COVID-19 RESTRICTION SPECIFIC DRILLS - 3v2 OUTSIDE KICK

Players Required: 5/group

Balls Required: 1/group

Space Required: 15x15m or so

Drill Level: Easy/Moderate

Here it is...

If you would like to access this training drill plus many more then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

COVID-19 RESTRICTION SPECIFIC DRILLS – 6 PLAYER SCAN + KICK

Players Required: 6/group

Balls Required: 1/group

Space Required: 50x25m or so

Drill Level: Easy/Moderate

Here it is...

If you would like to access this drill many more then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

COVID-19 RESTRICTION SPECIFIC DRILLS - 4v1 + CONE TOUCH

Most small sided games provide too much of an advantage to the offensive team usually via an outnumber, where the defender doesn't really stand a chance, like a 4v1 scenario rarely seen in an actual game.

The implications of using too much of these scenario's is that the defender doesn't really give their all as they know they'll be in for way too long to be effective.

This can also have huge implications on the offensive players, who I assume you are trying to put in a position to handle the ball cleanly under pressure and then display quick decsion making under pressure.

Well this pressure never really occurs like you've planned it to and it simply turns into another non-competitive, non-prssured handball drill with decsions being made under minimal stress.

Train like you play...um no.

This slightly different sceanrio puts greater pressure where it's needed, on the offensive players.

Players Required: 5 - 6/group

Balls Required: 1 - 2/group

Space Required: 7x7m or so

Drill Level: Easy/Moderate

Here it is...

To access this training drill and many more then register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

COVID-19 RESTRICTION SPECIFIC DRILLS - 3 PLAYER PUSH BACK KICK

Continuing on from yesterday's 3 Player 2 Handball Drill, here's a similar drill that could be layered on top or in with that one at the same time.

Players Required: 3/group

Balls Required: 1/group

Space Required: You want 15 - 20m kicks so a an area slightly bigger then that but you could mix multiple groups in the same area (see below)

Drill Level: Easy

Here it is...

If you would like to access this training drill and many more than register at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/

COVID-19 RESTRICTION SPECIFIC DRILLS - 3 PLAYER 2 HANDBALL

So for almost 2 full weeks I organised all my training drills that I've compiled and made up, but that were simply written out in words and maybe the odd crappy diagram, drew them up on the trusty whiteboard and filmed them all.

Harder than it looks I tell you!

Anyway, I have ended up with literally 132 training drills for your coaching pleasure and here's the first one of them here.

The drills I'll post in the next couple of weeks will be exclusively small group options as per the training restrictions most of us have at the moment but really with a bit of thought you can make any drill bigger or smaller with only a few slight changes needed.

If you've been under a rock then and somehow haven't read anything from me in the last 2 years then there's a few golden rules for all training drills and scenario's that you set your players:

#1 - Give them the end result of what should be achieved and let them self explore different ways of achieving it

#2 - Where possible make the drill/game a challenge to elicit intent even when training with what seem like the most rudimentary of drills.

#3 - Let each group stop and start whenever they like to discuss the drill and ways to improve their performance within it and also allow team breaks for everyone to discuss the drill as well.

#4 - Layer drills where possible for time use efficiency.

That's the big 3 anyway.

OK, this drill is called the 3 Player 2 handball drill.

Players Required: 3/group

Balls Required: 2/group but could use 1 if not enough balls (see below)

Space Required: a triangle with 1.5 - 2m spacing per length/player should be enough but you can play with that (see below)

Drill Level: Easy

Here's how it looks...

To access this training drill and many more then register for level 3 at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

(POTENTIAL) IN-PERSON FOOTY TRAINING PROGRAM (COACHES/PARENTS WANTED)

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been chatting with another football coach about starting a footy training program of some sort and we’ve got a fair chunk of it down but I’d like to hear from the people we’re actually aiming at to be a part of the program on what your thoughts are about it all.

I’m chatting to another coach about the same thing in a different location later this week as well with the 2 locations being south east/peninsula and the western suburbs of Melbourne.

We’re looking at 4 week, 9 session program with the most of it being held in the July school holidays but a weekend either side of that as well, prior to any junior footy in 2 groups of 20 per day as per restriction allowances.

If you could please answer the questions below and send them back to me, it would be greatly appreciated and I can take your suggestions under consideration to make the program as much as an enjoyable learning experience for your child as it can be.

It’s just 9 quick questions and for your 5mins of time you will receive a free week to my membership website www.aussierulestraining.com where you can steal whatever you want from the 64 training/coaching articles, 16 training programs and over 50 training drills I have over there currently.

The questions can be accessed here.

If you have any other questions, thoughts or feedback then please let me know.

THE NEW RULES OF COACHING #4 - GAMES

 

The writings of Australian PE Teacher and Author Shane Pill introduced me to a lot of the aspects of using the games based approach discussed below.

Even in the best of times during local/amateur footy, you need to be extremely efficient with your training as you only have 3 - 4hrs a week of training time.

With the current restrictions you have, at best, half of that meaning now you need to be super-ultra efficient.

This is going to have to mean that you are going to have use small sided games and/or game sense drills which are essentially the same thing.

The biggest issue with passing/cone to cone drills is that there is zero context, which is crucial for training transfer to games.

For example a kick to a 45 degree leading target is not the same as the exact same kick during a game with opposition, moving parts and the huge psychological aspect of games compared to training.

Games actually set the scene for skill development as it contexctualises the tactics and strategies which in turn allows players to contectualise the skill/s.

Traditional training isolates tiny aspects of the game and trains them repeatedly until "success" is achieved but at what point of any game do you get the chance to do this?

Not in any game I've ever played in that's for sure.

Playing in games provide players with far more, and better, learning opportunities and it also forces players to learn the consequences of their actions, to interact with others and simply spend time a game simulated environment and its within this environment that players will be exposed to scenario after scenario of ever changing conditions, exactly like games.

As a coach your best move is to allow players all the responsibility during games to self organise around the game, enabling players to discover and refine what they learn during games but ensure that you are still teaching through the games based approach to enhance something the player/s can already perceive or do.

The coach is the architect of the game and the designer of the learning environment where you can manipulate the environment, the players, the space, the complexity and the rules of the game to allow for accelerated learning to occur.

As games usually have opposition and decisions are being made on the fly then more than not they can look a little "messy" but that's exactly where you wnat these games played because if anything is too clean then it's not at a challenging enough level to the players and limited learning is being attained.

By altering the constraints of the game as mentioned above the coach can set the game at the correct level of the group who have to adapt to more complex conditions and hopefully leads to an improved level of performance.

The coach is in charge of deciding what level of skill is acceptable and if whatever mistakes are being made is acceptable because of learning errors or if the constraints have been set higher the player's capabilities.

Constraints can be increased or decreased at any time and if teams are "uneven" then you can even have different constraints per team to even things up somewhat.

Teaching games for understanding  (TGFU) consists of 6 stages and can be used to guide the coach through a games based approach effectively rather than throwing a ball out there and letting players at it.

Stage 1 is the game form consisting of its basic rules but you can add rules and modifications as needed to keep player engagement and learning at an adequate level.

Stage 2 is game appreciation where players learn the game by playing the game and again you can add/layer more rules/modifications as player adapt to the new playing conditions, essentially not letting them fully adapt to a single set of game constraints.

Stage 3 is tactical awareness where players start to develop tactics based around the current rules/modifications and it's at this point that the coach can start asking questions and/or make observations around the game play such as the key principles, moments, tactics and skills. This can help the coach make further modifications can also provide them more questions to ask later.

Stage 4 is tactical talk which refers to asking the players questions to gauge their understanding of the game and can guide you on what to do next.

Stage 5 is skill execution where the coach can now make rules to rely on skill level now that players are familiar with the game and have become aware of what opportunities the game provides.

Stage 6 is where the coach can now use game performance to assess each player that helps to develop the next game.

In the last 2 weeks I have filmed and loaded more than 100 videos of training drills, most of them specific for small groups that I'll be putting up regularly as part of the level 3 membership package and at just $17/month I don't know why you wouldn't, so look out for those starting next week.

THE NEW RULES OF COACHING #3 - INTRODUCING NEW TRAINING DRILLS

With the extreme changes being enforced upon football clubs as we hopefully return to training very soon, this means that players are going to have get very flexible and very adaptable to ever changing conditions, very quickly.

More importantly coaches will have to do this as well and will actually have to lead the way with it.

New training strategies, new training drills and new communication methods are all on the menu from 2020 onwards so you've come across my writings at a very good time!

With different training methods come different expectations and that will need to be communicated to the playing group at the start of every new, or old, training drill that you use from now on.

By setting expectations you can then better manage player emotions or you might run the risk of a new training drill "looking" terrible, the players becoming impatient, getting tired and becoming deflated before the drill even gets a chance to make any progress.

You'll also find that buy-in will be very hard to get at that point.

By teaching the fact that they aren't expected to successful from the get-go, a very natural part of the learning process mind you and one we all go through when learning anything just outside of our personal bandwidth, players will hopefully be patient and even be more open to trying new drills going forward, knowing that there will be no punishments for "poor" performance.

All you really need to do is to explain to your players what benefits the training drill will provide them and that you only expect them to get better at the drill/game over time.

The drill will eventually become more fun as you get better at it and also let them know that it is not uncommon to feel uncomfortable in the early stages of learning.

Ensuring all players that this is OK and that the drill not being successfully completed does not mean the drill isn’t working, is critical when trying to instil relatively big changes like this and to attain as much player compliance as possible.

The ugly zone is the place where you're learning something new and you just can't get the correct steps in order or technically correct but you do in spurts.

Yes this is the most frustrating part as you know what you're trying to do but you just can't seem to do it but this is the tipping point from being taught something to actually learning it, so let players know that they need to persist through this zone as it's when the actual learning part is taking place.

This is another entire post on its own but I thought I would introduce the very basic concept here.

So, simply let them know why they are doing the drill, prepare them for the possibility that they might find it frustrating, difficult and possibly be unsuccessful at 1^st but to also look forward to each attempt and the opportunity to improve as a player.

Coming Up - Teaching Games for Understanding

THE NEW RULES OF COACHING #2: PLAYER-ENVIRONMENT CENTERED APPROACH

My idea's for the player-environment approach comes from an article written by Swedish Soccer coach Mark O' Sullivan who I follow on Twitter and regularly posts juicy content for coaching geeks like me.

Within the player-environment approach the coach can be seen as a problem setter with a focus of being extremely careful as to not to over or under constrain the task so that players can’t pre-organise their behaviour like they will be required to do on game day.

This is one of my biggest gripes of local/amateur teams all doing the same drill mixed as seniors and reserves and sometimes thirds/under 18's players.

Skill is a constraint.

Drill complexity is a constraint.

Personal fitness is a constraint.

Not that the drill needs to look nice and pretty with balls zooming around never hitting the ground but the critical part is who does the drill work perfectly for (a select few) and who it does not (everyone else).

Lane work might be a perfect fit for beginners still learning the game as it encourages the player to face their target, gather some momentum and to run straight at the target and kick.

A drill with further requirments might be pushing a players personal bandwidth on what the beginner player can handle and thus perform the basic instruction of lanework.

The fact the the coach never really gives any information before doing lanework except for maybe a  "let's get it hummin" means there's probably not a lot of information required for the drill and then any player who requires more information to develop further as a player, is as good as wasting their time.

Bio-banding via ability, training and playing age might be your best option and might even be forced upon on by the restrictions as we come back to training

Game forms refer to games that are based around your specific sport, in this case Aussie Rules Football, but are not of the full game.

They might be handball games, handball and kicking games or just kicking games.

They usually have constraints, or rules, placed within them to elicit the training response the coach.

For example if working the ball from cobgestion has been an issue in games then the coach might prepare a 10x10m area and perform a 4v2 small sided game in it with the aim being to get 5-10 handballs in a row within the 10x10m area before they can play outside of it (spread).

To be able to set up the player-enviroment approach to be at its most effective, the coach needs to develop game forms in training that directly talk to the players, meaning feedback is directly coming from the game form itself.

The area/enviroment is designed to cause congestion and the constraint/rules are set so that players are again forced to behave/play in a way that they'll be required to come game day, with quick/clean ball handling and rapid fire/instictive decision making.

As a result the coach has already done their job by preparing the task and environment of the drill which a regular coach would render as them now being useless but us new-age coaches know better.

We now know that the less instructon we have to provide during the drill/game, the more self exploration and instinctual/reactive freedom the players will play with.

Baring in mind that we're not on the ground when they are playing, this is maybe the most important thing you can provide your players from a training sense as it enables the players to fully focus on the task at hand and their teammates instructions.

Your further instructions on top of this, yelling things that you can see but not what they can see, overloads the amount of information they can take in, resulting in poor performance and low transferability.

At the completion of these drills/scenario's the discussion of how the drill went is not about the success of ball handling or scores but rather judged solely on the task prsented by the coach at the beginning of the drill.

Going back to our 4v2 small sided game example from above, the coach might time how long it takes it perform those 10 handballs and if the time improves from set or set, then that would be an indication that player and ball movement is clean/quick and players are playing on instict as they are not holding onto the ball before making a decision.

The coach might also feel the need to insert an extra defender if it seems the 4v2 is too easy for the offenseive players and if success is still attained, then again the drill has probably been a success and the players have been able to solve the same problem (playing in congestion) in a number of different of scenario's - the exact requirment of game day.

You then could judge the spread aspect of the drill once the handball constraint is reached (5 - 10 as above) and did players "feel" pressure from the defenders and if they did, then that might indicate that spreading from the contest needs a bit more work as position and ball/player movement could be better from the initial congestion.

My final point is how to decide what information you provide to your players in regards to the goal of the drill/session so that they can't self organise around it too much.

If players know that the drill is set up for a wide clearance then you'll simply have players on the far side all on their own, waiting for the ball to come to them.

How many times on game day can a player simply do that unmanned or without manning up?

How does that player train to get to that position if he does have to man up beforehand?

How do players with the ball find moving targets that aren't in designated positions that are predetermined?

It does nothing for anyone.

Decision making can be dictated by past coaching patterns of play from an early age (cone to cone drills coaching) which leads to players playing that pattern in games regardless of if there are other options available for them, such as to create space or even run into space.

Lastly the information required to self organise within cone to cone drills is extremely low and as a coach you simply can't expect a player to make sound decisions in a game of decision making when you don't provide opportunities to make game-like decisions at training.

Coming Up - Introducing New Training Drills

THE NEW RULES OF COACHING PART #1 - COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

This new series will run for the next week or so in a step-by-step format with each post building on the previous one titled "The New Rules of Coaching".

Now these rules aren't brand new in that they've just been released to the world but in local/amateur football circles, they will be.

The articles will get you thinking about more then you do right now in regards to how and what you coach and at times might confuse you as new information tends to do but as you'll hopefully pick up throughout this series, the ugly zone is usually where you break down current/past barriers and then begin to rise to a new level of performance.

Part #1 is all about Cognitive Development and are notes taken from a Slawek Morawski article I first read about 2 years ago which I'll dot point from while adding my own thoughts in every now and then.

Here we go...

• It’s what the player sees, not what they look at 

• Decision making is based on the amount of information you can take in and use, specifically how much information you can take in a split second of time and the quality of that information, to make the correct technical and/or tactical decision in a game. As coaches, too often we tell the player what they should have seen and done in a specific situation - are there questions we can ask them to help us see what they see and thus enabling us as coaches to help them make a better decision next time?

• While players are constantly on the move they must also be aware of which part of the field they must control

• Footy is extremely unique in that it is a 360 degree sport so players meed to be able to reduce blind spots via scanning the field, correcting body positioning and correcting field positioning which all depends on the ball, the opponents, their teammates and their own position on the field

• Every decision made during  a game is based on the perceived information you took in and then in a split second assimilated and analysed based on your current position on the ground, the team's game plan, the assessment of risk and which solution will bring the greatest advantage for your team

• How much you know is 1 thing but how much you use is another

• Player cognitive process is the most difficult thing to develop as it’s happening inside the players head which is why it's critical that we trey and see what they see as much as we can simply by asking "what did you see?"

• What we as coaches can do then is use that information to replicate the situations that are troublesome for the players during the game through as many scenario's as possible so when it happens again in a game, the players have solved this problem so many times in so many scenario's at training that it's then just a matter of technical skill on game day

• Rather then just tell players what they should do, create environments at training that simulate the same problems they have in games and then work through it via the construct, play, discussion, reconstruct, play, discussion template.

This gives you a brief look at some of the many aspects of coaching a lot of local/amateur coaches don't take into account but it's not your fault - this information just isn't part of any coaching courses that you usually do and is exactly why this site exists.

Coming Up: A Player / Environment Centered Approach

THE FIRST WEEK OF TRAINING POST COVID-19 (FREE CONTENT)

Here's the scenario and it's an extremely common one in local/amateur footy ranks...

• Training Tuesday which is regarded as the "bigger" training night
• Training Thursday which is regarded as the "short and sharp" training night
• Game on a Saturday

Nothing new here that's for sure.

I'm going to build this set of coaching rules around this scenario though for when we go back to footy training.

PRE-THE ANNOUCMENT

Club coaches and committee's will have been meeting in anticipation of the season starting back up (you have to continue to function as though it will regardless of what happens) and from these meetings personal duties for recommencement will have been finalised so any preparation required can be completed and ready to go at a seconds notice.

This might include press releases, social media posts, playing group private group chats etc.

THE ANNOUCMENT

As soon as something has been decided then the socials go into overdrive which will be a press of a key essentially because the proper work has already been done in the previous stage.

TRAINING INFORMATION

Training times and locations will be released almost immediately, going the usual Tuesday/Thursday night options.

If there is a lag time between the annoucement and when training can start then teams will post pre-training programs to complete between now and then.

It might as simple as 2 sessions of tempo runs and a kick with a mate or 2 - let players know exactly what they can expect and also what will be expected of them in this time.

GET THE PLAYERS ON-BOARD

One of the biggest unknowns with this funny old season we're about to have is who will end up playing and who won't - I know it's an issue at my club as far as I'm aware.

A personal message sent to each player in some shape or form will be crucial here, albeit a shit tonne of time and effort, but teams are gonna need something almost resembling a sales pitch to even the most regular of players in past years, as no one really knows what anybody else is thinking.

You might need to develop a 3 - 5 message sequence to send out in some cases.

Getting as many players on board as quick as possible will also let you know what you're dealing with for 2020 as far as player numbers are concerned.

Will it make more sense to take the year off for some parts of the club while focusing on other areas - remember most clubs have football, netball and women's football these days so player numbers have never been more important.

Will the lay-off from all sport bring past players back to your club or will it mean regulars just get the CBF's because of the compromised/shortened season?

Will tradies opt to work Saturday's for double time over zero match payment opportunities?

So much is in the air so club's will need to work overtime to find out and then also listen and act on each player's concerns.

You might also ask players what they would prefer to do at training once they return and see if there are any trends within the playing group.

You're after compliance over anything else at this point so you need to can the time trials because the players don't want to do them then can them - can the bajeezus out of them,

PRE-FIRST TRAINING SESSION

Sometime between Sunday night and Monday night before the first Tuesday training session the coach will send out a plan of the first week of training sessions.

It will include the focus of each session and the drills that will be used based off the information you gathered on the playing groups wants but also their needs, from the information gathered in the last couple of weeks.

There's a very real chance that if training in groups of 10 means 1 group of 10 on a single oval at the 1 time, then you might have to run almost an appointment based operation with 45 - 60min sessions over multiple sessions 3 - 6/days a week.

If you've got 3 football teams then there's no other way around this if 70 players want to train - you'll need to find time and space for 10 sessions.

Coaches within the football club might have to nominate what nights they can do and they simply train the different groups on those nights.

This will definitely mean that the senior coach/s will need to have their whats, why's and how's of training ready to go, written up and available for everyone to see prior to that training night.

Everything you've done up until now as a coach will probably be thrown out of the window.

If you have playing group leaders who you know are definitely playing then bring them in on what you're planning and how thay can be of assistance.

Get their input - can they poke any holes in what you've developed?

They will need to essentially be assistant coaches this year and may even have to take a training session or 2 so give them confidence and the experience of doing this at the very beginning instead of lumping it on them mid season.

POST-FIRST NIGHT OF TRAINING

Messages sent to each player who attended training that night with an attached survey of sorts (what did you like, didn't like, what could be better etc) as you can only continue to tailor training to the players if you know what they're thinking.

Make yourself available for private online chats/calls if needed.

Coach/s to also have their own chat to let the other coaches know what worked well, what didn't and what could be done better so the next coach, if teams need to train 3 - 6/week, can make the immediate changes to the very next session.

KEEP TRAINING STATS

Who attended what training session?

How did they pull up from that training session?

Did they do the next training session 46hrs later?

Were they recovered enough to go again at that stage?

Who can you identify that can train every night plus extra training? Who needs to maybe train just 1 night a week with the team and then a little something on their own?

With such a short prep time we'll have before the season starts and with playing availability being the most important thing when games start, you need to think of how you will load your players between now and then.

You've got 2 options I suppose:

OPTION #1

Cram as much into the 4 - 6 weeks of training we'll have and get them as fit as possible for round 1 which runs the risk of them having done too much too quickly (acute:chronic workload ratio) and then breaking down in one of the early matches,

or;

OPTION #2

Cautiously but progressively ramp up training to get them to a "fit enough" level to play the early games and using the fitness gained from games as part of your training and player loading, decreasing injury risk as game time will dictated by how much training they've completed already.

Option 2 for me - everyday of the week.

Remember Gold Coast have been 4-1 over the first 5 rounds the last 2 years only to be cut down when injuries occur to finish bottom of the ladder by season's end.

This could go on forever so hopefully I've planted some seeds in your noggin on what to plan for once we start back up and as always let me know any further questions or feedback you have on this.

INCREASING THE AFL DRAFT AGE PART 2 (FREE CONTENT)

AFL TEAMS TO HAVE UNDER 18 TEAMS

Could the AFL be A 3 teir level organisation with senior, development and underage "teams"?

The top underage kids can play some development if they're good enough and the top development players can move up to seniors if they're good enough - much like local footy does.

Each team has it's own coach/s and fitness staff but all 3 levels work together on the long term development of each player, especially the underage players and the bottom aged development players, to ensure continuity in their own personal development.

English soccer teams have acadamy's everywhere from under 5's up to Premier league and they are all taught their own teams specific way of playing so they seemlessley transiton from 1 level to the other as they shift up.

Under 5 acadamy's are pure madness but the rest of it makes great sense.

The NAB league would then be the AFL Under 18's league and there would be a national development leage too with each club having a team.

This would stretch resources for sure but we can maybe start at this point and work backwards or forwards from it.

I know there's holes in this but again I'm just throwing stuff up here.

TOO MUCH JUNIOR FOOTY

The best underage kids have footy coming out their wazoo's.

They play NAB, they play for their school (which actually takes precedcnece over NAB as the school is paying their private tuition fees) coupled with team training, the National Championships, the many, many combine and testing days that are held and then whatever they choose to do in their own time.

This results in these same kids simply displaying what they already have, they're not getting fitter, faster or stronger as there is nowhere near enough quality training, nor recovery, to allow adaptation to take place.

Slowing down the process will mean more thoroughly structured developemental programs can be used and all the time required is provided for the players training to deliver the adaptation the player needs and is looking for.

Footy all over has this "how much can we do" mantra and it's been around for years but it needs to end.

The best team wins, not the team that does "the most" - for instance losing teams more often have higher running loads then the winning team from chasing arse all day, so it clearly isn't the best way to do things.

Quality over quantity, especially for development ages which is pretty much everyone under the AFL.

Do not mistake activity for acheivement.

NAB TEAM STAFF

Any strength and conditioning job under AFL level is bloody tough.

You're getting paid part time hours (sometimes you're asked to volunteer!) for a more then full time job meaning you need to some how fit another daytime gig in there somewhere to pay the bills.

All to get "in the pathway".

I have a mate who did TAC fitness for years doing exactly this, he must have been bloody exhausted, but couldn't even get a look in at an AFL club, who regularly switch fitness coach guru's among teams (what's that all about?).

He eventually landed a gig at the AFL but there would not be many who could stick it out as long as he did.

Who has the time and resources to volunteer for a job, well not really a job because thatmeans you should be getting paid but a position, requiring skills others get paid for, for 35+ hours a week?

Um...not me.

On top of this the NAB staff have maybe 25% of the resources an AFL club would have but make do with other as effective but more time consuming methods, to prepare the players for the multi million dollar AFL.

We're seeing a little bit about how the AFL treat these feeder competitions right now with the VFL having not even heard from the AFL since they suspended their season 3 months or so ago.

The pressure that these NAB team fitness staff members are under means they may simply end up doing what the AFL and their recruiters want them to do, and that's to simply prep the top 5 kids out of the 120 they initially start with, to be drafted later that year.

Zero attention then gets paid to all the others, where plenty of late developers are waiting in the wings.

NAB teams don't help either basing the successfullness of their team on the amount of kids drafted to the AFL - they've totally lost sight of that they're there to do and that's to develop every player in their ranks.

Whether they can actually do that or is a totally seperate issue but as Paul Roos said - it is not elite...not by a long way.

AVERAGE PLAYER CAREER LIFESPAN

There is an arguement out there that average player makes about $380k/season and plays for 4 - 6 years so by increasing the draft age you could be limiting how much they can make out of football.

Well that's the case everyday of the week - you could do an ACL at training tomorrow and that could effectively end your career (Alex Woodward).

VFL/AFL legends Michael Tuck and Craig Bradley both played close to 100 reserves games before playing 400 senior games each.

Did the extra development time in the reserves prepare them physically and pyschologically, for senior football more so then coming straight in as 18yr olds?

Did this increase their earning potential over their career by extending how long they played for?

I'm not sure if Michael Tuck's 70kg frame could have stood up to 1970's VFL football at the time to be honest.

MATURE AGED RECRUITS

Sam Mitchell.

Dane Rampe.

Tim Kelly.

Tom Stewart.

Dane Zorko.

Issac Smith.

Dale Morris.

All premiership or All-Australian AFL players including 4 club captains.

All played multiple years in 2nd teir football leagues before getting their chance and having almost immediate impacts at AFL level.

The extra development they required they got but what they also attained in spades is all sorts of psychological benefits on how to deal with pressure of footy and life on and off the feild - something 18yr old kids lack immensley at the best of times.

2-WAY CONTRACTS (NBA)

The NBA has a thing called 2-way contratcs which enables developmental players to be promoted to the senior list if form warrants it or injuries require it.

They can play "x" amount of games before the team then has to make a decision to keep them in the senior squad and pay them accordingly or drop them back to developmental.

These decisions are often made from a financial point of view so as not to go over the salary cap but it allows you to bring developmental talent in "for a taste" and see how their development is really going, if they are dominating the developomental league.

It also gives clubs a look at their own developmental model to see if it transfers to AFL or if they're simply making great developmental players but not many AFL players.

UNDERAGE FOOTY REVAMP

As mentioned earlier the best under 18 kids play both NAB and for their schools, with a lot of high draftees being private school based these days.

So you've got the best players trying to split their time between so called "elite" leagues at the same time?

Huh?

Who does that?

US sports have the school system that moves into the college system then into the pro's but we don't have that.

One of these options needs to go or these players will end up playing for 1 or the other and like the NBA/ABA of 1970's in America, one of them eventually gets swallowed up.

Or the powers that be could just make that decision on their own.

In my opinion the private school comp has to go as it feeds an elitism pathway, leaving plenty of low socio-econimic talent untouched, undeveloped and lost to the game, negatively affecting the AFL and the game as whole.

THE US SYSTEM

Again as mentioned earlier we can't quite follow the US system of high school to college to the top level as university sports is non-existent over here.

Do we make university teams the 2nd teir pathway?

How can we tie in the 2nd teir league with education and or work?

More on that in a sec.

TOO MANY COMBINES

At any levels of football there are way too many combines, again trying to follow the US model.

Can you jump high?

Great - how does that translate getting the perfect spin on a drop punt?

Can you ace the Yo-Yo test?

Super - where should a quarterback position half back player stand at a stoppage on the wing?

Why don't we combine test basic footy skills instead of physical traits that you can clearly see when they train or play?

Isn't testing suppossed to give us information we don't have, now back up information we already have?

A lot more could done with this model in my opinion.

MY VERY BASIC MODEL

Step #1 - Get drafted by an AFL team this year and sign a 3 year developmental contract with senior team incentives if you get a gig to play there during the contract.

Step #2 - The next year play in a top level local/amateur league "affiliated" with your team so coaches/fitness staff work together to develop that player on what they need to shift up a level next year.

You'll get a part time wage from your AFL team, match payments from your local club and be required to work or attend further education.

Step #3 - In the 2nd year you move up to the developmental/reserves competition with senior experience under your belt and a steady stream of near elite training practices for the last 12 months.
You would get increased payments from your AFL club (75% ish of a full time starting wage) but still be required to continue working/education in some shape or form.

Step #4 - Hopefully by the start of the 3rd year of your developmental contract, you've played 12 months of senior footy to teach you how to play against more physically ready players plus a year in the development team playing against more technically and tactically sound players - now you're ready to put your best foot forward in your third year.

You'll receive the same 75% wage and work/education requirments as year 3.

Players stay with the AFL developmental clubs for all 3 years - maybe there's no trading of these players or you can only trade them for another player in the same year as development, or simply another developmental player.

Step #5 - This is my "not sure" step where depending on your last 3 years you might now get offered a senior contract on full time wage like draftees get now.

The 2 way contracts might come into effect here.

You might do another year of development on the 75% wage.

This might be individual to the player who now has the choice to stay at the club or move on.

He can sign with an opposition developmental or senior club if given the opportunity to do so.

What do you think?

INCREASING THE AFL DRAFT AGE PART 1 (FREE CONTENT)

I wrote these notes down when all the "raise the draft age" furore was around at the time so I'll present my thoughts here which are a bit random so they'll be in a dot point form with no real fluidity but you'll get my idea/s anyway, some of which can be done, some which can't and some stuff I'm just throwing at the wall.

As usual let me know your thoughts!

Back in high school (the 90's!) one of best mates was playing Geelong Falcons which was a pretty big deal back then for a country kid with recruiters not to looking as far and wide as they do these days.

He was 6"2" and would have been 90kgs so a fair sized unit for a 17 - 18yr old kid.

He was key position as he fit the size requirements of those positions at the time but actually ended up playing AFL reserves for half the year for Melbourne I think instead of Falcons, playing center half and full back against men.

He was holding his own and would admit to you even now that his eye was set firmly on being drafted in his draft year and not much else.

He even made the TAC Cup Team of the Year.

He had a history of hamstring injuries a junior (too big too soon?), and I'm pretty sure he suffered another ham tear near the end of the season, if not finishing his season (hey this is 25yrs ago so don't quote me fully on this timeline.)

We had a big party at his house for his "going away" - so sure he would be moving away to play footy but came draft day...nothing.

He had the next year totally off from footy then slowly filtered back into footy via local footy to forge a pretty good Hamden league career (a top 6 or 8 league in Victoria I believe) but he would have almost been mid 20's by the time he got back to enjoying and playing high level again.

I would love to sit with him and talk about this sometime to find out what he was feeling throughout all this time and it would be good to document for future passed over draftees.

I am a big believer in raising the AFL draft age or at least restructuring the entire under 18/AFL reserves competitions and I'll list my suggestions and reasons below in no particular order.

18 v 21 YEAR OLDS

The physical and psychological difference between high school aged kids of the same age (16 - 18yrs old), let alone young adults (18 - 21yrs old) can be huge and I should know being 168cms and 55kgs in high school trying to play senior football against grown farmers in the western district.

Aerobically and anaerobically I was up to it but physically and psychologically I wasn't with the jump from under 18's to senior footy being too big of a jump for someone my size. The very same problem we have in this instance but at the highest level where the difference is 100x worse.

Life experiences where you've been put in situations out of your comfort zone where you can tread water but not drown is what builds emotional intelligence, an extremely underrated aspect required for team sports and can take years to master.

"CURRENT" TALENT RULES

There's so many "elite" footy academy programs now that elite and academy have been watered down to almost nothing - Paul Roos once said that "the TAC competition is not elite", and he was right.

The current thought process is that right now to even get the slightest of look ins by anything close to an AFL recruiter, you must be "in the pathway" which is elitist at its best.

Most AFL draftees have been in this pathway since they were 12 years old in some shape of form but is it the patheway that develops these kids into draftees or do the most talented kids right now, get through every year?

If we go back to my mate in the introduction then it would not be suprising that a 17 year that big and playing against other 17 year olds, some possibly close my ridiculous minute statue at the time, would totally dominate any game he played in.

This is the case all through juniors so once you're big and good, you're always big and good, and the pathway doesn't really matter does it, even though it seems like it's done it's job.

The biggest problem with these pathways is what happens to the 2nd tier players in these pathways, like my mate above.

He should have had somewhere to go to keep his dream alive, and so should any 18yr old who misses out on being drafted.

The VFL is a solid comp but I think it's half professional at best and probably not close enough to what AFL teams do and thus the gap to go from one to the other if you're good enough and then to have an impact can be too great, especially the very next year (Michael Gibbons from Carlton).

18 YEAR OLDS VS 18 YEAR OLDS

Looks an even fight doesn't it from an age point of view but again look at me vs my mate - 25+cms and 30kgs difference.

At lower levels, say under 15/16, the difference between players born in Jan to June that year can already be out of proportion to the players born between July and Dec that same year, let alone "underage" players.

The most developed players might only be playing against 5 kids their own size essentially and then in 12 months time are expected to hold their own against 22 players bigger them them.

The extra development of the top age kids, which might not seem like a lot at first glance can again mean they simply get through on their current talent level alone, having not really been challenged, and by playing against players that cannot actually challenge them in any shape or form.

Thus they don't really develop at all - they are just always 6 months ahead of everyone else until everything evens up at senior level.

THE DEVELOPMENT YEARS (18 - 21)

You always hear and read of professional coaches in all sports saying how high draft picks are never really ready contribute in any meaningful way and they're right - they're still kids!

Looking at American sports you can clearly see the physical development the players attain when they are a part of a college program, especially in American Football.

You don't see it much in the NBA anymore but when you do, a 3 - 4 year college player is already physically up to competing and more often then not, tactically and technically ready too.

High school players not wanting to go to college but not being able to be drafted until they're 19 are now looking at overseas leagues to help develop them in a more elite environment for the NBA, such as LaMelo Ball here in the NBL this past 2019/20 season, a projected top 5 pick in the next NBA draft.

Not in the AFL though, we take these gawky looking kids and put them straight into the big leagues, with all the pressure from fans put on them and the club to somehow take them from zero to hero in as quick as time as possible, and when that pressure is there like we know it is, you're bound to miss a few steps just to get the line and you'll have an incomplete player at the end of it.

In the end you'll cut short their careers as they'll have deficiencies that now probably can't be fixed and the quality of play league wide suffers as well (some might say that's already happened).

ABBREVIATED TRAINING PROGRAMS

I don't think it's a big secret that draftees do probably 60% of the loading the rest of the senior group does and for good reason - a lot of them aren't developed physically and pschologically to be able to handle it at such a young age but wouldn't it stand to reason that if you need to abbreviate the preparation of a player then they're probably not quite ready for games, which you can't abbreviate once you're out there?

That's a bit black and white I know but it shows that some form of long term development structure between underage football and AFL is definitely needed, not just have a player for a year to get them up to a minum standard and let them go to the AFL - you're causing the same problems just 12 months down the track.

BRING BACK THE SUB RULE?

I'm not sure if they still do now but some countrty leagues allowed senior teams to have 23 players with the 23rd man being an underage player that would be used as a sub like the AFL used to do.

It wouldn't be a popular choice by any means but if draftees are only doing abbreviated programs then the sub rule is perfect them as then you can abbreviate games to fit where they're at physically and psychologically.

Maybe this can be used in whatever development/reserves competition is going around to really ease players into a higher level football which would allow late developers the chance to stay in the "pathway" as the pressure is off them to perform immediately.

SYSTEMIC STRESS

Getting back to the under 18 comp again now as it stands, the best players get by by doing just 1 thing better then the rest of the kids whether it be speed, size or endurance - it's usually something physical - and tactally/technically sound kids get looked over because of "poor" combine results (back to that later).

This means that kids are only being tested in maybe 1 or 2 co-actives at a high level at the 1 time at under 18 level, even at NAB level.

My mate would have been one of biggest players in under 18's so he cruised on that front and psychologically he had the confidence because of his size that he could play well against anyone.

Technically he was so big he could create time and space most of the time so technical skill under pressure probably wasn't a big issue either and tactically the game was nowhere near what it is now in that sense.

Thrown into the AFL system at 18 and th3ese kids are now being stressed through the roof on all 4 co-actives 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and without having been exposed to anything even remotely like this before, something has to give and that's usually their bodies, and once you have an injury then your risk for reinjury rises dramtically no matter how much rehab you do.

Psychologically this wears on you constantly putting even more stress into your system, and the cycle continues but gets even worse.

You have to look way deeper then if a player can handle a 1-on-1 marking contest or a basic running load.

Every decision a player has to make is a stress on the body.

AFL ROOKIE CONTRACTS

As I understand it, rookie contracts are 2 year - yes, 2 year - contracts...some investment that is.

What often ends up happening is that mid-way through year 1, the "ready made" rookies who can play almost immediately at AFL level, renew their 2nd contract.

This makes zero sense to me really.

You've had an 18yr old in your club for 7mins and you're already extending them?

How do you know how they'll develop?

How do you know that they can handle the ever increasing training and game loads that occur each year?

Will they contuinue to be able to deal with the AFL psychologically?

There is simply too much pressure on player and club to deliver anything meaningful in such a short time span.

Rookie contracts should be 3 years minimum and that seems about the right length in that hopefully you can get all players regardless of their starting point up to full training loads by season 3 in a safe and low injury risk manner.

Then in that last season of their rookie contract, you can now get a real good look at what they're capable of either at AFL level or the reserves level, whatever it might be. 

From a payment point of view, any ready made players straight out out of the underage comp into the AFL can have incentive aspects to their contracts for top 10 best and fairest, rising star awards etc to beef up income a little if that's going to be an issue from the players association.

I'm sure we can mostly agree that $85k for a kid straight out of school with no life skills can cause a variety of issues, especially combined with free time.

Part 2 tomorrow.

DECISION MAKING EMAIL + TRAINING STAGE 2 RESTRICTIONS

During the week I received an email froma reader asking about "what I've learnt about decision making" and here's what I sent back:

"...Thanks for the kind words mate.

In a nutshell decision making can probably be put down into 2 camps:

1) Learning to Solve the Same Problem Many Ways

- Using clearences as the example you might use a 5v5 scenario at training to simulate a game but put in constraints (rules) to attain a certain result, or skew your players closer to what you want. For example you might want to use the quarterback position and then go wide from a stoppage, you might want to go forward/gain territory at all costs (Richmond) or use a heap of handball to clear congestion (Western Bulldogs). You have the same scenario/problem (5v5 clearence/stoppage) but you create an environment where the players must learn different ways to carry out the game model/plan within it.

2 - Learning to Solve Many Problems 1 Way

- Again using clearances as an example you might just want to use the quarterback player as often as you can regardless of the set up or position on the ground etc so you'll need to create the right player and ball movement to allow this to happen.

With that being said, players knowing where they are meant to start and then move to and their personal role (inside/outside) in different situations is a big part of the decision making process that gets overlooked.

If I know I'm an inside mid and that John/Joe will be outside mids and Sam in the quarterback position then that's already decreased my decision making requirements right there as I have a fair idea of where each player will be and they know where I'll be and I'll know their voices too.

Also we can all start to "guess/cheat/predict" a little bit as we see the play unfold (Richmond again) to get posotional advantage.

Individually it's hard to train decision making as there is zero chaos/constraints/rules that only having opposition can provide but you can focus on clean hands/ground balls etc which improves the physical and some technical aspect of decision making from having more time/space from not having to handle the ball for as long.

Throw all this at the wall you have Scott Pendelbury..."

Piggy backing off of this I came across the AIS Framework for Rebooting Sport Post Covid-19 and what we're looking at when we get the all clear is the following:

1. Controlled ball kicking/marking/hb drills (passing drills)
2. Zero tackling/contact
3. Small groups of 10 maximum, including coach/s

Whether 10 person grouping rule means we can run multiple groups of 10 in different parts of the same oval adequately seperated or if it's simply 10/oval is not clear right now.

What is clear is that you're going to need plenty of new training drills specific to small groups, of which I'm working on as we speak, so if you're not a level 3 member of Aussie Rules Training then you'll want to be pretty soon!