PENDLEBURY: BEYOND 400 PODCAST PART 1/2

                                           

I'm not a major podcast listener but I had this on my agenda to get to at some stage and doing the lawns the last 2 days was the perfect opportunity to do so.

Being a very older player (46) still playing senior/reserve grade football every Saturday and a senior coach for a women's team on a Sunday, this just delivered nugget after nugget in regards to everything football at the top level that local/amateur footballers can easily implement in their own lives.

Pendlebury: Beyond 400 is the brain child AFL commentator Mark Howard and is 8 episodes of about 25mins in length detailing Pendles' time from the first day of pre-season 2024 right up until Collingwood's very first game in opening round 2025.

Here are my takeaways.

EPISODE 1 - DAY ONE

In this one he talks fleetingly about the fundamentals of football which he mentions the usual go-to's of tackling, marking etc but also adds in spatial awareness so I want to touch on that a but more.

There are 4 co-actives to performance being technical, tactical, physical and psychological and they each have their own set of fundamentals so what he really means is the technical fundamentals of football.

Fundamentals for tactical would be things that your team is specifically trying to do during games such as switch kicks, kick-mark possession, territory dominant etc.

For physical we're talking endurance, speed, repeat speed, change of direction and robustness that we all pretty much work on to varying degrees.

Psychologically is where most local/amateur teams fall away dramatically where we look at things like confidence, resiliency, grinding and flow but that mostly comes from not having the knowledge/resources to deal with it but keeping some cash handy from overpaying players to developing a mindset program within your club would be a very wise-investment in my book.

Foundational fundamentals that also need to be trained from youth ages right through to adult ages are be things like knowledge of and in the game, perception, anticipation, space, time and timing but can also shift in team specific tactics.

My point is don't think ground balls and tackling are the only foundations of football - they're not - and you need to find a way to touch on them on in some fashion!

EPISODE 2 - CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Here's a hill session that he did in place of main training on a hill that's about 350m long at an treadmill incline of 12 - 15 by his estimates.

120m  x 3 run up and jog back down, then 240m the same and then 350m the same for 4260m total but jogged there and back for 10kms total.

It's on the Sandy Trails so if you know where it is give it a crack!

He also detailed a change of direction conditioning at Collingwood training of 2 x 5mins of 30secs on/off of suicides, 90secs rest, adding that you should never leave this out of your training so you only go through the soreness once.

All in-close work is full contact but otherwise it's 50% contact early in the pre-season.

The final session before Christmas break they did main training with game play then the fitness crew get their rocks off with a free-for-all with the long break coming up.

After main training and game play was already completed he then describes a training activity I actually detailed in vol 3 of the Collingwood Training Activities but I've also seen Sydney do it and West Coast released a video of Josh Kennedy and Will Schofield doing it as well.

It's basically 3 lead and get back efforts with the defender giving you the absolute treatment the entire time with close to zero rules. 

Next up they put the runners up and headed down to the tan where they paired up and wrestled each other in the grass x 20mins then off to Anderson Street Hill for 12 - 15 half hills then jogged back along the Yarra to the start of the Tan at another grass hill for half way, 3/4 and full hill 5 reps each and finishing with bear crawls up the same hill x 2 reps for each distance again then 2 full hills running and Merry Christmas for 16 - 17kms followed by a pump gym sesh after lunch!

Pure madness.

EPISODE 3 - NO SUCH THINGS AS A HOLIDAY

Embrace those tough sessions and do the time so there's nothing you can't handle during games - train harder then the game while you have the time and resources to do so (pre-season and no games).

1 holiday running session consisted of 12 x 400 resting the time it takes you to perform the previous set + an off legs session of a 50km bike ride he does along the bay for about 90mins.

Christmas day he's relaxed his hardcore prep but still does some training Xmas morning at home 

Gets the plan from the fitness staff then adds in what he wants on top of it (mobility, gym etc) but gets it all ticked off to do while away on holiday.

Post Xmas starts watching some footy again.

At 46 I bank a lot of training from September to March having trained 231 out of 234 days at an average of 129mins/day that has already dropped a touch from practice games and less time to train during the season but the point is you can't catch up during the season so bank the sessions and the time when you can.

EPISODE 4 - COACHES

This episode breaks from tradition a touch where Pendles' 3 coaches (Malthouse, Buckley, McRae) talk about Scont (had to get that in somewhere!) while he talks about their different approaches to coaching.

Malthouse - very encouraging, gave him so much confidence and made him feel like he belonged well before he thought he did, train smart/no hero players (no tackling/back with the flight/hangers etc) - health is wealth!

Buckley - full contact straight away, OK with losing some to training injuries, train with purpose/as you play, specific conditioning via games, a general day is 10kms but if that's taken up by a lot of dedicated running volume then it leaves less room for actual footy training (activities + game play and footy) so instead of 4kms of running + 6kms of game play they shifted to 4kms of game play and 6kms of footy activities. mostly cone-less

McRae - you don't win without getting the process right, a lot of shuttle running but little long running which was slightly concerning for him, cone to cone stuff, did about 5 activities repeatedly, develop habits that become habitual so you don't have to think about them, training resets which are drink breaks over the line where you can decompress for 60 - 90mins but as soon as you cross back over the line it's back to focus, prior first pre-season game they'd done maybe 15mins of match play and wasn't sure how they'd go based on what they've done in the build up but were 80pts up at half time and everything that'd did at training came out in the game (high transfer) and he was the fittest he'd ever felt playing during his 15yrs. 

GAME/TRAINING SCENARIOS - UTILISING THE OUTNUMBER ADVANTAGE

In my opinion the biggest gap in local/amateur football by far is the ability to create, identify and utilise outnumber advantages.

We're not trained to identify/utilise them so of course we don't so this in obviously a coaching issue, not a player issue.

Shameless plug alert - I have a entire 20 page chapter on this in the Coaching Modern Football series you can pick up from the register page but for now you'll have to use this tiny snippet.

Previous Game Moment - we exit a stoppage inside defensive 50 and find an outlet on the half back flank

Game Moment - we mark and take some time to allow us to regain formation in front of the ball after a high press game moment on defense.

Game Video...

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS PART 4

                                                                

So far we've covered the basics of stage 1, 2 and 3 in regards to cognition on footballers and now we double, even triple, down on detail so the future posts in this series  have the potential to be quite long!

Stage 1 - Assessment of the Current Play Situation

Visual Orientation and Attention

• Visual + relevant visual stimuli surrounding players in all directions via eye movements, head turns and whole body movements
• Orientation behavior is linked to attentional functions which guide exploratory movements to ensure that the most relevant information is focused on and perceived
• Visual attention is typically directed on the ball, opposition/teammate positions, open/closed spaces on the field or postural clues for anticipating the actions of others which guides the player’s orientation behavior but are weighted by events that occur during the visual exploration meaning the relation between orientation behavior/attention is highly interactive
• Conscious intentions such as specific instructions may also influence orienting behavior by way of executive control processes
• Skilled players search the visual surroundings for more relevant informatioin, flexibly adapting to current play situations + make shorter/more fixations when the ball was far away to perceive the general pattern of play but when the ball is close they made fewer fixations of long duration and focuses on postural cues of the possession player to predict the next movement v lesser skilled players who simply look at the ball in both situations
• Individual differences in creativity are related to visual search strategies x making short fixations of informative locations and a reflection of broader attentional focus
• Individual differences in working memory can also be relevant for visual orientation behavior but does not differ from groups with different working memory capacity as measured by object tracking
• Superior perceptual abilities leads to better anticipation accompanied by employing distinct visual search strategies
• Both players will fixate on the ball and the player in possession of it which aligns with a reliance on postural cues but experts do this far less indicating superior integration of other sources of information
• When provided with contextual priors via opposition action tendencies, experts spend far more time watching other elements in their visual field than the possession player v novices
• When the main action is far away, skilled players focus less on the possession player and more on other surrounding subjects
• Elite players incorporate multiple sources of information when anticipating and can adjust their strategy depending on the quality of available information
• Most visual research is lab-based which does not always match up with real-life sport
• Game specific data shows that head turn frequency is related to faster processing time
• Central midfielders/defenders scan more and forwards the least
• Less scanning under tight opposition pressure/close to opposition goal
• Probability of successful passing increases with scan frequency but not large but it still has a positive role in elite performance
• The amount of visual exploratory activities in relation to the penultimate pass predicted the adequacy of the subsequent pass by the player
• Midfielders make more visual exploration activities then defenders/forwards
• Eye movement patterns vary  with attacking/defensive phases as well as situational complexity with longer fixations when they were a high number of areas of interest (ball, teammate, opposition) were present in the visual field suggesting longer processing time is required when more information is available
• Scan times are way shorter then during lab testing, questioning study validity
• Visual orientation behavior/related attentional processes vary systematically with the play situation as well as individual player characteristics like creativity
• Skilled players focus their attention on the most informative aspects of the situation which can vary in several ways
• Most studies focus on players with the ball, not away from the ball

COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS STUDY PART 3

                                                              

• Stage 3 occurs after the action has been carried out and the player perceives the outcome which is directly coupled to the player’s intention for action and implies an assessment of its level of success
• The assessment activates the brain’s reward systems and makes the player either more or less likely to repeat the same action in similar future situations
• Degree of behavioral modification depends on the difference between the expected and actual outcome of the action so large discrepancies will lead to more changes
• Feedback is implemented via modifications of the cognitive/neural settings that are involved in stages 1 and 2 such as leading changes in the orienting behavior at stage 1 or different response tendencies at stage 2
• Stage 3 feeds back into new cycles of perception/action providing opportunities for learning, and modifies the perceptual processing, decision making and motor execution in future play situations

With the general descriptions of each stage laid out, the next posts of this series will go into great detail on each of them where it gets pretty deep and full on but you don't learn if you're not challenged to thinking deeper!

FREMANTLE v SYDNEY GAME ANALYSIS

I've somehow edited these clips in reverse order of the game but today we look at:

• The next to last play we've all seen already
• Luke Ryan getting drawn to the ball, not impacting at all, and leaving his direct opposition open behind him
• 85m Bice defensive run 
• Freo having their own crack at a kick out set play
• Hayward from high defensive press to leading out of the goal square forward run

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS STUDY PART 2

                                                             

• Stage 2 evaluates the current relevant response options in order to select/execute a particular action with response options being heavily narrowed down by the situation assessment from stage 1 which activates only a few responses in the player's procedural long term memory
• Response options are simultaneously activated in specific neural populations within motor-related areas of the brain and compete for action selection with the activation of them not being purely cerebral but also muscle actions/preliminary movements such as a defensive player on the ball with the options being to pass back to the goal keeper, direct a long pass ahead or to make a shorter pass to a supporting defensive player
• The speed of the game demands selection/execution of actions largely occurring at an automatic/non-conscious level with the activation of specific response options depending on previous learning/training
• Response actions are also influenced by recent events in the game such as a successful encounter with an opposition player or a missed shot on goal
• Action selection is determined by an implicit evaluation of the potential risk/benefits related to each potential action including the probability of carrying the action out as intended
• The evaluation is implicit as it depends on excitatory/inhibitory activity (formed by previous learning) in neural networks representing the competing responses rather than a conscious deliberation of choice options
• Risk taking levels depends on personal characteristics such as current confidence levels as well as the overall game situation
• The action selection process is non-conscious where executive functions can influence the outcome such as representing team strategy and other conscious intentions
• The automacity of the response selection varies both between situations/individuals where a player may be trained to systematically carry out a specific action in a particular situation but can also be trained/personally inclined to act in a more flexible/creative manner
• A largely automatic response mode corresponds to a strong activation of just 1 response in stage 2 whereas a more flexible response mode entails significant competition between several response options and typically more feedback interaction with the information gathering processes of stage 1
• The outcome of stage 2 is the full execution of a particular action within the action, implying an expectation of its likely outcome based on previous learning which leads stage 3.

HAWTHORN v CARLTON GAME ANALYSIS

As much as it pains me to say, the Hawks are awe-inspiring at the moment - winning in so many different ways it's near-impossible to nail them down when have so many different game phases they can play through.

I assume Geelong will keep Geelonging though to Easter Monday so I can't wait to see what Chris Scott comes up with to combat the Hawks.

On the other hand the Blues are struggling and I didn't have them in my 8 at the start of the year so I'm not fully surprised by their current form.

Today we look at:

• Hawks handball chain that creates the outnumber advantage up the ground
• Hawks going side 50 during a slow play
• Hawks again going inside 50 on slow play but the Blues adjust in-game
• Hawks again handball chain to create the outnumber advantage up the ground
• Hawks kick out #1
• Blues get their own outnumber advantage but have no idea how to use it
• Excellent Carlton pressing and chasing defense
• Hawks kick out #2
• Hawks kick out #3

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COGNITION IN ELITE FOOTBALLERS STUDY

 

2 - 3 times a year I come across a study that's about 25 pages long that sucks me in and I have to read it word-for-word while I'm typing out notes from it which than cuts it down to about 10 pages and this study did just that (29 into 14 pages to be specific!)

As usual this study is based on soccer but everything translates to footy, and any team invasion sport.

To be able to coach something you first need to know what it actually is and the processes behind otherwise you're guessing and/or not following evidenced-based coaching practices.

What I'll also add is a list of new terms and what they mean to help guide you through this post series.

Cognition - is the ongoing, active maintenance of player-environment interactions, achieved by closely coordinated perception and action.

Action Selection/Execution - the movement selected by the player to solver the current problem presented to them/the final action of that proposed selection.

Outcome Assessment - the final result of the action selected based on the expectations you had of it.

Perception-Action Cycle - you perceive to move and you move to perceive meaning you see an action you can take, you take it and from that previous action new action possibilities present themselves.

Visual Orientation/Attention - your ability to perceive and interpret the action around you/what actions you choose to focus on.

Pattern Recognition - the ability to recognise in-game patterns of teammates and opposition.

Anticipation - the ability to predict pattern of play based of pattern recognition/experience and thus being able to react earlier then other teammates and opposition.

Working Memory - is where the most current information sits your memory bank of which only somewhere between 3 - 6 chunks of information can be held at a time before it becomes overloaded and something drops out and/or system fatigue stars to increase. If information is retrieved optimally then it can be moved to long term memory where retrieval has far less resource cost.

Perceptual Updating - You see a potential action and you start to act on it but the environment changes mid-action, you perceive this in real-time and alter your next action as a result of it.

Exploratory Behavior - refers to performing in an environment that is unstable or unfamiliar, and thus cannot be predicted beforehand

Auditory/Somatosensation/Proprioception - verbal/all senses such as touch, pain, temperature, body position and balance/movement, action and location in space

This will take 5 or so posts to get through so here's the introduction + the characteristics of stage 1.

• There are 3 functional stages of cognition being situation assessment, action selection/execution and outcome assessment that all form a perception-action cycle that corresponds to a single play situation
• The main cognitive processes are visual orientation/attention, pattern recognition, anticipation, working memory, action selection/decision making, executive control processes + behavioral/cognitive learning
• If you have the ball you can pass, shoot or dribble
• If you don’t have the ball you tackle, block the ball/running course of opposition or move to another part of the field for defensive/attacking purposes
• The typical duration of a single play is a few seconds which allows for some perceptual updating/response preparation within the situation
• The model works in a cascading way where earlier stages continue to be active during the processing at later stages and can influence the result until an action has been executed
• Stage 1 continues to deliver information about the current play situation during the process at stage 2 which can lead to inhibition of action if circumstances change halfway
• There are also feedback connections between stage 2/1 so the process of action selection can initiate new exploratory behavior before an action is decided upon/fully executed
• Several processes within stages also occur in parallel such as the selection between response actions during stage 2
• Although the model as a whole has a serial processing character, it encompasses parallel/interactive processes both within and between the 3 stages with each stage depending on specific cognitive processes as we'll see below
• STAGE 1 provides the player with a continuous assessment of the current play situation via visual perception but also auditory, somatosensation and proprioception, all intimately connected to attentional functions which direct focus towards particular aspects of the situation
• Attentional focus is supported/elaborated by active exploratory movements, in particular visual orienting, and relies heavily on previous learning
• Much of the orienting processes occur at an automatic cognitive level but conscious intentions can also influence the player's behavior via executive control processes
• Sport specific pattern recognition refers to configurations of the surrounding players in relation to the ball and is a central aspect to stage 1
• Anticipations of the actions of the other players are an integral part of the situation assessment such as basing on postural positions of teammates/opposition
• The outcome of stage 1 is a dynamically updated assessment of the current play situation including anticipations of the immediate future which is represented in the player's working memory

COLL/PA + HAW/ESS + MELB/GWS GAME ANALYSIS

Here's the 2nd part of my game analysis for round 1 where we look at:

• Collingwood hunting Port's ball carrier
• Collingwood's extra-aggressive kick out tactic
• Hawthorns fast v Essendon's turtle-like transition
• Hawthorn's kick out tactic again - wake up other teams!
• GWS's attempt at similar kick out tactic

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SYDNEY v BRISBANE GAME ANALYSIS + A SPRINKLE OF GEELONG

Some up and down results from our first full round of football this weekend from the Tigers major upset on Thursday night all the way to the usual hot Gold Coast start before falling away late-season and plenty in between.

My Swans are struggling a bit so far on wins and losses (o-2!) but could have stolen opening round and was in a winning position in round 2 against the probable top 2 favorites for 2025 but we'll find our feet at some point.

In this analysis post we look at Sydney/Brisbane and touch on Geelong at the end as I just had to go back and watch that 3rd quarter sequence from Murphy Reid after listening to it on the radio on the way back from a way too-hot practice match.

In this 10min video we look at:

• Sydney with a set play from defensive 50 off of a play restart from injury
• Multiple Sydney players losing Bailey in the mid 50 for a crumbing goal deep inside forward 50
• Multi-layered sequence of Sydney leaving direct opposition and being covered by surrounding teammates
• Sydney coming forward at the ball carrier to change their kick
• Sydney using a trigger to come forward and press into the opposition receiver
• Murphy Reid perfecting leading patterns in his very first game!

For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

COACHING MODERN FOOTBALL - 5 DAY, 50% OFF SALE!

                                                       

We're all about to start practice games against actual opposition (36 degrees at Digger's Rest will be hell on earth for this 46 year old!) where as coaches we'll be seeing if what we've tried to implement with our players over the pre-season, has carried over to games and to what extent.

Form these games we'll find gaps in what we've taught the players and what they've learnt + other gaps in our team's performance where more needs to be added to really make your team's performance click over the next 20 - 25 weeks.

The Coaching Modern Football series consists of 17 chapters with each one focusing on a specific phase of play encountered in every game of football you'll coach and ply in this year.

Once reflecting on your practice games you might find you need to insert some better strategies to make a phase of play or set of tactics even more robust.

This 5 day sale will run from today (Wednesday, March 12th) until Monday morrning (March 17th).

All chapters are at the lowest price they have been since I released them, and the lowest price they'll ever be.

$15 - Forward Press Defense, Lane Running, 666 Connection, Forward Play, Playing Between the Lines, Exploiting the Stand Rule, Ruck Runs

$20 - Team Formations, Creating/Utilising Length, Creating/Utilising Outnumber Advantages

$25 - Midfielder Running Patterns, Manufacturing Corridor, Micro Game Moments

$35 - Wing Play, Center Bounce Clearance, Overlap, Kick Out Strategies

$325 - All 17 Chapters

"All Chapters" has it's own purchase link, otherwise you need to purchase individual chapters from their own specific links and all chapters are emailed out in PDF form.

To take advantage of this opportunity, head to the register page, make your choices and go next level in 2025.

GWS v COLLINGWOOD GAME ANALYSIS

It's never as good as it seems (GWS and Callaghan), and it's never as bad as it seems (Collingwood, listless).

Let's hope for at least for 1 of these teams that is the case as it's a trench-like drop off if it is!

 In this 6min, 4 clip analysis we look at:

• Nathan Buckley talking about Collingwood's center bounce clearance method
• The actual clearance Bucks' talks about and we've looked at this plenty of times before
• GWS mult-layers forward half defense
• Collingwood staple kick out tactic but intercepted by guess who?

For full access to this game analysis post, register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.  

SYDNEY v HAWTHORN GAME ANALYSIS

In what has turned out to be the last Saturday without any sort of footy for 9 months and a very slow day at that, here's my game analysis clips from last night's game while I have ample time to put it together and post it.

Impressive from the Hawks to win in a different way then they were last season and after Sydney came right back at them and getting close enough to pinch it regardless of those horrendous 2-brown jumpers!

We're all bored from not having footy to watch so I'll make this one free to provide somewhat of a footy fix.

In this 11 min video we look at:

• Sydney's multiple layers of pressing forward defense
• Sydney breaking the Hawks forward half defense
• Leading patterns and cohesiveness of the Sydney forwards
• Sydney not pressing forward on defense like they normally do resulting in a goal for the Hawks
• Elite small forward craft from Papley
• Sydney loosing Sicily during Hawks transition transition offense slow play 
• How to press forward into the ball carrier when they have space to run through
• Wicks' double tackling effort

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0sVhxGoRno

 

10 NEW STREAMLINE TRAINING ACTIVITIES

                                          

I haven't posted one of these for ages so just remember that these training activities simply have a brief description and that's it - no images, diagrams and pictures to accompany them. Let's get to activities 122 - 131.

#122 -PASSING CIRCLE

#123 - PUSH UP TO SCORE

#124 - NO CORRIDOR

#125 -  8 ROTATE

#126 - PIVOT PLAYER

#127 - END ZONE

#128 - NUMBERS

#129 - HANDBALL TO KICK

#130 - 1-0 GAME

#131- 3-2-1 GAME

For full access to these training activities register for a level 3 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

RELATIONSIM v POSITIONISM

                                                           

These 2 terms are never really mentioned in AFL conversations, not with this specific wording anyway, but in Soccer there are constant Twitter threads on 1 or the other or the comparison of both approaches.

That's not to say they aren't used in AFL, they most definitely are, we just don't use the same jargon.

These notes come from a Twitter account called @ogpinions, which is a soccer analysis-based account so let's have a look at the 2 approaches.

RELATIONISM

• Refers to the relationships and interactions between players in an attempt to develop self-regulating players who can solve their own problems without coach intervention and who can adjust to variable game conditions
• Player position’s should not be predetermined but should depend on game variables such as opposition and teammates with the player being in control of their position
• Top-down guidance is associated with relationism where coaches provide game situations for players to solve and observe their natural tendencies through guidance
• It is not against positional play but is against methods that inhibit self-regulating players
• Once players develop positional understanding then self-regulation should be prioritised

POSITIONISM

• Is defined by positions on the field and from a belief that a fixed, static concept is the source from which everything else can be derived
• May not develop self-regulating players as some, most or all solutions are already provided to them and they don't develop the ability to think for themselves
• Top down control is associated here where the coach provides the solution and the players execute it and they follow a specific game model
• Can lead to a lack of adaptability where players struggle when teams behave differently then they thought they would
• The main difference is the role of the coach

Now that we have a bit more information on what these both are then what teams do you think bias one or the other?

AFL PRE-SEASON WEEK 2 GAME ANALYSIS

                         

In week 2 of the pre-season games we look at:

• Gold Coast stoppage formation on secondary center ball ups
• Sydney with multiple layers of pressing forward defense 
• Brisbane wing run
• Collingwood up to their old tricks at center bounce clearance
• Lukosius kick = Perfection
• Port Adelaide using handball to draw defenders in then breaking them

For full access to this game analysis register for a level 1 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/. 

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRAINING ACTIVITIES PART 5

We're 15 training sessions for deep for pre-season 2025 so here's a 5th edition of what I've ran with my senior women's team so far.

After working a lot on individual action capabilities we're now starting to get a little more structure-focused and developing more off and away from the ball actions in the game.

Here's another 4 training activities.

2 TEAM/BALL/HALF HANDBALL...

For full access to these training activities, register for a level 3 membership from https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

HOW ARE AFL TEAMS DOING IT IN 2025?

In case you missed it, I Twittered this out during the week:

Where TV/Radio footy experts discuss contracts and ridiculous what ifs, they could be deeply analyzing teams and how it all connects to winning games like @onepercentas, @rickm18 and @JamesIves17 are currently doing - if you're even 1% footy nuff material, then have a look

— AFL Training (@AFLTraining) February 23, 2025

The reviews that One Percenters is putting up at the moment are nothing short of first class and when I'm reading them he's putting into words what I've watched and even analysed in my own video content, what some AFL teams are doing, except he's has a stat for everything providing the why's to some of my what's.

Today I'll piggy back off some the points he's made so far from a few teams, with my own video's of what it looks like and then you can go to work of training your own team up these different game phases and plays.

Today covers Brisbane, Collingwood and Hawthorn.

For full access to this coaching/training article, register for a level 1 membership at https://aussierulestraining.com/membership-account/membership-levels/.

SYDNEY v GWS PRE-SEASON GAME ANALYSIS (FREE)

Looks like I'm back for another year of doing this and to be honest, I can't watch a game anymore without looking out for this type of stuff.

This is from today's pre-season game between the Swans and Giants in a 2 part video, with a sprinkle of Brisbane on the end of the 2nd video.

In video 1 we look at:

• How the player who just kicks the ball is the most free player on the ground
• Heeney contesting the center bounce clearance and then leading out from the square for a mark and goal
• Gulden the overlap specialist
• Sydney 666/Connection + Front Press Defense
• Sydney 666/Connection again
• Jesse Hogan constantly on the move

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4zExLujYAI&feature=youtu.be

In video 2 we look at:

• Gulden defensive wing run
• Sydney 666/Connection yet again
• Sydney front press defense x 2
• Brisbane running chain from defensive 50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyTmbPGyD9E

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRAINING ACTIVITIES PART 4

                                                 

The girls and I completed session #13 for pre-season 2025 last night and it was our best yet with a great turn out numbers-wise that allowed us to play an actual game within a large area.

I found out somethings that some players were able to do that we hadn't been able to see yet and I can see that what I'm trying to teach them is getting through so I couldn't be more pleased.

Here's another 4 training activities that I've used with them, why we use them and the intention/sof each of them (which dictates actions!). 

3v4 DELAY...

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TRAIN AS YOU PLAY STUDY

                              

Yet another study showing the player development superiorities associated with training with a games-based focus (constraints-led approach, ecological dynamics etc).

If you're still using more then 1 cone drill for more then 10% of your total training session then I really don't know what to tell you at this point as this about the 10th study I've posted on this.

If you want to change your coaching approach to something like this but don't where to start then get in contact me and we can work together to build your coaching methodology.

It's based on soccer but the results still stand up for footy.

Here are my notes from this one:

– There was a play v a practice v a control group

• The play group replaced the deliberate practice section with play
• The play section manipulated constraints over 5 seeks
• The instruction was to play over, through or around your opposition + maintain possession and prevent the opposition getting ball
• Goal setting was built around which team can execute the most passes in a row, which team can shoot the most goals and which team can outplay the opposition as often as possible
• The scoring system included 1 team getting points for passes (5 passes = 1 point) while the other team could get points for goals (1 goal = 1 point) and then who could score the most
• Another scoring system was to be able to complete 5 – 8 passes before scoring and then who could score the most goals
• Manipulated constraints included a reduced field size to increase defensive pressure, players can’t dribble, neutral players who were on offensive the entire game but could not score, 2 wing neutrals outside the playing area and 2 goals at each teams end
• Tactical aspects were observed to see if players could switch from 1 goal to the other and then score and how the offensive team used their outnumber advantage
• Game types included a rondo without goals to facilitate channel combination play, 2 goals each end but 1 keeper, 5 passes + goal = 2 goals + 10 passes - 3 goals and goals from central areas only
• All groups improved passing skill in post program testing but only the play group maintained those results in retention tests
• Play had far better retention results yet performed less than half the total pass reps (354 – 777) v the practice group
• It's important to note that is isn't just playing games that makes the difference, but games with specific intentions that promote exploration, real skill development (adaptability) and thus long term learning/development

2024 AFL GRAND FINAL 1st MINUTE GAME ANALYSIS

 If you're as listener of SEN then you might have come across this interview (Garry and Tim from Tuesday 11th of Feb from the 64min mark) with new Sydney Swans head coach Dean Cox during the week - my ears immediately pricked up being a Sydney supporter.

During the interview he was asked if, when and how they reviewed the game and he went into pretty good detail about it saying:

• The very first day all players were back they did no training at all and did a very hard analysis of the game
• The first minute of the game took a whopping 60mins to break down
• The entire game took 7 and half hours to get through!

Talk about comprehensive - and it should have been!

Off the back of that I've done my own first minute analysis and getting extra picky about it too, where I normally keep to teachable moments around structure and game moments for coaches to implement  in their own repertoires,but for this I'll get ultra picky.

My analysis went for only 8mins so imagine what the players and coaches saw from the behind the goals vision.

In order these are the points I highlighted in the video below:

1 - Lost the clearance.

2 - 3 Swans at the ball v 1 Brisbane.

3 - 4 Brisbane on the outside.

4 - Sydney lose the 3v1.

5 - From the outnumber we has ad lost we are now down 2 - 3 players temporarily and puts us in a scatter defensively.

6 - Sydney intercept mark didn't take up the 100% option off the line.

7 - Opts for a kick down the corridor instead.

8 - The intended Sydney target is an free, nor has separation from his opponent.

9 - Brisbane take an intercept mark at center half back smack bang on the midline of the ground.

10 - Sydney forwards perhaps not anticipating such a shallow forward entry are caught behind the Brisbane ball carrier where they would normally be in position to push up and create the first line of defense in front of the kicker.

11 - Sydney also fail to cover the short 45 kick - a Brisbane ball movement staple and therefor should have almost been number 1 on the scouting report.

12 - Brisbane end up with 2 players next to each other for the 45 kick they take and make.

13 - Sydney going away from their defensive profile of not pushing up to delay Brisbane's ball movement, instead getting caught in the middle and unable to impact the intended contest or the player they have just left free.

14 - Brisbane find a 2v1 along the boundary that stretches the Sydney defense whop have compacted inside the corridor and they utilise the wide options to stretch the Sydney defense, unlike what Sydney just tried to do and finds space that was not really there.

15 - Rampe comes from so fcar back to impact the contest, and doesn't that he can't get back once Brisbane get the run on towards goal.

16 - Gulden attempts a 1-2 with Warner but Warner doesn't scan to see if there is space and time for the handball receive for an easier kick, and Gulden recieves running to his right side, not his dominant left side.

17 - After giving up control of the ball with a kick from a mark in the corridoe, Sydney end up with a 3m dribble kick under pressure from 2 Brisbane players.

18 - Sydney gets first hands to the ground ball but also gives that up as it leaks out of the contest

19 - Brisbane once again have a 3v1 outside the contest and take the ball away under zero pressure

20 - Sydney caught in too close at the ball again.

21- Sydney create a 3v1 advantage with Brisbane in possession but fail to create the intercept, tackle or turnover. 

22 - Brisbane use those extra numbers from the ground ball 5secs earlier to get a kick towards their goal.

23 - The receiver of that kick spread off that same ground ball contest that leaked out to mark.

24 - Brisbane have a line of 5 players directly inline with the player who just marked the ball, all surging forward.

25 - What we can't see is the Brisbane forwards lengthening the ground and tracking back towards goal.

26 - From another camera angle we would see the Brisbane forwards all within 20m of goal, the Brisbane mids streaming through the center of the ground as we do on the video and then the Sydney defenders again caught in the middle.

27 - Sydney defenders track back in the hope that their mids can somehow catch up to the Brisbane mids.

28 - They cannot.

29 - The Sydney defenders are too busy trying to organise each other and lose all sense of where the ball, opposition and space is in the Brisbane forward 50.

30 - Brisbane take a hit up mark in a circle of 4 - 5 Sydney players, 25m directly out from goal.

Time on the clock - 18:53mins.

As I finish off the video with - it was hard being there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmBKbPd945o

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRAINING ACTIVITIES PART 3

Here's another 4 training activities that I've used with my women's football team so far during pre-season training.

3v3 SQUARE

This us another small sided game...

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WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRAINING ACTIVITIES PART 2

Here's another dose of training exercises I've used with my women's senior team during our pre-season so far.

Numbers are still fluctuating because it was January which is very early for most girl's to be really deep in thinking about footy, up until the Australia Day weekend many are still in holiday mode even if back at work and we've had many mid to high 30 degree days in Melbourne which doesn't make it very appealing either!

Here's 5 more training activities and why we do them.

3v1 KICK...

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KICKING ASSESSMENT STUDY

I read a study summary on kicking assessment which led me to this older study on Aussie Rules Football specifically titled "The Development of a Field Based-Kicking Assessment to Evaluate Australian Football Proficiency". 

It challenges the current kicking test used at the AFL Draft Combine and provides an evidence-based alternative assessment.

I posted about this all the way back on just my 8th post of this blog way back in January of 2010!

Here are the notes I took from reading the full study to this bad boy.

• Greater performance suggest greater ball possession/kick proficiency v the opposition have greater influences on match outcomes
• Winning teams have a reduced physical output but an increase in skill involvements (possessions) suggesting skill is more crucial to winning
• Effective kicking, specifically kicks over 40m is crucial to team success
• Successful kicks over 40m increases a team’s winning % by .99 of a point (the most important skill in the game) whilst an inaccurate kick of any distance to the opposition reduces winning margin by .62 of a pt
• Game demands show that there are more kicks over 40m, more kicks performed from a stationary position, more kicks to moving targets + various kick types
• To assess field kicking you also need to assess action fidelity
• The test required players perform 85% of kicks over 40m, 57% from a stationary position, 43% on the move, 15% receiving stationary, 85% receiving on the move + tac-based kicks (play switch etc)
• Drop punts only
• Dominant kicking leg only
• No opposition
• No handball’s
• The test is not fully representative but does balance controlling constraints to develop an open and dynamic test

• 1 kick to 2 on the lead to 3 and so on
• Go to where you kick
• Perform at game speed
• The last kick is a shot on goal with a defender running at them from the goal square
• Do all 7 kicks from 1 side of the ground then perform the mirror image for 14 kicks total
• Each kick was scored based on accuracy/execution (5-1) except for kick 7/14 which are shots on goal and are scored on the kick result accordingly (0/1/6)
• On average players increase kick proficiency by 9.29% from u14's to u16's then a further 2.77% from u16's to u18's at club level
• At sub elite level it’s 1.22% from u16's to u18's and 6.18% at elite levels
• u14’s run a lot less (meters per min) then u16's and u18's but there's little difference between u16's to u18's
• Kicking skill development at club level may be most evident between u14's and u16's and may highlight an important time frame where kicking acquisition may be most susceptible to technical change
• 1 other alteration I would like to see included is the use of players on the mark which can be done by using players from the surrounding groups to man the mark then head back to the group they came from

WARM UP THAT DRIVES ATTENTION

We'll all head down to footy training tonight and I bet we see a lot of this:

• A lap
• Some dynamic stretching in lanes
• Some strides in lanes
• Some handball in lanes
• Some kicking in lanes

All linear in nature and all geared towards warming up the physical component of football, just 1 of the 4 co-actives of performance.

Footy is played by the body and by the mind so doesn't it make sense to warm both of them up at the start of each session?

This really opens the door to expand your warm up exercises and design but today I'll lay out 1 I've been using with my women's team so far this year and the why's behind them.

NEURAL COMPONENT...

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WOMEN'S FOOTBALL TRAINING ACTIVITIES

The girls and I have completed 7 training sessions so far and it's all been great so today I'll go through some of the training activities that we've performed (not real important) and the why and how's behind them (the most important).

I covered off a ground ball progression a couple of weeks ago which I'll include briefly here but I want you to take a hard look at the teaching points as a lot of coaches are either too broad on initial instruction which doesn't really direct attention enough or focus on the outcome and/or give instruction and feedback after the activity (we should have done this etc) which makes no sense.

WARM UP

I'll post about our warm ups next week but they have a different focus then most.

GROUND BALLS...

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ALL BLACKS LEGACY BOOK NOTES

                                                     

I think we're all well-aware of the collective excellence of the All-Blacks culture on and off the field and I picked up this book from the op-shop a little while ago and here are my notes from it with PLENTY of takeaways for individuals and teams alike.

• Only by knowing yourself can you become an effective leader
• What is my job, what needs doing and what do I know about that probably won't happen unless I attend to it
• It begins with character and character begins with humility
• It’s not how well each player performs, but how they perform together
• Capability + Behavior = Performance
• When you’re on top of your game, change your game
• Stages of Organisational Change x a case for change, a compelling picture of the future, a sustained capability to change and a credible plan to execute
• Growth Cycle x learning phase, growth phase and decline phase
• OODA Loop x observe, orient, decide, act
• 100 Day Plans x list 10 things you need to achieve in the next 100 days starting each plan with an action verb and no more then 3 words, making sure each plan is measurable and that each one is a stretch and simply tick them off
• Purpose relates to an overarching goal beyond the practical missions that are pursued every day and drives individual's intrinsic motivation and gives a reason to belong/sacrifice
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs x beyond fulfilling basic needs you are no longer driven by extrinsic motivation and can turn your attention to deeper needs finding a loved one and making a family then things like esteem, self respect, the respect of others, being recognised for our talent and our capabilities/behaviors
• Extra Dimension x core values/purpose beyond making money and is what drives companies from good to great
• If you want higher performance then you need a higher purpose
• People don’t buy what you make, they buy why you do it because the way we feel about something is more important then what we think of something – we follow our gut
• What gets you up everyday that you do, yet has a cost (financial, mentally etc)?
• If you hire people that believe what you believe then they’ll work for you harder then anyone else
• Whoever has a why can bear almost any how
• After a lot of petty youth crime, 1 bloke created the teenage kicks program, a 5-a-side tournament to turn gangs into teams to create a structure of meaning/purpose/teamwork/responsibility by entrusting them with responsibility for the success of the team – all in a low social-economic community – where organisers set everything up then let the youth make it all happen with alpha males encouraged to become managers who needed to find a captain and then the captain needed to find a team (pass the ball) and the the team needed to turn up for every game on time and 1 miss and they would be kicked out of the whole thing until next year (no team did though) and it’s still going 10 years later
• Form leadership groups with key senior players given a distinct portfolio of responsibilities from on-field leadership to social organisation to new player mentoring to community relations
• Shared Responsibility = shared ownership as a sense of inclusion means individual's are more willing to give themselves to a common cause
• Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders and arm their subordinates with intent and then step out of the way
• Instill in your players a sense of self-worth that any given time they can be the most important player out there
• Motivation x purpose, autonomy, mastery
• Excellence is a process of evolution/cumulative learning/incremental improvement
• Marginal gains x 100 things performed 1% better creates a noticeable improvement
• High Performance Environment x select on character, understand your strategy for change, co-write a purpose, devolve leadership, encourage a learning environment, turn standards into action
• A strong dislike of not being good enough is healthy
• Muhammad Ali called himself the greatest before he was even close to being so and this repetition of reaffirmation leads to belief and once that belief becomes a deep conviction then good things start to happen
• A message that is not immediately rejected as a lie will have the same effect on the associative system regardless
• Even with the most unrealistic goals, the aversion to not reaching it is mush stronger then the desire to reach it - if you can conceive/believe then you can achieve, visualise to actualise and fake it until you make it
• Anchoring x supermarkets saying it was $20 but now $5 and the perception of a bargain
• Priming x the suggestion of something altering our behavior to the stimulus around us, a response to a story
• Practice with intensity to develop the mindset to win
• Decision making within training should be harder then the game
• By throwing in random problems to solve, there’s better long term learning
• If you’re not over-extending then there’s not much learning happening
• It’s not the physical but the psychological they have mastered x randomness/unpredictability/constant questioning combined with pace/physicality to stress the brain/test decision making capacity
• Control of Attention x red head (heated/overwhelmed/tense = poor decision making) v blue head (clarity/awareness/analysis = good decision making)
• Blue head means to remain on task allowing you to ACT x /alternatives (options/adapt/adjust/overcome) + consequences (risk/reward) + task behaviors (stay on task/execute tactical/strategy)
• Most have the will to win but not the will to prepare to win
• Focus on technique, then add intensity, then add pressure and then drop intensity and get back to technique to consolidate
• Pressure is expectation/scrutiny/consequence and when under pressure then your attention is diverted/overwhelmed (red) or on track/clear (blue)
• When diverted then instead of just doing the skill unconsciously, you start doing it consciously which is mechanical/disrupts your smoothness
• Where we direct our mind is where our thoughts will take us – thoughts create an emotion, emotion defines behavior, behavior defines performance – so if you can’t control attention/thoughts then you can’t manage emotions to enhance your performance
• You need to recognise when you’re red and have strategies to get back to blu
• Brain x instinct/thinking/emotion and under pressure thinking shuts down so you’re relying on instinct/emotion but they can’t pick up informational cues to make good decisions
• Mantras are a way to tell ourselves a story for effective thinking and can be a mental road map out of pressure
• Controlling outr attention is about getting back to the present – what is over what ifs x how can I manage my energy v what I run out of energy?
• Authenticity can be thought of as a bridge that is secure from foundations of personal skills/friends/family so if all you’ve got is that your an All Black then you’ll come unstuck pretty quickly
• Leaders who fail do so from a lack of a strong identity/self belief/self respect and when they disrespect other, it’s usually starting with themselves
• Delivering Feedback x in the belly, not in the back
• You must be able to say to another player and just being a matter of fact, not pass personal judgement, that you need to do this to help me out with my job or what can I do that helps you do your job?
• Integrity x our thoughts/words/deeds are as 1, an alignment of our values/purpose/beliefs/behaviors all flowing in 1 direction
• Integrity is a central leadership tool where everyone does what they say they’ll do which builds clarity/productivity/certainty/momentum
• The more slippage there is, the less that gets done
• If you’re not early for a meeting then you’re late
• Authenticity is the alignment of head/mouth/heart/feet
• There are no crowds lining the extra mile, you’re on your own and the challenge you’ve set yourself
• Begin at the end at your own funeral – who would be there? What would they be saying? What would our life have meant to them? Did they cry?
• If we’re going to lead a life and going to lead anything then we should know where we’re going and why
• Leaders are storytellers and all great organisations come from a compelling story and this central thought helps people understand what they stand for and why
• Stories help us understand who we are, what we want, what we stand for/against and why we do things
• Values cannot be adopted at a conscious level – they are something that we are, but they can be captured into a living document that makes a difference
• Words start revolutions
• Successful cultures are organic/adaptable, they change/flow yet always maintain their foundational values
• Establish a vocabulary/mindset/attitude that builds a common language
• Mottos/mantras go straight to the heart of the belief system, becoming shorthand for standards/expected behavior
• Capture character in 1 sentence, change minds with a turn of phrase and distill essence into a few words
• Some would argue that metaphors are the basis of our understanding of life itself and all language is metaphor- they are where we recognise ourselves in stories and a way of attaching personal meaning to a more public narrative
• Based in strong resonant values, using a common language employing mantras/mottos/metaphors, storytelling helps leaders connect their people’s personal meaning to their vision of the future
• Creating a Change Story x story must be credible/relevant (authority/make rational sense), must be visual/visceral (appeals to all senses/must be felt), flexible/scaleable (easily told in any setting) and useful (turn vision into action/purpose into practice)
• Building trust, developing people and driving high performance behaviors is never-ending and rituals are the key to for reinforcing the emotional glue
• Rituals x reflect/remind/reinforce/reignite
• Rituals tell your story, involve your people, creates legacy, makes the intangible real
• Large or small, informal or formal, corporate or creative, personal or professional, conscious or unconscious, rituals create meaning with embedded deep values/purpose of the person/project
• By enacting a ritual we embody the belief system of our community/culture and acts as a psychological process – a transition from 1 state to another, taking us to a new place of being 

TASK SIMPLIFICATION TRAINING ACTIVITY

Yesterday I posted about task simplification and all the why's, what's and when's around it and today we get to the how with a real-world example I used this week with my senior women's team.

For a bit of background, we did some game-sim the session before without any real instructions from me except the how to score to let me see the players' natural tendencies.

What I saw was constant kicking to the same spot it the play/ball came from even though 1 team's was goal was set up to use as much space, width especially, as possible and really stretch the other team on defense.

After we talked very briefly about kicking off the line and how we'll work on that next session so here we are.

At the next session I designed this training activity with a focus on kick decision-making based on a lot of the principles I wrote about yesterday:

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TASK SIMPLIFICATION

                                         

Traditional skill acquisition practices goes something like this, using kicking as an example:

1 - Stationary kicking to a stationary target

2 - Cone-to-cone kicking drills

3 - Games

There might be some game-based practice somewhere between stages 2 and 3, but it's still not as prevalent as it should be so let's get to work on that.

There is a time and space for all 3 (or 4) of those stages above but coaches often lack the understanding of when and how to move from 1 stage to the next.

During stages 1 and 2 specifically, coaches tend to deconstruct the skill where they break down teeny tiny components of the skill and then try and have the learner put those alterations back into their action, to cement a single technique when kicking.

2 major problems with this approach is that the skill deconstruction is usually carried out via internal cues (arm here, foot here etc) which only takes focus away from the full action/technique required for the skill, plus you'll never perform the same kick twice in a game of football so only being able to kick 1 way isn't going to serve your players too well on game day where adaptability is king.

When designing practice coaches often seem more concerned with task design, ensuring that the drill/activity addresses a problem from the game, in an isolated fashion that lacks game representation.

Game representation refers to designing training activities that maintain game information to some, or usually high, degree.

The most important game information as it pertains to footy are things like opposition, time, space, ball location and consequence.

Any skill acquisition activity that doesn't include at least 1 of these is not training skill at it's core - which is player adaptability.

OK, so far we have made the following points...

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CORRECTING MISTAKES

 

These notes come from Soccer coach Bernat Mosquera who has some great threads on his Twitter page and is definitely worth a follow.

Giving feedback/correcting mistakes also act as major constraints for player performance because what a coach says to a player will then also dictate where they look, what they look for and that informs their proceeding actions, so coaches need to know exactly how and when to do so.

The points below will help you understand why mistakes happen in the first place and then once you know the why, then you go ahead and tackle the how to correct them.

• Often coaches critique player technical actions without considering the game cycle/context
• What a player does before receiving the ball greatly impacts their actions
• Focus should be on where to move/how to receive v how to execute the technical action where it usually is like when we train a corridor kick but the player is already standing there on a cone that tells them to stand there but in games they are still lost in regards to how to create and the timing to utilise that space in a game without being detected by the opposition
• The receiver needs to find a space then use the correct timing  time to move into it
• The ball carrier needs to identify advantages and then exploit them.
• It’s crucial to understand that a player’s perception of space/time is the key to improving their decision making but are we helping them create/manage space/time better? Not with cones we're not
• Perception enables players to uncover various game options based on a situation but perception goals vary with each scenario
• Perception is also the key when receiving the ball, especially while the ball travels to us and during possession
• When receiving, if you can perceive spaces and understand their advantages, they can make better decisions about where/how to move while creating more space for a successful ball reception by optimising their timing/direction/place
• When the ball is travelling to the player they must assess the immediate space around them to adjust their reception which leads to more options, granting them more space/time
• When in possession, perception should focus on identifying/exploiting advantages and only after this analysis should the player execute the action.
• Execution is the final step, not the 1^st step
• Coach correction/feedback should also guide players in recognising key game references
• Helping players understand how the ball, teammates and the opposition interact/influence space/time, can help them discover new opportunities to exploit
• Technical execution is often a consequence of good perception/decision making

KICKING THROUGH A KICK OUT DEFENSIVE ZONE

                                       

Score source stats from the 2024 AFL season showed that Port Adelaide averaged the highest point total average in the league at 6.3pts/game and they also reached the highest single game total of 26 points.

For added context, the 5th placed team,the Western Bulldogs averaged 5.5pts/game and Sydney 13th at 3.3.

So as far as the AFL goes, scoring from kick outs is extremely hard so a more-process driven data piece showing what you're achieving from kick outs is probably where your possession chain is broken.

In local/amateur football pretty much every team runs with the same zone defense on kick outs being a 3/5/5 and then 3/1 or 2/2 behind those first 3 lines.

Most teams are able to sort this out with the ample time it takes to get the ball from over the fence, back into play and then to kick out, only to then see the ball bombed as far as it can go to a pack of players from both teams to a 50/50 contest at best - hardly a potential score source!

What I propose here is to really test the opposition's zone defense.

Do they balance the gaps between they're lines correctly?

If you break 1 line of defense, then does the next one collapse opening up another 1 behind it?

If we use short kicks to short options in effort to move the opposition (not the ball), can they move collectively to keep gaps from opening up?

Do they move at all after the initial kick out?

Can we string together 3 - 4 short kicks in pretty quick succession to get them unorganised and then take advantage of that?

Below are the most common kick out locations, not including long bombs that anyone can do, and then how you can train them specifically using Rondo training activities.

Rondo's are a popular Soccer training activity that can be performed a million different ways but the most common form that we see in football is the old 4v1 or 4v2 with the offensive players forming a square around the 1 or 2 defenders in the middle - that's pretty much as far we we tend to go with Rondo's but they are a great post-warm up activity to use that includes all players thinking and moving all the time, plenty of touches and are a very easy way to set up, verbalise and get going to maintain ball-rolling time.

They're played in 360 degrees so there's no specific end to go to, you're just trying to utilise those players in the middle because that's the most dangerous position on the ground, to avoid getting stuck along the boundary which is what the opposition want.

SHORT KICK OUT TO THE SIDE...

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GROUND BALL PROGRESSION

                                                       

My new team I'm in charge of is a rebooted team but is essentially a start-up with no carry over of players from the initial team from pre-Covid. 

We have solid numbers but a lot of beginners at football but we're still aiming to grade ourselves into division 2 if we possibly can, otherwise division 3 and no big deal.

Regardless of where we end up I've watched games from both divisions from 2024 and like most local/amateur football of all ages, abilities, experience and genders, the ball is on the ground for 70 - 90% of the time.

That means that ground balls are king and any success you achieve in football will be correlated to ground ball wins and that's what we intend to be strong at in 2o25.

Over our last 2 training sessions we have already put a huge emphasise on ground balls but no by low-context lane work ground balls, no, we've identified some of the most common ground ball actions used I games and have started to focus on them.

What we want to teach them is to not slow right down and stop to groundball as that's just gives time for trailing opposition to get get close enough to apply perceived or physical pressure and there's some coaching cues I use to hopefully avoid that from happening.  

2 GROUP GROUND BALL...

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DAD COACHING DONE PROPERLY

                                                      

While I was doing my sprinting session at my local footy ground this week there was a "dad-coach" with his daughter practicing kicking.

Before I go further just be sure that one of my 2 all-time favorite things these days is seeing girls kicking the footy in their own time and the connection dad's have been able to make with their daughters through footy.

One of my biggest reasons for coaching and continuing this site year on year is that I believe every who wants to be coached, should be able to do so at a high level.

We were training about 25m away from each other so I was able to hear close to everything he said to her although his intentions were super, the method is an outdated one and more than that - probably how he was taught, which is usually the biggest factor with dad coaches, regardless of if those methods are effective or not...

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