THE FIRST WEEK OF TRAINING POST COVID-19 (FREE CONTENT)

Here's the scenario and it's an extremely common one in local/amateur footy ranks...

• Training Tuesday which is regarded as the "bigger" training night
• Training Thursday which is regarded as the "short and sharp" training night
• Game on a Saturday

Nothing new here that's for sure.

I'm going to build this set of coaching rules around this scenario though for when we go back to footy training.

PRE-THE ANNOUCMENT

Club coaches and committee's will have been meeting in anticipation of the season starting back up (you have to continue to function as though it will regardless of what happens) and from these meetings personal duties for recommencement will have been finalised so any preparation required can be completed and ready to go at a seconds notice.

This might include press releases, social media posts, playing group private group chats etc.

THE ANNOUCMENT

As soon as something has been decided then the socials go into overdrive which will be a press of a key essentially because the proper work has already been done in the previous stage.

TRAINING INFORMATION

Training times and locations will be released almost immediately, going the usual Tuesday/Thursday night options.

If there is a lag time between the annoucement and when training can start then teams will post pre-training programs to complete between now and then.

It might as simple as 2 sessions of tempo runs and a kick with a mate or 2 - let players know exactly what they can expect and also what will be expected of them in this time.

GET THE PLAYERS ON-BOARD

One of the biggest unknowns with this funny old season we're about to have is who will end up playing and who won't - I know it's an issue at my club as far as I'm aware.

A personal message sent to each player in some shape or form will be crucial here, albeit a shit tonne of time and effort, but teams are gonna need something almost resembling a sales pitch to even the most regular of players in past years, as no one really knows what anybody else is thinking.

You might need to develop a 3 - 5 message sequence to send out in some cases.

Getting as many players on board as quick as possible will also let you know what you're dealing with for 2020 as far as player numbers are concerned.

Will it make more sense to take the year off for some parts of the club while focusing on other areas - remember most clubs have football, netball and women's football these days so player numbers have never been more important.

Will the lay-off from all sport bring past players back to your club or will it mean regulars just get the CBF's because of the compromised/shortened season?

Will tradies opt to work Saturday's for double time over zero match payment opportunities?

So much is in the air so club's will need to work overtime to find out and then also listen and act on each player's concerns.

You might also ask players what they would prefer to do at training once they return and see if there are any trends within the playing group.

You're after compliance over anything else at this point so you need to can the time trials because the players don't want to do them then can them - can the bajeezus out of them,

PRE-FIRST TRAINING SESSION

Sometime between Sunday night and Monday night before the first Tuesday training session the coach will send out a plan of the first week of training sessions.

It will include the focus of each session and the drills that will be used based off the information you gathered on the playing groups wants but also their needs, from the information gathered in the last couple of weeks.

There's a very real chance that if training in groups of 10 means 1 group of 10 on a single oval at the 1 time, then you might have to run almost an appointment based operation with 45 - 60min sessions over multiple sessions 3 - 6/days a week.

If you've got 3 football teams then there's no other way around this if 70 players want to train - you'll need to find time and space for 10 sessions.

Coaches within the football club might have to nominate what nights they can do and they simply train the different groups on those nights.

This will definitely mean that the senior coach/s will need to have their whats, why's and how's of training ready to go, written up and available for everyone to see prior to that training night.

Everything you've done up until now as a coach will probably be thrown out of the window.

If you have playing group leaders who you know are definitely playing then bring them in on what you're planning and how thay can be of assistance.

Get their input - can they poke any holes in what you've developed?

They will need to essentially be assistant coaches this year and may even have to take a training session or 2 so give them confidence and the experience of doing this at the very beginning instead of lumping it on them mid season.

POST-FIRST NIGHT OF TRAINING

Messages sent to each player who attended training that night with an attached survey of sorts (what did you like, didn't like, what could be better etc) as you can only continue to tailor training to the players if you know what they're thinking.

Make yourself available for private online chats/calls if needed.

Coach/s to also have their own chat to let the other coaches know what worked well, what didn't and what could be done better so the next coach, if teams need to train 3 - 6/week, can make the immediate changes to the very next session.

KEEP TRAINING STATS

Who attended what training session?

How did they pull up from that training session?

Did they do the next training session 46hrs later?

Were they recovered enough to go again at that stage?

Who can you identify that can train every night plus extra training? Who needs to maybe train just 1 night a week with the team and then a little something on their own?

With such a short prep time we'll have before the season starts and with playing availability being the most important thing when games start, you need to think of how you will load your players between now and then.

You've got 2 options I suppose:

OPTION #1

Cram as much into the 4 - 6 weeks of training we'll have and get them as fit as possible for round 1 which runs the risk of them having done too much too quickly (acute:chronic workload ratio) and then breaking down in one of the early matches,

or;

OPTION #2

Cautiously but progressively ramp up training to get them to a "fit enough" level to play the early games and using the fitness gained from games as part of your training and player loading, decreasing injury risk as game time will dictated by how much training they've completed already.

Option 2 for me - everyday of the week.

Remember Gold Coast have been 4-1 over the first 5 rounds the last 2 years only to be cut down when injuries occur to finish bottom of the ladder by season's end.

This could go on forever so hopefully I've planted some seeds in your noggin on what to plan for once we start back up and as always let me know any further questions or feedback you have on this.

INCREASING THE AFL DRAFT AGE PART 2 (FREE CONTENT)

AFL TEAMS TO HAVE UNDER 18 TEAMS

Could the AFL be A 3 teir level organisation with senior, development and underage "teams"?

The top underage kids can play some development if they're good enough and the top development players can move up to seniors if they're good enough - much like local footy does.

Each team has it's own coach/s and fitness staff but all 3 levels work together on the long term development of each player, especially the underage players and the bottom aged development players, to ensure continuity in their own personal development.

English soccer teams have acadamy's everywhere from under 5's up to Premier league and they are all taught their own teams specific way of playing so they seemlessley transiton from 1 level to the other as they shift up.

Under 5 acadamy's are pure madness but the rest of it makes great sense.

The NAB league would then be the AFL Under 18's league and there would be a national development leage too with each club having a team.

This would stretch resources for sure but we can maybe start at this point and work backwards or forwards from it.

I know there's holes in this but again I'm just throwing stuff up here.

TOO MUCH JUNIOR FOOTY

The best underage kids have footy coming out their wazoo's.

They play NAB, they play for their school (which actually takes precedcnece over NAB as the school is paying their private tuition fees) coupled with team training, the National Championships, the many, many combine and testing days that are held and then whatever they choose to do in their own time.

This results in these same kids simply displaying what they already have, they're not getting fitter, faster or stronger as there is nowhere near enough quality training, nor recovery, to allow adaptation to take place.

Slowing down the process will mean more thoroughly structured developemental programs can be used and all the time required is provided for the players training to deliver the adaptation the player needs and is looking for.

Footy all over has this "how much can we do" mantra and it's been around for years but it needs to end.

The best team wins, not the team that does "the most" - for instance losing teams more often have higher running loads then the winning team from chasing arse all day, so it clearly isn't the best way to do things.

Quality over quantity, especially for development ages which is pretty much everyone under the AFL.

Do not mistake activity for acheivement.

NAB TEAM STAFF

Any strength and conditioning job under AFL level is bloody tough.

You're getting paid part time hours (sometimes you're asked to volunteer!) for a more then full time job meaning you need to some how fit another daytime gig in there somewhere to pay the bills.

All to get "in the pathway".

I have a mate who did TAC fitness for years doing exactly this, he must have been bloody exhausted, but couldn't even get a look in at an AFL club, who regularly switch fitness coach guru's among teams (what's that all about?).

He eventually landed a gig at the AFL but there would not be many who could stick it out as long as he did.

Who has the time and resources to volunteer for a job, well not really a job because thatmeans you should be getting paid but a position, requiring skills others get paid for, for 35+ hours a week?

Um...not me.

On top of this the NAB staff have maybe 25% of the resources an AFL club would have but make do with other as effective but more time consuming methods, to prepare the players for the multi million dollar AFL.

We're seeing a little bit about how the AFL treat these feeder competitions right now with the VFL having not even heard from the AFL since they suspended their season 3 months or so ago.

The pressure that these NAB team fitness staff members are under means they may simply end up doing what the AFL and their recruiters want them to do, and that's to simply prep the top 5 kids out of the 120 they initially start with, to be drafted later that year.

Zero attention then gets paid to all the others, where plenty of late developers are waiting in the wings.

NAB teams don't help either basing the successfullness of their team on the amount of kids drafted to the AFL - they've totally lost sight of that they're there to do and that's to develop every player in their ranks.

Whether they can actually do that or is a totally seperate issue but as Paul Roos said - it is not elite...not by a long way.

AVERAGE PLAYER CAREER LIFESPAN

There is an arguement out there that average player makes about $380k/season and plays for 4 - 6 years so by increasing the draft age you could be limiting how much they can make out of football.

Well that's the case everyday of the week - you could do an ACL at training tomorrow and that could effectively end your career (Alex Woodward).

VFL/AFL legends Michael Tuck and Craig Bradley both played close to 100 reserves games before playing 400 senior games each.

Did the extra development time in the reserves prepare them physically and pyschologically, for senior football more so then coming straight in as 18yr olds?

Did this increase their earning potential over their career by extending how long they played for?

I'm not sure if Michael Tuck's 70kg frame could have stood up to 1970's VFL football at the time to be honest.

MATURE AGED RECRUITS

Sam Mitchell.

Dane Rampe.

Tim Kelly.

Tom Stewart.

Dane Zorko.

Issac Smith.

Dale Morris.

All premiership or All-Australian AFL players including 4 club captains.

All played multiple years in 2nd teir football leagues before getting their chance and having almost immediate impacts at AFL level.

The extra development they required they got but what they also attained in spades is all sorts of psychological benefits on how to deal with pressure of footy and life on and off the feild - something 18yr old kids lack immensley at the best of times.

2-WAY CONTRACTS (NBA)

The NBA has a thing called 2-way contratcs which enables developmental players to be promoted to the senior list if form warrants it or injuries require it.

They can play "x" amount of games before the team then has to make a decision to keep them in the senior squad and pay them accordingly or drop them back to developmental.

These decisions are often made from a financial point of view so as not to go over the salary cap but it allows you to bring developmental talent in "for a taste" and see how their development is really going, if they are dominating the developomental league.

It also gives clubs a look at their own developmental model to see if it transfers to AFL or if they're simply making great developmental players but not many AFL players.

UNDERAGE FOOTY REVAMP

As mentioned earlier the best under 18 kids play both NAB and for their schools, with a lot of high draftees being private school based these days.

So you've got the best players trying to split their time between so called "elite" leagues at the same time?

Huh?

Who does that?

US sports have the school system that moves into the college system then into the pro's but we don't have that.

One of these options needs to go or these players will end up playing for 1 or the other and like the NBA/ABA of 1970's in America, one of them eventually gets swallowed up.

Or the powers that be could just make that decision on their own.

In my opinion the private school comp has to go as it feeds an elitism pathway, leaving plenty of low socio-econimic talent untouched, undeveloped and lost to the game, negatively affecting the AFL and the game as whole.

THE US SYSTEM

Again as mentioned earlier we can't quite follow the US system of high school to college to the top level as university sports is non-existent over here.

Do we make university teams the 2nd teir pathway?

How can we tie in the 2nd teir league with education and or work?

More on that in a sec.

TOO MANY COMBINES

At any levels of football there are way too many combines, again trying to follow the US model.

Can you jump high?

Great - how does that translate getting the perfect spin on a drop punt?

Can you ace the Yo-Yo test?

Super - where should a quarterback position half back player stand at a stoppage on the wing?

Why don't we combine test basic footy skills instead of physical traits that you can clearly see when they train or play?

Isn't testing suppossed to give us information we don't have, now back up information we already have?

A lot more could done with this model in my opinion.

MY VERY BASIC MODEL

Step #1 - Get drafted by an AFL team this year and sign a 3 year developmental contract with senior team incentives if you get a gig to play there during the contract.

Step #2 - The next year play in a top level local/amateur league "affiliated" with your team so coaches/fitness staff work together to develop that player on what they need to shift up a level next year.

You'll get a part time wage from your AFL team, match payments from your local club and be required to work or attend further education.

Step #3 - In the 2nd year you move up to the developmental/reserves competition with senior experience under your belt and a steady stream of near elite training practices for the last 12 months.
You would get increased payments from your AFL club (75% ish of a full time starting wage) but still be required to continue working/education in some shape or form.

Step #4 - Hopefully by the start of the 3rd year of your developmental contract, you've played 12 months of senior footy to teach you how to play against more physically ready players plus a year in the development team playing against more technically and tactically sound players - now you're ready to put your best foot forward in your third year.

You'll receive the same 75% wage and work/education requirments as year 3.

Players stay with the AFL developmental clubs for all 3 years - maybe there's no trading of these players or you can only trade them for another player in the same year as development, or simply another developmental player.

Step #5 - This is my "not sure" step where depending on your last 3 years you might now get offered a senior contract on full time wage like draftees get now.

The 2 way contracts might come into effect here.

You might do another year of development on the 75% wage.

This might be individual to the player who now has the choice to stay at the club or move on.

He can sign with an opposition developmental or senior club if given the opportunity to do so.

What do you think?

INCREASING THE AFL DRAFT AGE PART 1 (FREE CONTENT)

I wrote these notes down when all the "raise the draft age" furore was around at the time so I'll present my thoughts here which are a bit random so they'll be in a dot point form with no real fluidity but you'll get my idea/s anyway, some of which can be done, some which can't and some stuff I'm just throwing at the wall.

As usual let me know your thoughts!

Back in high school (the 90's!) one of best mates was playing Geelong Falcons which was a pretty big deal back then for a country kid with recruiters not to looking as far and wide as they do these days.

He was 6"2" and would have been 90kgs so a fair sized unit for a 17 - 18yr old kid.

He was key position as he fit the size requirements of those positions at the time but actually ended up playing AFL reserves for half the year for Melbourne I think instead of Falcons, playing center half and full back against men.

He was holding his own and would admit to you even now that his eye was set firmly on being drafted in his draft year and not much else.

He even made the TAC Cup Team of the Year.

He had a history of hamstring injuries a junior (too big too soon?), and I'm pretty sure he suffered another ham tear near the end of the season, if not finishing his season (hey this is 25yrs ago so don't quote me fully on this timeline.)

We had a big party at his house for his "going away" - so sure he would be moving away to play footy but came draft day...nothing.

He had the next year totally off from footy then slowly filtered back into footy via local footy to forge a pretty good Hamden league career (a top 6 or 8 league in Victoria I believe) but he would have almost been mid 20's by the time he got back to enjoying and playing high level again.

I would love to sit with him and talk about this sometime to find out what he was feeling throughout all this time and it would be good to document for future passed over draftees.

I am a big believer in raising the AFL draft age or at least restructuring the entire under 18/AFL reserves competitions and I'll list my suggestions and reasons below in no particular order.

18 v 21 YEAR OLDS

The physical and psychological difference between high school aged kids of the same age (16 - 18yrs old), let alone young adults (18 - 21yrs old) can be huge and I should know being 168cms and 55kgs in high school trying to play senior football against grown farmers in the western district.

Aerobically and anaerobically I was up to it but physically and psychologically I wasn't with the jump from under 18's to senior footy being too big of a jump for someone my size. The very same problem we have in this instance but at the highest level where the difference is 100x worse.

Life experiences where you've been put in situations out of your comfort zone where you can tread water but not drown is what builds emotional intelligence, an extremely underrated aspect required for team sports and can take years to master.

"CURRENT" TALENT RULES

There's so many "elite" footy academy programs now that elite and academy have been watered down to almost nothing - Paul Roos once said that "the TAC competition is not elite", and he was right.

The current thought process is that right now to even get the slightest of look ins by anything close to an AFL recruiter, you must be "in the pathway" which is elitist at its best.

Most AFL draftees have been in this pathway since they were 12 years old in some shape of form but is it the patheway that develops these kids into draftees or do the most talented kids right now, get through every year?

If we go back to my mate in the introduction then it would not be suprising that a 17 year that big and playing against other 17 year olds, some possibly close my ridiculous minute statue at the time, would totally dominate any game he played in.

This is the case all through juniors so once you're big and good, you're always big and good, and the pathway doesn't really matter does it, even though it seems like it's done it's job.

The biggest problem with these pathways is what happens to the 2nd tier players in these pathways, like my mate above.

He should have had somewhere to go to keep his dream alive, and so should any 18yr old who misses out on being drafted.

The VFL is a solid comp but I think it's half professional at best and probably not close enough to what AFL teams do and thus the gap to go from one to the other if you're good enough and then to have an impact can be too great, especially the very next year (Michael Gibbons from Carlton).

18 YEAR OLDS VS 18 YEAR OLDS

Looks an even fight doesn't it from an age point of view but again look at me vs my mate - 25+cms and 30kgs difference.

At lower levels, say under 15/16, the difference between players born in Jan to June that year can already be out of proportion to the players born between July and Dec that same year, let alone "underage" players.

The most developed players might only be playing against 5 kids their own size essentially and then in 12 months time are expected to hold their own against 22 players bigger them them.

The extra development of the top age kids, which might not seem like a lot at first glance can again mean they simply get through on their current talent level alone, having not really been challenged, and by playing against players that cannot actually challenge them in any shape or form.

Thus they don't really develop at all - they are just always 6 months ahead of everyone else until everything evens up at senior level.

THE DEVELOPMENT YEARS (18 - 21)

You always hear and read of professional coaches in all sports saying how high draft picks are never really ready contribute in any meaningful way and they're right - they're still kids!

Looking at American sports you can clearly see the physical development the players attain when they are a part of a college program, especially in American Football.

You don't see it much in the NBA anymore but when you do, a 3 - 4 year college player is already physically up to competing and more often then not, tactically and technically ready too.

High school players not wanting to go to college but not being able to be drafted until they're 19 are now looking at overseas leagues to help develop them in a more elite environment for the NBA, such as LaMelo Ball here in the NBL this past 2019/20 season, a projected top 5 pick in the next NBA draft.

Not in the AFL though, we take these gawky looking kids and put them straight into the big leagues, with all the pressure from fans put on them and the club to somehow take them from zero to hero in as quick as time as possible, and when that pressure is there like we know it is, you're bound to miss a few steps just to get the line and you'll have an incomplete player at the end of it.

In the end you'll cut short their careers as they'll have deficiencies that now probably can't be fixed and the quality of play league wide suffers as well (some might say that's already happened).

ABBREVIATED TRAINING PROGRAMS

I don't think it's a big secret that draftees do probably 60% of the loading the rest of the senior group does and for good reason - a lot of them aren't developed physically and pschologically to be able to handle it at such a young age but wouldn't it stand to reason that if you need to abbreviate the preparation of a player then they're probably not quite ready for games, which you can't abbreviate once you're out there?

That's a bit black and white I know but it shows that some form of long term development structure between underage football and AFL is definitely needed, not just have a player for a year to get them up to a minum standard and let them go to the AFL - you're causing the same problems just 12 months down the track.

BRING BACK THE SUB RULE?

I'm not sure if they still do now but some countrty leagues allowed senior teams to have 23 players with the 23rd man being an underage player that would be used as a sub like the AFL used to do.

It wouldn't be a popular choice by any means but if draftees are only doing abbreviated programs then the sub rule is perfect them as then you can abbreviate games to fit where they're at physically and psychologically.

Maybe this can be used in whatever development/reserves competition is going around to really ease players into a higher level football which would allow late developers the chance to stay in the "pathway" as the pressure is off them to perform immediately.

SYSTEMIC STRESS

Getting back to the under 18 comp again now as it stands, the best players get by by doing just 1 thing better then the rest of the kids whether it be speed, size or endurance - it's usually something physical - and tactally/technically sound kids get looked over because of "poor" combine results (back to that later).

This means that kids are only being tested in maybe 1 or 2 co-actives at a high level at the 1 time at under 18 level, even at NAB level.

My mate would have been one of biggest players in under 18's so he cruised on that front and psychologically he had the confidence because of his size that he could play well against anyone.

Technically he was so big he could create time and space most of the time so technical skill under pressure probably wasn't a big issue either and tactically the game was nowhere near what it is now in that sense.

Thrown into the AFL system at 18 and th3ese kids are now being stressed through the roof on all 4 co-actives 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and without having been exposed to anything even remotely like this before, something has to give and that's usually their bodies, and once you have an injury then your risk for reinjury rises dramtically no matter how much rehab you do.

Psychologically this wears on you constantly putting even more stress into your system, and the cycle continues but gets even worse.

You have to look way deeper then if a player can handle a 1-on-1 marking contest or a basic running load.

Every decision a player has to make is a stress on the body.

AFL ROOKIE CONTRACTS

As I understand it, rookie contracts are 2 year - yes, 2 year - contracts...some investment that is.

What often ends up happening is that mid-way through year 1, the "ready made" rookies who can play almost immediately at AFL level, renew their 2nd contract.

This makes zero sense to me really.

You've had an 18yr old in your club for 7mins and you're already extending them?

How do you know how they'll develop?

How do you know that they can handle the ever increasing training and game loads that occur each year?

Will they contuinue to be able to deal with the AFL psychologically?

There is simply too much pressure on player and club to deliver anything meaningful in such a short time span.

Rookie contracts should be 3 years minimum and that seems about the right length in that hopefully you can get all players regardless of their starting point up to full training loads by season 3 in a safe and low injury risk manner.

Then in that last season of their rookie contract, you can now get a real good look at what they're capable of either at AFL level or the reserves level, whatever it might be. 

From a payment point of view, any ready made players straight out out of the underage comp into the AFL can have incentive aspects to their contracts for top 10 best and fairest, rising star awards etc to beef up income a little if that's going to be an issue from the players association.

I'm sure we can mostly agree that $85k for a kid straight out of school with no life skills can cause a variety of issues, especially combined with free time.

Part 2 tomorrow.

DECISION MAKING EMAIL + TRAINING STAGE 2 RESTRICTIONS

During the week I received an email froma reader asking about "what I've learnt about decision making" and here's what I sent back:

"...Thanks for the kind words mate.

In a nutshell decision making can probably be put down into 2 camps:

1) Learning to Solve the Same Problem Many Ways

- Using clearences as the example you might use a 5v5 scenario at training to simulate a game but put in constraints (rules) to attain a certain result, or skew your players closer to what you want. For example you might want to use the quarterback position and then go wide from a stoppage, you might want to go forward/gain territory at all costs (Richmond) or use a heap of handball to clear congestion (Western Bulldogs). You have the same scenario/problem (5v5 clearence/stoppage) but you create an environment where the players must learn different ways to carry out the game model/plan within it.

2 - Learning to Solve Many Problems 1 Way

- Again using clearances as an example you might just want to use the quarterback player as often as you can regardless of the set up or position on the ground etc so you'll need to create the right player and ball movement to allow this to happen.

With that being said, players knowing where they are meant to start and then move to and their personal role (inside/outside) in different situations is a big part of the decision making process that gets overlooked.

If I know I'm an inside mid and that John/Joe will be outside mids and Sam in the quarterback position then that's already decreased my decision making requirements right there as I have a fair idea of where each player will be and they know where I'll be and I'll know their voices too.

Also we can all start to "guess/cheat/predict" a little bit as we see the play unfold (Richmond again) to get posotional advantage.

Individually it's hard to train decision making as there is zero chaos/constraints/rules that only having opposition can provide but you can focus on clean hands/ground balls etc which improves the physical and some technical aspect of decision making from having more time/space from not having to handle the ball for as long.

Throw all this at the wall you have Scott Pendelbury..."

Piggy backing off of this I came across the AIS Framework for Rebooting Sport Post Covid-19 and what we're looking at when we get the all clear is the following:

1. Controlled ball kicking/marking/hb drills (passing drills)
2. Zero tackling/contact
3. Small groups of 10 maximum, including coach/s

Whether 10 person grouping rule means we can run multiple groups of 10 in different parts of the same oval adequately seperated or if it's simply 10/oval is not clear right now.

What is clear is that you're going to need plenty of new training drills specific to small groups, of which I'm working on as we speak, so if you're not a level 3 member of Aussie Rules Training then you'll want to be pretty soon!

FOOTY POST COVID-19 PART 3 (FREE CONTENT)

The 3rd and final part of what ended up being a monster peice of writing!

BUILD CONFIDENCE EARLY WITHIN EACH PLAYERS BANDWIDTH

I'm not sure if anyone has heard of bio-banding but it refers to grouping juniors into levels based on ability and/or size rather then simply age.

Big kids play with the big kids in rugby, skilled kids play with the skilled kids in soccer and so on.

This means that ALL kids are playing against or with kids at their own level and hopefully each can develop at the pace they want to, rather then too slow or too fast, both of which can be the cause of early sport drop out.

I would suggest trying this with your playing groups because getting back to the fitness point above, it's not about improvement here, it's about getting players back to their normal in-season skill level.

The 1-drill-fits all mantra of local/amateur footy has been needing to go for a long time and this is your chance.

This is something I would try and do:

1. Group players into top end senior, low end senior, top end reserve and low end reserve or whatever age group/s you have.
2. Run the same drill for each group where obviously skill level and speed will increase from the lowest group to the highest group - the drill might also increase in complexity from level to level too.
3. At anytime, players from 1 group can go to the next group up to "try their hand" and if they feel comfortable and want to stay there, then they can.

This provides a no-stress environment for players to push themselves to new levels at their own pace while training all players at something way closer to their correct level then all players performing the same drill.

Over time most players will hopefully move up a group and then it might work better to move to 3 groups such as top end senior, bottom end senior/top end reserves and bottom end reserves.

This might be the best idea I've ever had to be totally honest and is totally doable at any football club - raise the floor to raise the ceiling.

ALTERNATIVE TRAINING SCHEDULE

Some players might still feel a bit iffy about being out so much, somemight still have kids at home from school, some might be still looking after relatives etc so maybe training 1/week when games start is your best option.

Sure I'm one of the oldest players going around but footy really needs an extra day in the week for mine so we can play/train/train/play 3 days apart - that would be perfect from a play, recover, train point of view but alas I don't think I have the pull to change that.

For this season at least I could see a sole Wednesday night training as an extremely viable option.

Players will be coming off limited preperation and games will be bloody hard, especially the first 2 - 3, without any practice games beforehand, froma loading/recovery point of view.

On top of that it'll be tough, contested footy with plenty of contact straight up because lack of game practice, skill work and fitness will mean slower and less skilled ball/player movement which increases player loading by a huge margin compared to dryer, less contact games, so again extra recovery will be needed.

By having players come to Tuesday training still sorry and sore from the weekend will only put players at risk of injury, putting at risk every other point I've made here under the initial and most important one - player availability.

It will also lessen the required committment in this tough time which may get players more on-side with playing each week then if a 2 x training and 1 x game committment is required.

Yes, we've always done that but this a different time and to think people won't start to think differently now compared to just 6 weeks ago is incredibly niave.

It may not end up being an issue but if it is you better be prepared and organised to be able to roll with it at a moment's notice.

Another lesson - "Control What You Can Control", and that's non-contact injuries.

TRAINING IN SMALL GROUPS

It looks that if and when we do go back we could potentially be limited to smaller training groups which feeds my bio-banding point above a little bit.

What you'll need then are drills specifically designed for smaller numbers, meaning you're gonna need a helleva lot more drills, different drills than you have right now.

As mentioned in part 1, the most efficient way to do this is through small sided games but they still need to have a purpose and progression.

You can't slap a 3v2 handball together on it's own and expect it to transfer to games.

Yet another lesson - "Learn to Solve the Same Problem as Many Different Ways as Possible or a Lot of Different Problems".

Focus on 1 at a time though.

I'll try to put something together to use for this very soon.

PUT TRAINING BEFORE TRAINING + REVIEW EACH SESSION ON YOUR SOCIALS (VISION IF POSSIBLE)

As part of the Game Model it's a great idea to:

• Put training up in your private socials prior to the session so players have an idea of what they'll be doing, the focus of the session and can therefore think about it prior to the session
• Review training sessions and games with vision if possible for individual players and/or the team

Again this might be a little time consuming but with limited training time you've got to find other avenues for teaching and learning through vision is extremely underrated in local/amateur football.

Most senior leagues now video their games and make them available to the clubs so this can easily be carried out now.

You might even find some vision from last year to reiterate what you'll teach going forward to get a jump on things.

PLAYER ENGAGAMENT

I mentioned player engagement above but here are some more idea's to get as many players involved as you can:

• Joke of the Week at training, filmed then put up on your socials
• Have different players do the warm up, warm down or set a challenge for everyone to try (goal fromthe boundary etc)
• Edit the top 5 plays from last week's game
• Edit the bottom 3 plays from last week's games (choose your targets wisely though)
• Tic Tok has huge engagment at the moment so maybe steal some idea's from that such as short dances, acting out a movie scene etc and pull players out of a hat to do it each week either live or recorded.
• My club did a simple trivia night last night with 40 attendees

(SENIOR) COACH THE PARENTS

At junior levels the standard of coaching will often dictate how far players develop and it's a thankless job most of the time and far harder then coaching adults/teens as attention spans and personal motivations can vary greatly from player to player.

Another time consuming but extemely worthwhile endeavour is to have your senior team coaches (mens and women's) train up your helper parents to become "coaches" too.

It might be as simple as the club putting together some workshops on teaching basic skills of footy (kicking, handballing etc) to parent helpers (mum's and dad's) simply so everyone is delivering the same message all the time.

So there it all is.

I've had most of this stuff on my mind quite sometime but couldn't get it out, or quite know the best way/time to get it out but here it is so let me know whatever feedback and/or questions you have on any of it.

FOOTY POST COVID-19 PART 2 (FREE CONTENT)

POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT YEAR

With a shortened season and potential partial playing list maybe it gives you the perfect time to try something you've always wanted to try but always "having to win" stopped you from doing so.

This could relate to anything from training to games to off-feild developments.

Maybe try that full ground press you've never really gotten to implement, a new structure of bringing the ball out of the backline, whatever.

If you do this then ensure, reiterate and ensure again and again that any errors that occur during this time WILL NOT be discouraged or punished.

Richmond were terrible in 2016 but half way through the season they changed their game plan to look more like they have been from 2017 onwards and look how they've gone in that time.

You won't lose anything by trying something like this this season, that's for sure.

MAKE THE CLUB FUN

Round 1 for season 2020 could potentially be played in 8 degrees, hail and gale force winds - not fun on it's own that's for sure.

Tagging on the back of getting players back in the fold after this lay off is the idea of fun - yeah novel I know - but at adult levels of sport we often disregard it as we "seem" to have other motivations to play, whether that be said or implied.

Making your club the most fun place a player can be at can bluetack over those cracks a little, off setting what night be a tough year on the feild.

You might have train at your sponsor nights, joke of the week videos, player game commentary - there's a million things you can do to involve as many people as you can and then share it with them all on your socials public or private.

Another question you can ask - when you are enjoying footy the most, what does it look like?

This information can help you shape your club to what the players want it to be.

MINIMUM REQUIRMENTS/MINIMUM IMPROVEMENT

Getting back to fitness for a bit, physiological adaptation, the act of actually improving fitness of any sort, cannot be done in probably less then 6 weeks.

When I'm talking improvement I'm actually talking being to provide a consistently output higher then the year prior consistently every season.

Most players will at some time in their career put in the "big year" where they do all the training and get themselves to the highest physiological level they have ever been at.

It's easy to reach new levels when you've never really put the consistent effort and time into it beforehand but to do it like AFL players do is bloody hard work.

The cycle of most players is for their fitness to drop when the season ends then build it back up to the same level, or thereabouts each year.

That's it.

No actual improvement and that's fine for the most part bcecause that's all you can hope for in the best case scenario for this season.

What will have the greatest infleunce is if players can stay injury-free or not (player availability from part 1).

Lesson #3 - "Don't Run the Skill and Speed Out of Your Players"

MANAGE AROUSAL LEVELS

We've all got those keen-as-mustard players who are great and extremely infectious around the club, and they will be valuable when we return to play but as a coach you will be in charge of keeping these players, and all players for that matter, at the relative arousal level.

Yes we want to "train like we play" but this year is completely different - we won't be close to doing that.

Just be aware that some players might try to pick back up where they left off in Jan but without the work behind them.

High Arousal = Higher Outputs = Increased Risk of Injury.

You will need to guide some players through training and into early season games as well and this may well be a part of your rotations strategy on game day.

Shorter stints per player and greater rotations overall which may require a system of some sort.

TRAIN LIKE GAMES WILL BE BY THE TIME WE START

If we start in June or whatever, it'll be winter football.

Here's another lesson for you all: "Train How the Gme Will Look Like, Not What You Want It to Look Like".

This means congestion, stoppages, clearances and ground balls in wet conditions.

This certaintly does not mean clean, fast moving football that we train for in the dryer summer months and hope to continue with in the wet months.

It just never happens.

This season will be exclusively tough football so train like that.

The grand finale part 3 will be posted tomorrow.

FOOTY POST COVID-19 PART 1 (FREE CONTENT)

With the ever-hopeful impending commencement of local/amateur footy somewhere in the not-to distant future, here are my thoughts on bringing your footbal club back to its regular programming under unprecedented circumstances.

A lot of the following issues aren't new by any stretch but this pandemic has really put a spotlight on what the true deficiences are in local/amateur football and as has been showed by people all over the world in the last 8 weeks or so, a rebirth through forced innovation can, and will, save a lot of football clubs, many of who are already struggling mightily.

Some of the issues will be more related to junior football then senior and vivce versa but I won't specifiy either way as all football clubs are in different positions in their different age groups and levels of play.

I'll leave it up to you to decicde what's needed by your football club and to take action.

REGAINING PLAYER NUMBERS

Throughout this time off I have had severe reservations about our men's football program going forward if football does not get played in 2020.

For a low resource club it's not quite a year by year proposotion like some clubs, but we suffered a drop in player numbers last year compared to past years, and then had another 15 or so not commit to this year from last year's senior preniership winning team.

As always we have been able to organically recruit plenty of players of varying quality but without them getting to play for us in the first place, not even a practice game, will they return in the middle of winter?

Will senior players non-comittal in January, fully commit in May?

Who knows.

If they don't then we will potentially struggle to field a reserves team consistently in 2020.

My suggestion would be to put out your feelers to all potential players again right now like you would in November, essentially "re-recruiting" every player all over again.

Shitty I know but this is what you just might have to do or you could just sit on your hands and assume they'll just return.

I know what I would be doing.

PLAYER AVAILABILITY

I am certain most football clubs will have a drop off in player numbers for this year which could easily extend to next year and beyond.

It's not often that someone stops playing football then returns again in the short term.

I don't know if players, and past players, having been starved of football, will be keen to take it back up.

I don't know if existing players will find it worthwhile to play potentially 8 - 10 games then finals or simply think it's easier to take the year off and maybe try again next year.

In some instances it can only take 1 player to not to play for another to not to play for another player to not play and all of a sudden you've got a mass exodus on your hands in the toughest climate local/amateur sport has ever seen.

All of this means that for the players you do end up getting back, player availability should be 1, 2 and 3 on your priority list.

For this season at least I would also forgo how competitive we could be in favor of maintaining 2 teams on the park each week.

This may mean you need to investigate such things as:

• Finding out why players play and cater to them individually as best you can.
• Finding out what each players expectations are in regards to playing time, position, level of play, off-feild requirments etc.
• Asking them what they would like at the club to make it as enjoyable as possible including training nights, game days and functions.

DEVELOP A GAME MODEL

Here I go again, the bloody Game Model!

NOW is the perfect time to implement a Game Model.

Why?

Because you might be forced to because of the limited training time we might get before games start back up.

By developing a model I am positive you can fast track what you would like to teach your players from a tactical point of view.

To go 1 better, developing it in conjunction with your leadership group can fast track taching it even more as they can help you, the head coach, in training it.

It does not have to be complicated but it does have to be simple to explain, train and carry out on game day.

If you want help with this then hit me up.

FITNESS LEVELS

Everyone thinks you need a high level of fitness to play football which is partly true but what exactly is a high level of fitness?

Is a super 2km time?

No way.

Is a great Yo-Yo score.

Try again.

Both of those tests and all other tests train only 1 of the 4 Co-Actives of Performance being:

1. Physical
2. Psychological
3. Tactical
4. Technical

It's now clear to see you can put 30mins of each training session towards the phycial aspect of football and "mistaking activity for acheivement" thinking that it's something that transfers to games but you'd be wrong.

The physical Co-Active, being the one most frequently trained by most footballers already has by-far the lowest potential for improvement and would sit no better then 3rd in my order of priorities.

With minimal time contraints, which we'll have when and if we re-start,  you have 1 rule in regards to fitness work:

"Only Do What's Neccesary"

What this means is that you are FAR BETTER working on operational outputs (game outputs) rather then focusing on mechanical outputs (training outputs with no constraints).

I'm not talking running with balls because that can mean cone to cone drills only, not exactly perfect albeit on the right track...sort of.

I'm talking small sided games along with game scenario's and situations left up to players to solve on their own, mixed with tactical stuff from your Game Model.

If players feel they want to do more "fitness" work as it's been drummed into them forever and a day, then provide them with something specific but then you bring in another rule you HAVE to follow:

"Don't Do Today What Wrecks Tomorrow"

Part 2 tomorrow.