Player Monitoring System NOW AVAILABLE!

How do you feel today? Good? Bad? In between?

How did you feel yesterday? Not the same as today huh?

How will you feel tomorrow? Could be different again, easily.

This is life.

The way you feel today, the way you felt 3 days ago and the way you felt a week ago can affect everything you do.

Stress is a pet of everything we do. We have physical stress in the form of football, training and manual labor and then we have mental stress in the form of education, office jobs, relationships and how we perceive things.

Some people handle stress well and some don't, there's no issue there.

And it's also fine to get stressed because that is when we are being challenges in some form and makes us better.

What is more important though is not overloading stress and if this does occur, then you need to know how to 'get out of stress".

Stress pretty much kills. It alters the way you move and it alters the way you think. Many illnesses can be put down to stress, or an overload of stress, during a given period of time.

If you're body is tired then immunity is stressed and if a bug breaks past your immunity, you get sick. If you were to manage the stress, then the bug wouldn't have a chance and you'd feel nothing.

When you;re body is tired it alters posture by moving into a fetal dominant posture with shoulders rounding and hips flexing so you're bum sticks out behind you like an old man on a walking stick.

Your breathing patterns change in an effort to conserve energy because now that you're posture has moved, it's harder to breath. This results in poor circulation of oxygen which makes you tired - constantly tired.

And this can all happen from 1 single episode of stress.

Now let's say you have a high stress job, work long hours, have young children and train/play a relatively high level. Everything on this list is causes high stress.

You're body has something called homeostasis which is a "point' where the body feels comfortable and it's where it sits at rest. All those things above move you away from homeostasis, into a state of un-comfortableness. This is great for trying to get better because it's where improvements can be made but by adding new stress on top of existing stress, can move your set point into permanent un-comfortableness.

What this does is activate your sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for such things increasing heart rate and responsiveness (think 'fight") which again is great at certain times. But what often happens is that you get stuck in this sympathetic state and this means you'll find it hard to rest, sleep, sit still and digest - all things that will move your body back into homeostasis.

Your parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for recovery and rest and is what you need to activate as soon as you can after times of stress.

Laying stress on top of stress is the best and fastest way to get an injury bar none!

With the Aussie Rules Training Player Monitoring System, we can hopefully predict periods of fatigue before and as they happen so you can later your training and/or lifestyle accordingly.

This will help you avoid non-contact injuries as well ensure that you are "peaking" every Saturday and not Friday or Sunday.

There are 3 levels of player monitoring you choose from:

Level 1 - 2 questions answered and emailed to me 3 times a week.

Level 2 - level 1 requirements + a daily wellness survey emailed to me everyday

Level 3 - level 1 and 2 requirements + the purchase of a $10 app (not mine and I'm not affiliated with it at all) which also entails emailing me daily the results.

All I do is gather your information and look for patterns in your performance and wellness scores.

The first 3 - 4 weeks we'll establish your baseline and then after that we can look at altering specific things to ensure Saturday is the day you're at your best.

This is perfect for local/amateur footballers who have far more outside stress then football stress, unlike our elite counterparts.

The system can be used for individual players and teams alike.

For teams I'd suggest going with either of these options:

#1 - Having your senior "squad" of 25 odd players and have them use the system so even those that are playing reserves can be monitored in case they need to cover injured players. There also might be cases of a player who's really on the edge of fatigue overload and may require a rest against a lower placed team. By monitoring their potential replacements you can ensure bringing the best option available into the side for minimal loss of coverage.

#2 - Monitoring your best 18 players.

#3 - Monitoring your top 6 - 12 players as most local/amateur teams will win games or be ultra competitive with their best 6 or so players playing every week.

I'll be doing this manually for starters but I have a mate working on an app that will hopefully make it a bit more easy for everyone but with practice games already starting the time is now to get this out. Yes there will be a fee for this but it will not break your budget that's for sure.

So if you're a player or a coach who is interested in this then please email at aussierulestraining@gmail.com with any questions you might have and the option you think would suit you best.

If you read my interviews with the various strength coaches from the AFL, VFL and TAC then you'll know how critical this sort of stuff has become in Aussie Rules and most of the time with new innovations in footy, the cost is far too great and the knowledge required to do it is not in grasp for any local/amateur club to implement.

This is.

So if you're year was wrecked by injuries last year, this might be the best investment you can make.

Player Monitoring...Why?

Player Monitoring is everywhere these days in elite sport and is slowly creeping it's way into lower levels of sport too.

A few days ago I posted an article on Facebook that detailed the company who does Port Adelaide Football Club's player wellness stuff which discusses what they aim to do and how they aim to do it.

Wellness survey's have been used in Soccer and Rugby for years now. It's not new but it is new to the "mainstream" for a lack of better term.

I have been using the HRV4Training app for about a year now which works great for me.

In the NBA the Golden State Warriors hired an Australian dude to run their strength and conditioning and he introduced them to wellness surveys, heart rate variability and GPS trackers. They are the first NBA team to do this and if someone tests badly on game day then take the game off.

Elite teams train and play with a lot more volume and intensity then we do and that's why they need fatigue monitoring.

So why do we need it then?

Us weekend warriors have as many outside stressors then they do "inside" stressors. We have jobs that require our attention, we have financial commitments we have, and sometimes struggle, to meet. We have kids that don't sleep. We have people pulling us every which way. Our fatigue is different but still very real.

Mental and physical fatigue, acute and chronic, can have a hazardous effects on the body and it's ability display high performance output.

We can't just skip work or leave our kids alone with knives in the kitchen. We have to do those things so what we may need to alter is our training.

So you can be fatigued from your kids teething and when struggling to pay the mortgage and train as hard you can, placing even more stress on an already stressed body.

You can then try and rock up on  a Saturday and play the best game you ever have...except you won't...because you can't.

Unless you ARE 100% then can't give 100%.

Relatively you might feel like you're giving 100% but that can be deceiving.

You can run that 100m sprint at the end of your 3km time trial to finish strong but try comparing this pace to a 100m sprint performed when you are 100% fresh and non-fatigued.

It won't even be close.

And you know what? We might never be 100% for all the reasons listed above but we can try and get as close as we can, for as many Saturdays as we can.

The Aussie Rules Training Player Monitoring System is designed to get you as close to 100% every Saturday as we can.

I'll be back in a couple of days with more on this and the possible release of this system!

My Personal Story of Overtraining and Why Player Monitoring is More Important Than Training

At the elite level, player monitoring is HUGE. It dictates training volume and individualises training load for each and every player to ensure that they are at their peak each every game.

As local/amateur footballers like us, that should also be our aim but instead of training Thursday, having a decent dinner Friday and expecting to be at 100% come Saturday, we can take the guess work out of it.

Over the next week or 2 I’ll be focusing on this, as well as in-season training programming, because as practice games commence, you should be entering your in-season/competition phase of training to peak for round 1.

Fatigue is a prick and it can come in various forms:

-          -  Physical (heavy legs, decreased power output, sub-optimal sleep quality etc)

-           - Mental (hard to concentrate, scattered brain, lack of motivation etc)

-           - Acute (short term)

-           - Chronic (long term)

Life can also be prick, especially for us non-professionals. As well as training Tuesday/Thursday and playing Saturdays, we also work 5 – 6 days a week and often have the sole responsibility of supporting our families, and all the physical and mental stress that comes with all of those things.

To cap off, the greatest invention in history – the Internet – means we live in an age where technology has infiltrated our society with the instant needs for information, communication and the completion of tasks.

I tell you what, the days of postage only were totally underrated because how long would it take you to write a letter, get the response in a week and respond back in a week? That’s all done in a couple 2min emails now which means now we’re doing 10’s to 100’s of those “letters” a day!

This all builds some form of the stress outlined above, and sometimes a combination of all of them.

Now as men (not discounting the girls here either though!) we don’t get tired, we’re tough so we take these things in our stride, don’t show any weaknesses and just get the job done, but at what expense?

Well if you’re serious about your football, then it’s probably at the expense of your on-field performance.

Player monitoring is probably more important then your training because as stated above, it should dictate your training. Fatigue is very real, even at lower grades of footy.

When I was a youngster in my late teens/early 20’s I was a training machine. I’d start my off-season training on my own in the 1^st week of October and do long runs 3/week. I’d hit the gym 3 – 4/week and I’d also be playing local basketball 1 – 2/week too. I was also pretty active in my own hours having a kick of the footy and a shot of basketball.

I was big on the local nightlife in Warrnambool (if you can call it that!) hitting the pub (and the dirty chips and gravy) 2 – 4/week as well with a few bevs most nights of the week in summer.

Sleep wise I was going to bed in the am’s and getting up in the pm’s most days.

Good fun but not healthy.

Anyway I’d train the house down and never miss a session, or a game, but when I started playing senior football something weird started happening. In the back end of the season I’d really have a case of the can’t be f%$ks and pretty much just show up to these games.

My motivation was shot and looking back it’s all about fatigue.

My body had been stressed to the max for 9 – 10 months by that stage, and it just couldn’t give anymore. This happened for 3 – 4 seasons.

It wasn’t until I started decreasing my training load (starting training later, not training as hard all the time etc) that I could get through a full season with my motivation intact.

This is the worse part about fatigue. You can have it but not know and/or not notice the signs.

Player monitoring ensures you know exactly where you are fatigue-wise at all times. It lets you know when you’re fresh and when you can put in a big session. It can let you know when you need a recovery session (something is always better then nothing…ALWAYS!). It also let’s you know if you just need to back off for a session or 2.

The end game is every Saturday because that’s what you’re judged on. At the end of the day you might train the house down but if you’re not 100% come Saturday then it’s pretty much a waste.

I have developed my own player monitoring system that I will be using with my club’s senior squad this year. It can be used for an entire team or for individual players.

Elite sporting teams, and Port Adelaide have invested heavily in this sport sciencey type of stuff, invest huge casholla in this type of stuff and is the big thing in sports performance around the world right now.

All you need to do is provide me some information which takes 2mins of your day and get it to me and I’ll do the rest.

From there I can give you a periodic report and also recommendations on how to structure your week.

I can also work in conjunction with your coach if you wish.

I'll be posting more about this in the next week or so so but hit me up at auusierulestraining@gmail.com  if you or you’re club is interested.

Introducing Matt Glossop - Murray Bushrangers (TAC CUP U/18's) S&C Coach

Way back in April 2010, a mere 4 months after starting this teeny blog (as it was back then) I received an email from a bloke who signed up to my mailing list. His name was Matt Glossop and he had just started as the strength and conditioning coach for the Muarray Bushrangers, one of the most successful teams ever in the TAC Cup, the best league for under 18 Aussie Rules talent there is.

He just wanted to run some things by me to get my thoughts and since then we have exchanged 100's of emails and become pretty good mates. I even did my level 1 strength and conditioning hours under him and hope to help out during a game of there's in the next month or so when they visit Melbourne.

In the last couple of weeks we've had interviews from AFL and VFL strength and conditioning coaches Mladen Jovanovich and Rob Nicholson which is great for top end talent which is essentially 1000 players in the world tops. I think that this interview is more in the reaches of a local/amateur footballer even though it is geared to under age players but top under 18 talent can dominate local footy so it probably more closely represents the top end talent we play with and against better then AFL or VFL.

Matt, tell us quickly the process for TAC player selection from start to finish?

Every region will be slightly different. We have a number of processes in place to identify talent for our TAC Cup squad. Some players have already been in the pathway through Under 16 level or Under 15 Schoolboys, others are scouted from local competitions/interleague/school footy and we also ask all of our local clubs to nominate players they think deserve an opportunity. This will result in upwards of 300 players on our database per year. We narrow this down through our scouting network and run a trial game/combine testing day to lock in around 100 players to come into pre-season, of which around 40 will make our main list, so it's pretty competitive.

NOTE - I've been to a few of these early session and there are players everywhere! It's impressive how they get them all through the 5 or 6 stations in 90 - 120mins.

Is there anything specific AFL scouts are looking for?

Again, every club is different. The main things we look at is competitiveness, skill level and running ability. They seem to be the constants and non-negotiables. You need be clean at all times, you must be able to kick at an elite level and under pressure. Speed is great, but can you maintain and repeat it over 120 minutes with incomplete rest and make good decisions under fatigue? Competitiveness is the big one, are they really willing and able to compete at all times.

As the S&C Coach, what levels are you trying to get TAC players up to? Is there a standard the AFL or head coach sets or do you use your own discretion?

The main thing we are trying to do is keep them on the park so they can showcase their abilities, so a lot of work goes into injury prevention, management and recovery, just to give them that opportunity. In terms of fitness levels, we certainly have benchmarks for players by position and can draw conclusions into what the AFL clubs want from their draft history. For instance last year, the drafted smalls (sub 180cm) at Draft Combine had an average 20m sprint time of 2.95s, the smalls who went undrafted had an average of 3.02s, so our smaller players better be working on their acceleration or they are going to get overlooked. Common sense tells us that the interchange cap is going to skew things towards the aerobic athletes this year, so we will react to that and spend more time building our players engines. 

You're 15 and one of the better players in your underage league, what are the requirements to get a trial training invite to a TAC football team?

We would hope that you would be identified either by your local coach who will nominate you and get you on the radar, or through our scouting network watching your games. This is where the 'Talent Pathway' starts in Victoria, so an invitation into an Under 16 squad should be your goal. Interleague and finals footy are always going to carry weight, so do your best to perform on those big stages.

You're 16 and you've been chosen to trial for TAC, but unfortunately don't make the final cut. What are the requirements to a: get an invite next year and b: make the cut next year?

Every year we have players who miss out during their 'bottom-age' year of TAC, but go away and work on their deficiencies and end up making it the next year. Listen to the coaches, they should be giving you direct and specific feedback that you can work on. As I spoke about above, it will usually come down to one of three things; your skill level isn't high enough, you don't run well enough or you don't compete. They are all able to be developed, if you are willing to put in the time and effort.

You're 17 and you've been chosen for the final squad that play throughout the year. What do players need to do to optimise their training, and thus their on-field performance throughout the year?

I always speak to players about what you do when no-one is watching. Anyone can turn up at 5:30 and be told where to kick, how far to run, when to tackle, that's the easy part. I put a huge emphasis on the training our players do over the Christmas break when they're not with us, we give the boys a program and, ultimately, they decide whether they do the sessions or not, how hard they run, how much they push in the gym, that's when you find out who has what it takes to make it at our level and above. It needs to be a holistic approach; you can't run yourself into the ground every day and then playing video games all night and missing your sleep, you can't tear it up in the gym then not eat the right foods. You need to tick every box along the way. 

What has changes have you seen in training TAC players in the time you've been doing it?

Players are coming in better prepared in certain areas- they can run further, faster, harder. But completely unprepared in others- their movement patterns, motor control, running technique, gym technique is still behind what is required at that age. Over the past couple of years, we are starting to get some athletes who know how to squat and hinge at a reasonable level, but there are still plenty who come in having only ever done bench press and bicep curls. There is lots of easily accessible information out there, some good, some not so good (your blog is excellent), so players are better informed and starting to come in with ideas on how to improve certain aspects of their game.

I know you use RPE rating to gauge player wellness - can you go into a bit more detail here?

For RPE we get sessional ratings from our players in a couple of different ways.

1. Wellbeing Reports: which last year were filled out manually but we will switch to Smartabase this year so they will fill it out via the app on their phone.
2. Post-Session: we wait 30mins post session because otherwise players tend to rate it on what they just finished on such as a light session with 10 hard minutes at the end so if you ask them immediately they will overstate it.

NOTE - I am pretty close to getting my own wellness system sorted out especially for local/amateur clubs/players and I'll hopefully have it ready to go prior to round 1!

Matt is a highly sought after strength and conditioning coach from Wangaratta where he also trains athletes from various sports and can be contacted at mattglossop@live.com.au. 

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Introducing Rob Nicholson - Port Melbourne Football Club (AFL Reserves) S&C Coach

Last week we covered the AFL and gained an insight into the training requirements to make it at the elite level. Today we take a step back to the VFL and have a chat with Port Melbourne Football Club strength and conditioning coach Rob Nicholson who's been down at the Borough's for a number of years now and he's been kind enough to lend us his time.

First off is VFL full or semi professional for all players? What level of commitment do these guys need to put in where some teams have a mix of AFL and VFL listed players?

Port Melbourne is a stand alone club (semi-professional) along with Coburg, Frankston, North Ballarat and Williamstown in the VFL. The remaining clubs are either AFL based or aligned with an AFL club (Casey, Northern Blues, Sandringham, Werribee). The aligned clubs are primarily consist of semi-professional and AFL listed Players).

The players at Port Melbourne are required to attend training 3 nights per week from mid-November until the end of September. The latter depends upon whether the team makes finals. During the season the players are also requested to attend matches even if they are not selected.

Players are also expected to undertake fitness and weight training sessions in their own time.

As a young bloke moving from TAC to VFL, what do you find are the common strengths and weaknesses of these players?

Overall the TAC players tend to have a satisfactory level of aerobic fitness and some awareness of the tactics associated with football performance. Local level players tend to have lower levels of aerobic fitness.

The major ‘limitations’ include:

- Awareness of the time demands of elite football.

- Highly variable decision-making and skill performance capacity.

- Poor strength for senior football.

- Poor power/agility capacity.

- Poor training preparation/recovery planning.

- Poor awareness of the requirements of senior level football

Further Reading - this entire blog and training manual!

As a mature aged player with aspirations of moving from VFL to AFL, where do you find these players need to improve on to move from very good to elite player status?

Specifically the major areas of concern are skills, skills under pressure and decision-making.

Your question is difficult to answer because the improvement is based on the individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

With players on the radar from AFL draft scouts, do you work with these scouts on things they'd like to see the player do or improve upon?

I have had few players directly indicate that they were on the radar of an AFL club. However, one player who was in that situation was given an individualised program based on the Draft Camp Testing Battery and that worked on his strength and weaknesses in respect to fitness and football skills.

When the situation arises, then in consultation with the player and the coach a plan is developed to optimise both the fitness and football skills of the players. The player is then supervised by me to achieve those goals.

Can you tell us about any player monitoring that you have in place at VFL level?

At Port Melbourne we use the Polar Team HR Monitoring System to obtain data about players physiological performance at training and during games. The data obtained is used to provide the following information:

 - Daily, weekly and match day workload.

 - Daily, weekly and match day training intensity

 - Individual application to components of training.

 - Recovery from training and games.

 - The workload associated with specific training drills.

This information is used to:

 - Monitor player workloads and thus set training intensity (daily/weekly)

 - Compare training and game intensity

 - Determine the loads associated with specific drills and thus organise more effective training sessions

 - Limit the amount of wasted time during training

 - Organise the team and player recovery program

Further Reading - are you on my mailing list and/or Facebook page? If so then you might have seen my call out for players to monitor using a very simple system I've made up which I need to test out. As player monitoring is HUGE in AFL and VFL (and in the TAC as you'll see next week) then I strongly suggest letting me know you want to be part of it!

Are VFL players required to reach the same standards of testing as AFL players?

Standards have also been developed for:

- Fitness –Beep Test

- Strength (upper and lower body, core)

The tests used for fitness are influenced by the training age, injury status, and position of each player.

Players flexibility, body mass and adductor strength are measured weekly. Variations from individual standards are used to monitor training loads, training session involvement, training formats and rehabilitation/strength training programs.

Given that most of the clubs in the VFL are AFL listed clubs then I would assume that players would be assessed by comparison with AFL standards.

At Port Melbourne standards are set for players by training age and position. I cannot provide you with precise information about those standards. However, I can inform you that the standards compare favourably with those of AFL clubs and that some players would definitely be in the highest category of aerobic fitness recorded by AFL players.

KEY POINT

The focus is on individual development even within the time constraints placed on VFL non-aligned clubs and the demands of operating within a team environment.

From the Aussie Rules Training community I'd like to thank Rob for his time in doing this interview. Like the AFL, the VFL is also quite guarded in regards to elite training training information and this will definitely help out a lot of readers who want to take their footy to another level.

Rob can be contacted via email through the Port Melbourne Football Club at pmfc@bigpond.net.au.

Introducing Mladen Jovanovich' - Port Adelaide S&C Coach and Data Scientist

During my Facebook and newsletter updates this week I hinted at some HUGE blog posts coming up so we'll start with the biggest (no offence Matty for next week!).

Mladen is the newest member of the PAFC conditioning staff, known in AFL circle as the leaders in sports science and player conditioning. He's been a S&C coach for sports such as soccer and rugby all over the world and originally hails from Serbia, the blokes who crazy and throw chairs everywhere at the Australian Open (Tennis).

I have known of him for a couple of years now and have a few FB chats with him over the journey. He's makes himself very available and he has done so for all of the ART community today.

Hey Mladen (sporting the traditional "puff the biceps out" footy pose above) - as you know I've been following you for a while and even pre-empted your move to Australia on social media! Let's start with a little on your background and how you come to your current position at Port Adelaide Football Club?

Thanks for having me Troy. Actually, I have applied for PAFC circa three years ago, but Ian McKeown got it back then. He is fantastic coach and much more suited for the position than I am/was. I kept being in contact with both McKeown and Darren Burgess before and after that period.

Then, somewhere around April, 2015 I started talking with Burgess after doing one unanimous game data analysis. First we chatted about doing some data analysis as external consultant and then we started discussing an actual full time position. I guess around September we were pretty clear that I am arriving, but we waited for the visa approval till mid October.

Data is only as good as what you do with it - what would be the best way for local/amateur clubs to collect data and what should they do with it?

It is a tricky question and I am always leaning toward too little than too much. There are basically three components: impulse (or training load), athlete state and training reaction (or effect). In ideal world one would have all three and cover both objective and subjective aspects of them. I have expended on the topic HERE.

The easiest training load metric would be RPE (session rating of perceived exertion), but the way it should be done is for one to have the trust and culture in place, or else the players start to game the system. Same thing for the easiest measurement of athlete state – the simple rating of readiness to train, sleep quality, soreness and so forth. When it comes to training reaction simple tools such as strength indices, vertical jump, 2-3k runs or yoyo tests and 10-40m sprints are enough I guess.

One needs to have some idea of what to do with those numbers – how training will be affected by them and so forth.

Further Reading - RPE, Rating of Readiness to Train Part 1 and Part 2.

In a past article of yours called "RSA Overrated", one conclusion you came to is that out of 3 athletes you'd choose the one that has the fastest peak sprint time rather then the fastest mean/average repeat sprint time. It's draft night and you and Burgo have to choose between these 2 draftees - who do you choose and why?

Well, I can’t talk in Burgo’s name, but I would choose the one who can play footy better – who is technically more proficient, tactically smart and emotionally stable with character suiting the team. And yes, even as physical preparation coach I put these qualities before physical qualities.

When it comes to speed, it is always better to recruit faster players, since speed is harder to change/improve than other physical qualities.

You written a lot on velocity based training in the last few years - do you use this at PAFC? If not, do you use any other "auto regulation for quality" methods such as RPE, drop off points etc or just the old school sets/reps at a certain load or % of 1rm?

We don’t use it, but we plan implementing some type of velocity/power feedback using GymAware leader board. Just tracking velocity and power and giving boys real time objective feedback so they can compete between themselves and for themselves is a great starting point. Later on, velocity zones could be prescribed and such. Sometimes, even if the methods are superior, their implementation might be too burdensome.

At this stage it is basically prescribing goal reps and “exertion” using light, medium and hard ratings and letting the boys choose the weight. Some exercises are more tightly prescribed.

To go deeper in the design at this stage you would need to pick McKeown’s brain.

Further Reading - Velocity Based Training Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

You've stated in the past that VO2Max and aerobic fitness aren't the same and that one should focus on aerobic performance - what sort of ways should a local/amateur footballer gauge their own aerobic fitness? 

There is a great recent article by Steve Magness on the topic (click HERE) – besides I love all Steve’s stuff. Basically, depends how down deep the rabbit hole one wants to go. For team sport athletes the idea is to get a test that can pinpoint to limiting factors and help with training prescription, without burdening the skill training too much. In soccer we had an increase in “soccer-specific” tests (such as yoyo), but these specific tests cannot tell you which factor is limiting, because the scores in these tests depend on multiple qualities (i.e. change of direction (COD) efficiency, aerobic power, anaerobic capacity and so forth). Yet, again it revolves how deep one needs to go to figure out limiting factors and help training prescription for a given level of the athlete. One also needs to take into account the training type that will follow – are the athletes going to do continuous runs, or intervals, straight ahead or with CODs, or just a quick gauge to performance level and helping with return-to-play protocols? Hence, the test needs to be “training-specific”.

Long story short, I found simple 1,5-2k runs, or 5-6min efforts to be good enough estimate and help with training prescription.

NOTE: in regards to part where he talks about testing being more about finding limiting factors in your individual performance is probably my biggest take away from this and it sort of piggy backs a future blog post I have in mind.

Inertia training is "the next big thing" in sports training - what experience do you have with it and has PAFC started using it yet?

We have one K-box unit that mostly injured guys are using in a case-to-case scenario. I find it an interesting tool that could be implemented. What I find interesting are “special” exercises using the VersaPulley where the line of pull is horizontal and all types of rotations and lateral movements could be practiced. Again, nothing ground breaking in these tools just a nice addition and variability in well designed strength program.

NOTE - I'm trying to get one of these made for myself through an engineering client of mine so if you any idea's to make this happen then definitely let me know!

AFL clubs are huge on player monitoring, something local/amateur teams should start doing a lot more of - what types of things do PAFC cover with their players to ensure they're 100% come game day?

We utilize RPE and wellness questionnaires to address the subjective aspects. GPS measures are done from objective standpoint when it comes to load component and well as embedded testing (e.g. peak speed during session). Most of the metrics are analysed using TSB approach (Training Stress Balance) – I wrote about it HERE for an in-depth look. We do submaximal yoyo testing as a proxy to aerobic characteristics without increasing the training load with the maximal test. 3km test is done on the Uni Loop. We do nordic assessment, groin squeeze, RSI using drop jump and vertical jumps. We are deciding how to embed most of the testings in the session itself so it doesn’t create extra burden on the players.

Further Reading - Scroll through to a post from December 14th, 2015 for a Facebook update on in-session testing

Having been up close and personal with an AFL team, has it altered the way you might train athletes in the future?

I am constantly learning new things and being part of PAFC performance team is an amazing way to learn how to do things better. So, I would say yes, even if I am not really sure what.

What has impressed you the most about AFL players?

Not sure it can be inferred to other teams, but PAFC really impressed me with the team culture, comradery, genuine interests of the players to get better on every level, the levels of trust in players and the intensiveness of the game and sessions.

Who's the biggest freak at PAFC and why? 

Coming from soccer they are all physical freaks, but if I need to choose one it would be Hamish Hartlett. Very athletic, very strong and does pretty much every movement correctly.

From the Aussie Rules Training community I thank you greatly for your openness and willingness to answer these questions as I know that AFL clubs love to keep their sports science information very much in-house.

Mladen can be found at www.complementarytraining.net or at his Facebook page.