any edge you can get you should take so here's some quick game day nutrition idea's from Nate Winkler:

- Each muscle contraction requires an exchange of sodium, potassium and calcium ad if there is  shortage of one of them then contraction efficiency diminishes resulting and fatigue and cramps

- Vitamin D aids in calcium absorption

- Calcium sources include sesame seeds, almonds, herbs, green leafy veg and whey protein

- For morning games, dinner the night before should consist of water, 100 - 150g protein, a dark green veg and a large carbohydrate serve

- In the morning have protein/fats only and optional caffeine but make sure you've experimented with caffeine prior as gameday

- For afternoon games do the same but carb sources should be more starch bsed

- If the game starts at 2pm or thereabouts then have some whey protein at about 11am with some peanut butter and banana

Too much carbs before sport causes an activation of the autonomic nervous system and also spikes insulin the way a full meal would

- For evening games have protein, fat and veg in the morning and again have the whey protein, peanut butter and banana meal at 11am but add 1 cup of raw oats

- Then have a medium carb serve with first lunch and avoid starches from there out focusing on fruit carbs up until game time

- Caffeine can then be had 30 - 45mins before your warm up

FLOW (IN THE ZONE)

Flow has recently being getting a lot of attention lately, well through the channels that I do my research in anyway.

Flow refers to subconsciously being "on" where everything goes perfect for you with little effort.

I'm sure most of us have experienced it within games at some point where you "have it on a string" or "have a purple patch."

Whatever you label it it's actually called flow.

It's pretty much what Jack Riewoltd was in this past Saturday kicking 10.6.

It's till unclear how to definitely put this into practice (it's highly specific to each person) but here's some tips from powerlifter Ben Pollack who runs through this sequence before a personal best attempt to prepare himself as best he can to complete it.

#1 - For 2 – 3mins sit/lie quietly taking deep breathes consisting of 5 second inhalation where your focus in on oxygen entering the body followed by a 5 second exhalation, focusing on the sense of calm building in your body for 5 full breathes

#2 - Become aware of your physical senses (taste, smell, feel) and how your feet feel against the floor (hopefully light)

#3 - Recall a time when you were completely in the zone and you were at your best and try to remember how you felt at that time, filling your body with that sensation starting at a spot just above your head and working down through your head, neck, shoulders, arms, chest, back, abs, legs and feet. Then draw the sensation back up in the reverse order

#4 - Take 1 last breathe in/out and open your eyes

You could use this prior to the game and then at quarter, half and three quarter time breaks and you could easily put a quicker version of this together in your goal kicking routine.

I'll endeavor to post a more comprehensive blog on this in the near future. 

JARRAD WAITE INJURY

North Melbourne forward Jarrad Waite is no stranger to injury.

If he ever got a solid run at it, in his heyday he could have been a top 10 player in the entire AFL but unfortunately luck has not been on his side.

He might have kicked a kitten 1 day I'm not sure.

Anyway he was being interviews on Triple M the other week and went into some pretty cool details about his injury.

Injury - Soleus muscle which lies just beneath the Gastrocnemius muscle (calf) and anytime it's a deep muscle, it seems a lot harder to rehab then the outer lying muscles.

Injury Time - he's already been out for 6 - 8 weeks with this injury

Soleus - it actually works a harder when you jog compared to when you run as the calf is involved in a lot of the toe off action which is as prevalent in jogging compared to running and sprinting.

GPS Information #1 - the 17 - 18km/hr mark, or at 4.7 - 5 meters per second, is when the soleus is at it's highest risk of reinjury as it's the upper end of the speed bracket for soleus work but it's not quire where the gastroc kicks in enough to support it. Because of this he worked up to doing sets of 120m @ 14kms/hr or 3.88 meters per second.

GPS Information #2 - To avoid the soleus critical point of 17 - 18kms/hr as mentioned above, the next step during his rehab was to increase his speed all the way up to 22kms/hr, or 6.1 meters per second, a decent jump in workload in one go.

GPS Information #3 - 22kms/hr was where he was up to when the interview was done about 2 weeks ago but the next critical point was when you hit 25kms/hr, or 6.94 meters per second, then your hamstrings start to kick in and you want to avoid overworking them too early and too much for fear of trying to fix problem, but end up making 2.

Some pretty cool stats there!

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

NOTE - For some reason I failed to note who I got this from in my files so poor form there. 

- The dynamical systems learning theory refers to the interaction between the task, the environment and your body, to execute a motor skill

- The manipulation of any of those elements will affect how the skill is performed, such as holding a ball when running vs when you're not (task), terrain which can alter stiffness (environment) and  fatigue/mobility/injury status can affect mechanics of running/jumping etc (body)

- Hard skill vs soft skill is attractors vs fluctuators

- Hard skill/attractors are the elements that never change no matter what such as triple extension in 1 leg, triple flexion in the other leg and propulsion, which occurs in every skill you need for your sport

- When you kick, the plant leg contacts isometrically to stabilise, the swing leg flexes at the hip and your aim is to kick a goal

- Soft skill/flucuators are those elements of the movement which can change from repetition to repetition according to changes in the aforementioned factors (task, environment, body)

- When the wet and muddy weather changes how forcefully we can push into the ground when sprinting, the slippery ground will also influence how defenders move, the change of direction angle, kicking distance, wind strength etc

- For each movement you teach, identify the hard and soft skills of it

- Devise manipulations of the task through environment or the athlete’s body, to force them into correct execution of the hard skill

- Repeat the skill performed at a high level

- Repeat the skill again at a high level but this time consider how the task through environment or body, can be manipulated to learn a soft skill, looking to force a change in the execution of the skill in a manner relevant to the sport/position/technique

- For sprinting the hard skills are stance leg, triple flexion of swing leg and maintaining erect posture throughout and keep displacement of the body in a forward  direction with each step

- To cement the hard skill you can manipulate the task environment with wickets and then by tasking the athlete with not kicking or stepping on the micro hurdle, where you can prevent pushing out the back during hip extension of the stance phase and thus over striding during initial contact

- Added load like a plate or a barbell and tasking the athlete with keeping the objects overhead during a running task forces the athlete to contract isometrically, promoting erect posture etc

- Once the hard skill is cemented then you can further manipulate the task and/or environment to expose the athlete to changing learning environments and develop the soft skill which might entail running on different surfaces or you might include carrying a ball or an unstable load like a water ball to make stability unpredictable.

INTRODUCTION TO NEUROTYPING

There's been a fair bit of buzz around neurotyping lately and with good reason.

We train because we want to get better.

This means that there needs to be literal transfer of how and what we train, into competition performance.

This means that training needs to specific to what type of athlete we are to get as much transfer as possible.

This is where neurotyping comes in.

I probably have 5+ pages of neurotyping stuff in my files but I'll keep this extremely brief to just get you thinking about it.

- Determine your neurotransmitter type and train in accordance with it

- Dopamine types are relate to energy, getting things done, are intensity hounds, need to watch how often they train

- Acetylcholine types are related to creativity, will respond better to more variations in training load, will also do better with more discovery based training

- Gaba types are related to consistency and loyalty, can sustain greater training loads for extended periods of time

- Serotonin types are your chillaxing types who love to just sit back and enjoy doing nothing

- You can determine your neurotransmitter type by taking the Braverman Test.