Everyday I compile different articles and social media tidbits on all things training then at the end of each footy season I gather all the "best bits" that i can use for my own and my team's footy training and go back through them to see what I can use and what I might be able to use.
Here's part 1 of my idea's and thoughts that I based this years training on.
PRE-SEASON INJURIES
- Will occur from players doing too much too quickly so players who start later then the rest will not need to do the same duration ad/or volume of training as everyone else as they build up to full training
DECISION MAKING (PADDY UPTON)
– In high pressure moments, decision making is more important than skill and as a coach do not preach a fear of failure/repercussion of failure as then players will not try that skill again and that will halt mental/physical development.
- Don’t focus on stopping the opposition because then you’re asking your players do things they might not be very good at in high pressure situations, essentially setting them up to fail.
- Work to the strength of each player finding what they are comfortable at doing in high pressure situations.
- In high pressure situations it will be the quality of the decision made under pressure that will get you in trouble rather than actual skill itself, as the skills are practised repeatedly but high pressure situation only occur rarely.
- Your job as a coach is to provide all the physical, psychological, tactical and technical resources for the players, giving them the responsibility for their preparation and you're main job is to get them in the right frame of mind to carry it all out.
PRE-SEASON SMALL SIDED GAMES PROGRESSION
– Use a 7 week lead in small sided game progression of 12 v 12 x 6mins, 12 v 12 for 3 x 6mins, 15 v 15 for 4 x 6mins, 15 x 15 for 4 x 6mins repeated, 18 v 18 4 x 6mins, practice match #1 then practice match #2.
- Small sided games would be performed 1/week in the last session of the week, preferably working on whatever tactical aspects you want to practice in a game a game in the first session of the week.
TRAINING (CARL VALLE)
– After every team training session players must walk off the ground with 2 units of gas in the tank
– 1 unit for lifting and off-field work and another unit to reduce the risk of residual fatigue from practice
HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (JEFF MOYER)
– If you try to get fit by initially going straight to high intensity training (repeat 400's, interval/fartlek training at max pace with incomplete rest), then there is no coming back from it and the neuroplasticity of the central nervous system stiffens so that the only way you can keep improving is by using higher intensity and/or more volume of the same intensity which can impair skill acquisition and drastically increase injury risk so as I've mentioned in the past, raise the floor before raising the ceiling.
INDIVIDUALISE (JOE DE MAYO)
– Determine what is required at each position, makes a player special at their position and what separates them as a player and work that aspect harder.
- By simply focusing on weaknesses the pay off is not equal to increasing your strengths even more, especially at local/amateur level.
EFFICIENCY (JAMY CLAMP)
– Fatigue is not the point of exhaustion but where force production/proprioception decreases which inhibits quality contractions, efficiency and increases metabolic demand, thus increasing injury risk
CONDITIONING (KEIR WENHAM-FLATT)
– The best way to increase conditioning is through increasing technique as movement efficiency increases and you waste less energy.
- It can also be the fastest way to improve conditioning without volume, wear and tear etc.
- By increasing maximum outputs (strength, speed, power etc) relative to the demands of the game, you can work at a smaller % of your maximum output during games so you can sustain the same effort with less fatigue allowing you to maintain burst speed for longer.
- Only after you've completed skill/technique conditioning do you shift to game specific conditioning and stand alone running.
CONTINUED PROGRESS (KEIR WENHAM-FLATT)
– Train above the intensity of a game (sprints etc) and below the intensity of a game (skills, aerobic etc) but don’t train at the same intensity all the time
RELAXATION (JOEL SMITH)
– You win the warm up by being more relaxed then you are during competition.
- High skill requires specific sequencing and relaxation assists with this because if there is tension then you're timing can be off.
- Many times our subconscious brain just needs an opportune distraction so that you’re subconscious mind can work its magic so think of something similar to your action, such as how the footy feels in your hand, how it feels coming off your foot etc.
- Focus on taking as much tension out of the working muscles as possible and perform efforts at 60, 70 and 80% in your warm up.
- Try and do drills on the hind brain or unconscious level and it will have greater transfer to competition.
TECHNICAL RESERVE (MARTIN BINGISSER)
– Strength hangs around without direct training it so it’s not the reason you choke during competition but technique is as it can disappear in an instant.
- You need to build technique reserve so when the pressure is on you have your technique to fall back on.
- Strength will be there for you all the time but you can only perform when you have the technique to get the most out of it.
- You can create it by dialling in technique so much that you can replicate it in any situation so specific kicking drills (kicking variation/repetition without repetition) is what you need in this instance.
AROUSAL (LINDSEY WILSON)
– There is a level of arousal suitable for various tasks.
- New/difficult tasks require low arousal as your actions/movements will be slow and deliberate as your decision making process takes longer.
- Most tasks require medium arousal.
- Well-learned/easy tasks can be performed with high arousal.
- Develop routines for decreasing, increasing and maintaining arousal for teams and individual players.
MENTAL STRENGTH (ALEX HUTCHINSON)
– You don’t slow down from fatigue factors (lactate etc), but by how your brain perceives the messages the brain sends about them.
- The effort of running is only as hard as your brain perceives it to be.
- Absolute physical limits are imposed by the brain not the body and it’s why you finally break a personal best then break it again and again
– the barrier has been broken.
- Train the brain to become accustomed to mental fatigue so it adapts and then a fast pace feels easy.
- Swishing a sports drink in your mouth sends the brain signals of "more fuel coming in" and in turn can decrease the rate of perceived exertion.
- Facial expression can add perceived rate of perceived exertion
MASSED PRACTICE
- For strength development pair your mass practice exercise with every other set for all sessions each week x 3 weeks at least
- You want 20 – 25 exposures each time at a high frequency
- This can easily be modified for skill acquisition for footy
STRESS (CRAIG PICKERING)
– Everyone has a different response to the same stressor because of training history, residual fatigue, genetics, epigenetics, nutrition and life experiences- Sprinters will running harder then it actually is and vice versa
FATIGUE (MLADEN JOVANOVIC)
- Fatigue is a brain derived emotion that regulates exercise behaviour to ensure the protection of whole body homeostasis
- By modifying the way we perceive work, along with other factors this can influence our behaviour and thus biological/training effect
- If players know the end point then they’ll tend go harder then when they don’t as they are saving themselves for worst case scenario
- So you might have 30secs on/30secs off @ 100% max aerobic speed but 3 x 6mins, 3 x 7/6/5mins and 3 x 5/6/7mins all look different to different players in terms of how much effort will be required
-A neat little trick is to tell them that they’ll be doing 1 more set then they actually will be
- Will occur from players doing too much too quickly so players who start later then the rest will not need to do the same duration ad/or volume of training as everyone else as they build up to full training
DECISION MAKING (PADDY UPTON)
– In high pressure moments, decision making is more important than skill and as a coach do not preach a fear of failure/repercussion of failure as then players will not try that skill again and that will halt mental/physical development.
- Don’t focus on stopping the opposition because then you’re asking your players do things they might not be very good at in high pressure situations, essentially setting them up to fail.
- Work to the strength of each player finding what they are comfortable at doing in high pressure situations.
- In high pressure situations it will be the quality of the decision made under pressure that will get you in trouble rather than actual skill itself, as the skills are practised repeatedly but high pressure situation only occur rarely.
- Your job as a coach is to provide all the physical, psychological, tactical and technical resources for the players, giving them the responsibility for their preparation and you're main job is to get them in the right frame of mind to carry it all out.
PRE-SEASON SMALL SIDED GAMES PROGRESSION
– Use a 7 week lead in small sided game progression of 12 v 12 x 6mins, 12 v 12 for 3 x 6mins, 15 v 15 for 4 x 6mins, 15 x 15 for 4 x 6mins repeated, 18 v 18 4 x 6mins, practice match #1 then practice match #2.
- Small sided games would be performed 1/week in the last session of the week, preferably working on whatever tactical aspects you want to practice in a game a game in the first session of the week.
TRAINING (CARL VALLE)
– After every team training session players must walk off the ground with 2 units of gas in the tank
– 1 unit for lifting and off-field work and another unit to reduce the risk of residual fatigue from practice
HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING (JEFF MOYER)
– If you try to get fit by initially going straight to high intensity training (repeat 400's, interval/fartlek training at max pace with incomplete rest), then there is no coming back from it and the neuroplasticity of the central nervous system stiffens so that the only way you can keep improving is by using higher intensity and/or more volume of the same intensity which can impair skill acquisition and drastically increase injury risk so as I've mentioned in the past, raise the floor before raising the ceiling.
INDIVIDUALISE (JOE DE MAYO)
– Determine what is required at each position, makes a player special at their position and what separates them as a player and work that aspect harder.
- By simply focusing on weaknesses the pay off is not equal to increasing your strengths even more, especially at local/amateur level.
EFFICIENCY (JAMY CLAMP)
– Fatigue is not the point of exhaustion but where force production/proprioception decreases which inhibits quality contractions, efficiency and increases metabolic demand, thus increasing injury risk
CONDITIONING (KEIR WENHAM-FLATT)
– The best way to increase conditioning is through increasing technique as movement efficiency increases and you waste less energy.
- It can also be the fastest way to improve conditioning without volume, wear and tear etc.
- By increasing maximum outputs (strength, speed, power etc) relative to the demands of the game, you can work at a smaller % of your maximum output during games so you can sustain the same effort with less fatigue allowing you to maintain burst speed for longer.
- Only after you've completed skill/technique conditioning do you shift to game specific conditioning and stand alone running.
CONTINUED PROGRESS (KEIR WENHAM-FLATT)
– Train above the intensity of a game (sprints etc) and below the intensity of a game (skills, aerobic etc) but don’t train at the same intensity all the time
RELAXATION (JOEL SMITH)
– You win the warm up by being more relaxed then you are during competition.
- High skill requires specific sequencing and relaxation assists with this because if there is tension then you're timing can be off.
- Many times our subconscious brain just needs an opportune distraction so that you’re subconscious mind can work its magic so think of something similar to your action, such as how the footy feels in your hand, how it feels coming off your foot etc.
- Focus on taking as much tension out of the working muscles as possible and perform efforts at 60, 70 and 80% in your warm up.
- Try and do drills on the hind brain or unconscious level and it will have greater transfer to competition.
TECHNICAL RESERVE (MARTIN BINGISSER)
– Strength hangs around without direct training it so it’s not the reason you choke during competition but technique is as it can disappear in an instant.
- You need to build technique reserve so when the pressure is on you have your technique to fall back on.
- Strength will be there for you all the time but you can only perform when you have the technique to get the most out of it.
- You can create it by dialling in technique so much that you can replicate it in any situation so specific kicking drills (kicking variation/repetition without repetition) is what you need in this instance.
AROUSAL (LINDSEY WILSON)
– There is a level of arousal suitable for various tasks.
- New/difficult tasks require low arousal as your actions/movements will be slow and deliberate as your decision making process takes longer.
- Most tasks require medium arousal.
- Well-learned/easy tasks can be performed with high arousal.
- Develop routines for decreasing, increasing and maintaining arousal for teams and individual players.
MENTAL STRENGTH (ALEX HUTCHINSON)
– You don’t slow down from fatigue factors (lactate etc), but by how your brain perceives the messages the brain sends about them.
- The effort of running is only as hard as your brain perceives it to be.
- Absolute physical limits are imposed by the brain not the body and it’s why you finally break a personal best then break it again and again
– the barrier has been broken.
- Train the brain to become accustomed to mental fatigue so it adapts and then a fast pace feels easy.
- Swishing a sports drink in your mouth sends the brain signals of "more fuel coming in" and in turn can decrease the rate of perceived exertion.
- Facial expression can add perceived rate of perceived exertion
MASSED PRACTICE
- For strength development pair your mass practice exercise with every other set for all sessions each week x 3 weeks at least
- You want 20 – 25 exposures each time at a high frequency
- This can easily be modified for skill acquisition for footy
STRESS (CRAIG PICKERING)
– Everyone has a different response to the same stressor because of training history, residual fatigue, genetics, epigenetics, nutrition and life experiences- Sprinters will running harder then it actually is and vice versa
FATIGUE (MLADEN JOVANOVIC)
- Fatigue is a brain derived emotion that regulates exercise behaviour to ensure the protection of whole body homeostasis
- By modifying the way we perceive work, along with other factors this can influence our behaviour and thus biological/training effect
- If players know the end point then they’ll tend go harder then when they don’t as they are saving themselves for worst case scenario
- So you might have 30secs on/30secs off @ 100% max aerobic speed but 3 x 6mins, 3 x 7/6/5mins and 3 x 5/6/7mins all look different to different players in terms of how much effort will be required
-A neat little trick is to tell them that they’ll be doing 1 more set then they actually will be
