1ST TRAINING SESSION BACK - GAMES

Part 1  – Introduction

Part 2 – Warm Up / Kick Development / Defense

Part 3 - Line Work (Midfielders/Forwards/Backs)

The last portion of training is now the games portion which allows to playeres to put into a competitve situation all the different information they've taken in and processed during the session so far.

If you've designed your training sessions properly it will also add representation to the activities you've done leading up to know as well.

I've got 7 more of these sessions made up in my folder all consisting of completely different drills with each week building on the next so let me know your interest and if there's a groundswell then I'll release them them into a package for purchase. 

GAMES DRILL - MIXED SQUARES

Players Required: Entire training group but break up into 3 groups of top senior, bottom senior/top reserve and bottom reserve/thirds groups so everyone is challenged as close as possible to their edge range. 

Balls Required: 4

Space Required: Half of the Ground

Drill Level: Moderate to Hard...

If you would like access to these training drills and the others involved in this "1st Session Back" series than register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

1ST TRAINING SESSION BACK - LINE WORK (MIDFIELDERS/FORWARDS/BACKS)

Part 1  - Introduction

Part 2 - Warm Up / Kick Development / Defense

At this point we're about 30 - 35mins into the session and it's time to break into groups.

Grouping your players into their specific lines that they'll most likley play in is all part of the stream lining approach as well as making training ore specific to each player.

So break your players up into backs, midfielders and forwards but there might be a little bit of switching of players depending on the drill as I'll outline below...

If you would like access to these training drills and the others in this "1st Session Back" series than register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

1ST TRAINING SESSION BACK - WARM UP, KICKING DEVELOPMENT, DEFENSE

Yesterday I kicked off this week's "1st Training Session Back" series with an introduction on how all this came about and how I went about putting it all together.

Today I'll take you through the first 3 parts of the session and my thoughts on each of them as well as the specific training drills I would use, being:

• Warm Up
• Kicking Development
• Defense

WARM UP

You've got 180mins total time to train each week at 90mins per session.

Not long really when you need to cram in skill development, team/line tactical work as well as all the physical-based work teams like to do.

With all these non-negotiables you need to find a way to majorly streamline your warm up.

The days of 2 laps with some stretches thrown in haphazardly should be left to die as it's 15mins out of your 90mins per session essentially wasted.

You can warm up and get benefit out it at the same time...

If you would like access to this training drill and the others in this series than register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

1ST TRAINING SESSION BACK - FULL LAY OUT

I sent out the weekly newsletter last night and in it I mentioned that with the uncertainly around the lifting of restrictions here in Melbourne, coupled with my team not having a committed senior coach at the time (as of about 4 - 5 weeks ago), I put together an 8 session pre-Xmas training plan if on the off chance that we still didn't have a coach yet needed to get back into training.

In the end I spent countless hours going through all my drills I have on file, drawing them up, printing them out and making out a folder so I could categorise them all.

From there I went to work and ordered each drill within their own category to form a progression of training activities for that category.

I must have reordered them 5 times as I devised different ways to categorise them but time was a-plenty.

In the end my categories ended up being:

• Warm Up
• Kicking Development
• Defense
• Midfielders / Defenders / Forwards (split up into seperate groups at times)
• Game

Within each positional category they were then broken up into:

• Game Model Rehearsal
• Positional Tactics
• Small Sided Games / Scenarios

 As stated I built an 8 session plan where no 1 training activity is repeated except for the kicking development category.

The reason for this is that with players having been out of the game for 12 months, I want to expose to them as many situations/problems as possible as soon as possible, forcing them to have to process a lot of different information and then solving all those problems.

I don't want to do 3 - 4 cone drills that solve the same problem (if you can call no opposition or decision making a problem...hint: you can't), as we'll be well behind from the outset and need to "catch up" in fast time.

There are limited cone drills apart from some of the game model rehearsal activities but that's basically to teach positioning and they will be taken out as soon as possible.

So for this week I'll lay out the first session of this 8 session plan with all the training activities that I planned for that session.

It will be based on the types of systems our team used last year, which I believe we should build on more rather than "start again" so it might not be ultra specific to all of you but footy isn't a hard game and we all pretty much want to do the same thing with and without the ball.

Tomorrow I will post the warm up, kicking development and defense activites in the training drills section so make sure you check back in.

TRAINING ON THE EDGE PSYCHOLOGICAL CO-ACTIVE

Part 1 – Training on the Edge Introduction

Part 2 – Training on the Edge Kick Development

Part 3 - Training on the Edge Decision Making

Today we have a look at training on the edge in regards to the psychological co-active, or mental strength, but just a quick reminder of what training the edge really means which is “training a player at a specific level that lies just above or below their level of capability.”

To train on the edge psychologically you need to induce great stress to the player's system which can be a number of ways but before that you need determine what co-active you want to focus on whether that is individual player-based or team based.

PLAYER BASED

To push the boundaries of an individual player you first need to determine what their biggest performance limiter/s are.

Hint: it probably isn't fitness...

To access this training and many others, especially the others in this Train on the Edge series, than register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

TRAINING ON THE EDGE- DECISION MAKING

Part 1 - Training on the Edge Introduction

Part 2 - Training on the Edge Kick Development

Today we have a look at training on the edge in regards to decision making but just a quick reminder of what training the edge really means which is "training a player at a specific level that lies just above or below their level of capability.”

This drill can be performed in a number of different ways within the same basic set up which is the image above...

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

TRAINING ON THE EDGE - KICKING DEVELOPMENT

A quick recap from the introduction yesterday that refers to training on the edge as "training a player at a specific level that lies just above or below their level of capability."

Here's a quick way you can train kicking development in each and every player within a team training setting.

Here's what the basic set up looks like...

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

TRAINING ON THE EDGE

Every player has their own strengths and weaknesses and as a coach it's our duty to build on those strengths and develop those weaknesses.

Knowing how 99% of team training operates at the local/amateur level with everyone doing the same drill at the same time then we're probably not attending to the strengths and weakness and even 1 player like we should be, let alone all of them.

Coming from 1 of the most under resourced clubs in all of Melbourne, I know that lack of coaches can be seen a major roadblock here but I don't see it as stopping you completely from being able to train on the edge of most players capabilities with a little bit of planning beforehand.

Now when most coaches think of training on the edge of a players capabilities they'll often go straight to a skills under fatigue mentality, but this is only 1 of 4 ways to train on the edge and I would put it a distant 4th out of those as well, not the first only way to train on the edge.

What does training on the edge look like?

To train on the edge means to train at player specific level that lies just above or below their level of capability.

This level can also be called the ugly zone because players will often move through periods of success to periods of not as much success, the new skill shifting from a conscious and unstable output to unconscious and stable output.

If you think of a toddler learning to walk, every step is a picture of concentration while they wobble all over the place, eventually reaching a point where walking doesn't need to be thought about and balance is perfect.

But in between those outputs is the ugly zone where sometimes they'll stand up and fall straight down (no success), sometimes they'll stand up and take 3 - 5 steps and then fall over (moderate success) and other times they'll take 5+ steps and make it all the way to your arms and not fall over at all (success).

During this time the outputs will vary as well with some efforts being successful and others not successful in the same "session" but over time the successful outputs outweigh the not successful outputs as the skill of walking stabilises and becomes ingrained.

But back to footy.

Once again we need to focus on the 4 co-actives:

• Technical
• Tactical
• Psychological
• Physical

As mentioned above there's always coaches pushing the edges of the physical co-active either through running drills like a time trial or yo-yo/beep test so I'm not really going to touch too uch on that.

Another thing that coaches do a fair bit is to use drills that focus on executing skills under fatigue.

This isn't a no-go option at all but like all things life there is a time and a place for it and if you haven't worked specifically on IMPROVING skill development at the edge of the capabilities of ALL players then you have no business executing poor skills under fatigue.

If players have low skill initially then what happens under fatigue?

Skills drop off of course so what are you training now?

Shit skills under fatigue?

Is that even a thing?

If it is then it shouldn't be.

For the rest of the week I'll present training idea's and drills that all coaches can implement immediately on how to train on the edge for the technical, tactical and psychological co-actives so be sure to check back in.

KEEPING DEFENSIVE SHAPE TRAINING DRILL

 

Earlier this week I posted a presentation video titled 10 Steps to Developing Training Drills Through Your Game Model.

In it it provided you with some general guidance on what a game model entails, how you go about developing it and then how it can drive what you train and how you train it.

It's best quality is how it breaks down a complicated game such as Aussie Rules Football that can then allow you to train specific aspect of it in isolation.

In 99.9% of cases, us coaches go straight to the integrating the many aspects of a scenario, such as team defense, but in such a broad and general manner that the foundation that the tactic or strategy is built on is not as strong as it could be and it breaks down under the pressure of game time.

In the presentation I used the following example:

• Game Moment - Defense
• Macro Moment - Defend the Goal
• Micro Moment - Make the Ground Small

Making the ground small will increase the chances every other defensive based micro moment being successful (the foundation as mentioned above) so here's a training drill that can help do exactly that.

Players Required: 5 + Your Defensive Formation

Balls Required: 1/Group

Space Required: Half of the Ground

Drill Level: Moderate

If you would like access to this training drill and plenty of others than register for a level 3 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

10 STEPS TO DEVELOPING TRAINING DRILLS THROUGH YOUR GAME MODEL

I've harped on about game model's for ages now and I'll keep doing until every coach from division 8 under 12's to AFL premiers has one.

It's greatest use is how it organises not only your game plan, but how you teach it and that trails through to how you can train far more effectively than cone to cone lanework for maximal transfer to games - the actual point of training.

Here's a 10min video I made on how to do this:

EDIT- 2 of the slides didn't make it through the recording process so I've made a video for them below the main video.

Missing Slides:

10 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE AFL SPORTREADY GAME PLANS COURSE PART 2

 

I finished off my previous post after the first of 2 Zoom calls for the course with the 2nd one here having a huge focus on game vision and seeing how different tactics and strategies look in actual game situations.

#6 - FAST PLAY OPTIONS

For every mark your player takes, their teammates must strive to get in 1 of the 5 options being in the corridor, lateral to the marking player, behind laterally to the marking player, skinny side boundary side and long down along the line.

#7 - SLOW PLAY OPTION

Where possible you want to try and turn slow plays into fast plays and a great way to do that is with the run and block, which you would have seen almost every AFL do at some stage recently.

BP is the player with the ball, the green X is the man on the mark and the purple X is your teammate, the skinny side boundary winger from above.

The skinny side boundary winger will need to push in on to the fat side of the man on the mark, not come behind them, and then push back into them as they put the block on.

Also be aware that you cannot put the block on until the ball carrier has played on so it's worth investing some time in training this to get the coordination and timing of it correct for game day.

Instead of only getting the ball as far as the kick down the line, the run andblock allows for an extra 10 - 20m run and carry and a mid to deep forward entry depending on the kicker.

#8 - Boundary Throw Ins

Richmond love to play that high half forward as an extra midfielder up at the contest and this shows a little bit of what Kane Lambert does

The L in a circle is Kane Lambert, blue X's are Richmond and purple X's are the opposition with Richmond going to the left of screen.

The other Richmond mids pull back slightly from the contest to provide more room for Lambert to operate in, especially the 5 and 3 o clock tap options as labelled above.

At the back and fatside of the contest you have the skinny side winger (SW) and the fat side winger (FW) who can defend the front of the contest of the opposition but more importantly start Richmond's run and handball express game through the middle.

#9 - AFLW

These are your best chances of being a successful team at AFLW level based purely on where the game is at right now in regards to skill development, running capacity and tactical prowess.

• You're best served by getting time in your forward half by pressing/manning up and trying to create an area of space in your forward 50.
• Be adept at defending the long kick down the line as that's where most of them go.
• Cause defensive 50 stoppages and
• Be able to defend within the contest
• Teach your players how to take the ball off the line
• Instruct your players how to turn a slow play into fast play
• Kicking is a harder skill and can cause worser errors than kicking which can allow the ball to go into space and then if you donlt have the numbers they can hurt you on the rebound so run the ball via handball
• Run in waves
• Most scores come from stoppage and fat side movement
• Have a rebound strategy
• Possession consists of 40% contested and 60% uncontested ball
• The ball is usually in dispute upon turnover so train to keep your shape/s
• Use high half forwards to get out the back for easy goals

#10 - Junior Football

• Strategy compliments skills and skills need to be executed to execute a strategy
• It's harder to score on skills alone v with just a strategy on its own
• Juniors usually learn offense 1st but it's easier to teach defense and it wins games
• Defensively look at instilling a form of press, play man on man on the back of the goal side shoulder, own territory and press
• Offensively look training via a  strategy/skill/skill/strategy process, put speed on the game, attack through the corridor/switch the play
• In the contest use some form of shape around the ball
• For stoppages use some basic structures, train stoppages on the wing, midfield and mid arch area's of the ground and devise player starting point positioning for each of them 

All up another banger of a course delivered by Austin who has aloso goiven the confidence to hit the coaching route in 2021 which I will.

I'm happy to call him a mentor of mine, he's always up for a chat so look out for his future courses coming up.

10 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE AFL SPORTSREADY GAME PLANS COURSE

 

A couple of weeks ago I took part in another AFL Sportsready course run by Austin Stubbs from AFLHP, this time looking at game plans.

Earlier this year I took part in a skill acquisition course that I posted about here.

It consisted of pre and post-course reading and questions, 2 x 2 hour Zoom calls and we also had a mid course pre-Grand Final analysis call with the AFL season finishing when it did right in the middle of the course.

Austin doesn't leave many stones untouched and completely fills the 2 hours so it's handy that they record the Zoom call video so you can go back to it later if you miss something.

The course was filled with elite level coaches from a just retired AFL premiership player, AFLW assistant coaches, VFL coaches and even some data analysis people who have ridiculous insight into how the game is played.

Me not having actually coached a team yet would have been the most inexperienced coach there by a long shot but I'll hopefully put all this coaching content to use in 2021.

I have 14 pages of typed up notes from this course so I've basically randomly chosen 10 points for this 2 part series with the first 5 coming below.

#1 - DRILL DESIGN

I won't let this go until you do but the sooner you can get rid of cone to cone drills the better and as I've said in the past it's bordering on pure laziness to stick with them in my opinion.

They only look at the offensive part of the game but how are games won these days?

Defensively.

To combat this, create drills that present a problem for the players to solve both offensively and defensively to enhance learning.

By creating game simulated action via scenarios and small sided games it more represents a game situation thus exposing your players to more game action which exposes them to more problems to solve which forces them to find more solutions to solve them - just like games.

#2 - STRATEGY v TACTICS

Strategy enhances decision making by aligning players to work together to solve a problem and they compliment high skill and increase the chances of winning over skills alone.

Examples of strategy are fast v slow play, defensive press, offensive fast play on, contest shape, stoppage structure and set plays for kick ins.

They are reliable and are used every in every quarter of football.

Tactics are "actions" such as opposition tag, bench rotations and player positioning but unlike strategy you might not use them all the time.

You won't beat good opposition with tactics but you will with strategy

#3 - LIST ANALYSIS

- What do you have?

- What do you have a lot of?

- What are your strengths?

- What don't you have a lot of?

- What do you need?

- What are your weaknesses?

Build your game plan around your top 20% and what they provide then try and surround them with what they need to carry that out.

#4 - PHILOSOPHY

Defensive skills are easier than offensive skills to build as a lot of them don't rely on high skill level.

The difference between good and bad clubs is the ability to score and having the best strategy to do that which will result in deeper and better shots on goal.

Speed disrupts defenses and repeat speed is the hardest physical thing to perform so you can wear the opposition defenders out through using it.

#5 - MY NOTES AFTER CALL 1

- Gegenpressing is a soccer tactic used to great effect in AFL in recent seasons which causes the ball carrier great stress and puts them in complete chaos (I'll post an example in the training drills section in the next week).

- Control the opposition and their physical output with your ball movement that can wear them out chasing you around and manning marks.

- A left footed defender should be positioned on the side of the ground that allows them to dispose of the ball according to your game plan/model. So if you want in board kicks then they should be positioned right side of the ground looking at your own goals so they can immediately turn in board and go. Alternatively if you want to play wide then position them on the other side of the ground so they can turn that way far quicker and open up more space for the kick. Vice versa for right footers obviously but lefties are better lets be honest.

- The forward line is the most important aspect of your team defense as the top teams excel at forward pressure and repeat entries.

GAME SENSE COACHING APPROACH TO AFL BOOK REVIEW

 

Shane Pill is a PE Teacher and Author who runs his own site called Learning Through Sport.

I've been following him for about a year and a half now and he's always putting out good information that has been through the trenches throughout his coaching and teaching duties covering a variety of sports, with AFL being one of them.

His thing is along the lines of game based training with a purpose so instead of just setting up a mini-game of football and letting the kids go, you would develop a game involving the skills you want to develop, use rules/constraints that highlight them, set an acheivable goal then let the kids/players self explore themselves through it.

It's definitely an athlete-centered approach where the coach acts more of a facilitator who creates the ideal environment to elicit the change/improvement you would like to see.

Throughout the gamed the coach then would allow pause breaks for questions and discussion about what's currently happening and to also ask players for idea's about how they can better go about it. 

He has plenty of articles on the site linked above so I would strongly encourage you to go back through those (I have) but here's a peak at what's in the book.

There are 6 basic levels to the book:

1. Games for Fundamental Sport Skill Development
2. Games to Refine Sport Specific Skill Development
3. Games to Develop Attack and Defense Structures
4. Developing Practice Plans
5. Developing a Game Plan
6. Task Cards/Session Plans

Each level sort of matches up to an increase in player age as you can see by the subjects of each level.

Each level starts with basic questions to ask throughout this level as alluded to above followed by 10 - 20 training drills that you can use for different scenarios/activity goals.

Each level finishes with a game simulation activity you can do suitable for the level these players are at.

I've used a lot of stuff I've read from Shane's articles in my own writings so if you like the content I release then you'll love this.

Every junior club should have this book and have it available for all junior coaches to use to base their training sessions on.