ROBERT NICHOLSON PORT MELBOURNE (VFL) HEAD S&C COACH: IN-SEASON TRAINING

Following on from the Darren Burgess interview from last week we'll take a look at how the VFL handle their in-season training.

In our first interview with Robert he mentioned that VFL players aren't fully professional and in Port Melbourne's case, all players are exclusive VFL listed players, there are no AFL listed players on their list.

Although VFL is only 1 level down from AFL, as far as preparation it's probably the closest you'll get to an amateur/local footy player, depending on how far you like to take your preparation. It's great to know what AFL teams do but it;s not really replicable in the real world with jobs, family etc.

Here's what Rob had to day on all things in-season training:

What differences are made to training compared to the off and pre-season training periods?

Pre-season Pre-Christmas): focus on selection of squad, individualised programming for selected players (fitness and/or weights), skill development, development of preparation strategies (e.g. sit and reach test, adductor strength test, Body mass measurement). . Development of player fitness/strength. Introducing players to requirements of VFL football.

Pre-Season (Post-Chrismas): Fitness and fitness testing, skill development, team game plan awareness. Monitoring of individual training load

The major difference between components of the season is primarily the variation in the importance given to the various components of the team program. Whilst team development is the key focus at all times - individual needs remain a high priority at all times.

In-season: Primary focus is on weekly recovery, preparedness for game, maintenance of fitness/strength and the monitoring of individual training loads.

Further Reading: At local/amateur level, that 2nd last paragraph is close to non-existent but it could be the best thing that you could do, especially if you're a coach of a club. After the team warm up set aside a 10 - 15min block for individual training whether it be skills, goal kicking, speed, agility, endurance or rehab. It pretty much all comes down to being able to streamline your training and finding ways to make it as efficient as possible. 

What does a full week look like? What does game day look like? What recovery interventions do you put in place immediately post game as well as in the days following? Do you do these as a team or leave blokes to do them themselves?

Saturday - game, post game stretching/nutrition/hydration, ice baths

Sunday - recovery session (beach/pool) in designated groups based on geographical location of players where they also send a photo with data and time to register attendance.

Monday - light skills, upper body weights (selected group), match review, players weight to see if weight lost from game has been regained, fitness work for injured players or those who didn't play on the weekend, rehab program for specific players.

Tuesday - fitness and weights sessions.

Wednesday - train in team groups, each player to complete adductor strength and sit and reach test to determine training readiness and potential capacity, emphasis on team skills/team plan/fitness/skills, rehab program for selected players, players on rotation to reduce training load, non-selected players train with home club.

Thursday - optional weights, non-selected players train with home clubs

Friday - train in team groups, emphasis on team skills/team plan/skills with the session being short and light, players weight in before training, rehab program for specific players

Saturday - developmental/senior team meeting, pre-game stretching/muscle activation/hydration, pre game warm up is 3mins in rooms + 20mins on oval + coach address + 6mins on oval + 3 - 4mins on oval prior to 3rd quarter

Further Reading: I especially like the Sunday recovery suggestion here where you group players together by location. My club personally has blokes from everywhere which makes team recovery, and expecting everyone to get there, impossible. Smaller groups by locale makes perfect sense.

Do you have any specific requirements for players to abide by from Thursday to game day? 

Sleep, hydration, nutrition are the focus of the message to the players. The leadership group may have other instructions for the players but I am not aware of them

Further Reading - coaches don't know everything, and they especially know bugger all about the strength and conditioning side of things which is fine, it's not their fault. Their job is to more focused on tactical/recruitment to win games of footy in the hope that players prepare themselves accordingly. Each coach should put together, or have someone put together, a little something for the players to hold onto in regards to recovery and preparation when they are away from the club. It might seem a but full on but having 5 - 8 blokes follow it is better then none of them isn't it?

What types of personal/wellness/readiness testing do you do during the season?

Selected players use heart rate monitors during training and game and by using the software algorithm recovery time can by attained. However, as this is only a guide to physiological recovery – players are continually being asked about ‘how they are feeling’. In conjunction with the protocols associated with the sit/reach test, adductor strength test and body mass measurement, the collected information is used to determine the individual training load for a given session.

Do players do their own training on top of team training in their own time and if so, how do you monitor it so that it doesn’t interfere with team training and games?

For a non-AFL aligned club this is a major issue. Trying to educate the players about the limitations of the club’s training schedule given that they are ‘part-time’ athletes and the need to do extra work is a nightmare. Many players know AFL players and try to imitate their workloads. Others read articles online or in other media and attempt to replicate those sessions regardless of the effectiveness of that information for the players. Another problem is players working with fitness people who have no idea of the club’s program. Finally, those players who are (have completed) Sport Science degrees are often the worst offenders. At the moment I am working with the leadership group to try a obtain a guide to what is being done and when it is being done outside of the club program.

Further Reading: You've got 2 types at your local/amateur footy clubs. You've got the blokes who do the 2 nights of team training a week and nothing else and the blokes doing 2 nights of tram training a week and another pre-season on the other 3 nights! So 1 bloke is probably under-trained compared to the pre-season essentially losing fitness/strength qualities during the season and the other is never really fully recovered and thus can never really be at their best. Of course it doesn't really help if you;re coach doesn't have much of a plan outside of tactical stuff for training and then every now then have you do 10 x 100m sprints or a road run with no pre or post planning  in regards to what that type of training will do at that exact time. This leaves you trying to cover everything else outside of training and can run you into the ground.

I'd like to thank Rob once again for his assistance on this - it's always greatly appreciated!

AFL In-Season Training w/ Darren Burgess Port Adelaide S&C Coach.

You might remember in February this year I did a series of interviews with AFL, VFL and TAC strength and conditioning coaches to give us local/amateur footy players an insight into what elite preparation looks like.

Now being just past the season's mid-point, plenty of rain and heavy grounds meaning plenty of collisions, recovery and in-season training/preparation is crucial to not only getting to the last round but also fully fit and ready to play your best football come finals time.

I thought it was the perfect time to follow up with some in-season training questions but this time I managed to get ab hold of the head of the Port Adelaide strength and conditioning team Darren Burgess, regarded as one of THE best s&c coaches in the entire world!

Here's what he had to say.

What differences are made to training compared to the off and pre-season training periods?

There is a lot more recovery in-season. During pre-season we train heavily 3 - 4 sessions a week whereas in-season there is 1 heavy session then the game.

Further Reading: Train Monday Instead of Tuesday? It could be said that local/amateur football, with far more collisions then elite level football, and relative fitness levels that come with the varying grades of football might be more demanding. Add to that the fact that we have to work 5 - 6 days a week and deal with a lot more outside stressors then AFL players and it might be a good idea to have 1 main session each week.

What does a full week look like?

Saturday - Game
Sunday - Recovery
Monday - Light Session
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Heavy Session + Gym
Thursday - Gym
Friday - Light Session
Saturday - Game

Further Reading: My Game to Game Weekly Lay Out. Right now it's Saturday - Post game recovery as per blog, Sunday - Rest, Monday - Active Recovery for legs and Strength for Upper, Tuesday - Low Volume Speed + Aerobic Power, Wednesday - Off, Thursday - Low Volume Power (gym based) + Aerobic Power, Friday - Upper Power (gym).
 
Do you have any specific requirements for players to abide by from Thursday to game day?
Nope, just plenty of recovery

What does game day look like?

I leave the players largely to themselves. We have some nutritional demands as well as warm up routines but largely the players prepare themselves.

What recovery interventions do you put in place immediately post game as well as in the days following? Do you do these as a team or leave blokes to do them themselves?

Mostly nutrition as well as ice baths post game. Active recovery and additional hydrotherapy in the days following.

What types of personal/wellness/readiness testing do you do during the season?

They fill out short wellness questionnaires once or twice a week depending on the phase of the season.

Further Reading; Player Monitoring Parts 1, 2 and 3.

You've got 6 - 7 weeks until finals and you can still make some alterations that WILL make you a far better player when you really need to be when finals start.

I'd like to Darren on giving up his time and Intel to do this, we greatly appreciate it!

Jump 4" Higher in 30mins and YOU Can Take Mark of the Year!

Even though we don't see as many high marks as we used to in the 80's and 90's, it is still easily the most appealing spectacle of our game.

From Peter Knights to Warwick Capper to Gary Ablett Snr to Tony Modra, the high mark is probably the first thing you'd show someone who has not seen our game before.

I'm 168cms and almost 38 years old coming of a pretty serious knee injury last year and my spring is not what it used to be. Not far off but not what it used to be as I was touching a full sized basketball rim only 2 years ago.

That's me in the image above flying high a couple of weeks ago and like all good forwards we punch from behind!

Granted I've been focusing on maintain/increasing sprinting speed over vertical displacement so my training really been focused on it either.

Last week I road tested a workout with the aim of getting immediate improvements in vertical leap.

I posted my results on Facebook (search down for June 30th) where I managed to increase my vertical leap by 11cms in just over 20mins.

The workout was specifically designed for vertical leap improvements but anyone could do it reap the performance rewards like I did.

Imagine what getting 11cms higher would do for you?

For us shorties it puts you at the the same or similar height then most other players and for taller players it puts you at a whole new level where you can be outreaching everyone.

I was a bit strapped for time so I didn't video any of this unfortunately except for the jumps on the Facebook page but I'll be packaging this workout for something in the very near future (keep your eye out!)

While I have you here I'm researching the wants and needs of us local and amateur football players. I'm wanting to find your pain points and what happens to your football if they aren't addressed. I want to know your pleasure points and how your football changes once they are reached.

This is all to help me with the new venture that will hopefully be ready to go in 6 weeks or so.

For your assistance on this I'll rush you to the top of the list and to get in the ground floor when it is all ready to go!

You can access the form here:

http://bit.ly/294yr1d

Training Max Velocity Speed in the Gym (It Can Be Done!)

Today I tested a low-ish HRV so I needed something somewhat gentle for the lower body and came up with this contrast circuit. Now most players and would head to the gym and develop their program based on muscles of the lower body, using regular tempo reps (2 - 3secs down then 1 - 2secs up). 

This type of training has it's place no doubt (early off-season phase) but unfortunately in an actual game of footy, gym lifts performed in a straight, up and down manner with slow contractions won't really get it done.

If you want to train to perform then using movements that train multiple force vectors (I've posted about this before) is a must as footy is a 360 degree sport.

Here’s how I developed this training session.

Step 1 – Decide on the aim of the session which was to train the lower body and as I’ve just completed a strength block I wanted something to assist with max velocity sprinting.

Step 2 – What components of the lower body do you need to train train to reach the aim of the session. With max velocity being what I wanted to train over acceleration (which I did on Tuesday), I decided that the components that I could train indoors were: 

Intramuscular Coordination 
Achilles Tendon Stiffness 
Vertical Reactive Power   
Horizontal Reactive Power

·                                                                    

      Coordination is the ability to sequence the right muscles to fire at the right time and in the case of sprinting, we’re talking hip extension of 1 leg while simultaneously going into powerful hip flexion of the opposite leg. The added component of this is that sprinting is also horizontal in movement nature so a perfect exercise for this is the Bosch Clean which as you can see below, is a perfect replica of human locomotion.

For Achilles tendon stiffness I wanted something to overload the movement with minimal impact so I opted for donkey ankle jumps which allow me to jump to higher then I could in a normal ankle jump thus overloading the Achilles upon impact far greater than normal.

      For vertical reactive (ballistic / up and down movement) power I went for trap bar jump squats which has been shown to result in as much, if not more power then any of the Olympic lifts which a far lesser learning curve in regards to technique.

      For horizontal reactive power I went for reactive long jumps with cable resistance which decreases the impact upon landing on each jump yet probably increases explosiveness from the resistance dragging you back as you jump.

       I did 3 circuits of these and went home.

      As you can see there is a huge difference between general and specific training and to really train optimally you need some form of specificity to get true transfer over to your performance.

      The thoughts of getting bigger and stronger is probably making your on field performance much better really as in the end you're getting better at training in the gym, not on the footy field which makes programming ultra important.

      Stop wasting your time and efforts in the gym and actually make an impact in this years finals series while you still have time to do something about it by following these steps:

       #1 - Click the Paypal icon at the top of the blog

       #2 - Send $20 to lange_troy@hotmail.com

       #3 - In the message part of the transaction type in your goal or glaring weakness in your game being  as specific as possible ("...I'm a full forward so I need to get faster over the first 5m of a lead from a  standing start..." for example)

       #4 - Give me 60 - 90mins per week x 4 weeks of your time

       #5 - Dominate on the field

       I only have limited places for this as I've been doing each program manually so get in before my  time runs out!

Hit the Finals in Peak Condition for $20

This week I finished up my little 10 day strength block. I was focusing on squats for this block using a little known exercise called belt squats.

It's as big a bitch to set up and perform as it looks don't get me wrong but it's great for max effort type loading with out spinal compression which should be minimised where it can during the season especially. It's handy to have a 5yr old mini-me to help too!

I did other strength stuff in this block so here's the full program I completed with a few changes as I went along cos you gotta be flexible:

I actually started some of these exercise the week prior doing Belt Squats @ 75kgs x 5 reps + T Bar Deadlifts @ 105kgs x 5 reps + Bench Press (BP) @ 75kgs x 5 reps w/ a 5 sec eccentric each rep

Saturday - Game

Monday - Belt Squats (BS) x 4 reps @ 85kgs + T Bar Deadlifts (TBDL) x 4 reps @ 115kgs*

Wednesday - BS 95 x 3 + DB Chest Supported Row (DB CR) 4 x 12 @ 22.5kgs...BP @ 80kgs x 4 reps w/ a 3sec isometric each rep + Lataral Squat (LS) 2 x 5 @ 10kgs

Friday - BS 105 x 3 + Push Up (set 1 - drop and catch / set 2 - plyometric singles / set 3 - drop catch plyometric) all x 8 reps + Rows (set 1 - stability / set 2 - sa chest supported / set 3 - db row) all x 8 reps @ 30kgs

Monday - LS @ 12.5kgs x 5 reps + BS 115kgs x 3 reps + LS @ 12.5kgs x 5 reps

Wednesday - BS 125kgs x 3

Thursday - BP 85kgs x 4 reps + DB CR 4 x 12 @ 25kgs

Saturday - Game

* I had planned to do both BS and TBDL for this block but I couldn't load the t-bar with more then 115kgs so I took them out.

So why did I choose Squats?

I had a couple of reasons with the first one being that initial acceleration and quad strength has a pretty good correlation and that I hadn't done anything nearing max effort for the lower body since early March so without needing to be 1005 for Saturday I could wear the body down a bit if I needed to.

If I didn't go away for the long weekend I could have done another BS session and gone heavier but there's no premiership medals being handed out for squat strength is there?

Since last August I've done 2 rehab blocks (knee + back), 2 speed blocks, 3 aerobic conditioning blocks and various other "bit" blocks as well.

As you can see I've covered pretty much everything at various times and for the rest of the season I'm yet to plan out what to do next. We have a run of 5 games in a row against teams in the bottom bracket so I could embark in some extra training and I also seem to be pulling up better from games that's for sure.

For most of you it's the half way mark of the season and the peak condition you might have been in earlier in the season has been slowly worn away a little bit which means you need to go again to be at your peak when you really need it - finals time!!

So if you have a glaring weakness then for $20 I''ll tailor make a 4 week program that you can simply plug in to your current training with minimal effort. Whether your speed is lacking, your endurance needs work or your strength levels are down from not hitting the gym like you did in the summer - you let me know what you need and I'll deliver.

The theme for this is 1 problem - 1 solution.

This isn't the time to be trying to set personal bests in everything. Choose 1 thing and let's concentrate on it to get the best, and fastest results.

All programs will be delivered via email with accompanying videos and any notes you need to carry out the program .

Hit the Paypal button below, send your payment to lange_troy@hotmail,com and I'll respond pretty much immediately. In the message bit put in your goal being as specific as you can in regards to how it holds your performance back, what you'll be able to do with it after the program has finished and what time/equipment you have to put into the program.

I'll do the rest!

I'm not sure how many players I can take on for this so get in early before I get overwhelmed and have to stop taking people on for this.

5 Ways to Make Your 2nd Half of the Season Better Than Your 1st

The Queens Birthday weekend is here signalling the half way mark of the season I suppose and backing off from last week's post "Mid Season Grading and Goal Setting".

I'm heading back to Warrnambool in a minute so this will be a quick one so here we go.

#1 - Start Heart Rate Variability Testing

I've written about this extensively in the last year or so and I couldn't think of any reason why you wouldn't be doing it but for those that aren't then follow these instructions:

- download the HRV4Training on your iPhone (it's not android as yet) where it will cost you maybe $10
- test for 60secs every morning as soon as you wake up in  fully rested state
- look at the correlations between how you actually feel and the training advice it's giving you to see how you respond to different stressors which will help you plan your week

You're only going to get more fatigued as the season goes on so this becomes very important as you want to be playing your best football in August / September.

#2 - Personal Weakness Training Block

If your team's ladder position allows then set up a training block aimed at improving a quality that you know you NEED (not want) to improve to help your team.

It may takeaway a little from your on-field performance so I'd let your coach know what you're doing beforehand in case it does. He'll be more then happy to accommodate you if you're doing outside training for the betterment of the team and if he doesn't then send him my way!

#3 - Get Stronger

As the season drags through winter and fatigue builds up then you need to continue to build resiliency throughout the body to avoid soft tissue injuries. You can't do too much about contact injuries but you should continue to lift relatively heavy throughout the entire season as it feed endurance and speed as well.

#4 - Get Faster

Speed NEEDS to be trained every 5 - 8 days. A game doesn't train maximal speed as it has been shown that you'll only reach about 90 - 95% of maximal speed during a game. To increase actual maximal speed (the holy grail of sport by the way) you need to train it specifically.

Ideally you'd do this on your own before Tuesday training after 3 days of rest from Saturday or during team training. If you can't do it pre-training or your team doesn't really train speed (good luck!) then do it Monday pm

#5 - Recover like an Elite Athlete

As mentioned above fatigue will build up as the season goes on so it becomes increasingly more important to ensure that your are partaking in some form of recovery post game, and training if need be.

Eat meat protein instead of pies and chips.

Drink protein and water instead of beer.

Cool down properly.

Introduce recovery training days above doing nothing at all.

OK I'm out but if you need more information on any of these points then hit me at the Facebook page.

Mid - Season Grading and Goal Setting

With the Queen's Birthday weekend coming up most leagues will have the week off signalling the middle of the season which is the best time to take some time to sit back and have a decent look at your progress this year.

This can be hard to do during the season as it can be all encompassing but you have some time to reflect and make informed judgments on your season to date without any emotion which can skew results.

From a team point of view we have dropped 2 games we believed we could win resulting in a win loss record of 5 and 3 compared to last years 7 and 1.

I can honestly say that we won't have our best or near best team on the park until the back end of the year with a few mid year holidays keeping some blokes out for extended periods of time so we have only probably been at 70% full strength tops so far this year.

We haven't played everyone once quite yet but there seems to be a top 6 or 7 and a bottom 5 so we should still play finals once we get everyone back in the team. Obviously the aim is to finish in the top at least get the double chance come September.

As a team we are little undersized in the midfield so we need to really work out our structures at stoppages so we don't have to fight and scrap with blokes bigger then us in tight. We play on a small ground so we like it in tight but a smaller midfield can get tired from battling against bigger opponents all day.

This has also resulted in average disposal coming into the forward line as we not getting a lot of clear takeaways from stoppages (of which there are plenty on reserves football!), and a lot of entries being kicks out of packs or under pressure.

We also haven't scored anywhere near as heavily as last year with a total score of 472 vs 809 this time last year. Defense is about the same with 354 vs 304.

Personally I've under-performed compare to last year with only 8 goals so far this year compared to 21 at the same time last year. As a tiny forward the average entries haven't helped my cause but I've also kicked more behinds then last year, especially from set shots which I'm usually very good from.

My knee injury has taken a bit off my performance unfortunately as I'm not quite as fast as  used to be and I can't quite jump as high either which crucial at 168cms!

There's still minor actions I can't do 100% but there is no pain in the knee at all so I'm hoping it's still just a little protectiveness from the brain that will hopefully release over time.

I'm recovering better from games now compared to the earlier rounds which is great as I can get more training in during the week and my HRV baseline and daily readings have improved as well so I'm handling more volume better which is a positive sign.

My goals for the rest of the season is to hot the scoreboard every week (I've only missed 1 game without scoring a goal so far this year) and I need to present more if only to create space for our other forwards to work in and I'm no chance of getting the ball.

I'll need to get some goal kicking in during the week too so as not to go back to kicking behinds, especially from set shots. I've been good the past month with those though so hopefully I'm past the little case of the yips I had earlier.

Training wise with the week off I can dedicate this week and half of next week to some good old fashioned strength work. I haven't really lifted an appreciable load for 2 or 3 months now, not that you have to all the time, but it's time to top up my strength levels while I can train with a high workload without having to be fully recovered by Saturday.