I'm starting to map out the June edition of the monthly newsletter so if you want something covered let me know.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Zone Defence Video
Here's a 2nd video that looks at a zone defence from a kick out and a simple modification you can use to make your teams defence more effective:
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
My Take On Essendon's Injury Woes
As of April 30th, Essendon have an injury list of 15 deep. Of these 15 injuries 7 are listed as "hamstring".
The old "pulled a hammy excuse" heard in many a country football club change rooms is a case of reality for the Bombers at the moment.
There has been quite a bit of publicity on this topic, mainly because they hired a new strength and conditioning coach Dean Robinson who has has past success with the Geelong premiership teams.
The man clearly knows his shit but the question remains, why all the injuries and could they have been avoided?
Now from where I stand, if you have your best players out on the park, you're a chance to win every game. As a strength and condoning coach and a personal trainer, my number 1 goal is not injure the client for 2 reasons.
#1 - people pay me to improve their performance, not get injured
#2 - clients pay my bills so when they don't train, they obviously don't pay
This puts my number 1 priority squarely on preventing injuries before they occur.
The big talk has been about how Essendon and in particular coach James Hird and Dean Robinson, have continued to train at a high volume from the pre season right through to now where other teams might provide some extra time off early in the season to combat game soreness and playing time loads so as not peak too early or have players do more work then they are capable of at this stage of their fitness.
Overtraining is term used far too much in sport and training of all kinds. Only professional athletes will even have a sniff of a chance of overtraining, everyone else under recovers through ordinary nutritional and sleeping habits. Do you really think those 10 cans of beer and no dinner after a game on a Saturday is helping your recovery? I hope not.
So here are some idea's on what I think might be the cause of this, bearing in mind I have no idea what their training regime was, is or will be.
Extra Bodyweight
There has also been a lot of talk of the bigger bodies putting more strain on the players bodies thus causing these injuries. I don't agree with this fully as they would have been running while they were putting on the added weight and therefore their bodies would have adjusted to the added bulk, and learnt to "run with it". Why wasn't there many injuries during the pre season, when running volume is at it's highest? Players from all teams put on weight during the off season and avoid injuries so this is not a definitive excuse.
I gained 7 or 8kgs one off season which at the time was a 10 - 15% weight gain. Granted I was stick at a great height of 168cms but relatively, it is actually more then these Esseond players. They did have me covered for running volume by a long way but I was still doing pre season team training on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and another run on the weekend and I have always been injury free, even now at 33.
Overtraining
As noted above overtraining is very real, but only for elite athletes and I class AFL players in the elite of the elite. There is simply no other activity on earth that covers as many strength and fitness components as AFL.
Professionals train everyday, hard, everyday. Their body gradually condition themselves to handle the extra stress that is put on them. If you have previously lifted 100kgs on the deadlift, then the body will "set itself" at a higher level in case you try to lift a heavier weight. Basically it does this through increased nervous system activation and coordination as well increasing muscle cross sectional area to handle the heavier loads placed on them in the future.
With the average age of AFL teams being about 22 years old, that means players are being thrown into the rigours of AFL football at 18 and expected to be at their peak, or at least close to in 4 years. Couple this with the lack or sub standard weights training they've done prior to draft day and it means that their bodies have a lot of maturing to do so it would make sense that teas need to be cautious of players and trying to build them into machines so quickly. You wouldn't do it with a 16 year old so why do it with an 18 year old??
Now I am not convinced that Essendon have overtrained their players in the true sense because when you are truly overtrained you should actually get sick, lose motivation which would be more then evident in any training sessions you would do leading up to the game. Teams are now spending up more then ever to analyse player training and playing volume to be sure that they can recover to 100% as soon as they can.
I would hope that if this is happening then teams are onto this far before it begins because it can be a long way back.
So if its not over training then what else could it be?
Assessment
If you go to this story here on Essendon's new S&C Coach, about half way down Dean says "...at the end of the day when you accelerate people and you do push them you find weaknesses. In the first 4 weeks we wanted to find the weaknesses and once we found them we could strengthen them..."
I'm not sure what sort of assessent protocol Essendon have going down there but I would have thought that AFL teams assessments, physical and mental, would leave no stones unturned.
Before you train someone you must assess them because if you're not assessing, your guessing and it seems Essendon guessed incorrectly on this one.
Muscle Activation
Before a muscle can be trained to get bigger and stronger, you must ensure that it actually works and does what it's supposed to in the first place. In the case of hamstring tears you need to look at the glutes. Are they providing the degree hip extension they should be? Are they strong enough to stabilise the pelvis properly? Are they strong enough in AFL specific ranges of motion?
The picture in the article linked above shows Dean in the bottom position of a deadlift or power clean (I have read that they might have done a lot of power cleans during the off season). Deadlifts are great for developing horizontal hip power (think sprinting) and power cleans can be great for overall full body power but if the right muscles aren't doing the exercises then your basically training the movement and nothing else. Last tie I checked no one did power cleans on the football field.
Getting back to hamstring tears and the glutes, the 2 biggest compensation patterns for weak glutes are lumbar spine hyperextension and hamstring dominance in hip extension and both are a product of being stuck in excessive anterior pelvic tilt.
So your very first move here is to make sure that the glutes are activating when they need to and that they can provide the correct pelvic positioning (the core also plays a pretty big part here). Once glute activation is achieved then you would add in some hip dominant movements (deadlifts, pull throughs etc) keeping the glute activation stuff going the entire time. These movements would progress only as the player progresses, do not force progression on a player that isn't ready for it.
If you're training players who have these postural dysfunctions, then I can't see how they couldn't get injured with the extra running volume in conjunction with the the accelerated gym program.
Eccentric Forces
Again I've never been in the Essendon gym when they're throwing bars around but a lot of sports teams eliminate eccentric contractions in their training to avoid soreness which is a great idea. The only problem is is that you also eliminate deceleration training which is crucial for AFL. You need the ability to run, stop and run again quickly and the weaker you are in deceleration, the slower it will take and the longer distance you'll need to slow down and turn.
Look at the Chief when he lunges over the line at the 7 minute mark.
As soon as your front leg pushes out in front of your center of mass like the Chiefton does on his 'line step" then you're required to be able to quickly decelerate your speed through the glutes and hamstrings and if the glutes (and the hamstrings for that matter) aren't strong enough to do so then PING!!
With deadlifts and Olympic variations, many teams have their players simply drop the bar from the top position to avoid any eccentric contractions, thus soreness and thus it allows the players to train more often and thus more volume.
By taking these eccentric contractions away, once games come around then players can be weak in deceleration and hamstring tears and strains are a result.
Strengthen the End Range of Motion
Strengthening the end range of motion of any joint can increase strength, hypertrophy, flexibility and more importantly, injury resistance. Most players simply focus on strengthening the midrange portion of a movement which is great for absolute strength but some time should be taken to strengthen the end range of motion too. For the glutes and hamstrings that means you want to strengthen in their maximal stretched position which can be done best through single leg training.
Single Leg Training
If you're an avid reader of sports performance information like I am (PTontheNet is not sports performance) then you must have read quite a lot about single leg training and its any benefits for athletes. Sports are played on 1 leg at a time so it makes a little sense to dedicate at least a small amount of training to them. If I see another leg days consisting of squats, leg press, leg extension, leg curls and calf raises, especially by footballers, I'll go postal.
You know why people don't so lunges? Because they're f'in hard. And it's sort of 2 sets in 1 as you've got to do each leg.
Single leg training is essential in my book for any athlete and especially the AFL player as it trains eccentric forces of the glutes and hamstrings as described above and allows for greater depth then squats so they also puts the glutes and hamstrings in a maximal stretched position under load.
AFL teams may avoid heavy single exercises but I don't. During our off season we did a single leg exercise each phase for lowish reps (6 - 8) and with maximal weight.
I am sure that my injury resistance and leg size comes from my 5 or so years of heavy single training, not from squats (that I don't do a lot of anymore) or deadlifts.
I use the big exercises for strength and the single leg exercises for size, mobility and flexibility.
Putting It All Together
Step 1 - Assess, Assess, Assess
Step 2 - Activate what's inhibited (glutes) and strengthen what's weak (glutes, core) but remember you can't strengthen what doesn't work so you might need to just activate the glutes for a few sessions and learn the movements that will actually strengthen them (deadlift variations, pull throughs, hip thrusts etc) with technique work.
Step 3 - While maintaining glute activation work, progress the glute strengthening exercises ONLY when you think the player is ready. Do not wait for injuries to happen, be proactive and train to avoid them in the first place.
Be sure that this isn't a piece to hang shit on Essendon and their S&C staff, it's my thoughts on why they have had the injuries they have had and ways that you can avoid the same thing. And as it would be I have a huge corrective exercise edition of my monthly newsletter this week so purchase from the Paypal link on the left.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Avoid Injury This Season
The May Edition of the Aussie Rules Newsletter is completed!
These video's are concise yet very simple to understand and implement so try them out with your team and leave some feedback and Anthony will continue to put them up.
Every club has issues with injuries and the teams that have their best players on the park will win the most games more times then not so this month we have a bumper issue focusing on Injury Prevention and Corrective Exercise.
The contents of the newsletter involves:
- A Joint by Joint Approach to Training
- Movement Implications at Each Joint
- Why Do You Get Injured?
- Exercises for Each Joint
- Dealing With In Season Injuries
- Training Around Specific Injuries
- Putting It All Together
- Monthly Training Program for May
I know this type of training works, I use it and at age 33, I can still back up each and every Saturday and train every Tuesday and Thursday so imagine what it could do for you.
Order from the Paypal link to the left.
I also came across a some coaching videos on You Tube. I will eventually put them all up but here's the first one that looks at forward line structure from a stoppage:
These video's are concise yet very simple to understand and implement so try them out with your team and leave some feedback and Anthony will continue to put them up.
Go Swans!!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
I Am Still Here
Things have been rather crazy down here so I apologise for my lack of activity here.
Anyway 2 weeks I sent ago I sent out the inaugural edition of the Aussie Rules Training Monthly Newsletter which was FREE for the month of April.
If you want to get your copy then you'll need to email prior to April 24th as then it will be off the market as the May edition will be ready to go.
About 6 weeks ago when I posted about the initial release of the newsletter I had an asking price of $30 a month for it. I really had no idea what to charge for it so I just picked $30 and see how it would go. In the meantime I've had a number of people from my list ask for a reduced price based on what they could afford so it will now be available for $15 per month or $165 for a yearly subscription.
Here's the link to purchase it here:
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
What Have I Been Up To?
Lots!
My frequency has fallen down again but with good reason.
The wife has been pretty ordinary healthwise, I've had to knock in 2 new trainers in the studio at the same time, I've had to get the early marketing plan in action for the studio, we've accompanying Archie to child care to break him in there for his start tomorrow, training myself and training with the mighty Yarra's!
Starting from today, we have our first competitive hit out tonight with an intraclub match which I generally hate but I'm very keen for it this year. We have a complete list turnover from last year to this year so we're all very interested how we'll look and who will step up for a senior birth.
Training wise I've a fair bit to do with what we've done so we've done most of our running in the drills save for some 200's in January, some short sprint work for accleration (Zachy also took some acceleration stuff which was great) and a fair bit of competitive stuff to replicate a real game situation.
For my individual training I've been road testing a little bit this last month. A mate got me onto Juggernaught Training by Chad Wesley Smith, who is a former shot putter, which is based on using sub maximal weights for maximal strength development. It is in the same vain as 531 by Jim Wendler which you can insert, and I have, into the existing Juggernaught template.
I have coupled that a day of performance complexes using force absorption, force output and maximum velocity and another day of just traditional exercises as well as some rate of development stuff on each.
Yes it;s a lot different then your everyday program but they obviously don't work work real well or we'd all be superstars.
From the end of last year until now I'm more about expressing what I have strength wise into actual on field performance. If my strength is going up in the gym then great, but is it making me better on the field by increasing my speed or otherwise? That is what I am, and you should be too, aiming for with every piece of training you do.
Here's what it looks like:
Day 1
A1 - 531 Deadlift
A2 - Deadlift Drop and Catch 4 x 3
A3 - Deadlift Jumps 4 x 3
A4 - Vertical Jumps 4 x 3
B1 - Seated Row x 35/40/45/50 reps
B2 - Clip Board Shoulder Glider 3 x 8/10/12/4 x 10
Day 2
A1 - 531 Bench Press
A2 - Bench Press Drop and Catch 4 x 3
A3 - Bench Press Throw from bottom position 4 x 3
A4 - Bench Press Drop, Catch and Throw 4 x 3
B1 - Semi Supinated Chin Ups x 25/30/35/40 reps
B2 - Cable Push Pulls 3 x 8/10/12/4 x 10
Day 3
A1 - Portable Power Jumper Depth Jumps 3 x 3
B1 - Sled Standing Long Jumps 3 x 3
C1 - Juggernaught Deadlifts
D1 - BB Chest Supported Row x 20/23/26/29 reps
D2 - Speed Lunge 3 x 5/6/7/8
D3 - L Core Walk 3 x 10/11/12/13
Day 4
A1 - Standing Power Pushes 4 x 3
A2 - Plyometric Push Ups 4 x 3
B1 - Juggernaught Bench Press
B2 - Pull Ups x 25/30/35/40 reps
B3 - Landmine 3 x 5/6/7/8
I am also doing a day of tempo sprints on the weekend until footy starts consisting of 8 x 60 step sprints on the start of each minute with each sprint taking about 18 - 20secs. The length is about 100m but I haven't measured it ad there are no footy lines on the ground so it's 60 steps. Same thing.
I am really enjoying the program as it's short and it's not very tiring. It's all about quality and you should feel as fresh, or fresher, when you leave the gym then as you walked in. If not then you've probably gone a but overboard and I hope you're doing extra recovery to get over it.
I've also been busy with the newsletter preparation which has had a ridiculous response!! It is due out on the 26th of March so make sure you put your order in here.
We have a $5 opt in special for the first month and then you can decide if you want to continue with further editions after that.
It took me 2 weeks to compile my email address list, over 2000 contacts!!!
So get your club on board, or individually, and take your game to the next level in 2012.
4 hours til kick off!!
My frequency has fallen down again but with good reason.
The wife has been pretty ordinary healthwise, I've had to knock in 2 new trainers in the studio at the same time, I've had to get the early marketing plan in action for the studio, we've accompanying Archie to child care to break him in there for his start tomorrow, training myself and training with the mighty Yarra's!
Starting from today, we have our first competitive hit out tonight with an intraclub match which I generally hate but I'm very keen for it this year. We have a complete list turnover from last year to this year so we're all very interested how we'll look and who will step up for a senior birth.
Training wise I've a fair bit to do with what we've done so we've done most of our running in the drills save for some 200's in January, some short sprint work for accleration (Zachy also took some acceleration stuff which was great) and a fair bit of competitive stuff to replicate a real game situation.
For my individual training I've been road testing a little bit this last month. A mate got me onto Juggernaught Training by Chad Wesley Smith, who is a former shot putter, which is based on using sub maximal weights for maximal strength development. It is in the same vain as 531 by Jim Wendler which you can insert, and I have, into the existing Juggernaught template.
I have coupled that a day of performance complexes using force absorption, force output and maximum velocity and another day of just traditional exercises as well as some rate of development stuff on each.
Yes it;s a lot different then your everyday program but they obviously don't work work real well or we'd all be superstars.
From the end of last year until now I'm more about expressing what I have strength wise into actual on field performance. If my strength is going up in the gym then great, but is it making me better on the field by increasing my speed or otherwise? That is what I am, and you should be too, aiming for with every piece of training you do.
Here's what it looks like:
Day 1
A1 - 531 Deadlift
A2 - Deadlift Drop and Catch 4 x 3
A3 - Deadlift Jumps 4 x 3
A4 - Vertical Jumps 4 x 3
B1 - Seated Row x 35/40/45/50 reps
B2 - Clip Board Shoulder Glider 3 x 8/10/12/4 x 10
Day 2
A1 - 531 Bench Press
A2 - Bench Press Drop and Catch 4 x 3
A3 - Bench Press Throw from bottom position 4 x 3
A4 - Bench Press Drop, Catch and Throw 4 x 3
B1 - Semi Supinated Chin Ups x 25/30/35/40 reps
B2 - Cable Push Pulls 3 x 8/10/12/4 x 10
Day 3
A1 - Portable Power Jumper Depth Jumps 3 x 3
B1 - Sled Standing Long Jumps 3 x 3
C1 - Juggernaught Deadlifts
D1 - BB Chest Supported Row x 20/23/26/29 reps
D2 - Speed Lunge 3 x 5/6/7/8
D3 - L Core Walk 3 x 10/11/12/13
Day 4
A1 - Standing Power Pushes 4 x 3
A2 - Plyometric Push Ups 4 x 3
B1 - Juggernaught Bench Press
B2 - Pull Ups x 25/30/35/40 reps
B3 - Landmine 3 x 5/6/7/8
I am also doing a day of tempo sprints on the weekend until footy starts consisting of 8 x 60 step sprints on the start of each minute with each sprint taking about 18 - 20secs. The length is about 100m but I haven't measured it ad there are no footy lines on the ground so it's 60 steps. Same thing.
I am really enjoying the program as it's short and it's not very tiring. It's all about quality and you should feel as fresh, or fresher, when you leave the gym then as you walked in. If not then you've probably gone a but overboard and I hope you're doing extra recovery to get over it.
I've also been busy with the newsletter preparation which has had a ridiculous response!! It is due out on the 26th of March so make sure you put your order in here.
We have a $5 opt in special for the first month and then you can decide if you want to continue with further editions after that.
It took me 2 weeks to compile my email address list, over 2000 contacts!!!
So get your club on board, or individually, and take your game to the next level in 2012.
4 hours til kick off!!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
2 Years in the Making, But Now It's Here!!
You may have noticed that I haven't updated for a few weeks but I have a great reason why!
This site is taking the next step to world wide domination (slight exaggeration maybe...) and moving to a monthly subscription newsletter start Monday March 26th, 2012!!
I am very excited about this and I've tried for the last couple of years to do this but I could never get it off the ground but this year I'm throwing caution to the wind and off we go.
By clicking on the button at the bottom of the page you can have the Aussie Rules Training Monthly Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox with no hassles.
For just $30 per month you'll receive:
- a monthly training program ($140 value)
- nutrition and supplementation information
- exercises to use to avoid common football injuries
- strategies to rehabilitate common football injuries
- the latest strength and conditioning methods used to be more powerful, stronger and faster then you've ever been!
- Training to ace the combine tests
- Goal setting
- Team training idea’s
- and any suggestions that are sent my way
The newsletter has one purpose only, and that is to help you and your
football team become better footballers.
For a short time only I will set the price for the first month at $5 and then a reoccurring payment of $30.00 for each successive edition. Alternatively you can purchase a 12 month subscription for $330. Purchase HERE.
The first newsletter will be available from Monday March 26th, 2012.
Do not miss this opportunity!!
For a short time only I will set the price for the first month at $5 and then a reoccurring payment of $30.00 for each successive edition. Alternatively you can purchase a 12 month subscription for $330. Purchase HERE.
The first newsletter will be available from Monday March 26th, 2012.
Do not miss this opportunity!!
I will
still be updating this site but spasmodically (so like normal I suppose!!) but the way I want this to work is for you to get your footy club to purchase the monthly subscription to a) ease the cost and b) to provide as many players as possible access to the wealth of information. Of course if you want all the secrets to yourself then go right ahead.
If you have any queries or ideas for subjects that you’d like covered in the
newsletter please contact me at lange_troy@hotmail.com.Friday, February 3, 2012
THIS is How to Get Faster
I received this email the other day:
Hey Troy,
I am a 14 year old on-baller from Qld. I have great endurance but my
sprinting needs much more work. Could you please send activities or
a workout on how i can improve this? I am willing to do a lot of work.
Thanks AJ
Speed is King.
Having great endurance is fine but if you can only go at 1 pace, you
will seldom win the ball. I went into this in greater detail in my
"You Must Train Like This In 2012" article.
What we'll focus on in this article is what you HAVE to do to
improve sprinting speed.
Now really there are 2 things to do to get faster.
Thing 1 - Use the right muscles at the right time
Thing 2 - Make the right muscles stronger.
Doing these 2 things alone will increase your sprinting speed above
all else, even if you're fast already.
Speed is a product of how much force you can put into the ground
with each step. The harder you can plant your foot down, the harder
the rebound which translates into greater horizontal propulsion.
Think of throwing a rubber ball into the ground as hard as you can
and seeing how high it can rebound into the air.
Now in order to be able to develop the ability to plant with great
force, you need muscular strength, power and coordination.
The muscles you need to focus on initially are the glutes and
hamstrings, the 2 most underdeveloped muscles in footballers all
over the country.
A lot of people will harp on about the quads for lower body which
is true, but the posterior chain is where speed is developed.
As well as developing the muscles of the posteriour chain, you also
need to develop the action of hip extension, which is the action of
the leg going back behind the mid line of the body. I go into great
detail on it here.
So here's what we need:
1 - Activation of the posteriour chain muscles and hip extension
action (glutes and hamstrings).
2 - Strengthening of the posteriour chain muscles and hip
extension action (glutes and hamstrings again)
To activating the posteriour chain muscles, perform the exercises
from this video for 1 - 2 sets of 10 - 20 reps each
To activating the hip extension action you have 2 options
depending on what equipment you have access to. If you
have access to a prowler, sled or a partner, then you can
perform a push or drag exercise like this:
If you don't have a prowler or sled, than you can use a
partner variation where you just try and push them
backwards while they try and resist you. The aim is to
push through complete hip extension each step and try
and clench your arse cheeks with each step. Your
partner should only apply minimal resistance as you
actually want to do it, not just push against an
immovable object. Also don't forget to raise your
knees up as high and far as you can, such as when
you're sprinting. Do this for 2 sets of 10 - 20 steps.
If you can't do this as you train alone then you can
stand with your arms on a bar about sternum height
and just push your feet through the floor while
squeezing your cheeks as hard as you can through
the back leg:
To strengthen the posteriour chain muscles you can't
go past deadlifts. Keep these to low reps per set, no
higher then 6 but you won't need to go lower then 3
either. We're training to get faster, not for
powerlifitng.
If you've never done deadlifts before then please get
a qualified coach to show you (although my video
does a pretty good job!) and start with bar at a mid
shin height too, such as the rack pull showed in the
video above at 2mins:50secs.
To strengthen the hip extension action in a sprinting
motion, the prowler drag video is it. As most people
don't have access to a prowler or sled, again you can
go with the partner push or even a car push. This time
your partner can now apply a lot more resistance but
again you still want to be able to do it.
Put these methods to the test but also continue to sprint!
Get your prowler from Underground Elite.
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