AWAY LEAD + SQUARE UP KICK DRILL

Here's a kicking my own club has used quite a bit and I like it mainly because it's practises a different kick then you normally do in your warm up (kick to space for a leading player rather then a linear lead or stationary target).

That drill is pretty straight forward so I'll show that quickly then go into greater detail on the modification I've made for it to make it a bit more variable as far as the types of kicks used is concerned.

Here's what the regular drill looks like...

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10 TIPS FOR IMPROVING CLUB CULTURE

We hear a lot about team culture at the elite levels of sport whether it's the Sydney Swans Bloods Culture or Richmond's team culture of recent years or in other sports such as the All Blacks in World Rugby and the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA.

At local/amateur level  it's never really given enough of a push to be instilled over a long period of time and thus entrenching itself within the club itself.

With salary cap crack downs and the points system being implemented in heavily in all leagues now, the ability to build from within your own football club is HUGE but it never happens by chance.

By creating your club culture which should be based on you're club's location, history and beliefs, it can also help players and coaches to target that fit your culture model, which will make player identification, recruitment and development a lot easier as you'll have a way clearer picture of who you need and what you need them to do at training and on game days.

Team culture is extremely multi faceted so I'm not going to try and make up a definition for it so I'll give you 20 pointers to help develop a new or further push your current, club culture.

The tips will be from many points of view such as from an individual player, the leadership group, coach or even team admin staff/committee members. 

I've got 10 pages of notes on this so there will be more posts on this but let me know if you want more in the not-to-distant future...

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SWITCH ON WARM UP

I've never been a really big warm up guy personally much preferring to do my warm up as close to the game as possible.

Other players like a longer warm up and that's fine too but what is the warm up really about?

Is it to warm up the muscles used in a game of footy?

Is it to rehearse movements used in a game of footy?

Sure but haven't we trained since November and the muscles are as conditioned as they'll get and game movement rehearsed enough for the most part?

We constantly talk about switching on during warm ups/pre-game but fail miserable to create an environment that requires much if any psychological input.

This starts with the warm up.

This video below is from Rugby turned AFL youth coach (thanks to his daughters!) Craig Gunn about warming up your players psychologically to where he states that the warm up should have a more psychological then physical focus and I agree with him 100%.

My local team will go into it's 3rd or 4th year doing the exact same warm up - after repeating the same basic warm up for 3/week for that long how stimulating do you think it is?

For someone like me who prefers more intense but shorter warm ups, how would this be preparing me games you think?

And do you think I'm the only one that feels like this?

OK here's the video...

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KOBE'S ADVICE FOR ALL JUNIOR COACHES

Rule 1 - Sit

Rule 2 - Watch

Rule 3 - Ask Questions

The complete opposite of what junior coaches do at the moment.

Kobe Bryant on coaching his daughters youth team🗣

“We could win more games if we micro managed & called more plays”

“We sit back, let them process & figure things out”

“We are playing the long game of them becoming the best basketball players they can be”

🙌#RealDevelopment pic.twitter.com/OWawDoqF5b

— Shane Hennen (@Hennen_Workouts) January 9, 2020

RIP #mambamentaility

20 TRAINING DRILLS TO MAKE YOUR TEAM BETTER

Earlier this week I released a special package from the main Aussie Rules Training website consisting of 20 training drills you can use to make your team better in 2020.

I have been sitting on this Twitter post for a while now which could not back up why you need these training drills anymore.

The lower tweet is the one we're looking at:

Typically a result of classic “shooting drills”, where a player makes a ton of shots w/out any cognitive components/strategic constraints yet then evidences a methodical slow collection to release impacting space-time to shoot@bballbreakdown pic.twitter.com/bv9sjOzPum

— BBiomechanics (@BBiomechanics) October 15, 2019

Yes it's of basketball but the implications between training and game day performance are exactly the same.

In layman's terms the original post is saying that because of typical shooting drills that we've all seen of NBA players shooting repeats of the same shot for countless reps all in a row without any interference at all is not the best way to prepare for games where there are 9 other players to counteract with every single movement you make during a game.

Lonzo Ball has a weird ass shooting style which is fine but the tweet is also saying that in training he has all the time in the world for his shot release but in games with a defender close to him that time gap closes dramatically, taking away his regular shot release time, rushing his mechanics and poor shooting ensues.

The bandwidth for sub-optimal mechanics for Lonzo Ball is way lower then most players because he's so far away from what would be classed as "good enough" mechanics so keeping defenders close to him will keep him shooting 35% until he can clean this up.

For Aussie Rules Football this is what it's essentially saying:

By using unopposed, low to zero chaos, linear cone-to-cone drills, all of the sensory information that you absorb, calculate and reorganised in the form of what you do and when on game day, is non-existent.

Your players and the actual drill might look great in these types of drills but it is doing very little for most players to transfer to improved performance on a Saturday.

You are rehearsing current skill levels rather then improving upon them.

Local/amateur footy is known for being 20 - 30 years behind in coaching/player preparation so come join me in 2020 and train accordingly.

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DEVELOP POWER IN THE WEIGHT ROOM

Pre-season training is back for most clubs and there's pretty much 7 - 8 weeks before practice games start and about 10 weeks until round 1 - not long really.

With training being back on 2 nights per week that will take up most of your energy resources for other training and whatnot, it means you can probably only get in 2 tip top gym workouts on top of that with any other training needing to be more recovery/movement based then anything that requires great output.

So if you're going to train for power/explosiveness then you better start now.

Before you train for power there's a few rules you MUST abide by to get the adaptation you're after - to be able to move with speed and force at the same time.

Speed is great in open spaces but if you're an inside mid, then speed on it's own isn't gonna cut it as you'll never get the run up into max speed to actually reach it - think a Bradley Hill type who's not an inside mid obviously but is best used on the outside.

Force is great in congestion but it needs to be converted to speed at some point if you want to break out of congestion through contact - think Patrick Cripps and Josh Kennedy who can get the ball out with 2 blokes literally hanging off them.

The perfect candidate of both force and speed is Patrick Dangerfeild - he's simply got it all like nobody else has.

Power is a pretty broad area as far as training is concerned, especially if you look at the force/velocity continuum:

As you can see force refers to maximum strength which is force irrespective of the time it takes to produce it like a 1rm bench press attempt that might take 4 - 6secs to get from chest to lockout which is high force but very low velocity.

At the other end velocity refers to speed which is speed irrespective of force required so think of bench pressing a broomstick where you could probably do 3 - 5 reps per second.

Great speed yes, bit dismal force.

The middle of the curve in the image above is what we want to look at being:

• Strength-Speed
• Power
• Speed-Strength

Power is a really the low end of strength-speed and the top end of speed-strength and to save getting overly technical, is what we'll focus on here.

OK here are the rules of training for power, which is pretty much the complete opposite of what most people do in the gym...

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COACHING MAVERICKS

We've all play and probably still play with one of them.

The maverick will at times go away from "team values" as their extremely high competitive spirit can often get the best of them and they shift to a "if I don't do this now then we'll lose?" mentality.
Christian Laettner was a NCAA superstar playing for college basketball's most hated team, the Duke Blue Devils.

In an ESPN special on him his ex, and still current Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, said this of him that still sits in my head many years after seeing it:

"His personality can light the entire room or burn it to the ground"

Great comment!

Jason Akermanis was a pure maverick that was great in a winning team but not so great when the team's form started to drop.

He could LITERALLY turn a game on his own and won countless games off his own boot - we all know his greatness, but we probably now know him more for how he rubbed teammates and coaches the wrong way too often and at the right times.

Here are some tips of coaching a maverick...

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20 AUSSIE RULES TRAINING DRILLS

- Can be used for players of all grades, abilities and experience

- Can be used for small or large groups of players

- No Cones

- No Line Ups

- Total Game Transfer

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STRAIGHTENING UP KICKING PART 3

Here's another drill variation to reinforcing the habit of squaring up while kicking, 1 of the main attractors of successful kicking that ALL great players possess and display each and every time.

For this drill you'll have groups of 5 or so, but you can do more if you don't have enough balls to go around all your players.

HOW

The basic starting set up is like this...

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THE PROCESS PART 9 (FINAL) - MORPHCYCLES + USING GAMES

This is the final post in this series on the book The Process by Fergus Connolly and Cam Josse.

Personally I can't wait to get my hands on the other 3 books as they become available!

Following and implementing these principles of team sport coaching is completely different then any local/amateur coaching you will have received or performed before but I believe if you were to go all in and get your assistant coaches on the same bus for this, it could reap the ultimate result very quickly...or you can do what you're doing now, which is the same as everyone else essentially staying in the safe lane and getting nowhere, or hit the outside lanes and make real time.

If you want to chat about this then definitely feel free to me up on email or messenger as my posts aren't about giving you the finished product, it's about giving some new idea's and you can build on them depending on your situation, resources etc.

Today we touch on designing the morphcycle and using games to prepare for games.

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THE PROCESS PART 8 - PLAYER HEALTH + PREPARING THE TEAM

Player Health refers to both body/physical and brain/psychological where both interact with each other to hopefully regulate arousal levels during games.

Preparing the Team refers to everything that has come in the previous 7 posts regarding the game model, game principles and macro/micro principles but this post will use a few examples of what some specific parts of this might look like at club level.

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EXTENSIVE PLYOMETRICS PROGRAM

Plyometrics (jumps, bounds etc) can be a very powerful tool when used correctly but in more cases then not at local level, they are used hap-hazardly, almost gimmicky, for little to zero benefit.

What most players and coaches don't know about plyometrics is that they can be broken up in 2 categories:

• Extensive
• Intensive

Much like the age old thought process of getting the run in the legs before doing sprints which is also not totally true, you would use low level plyometric exercises with higher volumes to start with before getting into the higher level stuff.

It essentially preps you for the stuff that will make the biggest difference, if you are prepared for the forces they put through the body and are able to absorb and redirect those same forces.

Just quickly, low level plyometrics refer to:

• Technically Simple 
• Low Eccentric Loading
• Low Impact
• Can be performed for high reps or distances with minimal fatigue

High level plyometrics refer to:

• High Eccentric Loading
• High Impact
• Can only be performed for low reps or distances with full rest

The great thing about extensive plyometrics is that they can increase your intensive plyometrics output all on their own making them the perfect starting point for plyometric and/or sprint training.

Here's an extensive plyometrics program I use as various points of the season and there are a million exercises you could use but you'll get the idea of the kind of exercises you're after for this program.

Feel free to insert your own but the one's below will serve well regardless.

HOW...

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3 TEAM GAME TRAINING DRILL

This is a game that has 3 playing zones and 3 separate teams.

Unlike cone to cone drills this includes a solid dose of:

• Decision Making
• Perception-Action Coupling
• Clean Skills
• Team Communication
• Creating/Playing into Space
• Player/Ball Transition on Offense/Defense

SET UP...

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THE PROCESS PART 7 - PSYCHOLOGICAL + PHYSICAL CO-ACTIVES

The 4 Co-Actives of team sport are:

- Technical

- Tactical

- Psychological

- Physical

Here are couple of pointers on the last 2...

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3v3v3 POSSESSION

Pretty straight forward this one and not much to it so can be used for almost any team level or number of players.

It will train clean hands on the receive and give, player and ball movement, quick transitions, high decision making volume, creating space and nice change of direction loading for the cherry on top.

HOW...

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THE PROCESS PART 6 - GAME MODEL + TECHNICAL CO-ACTIVE

GAME MODEL

Here's a quick recap of what the Game Model includes:

• Game moments (offensive/transition defense/defense/transition offense)
• Each game moment is comprised of micromoments
• Game moments are comprised of game principles (ball movement, player movement, action timing, sequence)
• Game principles are comprised of game moment sub principles (create space on offense, man pressure for defense)...

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