THE RUN HOME

If you've read my posts about my team's season thus far then you'll know we suffered some bad losses in the first 2 games of the year from a culmination of injuries (4 before half time and another in the 2nd half in the very first game!), the integration of 7 - 8 new players into the senior side off the back off just 1 practice game and the fact we played against the top 2 teams in the comp at that time away from home both times (no home games until round 5 for us this year).

Since then the senior team has gone 13-1, losing to the now 3rd placed team by just 3pts at the mid point of those 14 weeks.

After this week they've just gone through the entire league (7 teams + us) undefeated and now asit 2nd on the ladder eying off the double chance come finals time.

A messgae came through our team chat about making saure you're doing everything you can to be cherry ripe come fonals time and 1 player suggested he wanted to get extra runs in to build his fitness.

I sense he's not the only player around the country feeling like that so here's why that isn't a good idea right now, especially for our players.

PHYSICAL LOAD

We're 16 ganes into our 18 game season and unlike past winters of recent years, we've actually played 2 or 3 games in heavy, muddy and hailing conditions which takes player loading to another level with the extra collisions involved.

We haven't had a training night off where we cross trained or went the team bonding route either, eyeing to get back in the hunt for the top 4 and top 2 positioning by seasons end so we've been keeping our eye on the prize.

I was running the board on the bench this week and chatting to on our forwards, he said a few blokes in our attacking 50 were a bit sore during Saturday's game, as we lost our foward roptation in the first quarter (didn't stop them kicking 7 goals to 1 to blow the game open in the first stanza though!).

This raises alarms bells in me straight away.

If a small group of players are feeling a bit sore then there's probably more that are as well but they're just not saying anything.

When we think of getting better we gravitate heavily towards the phyical side of things and that's probably because it's very easy to quantify and measure repeatedly - the progress, or lack thereof can be seen clearly.

That's all well and good but it's a means to an end and that end is a dramatic increase in injury risk.

When you add stress/training load to a system/body that is already at or very close to capacity then this is what it usually looks like:

** Increased Loading = Increased Fatigue = Increased Soreness = Increased Rate of Perceived Exertion = Increased Injury Risk **

The player mentioned above suggested he needed to get some extra runs in because he felt a bit sluggish this past weekend so therefore his fitness needed a jolt.

There is  saying in the coaching game to "not do today that will wreck tomorrow", meaning extra work is fine but you must still be able to train at 100% and be 100% for games on a Saturday and any extra loading that alters this even slightly, will negatively affect performance in the short and long term.

Not ideal with finals just around the corner.

PSYCHOLOGICAL LOADING

Psychological anything doesn't get a mention in local/amateur footy but that needs to change.

As mentioned above we've needed to play every single game much like an elimination final to make up the 2 games we lost in the first 2 rounds.

Up until 2 weeks ago the top team had lost just once (to us) and second top team had lost only twice (to the top team) so we could not afford to drop a game toa team below us but still build to play these teams for the thrid time with the need to win both of those as well.

Fortunatley we did beat both of them, beating the second placed team this weekend past.

Yes physically we've been consistent on the track and during games but what separates local/amatuer teams, is a lot more psychological than you proably think.

The pscholoigcal strain that goes into playing consisntent, high level football cannot be underestimated.

To play high level football for 15 weeks straight is also a testiment to training frequecny and quality, and that doesn't happen unless you can psychologically regroup week in, week out.

Psychologically I'm not gonna say we've peaked these last 2 weeks, but I'm expcecting a slight drop off of sorts at some point in the next 2 weeks and I'm fine with that because I'd rather it happen now then during finals time.