WHAT MY SPEED SESSIONS LOOK LIKE

Tuesday nights Archie has Karate so I can't attend my team training sessions so I'll head to the local footy oval or athletics and do sprint session like an actual sprinter would do.

None of this incomplete rest BS, actual training with the focus on getting high QUALITY work which is the ONLY way that you can get faster.

Here's the exact session I did earlier this week.

#1 - GLUTE CIRCUIT

I did 14 reps of each exercise for each leg for 1 round.

#2 - WARM UP

I did some impulse and switch work doing alternate split stance ankle jumps x 25m, 1 switch x 5 each leg, squatty run x 25m, 2 switch x 4 each leg, squatty run into sprint x 25m, 3 switch x 3 each leg

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SPEED SESSION #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on May 30, 2019 at 10:56pm PDT

#3 - SPRINTS

I did 3 x 25m sprints w/ about 4mins rest in between them.

I would usually do 4 - 5 sprint sets but I've had this nagging cough for 2 weeks now so I gotta take it easy until that's gone.

And that's it.

I mean sprint sessions are the easiest sessions you'll ever do but they have the greatest return as well - if you do them properly.

TEAM TRAINING + CONSTRAINTS LED APPROACH + REPETITIONS

TEAM TRAINING (BEN BARTLETT)

- The practice experience of a young player over a period of time should be close to 43% deliberate play, 26% team practice and 31% individual practice

- Deliberate play is self directed practice, games for understanding and small sided games are done for the fun of playing

- Individual practice are either squad sessions where players focus on individual objectives, small group sessions of the same, practice done by players on their own/at home and prehab programs

- Team practice are activities focused around team/unit objectives and match preparation

CONSTRAINTS LED APPROACH (NICK LUMLEY)

- Revolves around finding the attractors of a skill, identifying the fluctuations around the skill and then developing the attractors by challenging the ability to maintain them against variations in the environment, the task, or the organism

- By adding variations, attractors become more stable and the ability to execute the technique is improved

- Learning something through trial and error allows for self organisation

- The motor context controls motor control and it essentially learns from this feedback and develops better pathways


REPETITIONS (RICH BARTEL)

- More reps equals better execution is NOT right as task improvement stops after only 3 reps and accuracy decreases after 5

- Don't look for perfect practice as growth only occurs from mistakes

- Limiting reps maximises intent which increases focus and effort

- Quality reps are what matters

- Improve execution by maximising intent and debrief as necessary, training more in chaos instead of a vacuum

- Successful skill execution of elite athletes in sport is defined by their ability to adapt their technique to the specific game context

- Block training is good for initial skill learning but random training forces the body and brain to adapt

- He changed from training skill in blocks of 10mins to 3 perfect reps which also increases focus as you only have 3 attempts to get it right

TRAIN LIKE YOU PLAY/GAME SENSE - WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN?

The aim of training is to in part simulate game conditions in some shape or form.

I'm down with that.

Game sense, although sounding similar, is probably a more specific way to go about game stimulation in specific situations or skills required at a specific time - think the Western Bulldogs crazy handball training from 2016.

That's at the top end where training is state of the art, coaches are a plenty and talent is oozing out of everyone's ears.

At local/amateur level it's completely different.

We have players at such various levels in regards to 4 co-actives of performance that training can ebb and flow from nice and crisp to just downright nasty in regards to how it looks.

NOTE 1 - The 4 co-actives are psychical, psychological, technical and tactical and EVERY training should incorporate as many of these as it can

NOTE 2 - Training doesn't, and shouldn't, always look clean because that means the group as a collective is not being challenged

Have a think about most of the footy training drills you've ever done in your life - it's all about workrate (physical) most of the time irrespective of everything else (psychological, technical, tactical).

Sure we want the skills to be clean but with such a varying degree of skill level between your best player and you're worst player on any given training night, it's hard to enforce 100% technical success in team drills.

At L/A level you should aim to get at least 2 co-actives in every drill.

I'll take an example from my own team training last night.

We broke up into groups of 5 and did a little 4 v 1 keeping's off drill.

Pretty simple stuff but what my group did was has the 4 blokes on offense stand in a square formation.

WTF?

I was moving around trying to create and run into space (tactical/pschological/physical/technical) and they wanted to simply stand on the spot (technical at most).

I instructed them to move around like in a game but they said "all the other groups are doing it" of which I almost lost my shit.

So a game sense type drill designed to hit multiple co-actives (all 4 potentially) soon turned into yet another closed-drill with zero decision making taking place and also a very inefficient one, with only 20% of the team actually doing anything at the 1 time.

Breaking up into small groups is meant to increase training density, not decrease it.

As a coach, your aim should be make up, or modify existing training drills, that hit at least 2 co-actives.

As a player, during closed drills (cone to cone drills with zero opposition = technical only) then you need to find ways to hit another co-active or 2 on your own.

That is how training transfers to playing.

RAINING GOALS

I came down with a pretty nasty head/chest cold last Monday night/Tuesday morning which was almost gone come Thursday last week so I took team training off last night so I wouldn't have to train in the chill and flare it up again.

Instead I grabbed Archie from school and we headed off to Williamstown Football Club to get some training in before Saturday's game.

Although it's an AFL-esque deck, it's greatest attribute is the net behind the goals meaning you don't have to chase your own footy for most of the time you're there.

I set up some shots that I wanted to take and off we went.

All up I got about 30 - 40 shots up using different kicks from different angles.

I used a variety of stationary and "in-play" type shots on goal to cover the spectrum of shots on goals I usually have during games.

In the end it was all for naught as I didn't even get a shot on goal on Saturday!

Another bloke was a bit sore so he played deep and I moved up to a half forward role which on an odd shaped ground like ours, is closer to a wing in the area you occupy.

We got the win and that's what counts though so here's some Instagram vids of that training session from last week complete with commentary from Archie in the background.

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RAINING GOALS @williamstownfc #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens #goals #smallforward

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on May 16, 2019 at 8:59pm PDT

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Archie's Commentary is Priceless! #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens #centimeterperfect

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on May 20, 2019 at 7:10pm PDT

Give my IG  a follow while you're there.

DEVELOP GAME SPEED

This week I received this Instagram message:

"Hey Troy,

In footy, speed kills!

I was wondering what speed drills I should do to simulate a match scenario.

I want to try and provide my team more run and carry.

Thanks"

In footy 99.9% of coaches and players think 99.9% of problems can be solved through harder or more physical training.

This is a blog for another day but it can't be any further from the truth.

Going back to my Game Changer posts from late last year, every scenario/situation in a game football is comprised of the 4 game co-actives being:

- Physical

- Tactical

- Psychological

- Technical

As you can see improving game speed is only part of the solution and speed on it's own can be close to useless.

Let's have a look at how each co-active applies itself to game speed.


PHYSICAL

- The big one here is mechanical versus operational output

- Mechanical output refers to how fast you can sprint in a straight line, unimpeded and non-fatigued

- Operational output refers to how fast you can run in and around players, potentially impeded and at minimum partially fatigued

- Initially you need to increase your mechanical output

- You want the gap between your mechanical and operational output to be as close as possible

- Are you an accelerator or a sprinter?

- How much does your speed drop off after 1 hour footy training versus 1 hour of game time?


TACTICAL

- Does your team instil game tactics to use players with high speed?

- Does your team use a game style allows high speed players to display what they do best?

- Are you able to position/locate yourself during a game to utilise your high speed?


PSYCHOLOGICAL

- Can you manage your arousal levels at training, pre-game and during a game to keep fatigue at bay?

- Are you mentally prepared to run literally as fast as you can?

- Can you manage arousal levels and times of high output with times of recovery within games?

- Can you train and play smarter, not harder?


TECHNICAL

- Are you prepared physically to run literally as fast as you can?

- Do you have sound sprinting technique while sprinting in a non-fatigued state?

- Are you able to maintain sound sprinting technique while sprinting under fatigue?


Do you need help with any of these aspects?

Let me know via Facebook private message - I've got an idea of a Game Speed Group but I'll need at 5 players to make it worth it.

BACKYARD GYM LOWER BODY GYM DAY - NEW EXERCISES

With Archie starting footy again and with training on a Friday night, we had to move his Karate night to Tuesday.

Normally I would do a specific sprinting session on this day but with a little, tiny calf thing in my left calf I went the no risk option and went with a lower body gym session in the backyard gym I have but rarely get to use during the season, especially for the lower body.

For the last couple of months I've been doing my upper body training at a public gym around the corner and all I see is pretty much 50 different blokes doing the exact same program, or bloody close to.

Squats into Deadlifts into Leg Extensions into Leg Curls into Walking Lunges - that's pretty much it.

And it gets far more boring when they do upper body - I mean how many different ways can you curl anyway?

You want to know what's really wrong with these exercises?

Here's the truth.

"Most" gym exercises are classed as general preparation exercises meaning they can and will only provide a general response.

You might get a little bit stronger, you might get a little bit bigger and you might get a little bit faster but you don't improve anything specifically.

Some of you might enter the special preparation exercise section with the use of plyometrics but they are usually programmed incorrectly so "some" of the exercise builds on the general effect of the exercises above, but most of it doesn't.

I'll make a big call but I'd say there is no more than 1% of local/amateur footballers using any exercises in the special development section which are exercises that mimic the specific actions and motions found in competitive sport.

At the top of the pyramid are competition exercises which we do use at footy training, but without training the parts that make up those movements/skills, minimal improvement is made over the long term and year after year you come back as the same player - no better, no worse.

The point is that you need to find more exercises for your training and here are some I used yesterday that you've probably never even seen before.

If you want to know more about them then let me know over on the Aussie Rules Training Facebook Page.

Band Hip Thrusts

Single Leg Band Hamstring Curls

Ankle Iso Hold (Alex Natera)

Hip Extension Iso Hold (Alex Natera)

Jammer Hip Extension (Michael Drach)

Split Stance Switch Bosch (Michael Drach)

Split Stance Pop Bosch (Michael Drach)

Single Leg Band Hip Flexion...needs a lot of work! (Michael Drach)

GOAL OF THE DAY VIDEO

My game from the weekend somehow garnered Game of the Round status for the entire league (even though we're div 4) meaning we had the SFNL broadcast team and their famous trailer front and center for a live stream and commentary.

I had done next to nothing really up until around this point and even though the video doesn't even show me visually, vocally I'm right there:

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WORST VIDEO ON IG! Goal of the day from the game of the round on the weekend but blink and you'll miss it! Write up link in the comments Great commentary though #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens #goal #snap #forwardpocket #southyarrafc #sfnl #goaloftheday

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on May 5, 2019 at 9:50pm PDT

Here's how it went down.

We had a ball up on out half forward line about 50m out just about even with the corner of the center square right in front of the broadcast caravan and I've set up 45 degrees off the contest about 15 - 20m away to pretty much just get out of the space that is a direct line to our goal on a 45 degree angle so I can turn and follow the ball in as well as keep an eye on the contest so my left (kicking) foot is on the outside of my body.

Our ruckman/ruck rover/full forward/center half back/wingman Mundi flat hands it down on our defensive side to where Horse (#16) is positioned.

I see the ball drop to the ground and Horse and move laterally to meet it.

At this point there is somehow a direct line between Horse and myself with no one in between.

So Mundi has flat handed the ball to an almost straifght down drop to the ground and Horse on pure instinct and throws his foot at the ball and literally drop kicks with a pure flush straight to me.

It was an absolute cannon and again on instinct I just jumped, put the arms up and grabbed it out of the air which I assume looked a little like this:

Not really knowing if it was going to be called a mark or not because I wasn't sure of the distance it carried, like a good goalsneak's I snapped the bejezus out of it as soon as I hit the ground - off 1 step.

The breeze was blowing from the side the camera is situated across the ground and towards our far point post pretty much which got hold of my snap kick that was already bending very well (admittedly I'm not generally a very good snapper, banana bender or torpa), and gave it an extra bend.

I'd also made sweet contact with the ball and sailed through 3/4 post height.

From various positions on the ground I assume it looked like this:

You'll just have to take my word for it but the commentators more than back me up with their most lovely comments in the time the ball takes to get back to the middle.

CELEBRATE YOUR WINS

Yesterday I posted my mistakes from Saturday's game so today I've got to post some of the good things I managed to do as well.

Again I've posted the videos on Instagram so here's the first one:

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CELEBRATE YOUR WINS Video 1 - A rov, pivot, back turn and short pass for a shot on goal Video 2 - Contest the mark, stay on move, follow the ball and snap goal #afltraining #afl #aflw #aflwomens #smallforward #goals

A post shared by Troy Lange (@aussierulestraining) on May 1, 2019 at 9:34pm PDT

In the first one the ball came in deep to our forward line where Jack went for the mark so all I had to do was just be at his feet somewhere.

The ball fell to just behind me but on my left (kicking side) and after a blind turn (got that from a player I used to play juniors with and I bring it out from time to time) that actually gave me the space to get the kick around the corner to Ed for a shot on goal.

If I wasn't at the feet of the contest I'd have never been in this position in the first place so nailing my positioning was the key here.

In the second one I followed a few rules every small forward should abide by because big forwards are dictated by what happens up the ground from the midfielders and co and the small forwards are dictated by the big forwards so it's important that you can make your own plays and find your own space or it'll be a very long day.

Anyway you can see I'm sitting under the ball engaging my opponent to at least get the ball to the ground when Fingers comes over the top.

The ball spills out and noticing that Fingers is already on the follow up I wait out on purpose so as not to crowd the contest with another 2 players (me and my opponent).

Fingers does follow up and kicks long to the goal square and you can see me turn and head back to goal.

Fortunately the opposition didn't just punch it through for a behind and he hits the ball straight to me and it's an easy snap on goal.

What I did and what all small forwards should try do as much as they can is to get to as many contests as you can (2 for me in this case), stay on the move and follow the ball in at all times.

You give yourself half a chance to get some easy (not cheapo) goals and get yourself into the game.

On top of that as soon as you kick a goal, your defender has to man you and it's one less extra defender your big forwards have to contend with.