Up to date training information for Aussie Rules / AFL Football.
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Adelaide v Fremantle
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Richmond v Geelong
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Let's start with a very quick theory lesson.
In team sports you have what's called mechanical output and operational output.
Mechanical output refers to what you can do, in this case how fast you can sprint, unopposed with zero obstacles or constraints such as other players and the ball.
A basic 20m sprint is a prime example of this as you can simply put all of your focus and energy into covering that 20m straight line in as little time as possible.
Operational output is how can you can display speed in the context of your sport where now opposition players and the ball and a host of other things now dictate how you fast you can and need to sprint at any given time.
In this program I'm going to focus purely on linear sprint speed when training on your own, like I do most of the time.
The first step is to perform some traditional 20m sprints as in the video above.
I time EVERY sprint I do in my training with 5m split time markers, which are the hats you can see in the videos.
I have a timer app on my phone that I use to time each sprint at the completion of each session but if you want immediate feedback, you could easily time them in your rest periods, which I have done in the past.
In this session I did a 5-10 warm up but feel free to warm up how you like as I'm not much of a warm up guy and sometimes it's as short as 2 - 3 progressive speed sprints then into full speed but don't make your warm up your workout!
Once you go to time your sprints after the session, these 3 sprints will give you a top end baseline to use to see how you're performing in the footy specific sprints to come.
Here are the other 5 sprints I did after my linear 20m sprints...
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Gold Coast v Western Bulldogs
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GWS v ST KILDA
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*** BEST AFLW GAME EVER ALERT ***
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Being a Sydney Swans supporter and the latest episode of The W podcast by Sam Lane and Sharni Norder being released, I gave it a listen last night as I have a few of the episodes so far - it's an excellent podcast actually coming from a non-podcast listener.
I wanted to hear from Scott as he is the new Sydney Swans AFLW coach for our inaugural season in 2023 but it was the discussion between Sam and Sharni at the start of the podcast that caught my eye, and then Scott dropped some knowledge bombs that connected a lot of the dots for me and as always I put my thoughts immediately down on paper, or screen as we're in 2022.
Here's 800+ what I typed immediately after listening to the podcast unfiltered and unedited on the back of Sharni explaining how scoring is at it's lowest point since year 1, which she did quite well by providing some of the tactical reasons behind it but as you know I review literally every game and have gained some valuable insight into AFLW and thought I'd add my 2 cents in.
"...Here’s what I’ve seen re: low scoring - as Sharni said players aren’t and haven’t trained enough in the last couple of years and thus have probably not trained enough game simulation and thus they haven’t been exposed to enough different scenarios such as a game presents, in a relatively controlled but lowered pressure environment where mistakes can, and are encouraged, to made to enhance learning.
Sharni said players then go into unsure of their exact capabilities, and also their teammates, which causes in decision and then panic when the umpire calls play on which is all true.
A few things I’ve seen from watching and analysing every game of the season so far (search my account here, it's full of them at the moment), are aspects/principles of play that can be improved via coaching-only.
1) Forward 50 – I have seen this as an issue for more teams then not this season and my theory is, not that I would know of course! – is that with the limited contact time between coaching and players, teams put more work into contest work around the ball and then defensive half tactics that it looks to me that they don’t get a lot of time to address tactics/play in the forward half and without a dominant forward or 2, there’s a lot of kick, hope and see what happens.
Sharni mentioned that maybe AFLW players need to be willing to put more time into vision etc but Scott Gowan followed that up by saying there’s also a time shortage for assistant coaches, who would push these types of things at club level more then the head coach, and this also holds back player development as both players and assistant coaches need extra time to do this.
2) Most teams opt to defend very deep into their own defensive half which is fine if that’s what’s needed on the day but some teams roll their forwards up and some don’t with each having their own issues. By rolling them up you have numbers for any kick coming out which I would reckon is what you want but then not having anyone between you and your own goal, which Sharni mentioned. By not rolling them up, yes you’ll forwards closer to your goal but you’ll be outnumbered in the space between you and the ball and it won't get that far anyway and then you’re right back to defending deep in your defensive 50 again.
3) Now a couple of minor detail game tidbits to help this along.
Firstly all players need to be taught to not go off their line once they get a mark and cause the umpire to call play on as you can possess and control the ball far better in a slower and controlled manner then in a chaotic manner. You defended like demons and now you’ve just got a mark and 100% control of the ball, so keep it that way and stay on your line.
Secondly there needs to be a lot more slow play in these situations too so going back to the same scenario, you’ve got all your defenders and mids in the back 50 going like the clappers and as a forward you’ve rolled up to the defensive 50m line or so so you can be an option for any sort of kick that your team can generate out of there and as above you get the mark. You turn and look up-field but it’s 2v5 in front of you and what we see is a kick and hope situation after shifting off your line where you’re called to play on and now forced to kick or instead of waiting for your other forwards to get in front of the ball and to even up that 2v5, while your mids also work back to get between you the ball carrier and your other forwards and now giving you 8 – 12 numbers to kick to and defend with if you lose possession, you simply kick to that 2v5 and hope that something miraculous happens.
In a game this past weekend 1 team actually played on from a mark and kicked inside 50, well inside 35, to a 3v9 and you you simply can’t do anything with that, especially with your mids doing a power of work in the back 50 then having to work all the way back up the field to get involved in a forward thrust chain or to defend when inevitable the ball comes out because it’s 3v9.
Lastly I think its worth training to “deliberately” get the ball over the boundary without it being a lasso free kick so that actually get “free”time to regain formation around, in front of and behind the ball. So long story short – find a way to get more forward half work into your training if it isn’t a staple already, if you can manage a mark then stay on your line, and wait for your teammates to get ahead of the ball, do not kick to unwinnable outnumber situations and take all the time you can to allow more players to get into better offensive and defensive positions..."
All feedback and comments most welcome.
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This game extremely interesting to review and I gathered a lot of vision of game actions that I haven't seen yet in season 2022 and it ended in 22 vision clips over 3 videos totaling 34mins and probably my favorite one so far this season.
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This is an issue at most levels of football really where once we get the ball it seems there is no other option but to go forward as quick as we can.
This stems from we do at training where there are no defenders and thus constraints to limit the options we can do with the ball and come game day when there are constraints of 18 opposition players and competition, instead of having multiple options of how to solve many problems, we have 1 solution to 1 problem that gets used for every problem.
If you've only got a hammer then everything's a nail.
This very same play in the video below is seen pretty much every time someone gets a mark in youth football, and results in having complete control of the ball from the marking player to pretty much no control once you kick it to players leading away from you who are either too far away to get the kick to, or running into opposition defenders who can now contest the ball without even moving themselves.
In the offensive players exuberance to get forward, and only forward, quickly, the defense which was out of position to defend the short to medium kick to maintain possession and then would be caught between lines, right into perfect position to defend the longer, and usually higher, kick coming right at them against the offense running at them with their head rotated back behind them as they call for the ball while running away from the kicker.
Here's a video from my one of my AFL Film Review posts that show this exact situation, what happens and why and then what is a better way to do this and why.
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Disclaimer: Sydney Swans Supporter!
With that out of the way, the game plan the Sydney Swans used in 2021 was something completely different to every other team who may have a faster or slower method of movement, but all pretty similar in how they go about it.
From my research of tactics used in other sports, I have found numerous similarities to Soccer in the Swans game style and I'm pretty sure that's what it's based on, not that I watch soccer though!
Some of the main points of focus that I'll introduce here, and which you'll see prime examples of in the game review videos included in this package are:
These are the big 3 that I have found from closely watching games from season 2021 and there are a bunch of finer details that build off each of these depending if you're in or out of possession, or positioned in your back or forward half.
The first part of this package will consisting of a set of videos that provide an overview of what the Swans want to do with and without the ball and the second part will be activities I've designed to train this up with your team.
I encourage you to open up your coaching think space with this as its new and "untested" at community level but the structure-based principles, which really make this work and allow for the precise ball movement the Swans were known for in 2021, is pretty simple in isolation in my opinion - coaches might need to actually have a theory night to go through it initially so all players can see all aspects of this game style which I can guarantee, no other club in your league will have any idea of what it is, making lower talented teams far more equipped to compete against perennial power clubs.
As you make your way through this brand new information, be sure to be taking notes as it will definitely stir your thoughts as you pitch your current coaching practices against these new ones and it's when you're at this precise level of "challenge point" that you can come up with bright new idea's out of nowhere.
That's enough typing from me, let's get into the videos!
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