Footy Pre / In Season Training 2015/16

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I'm really happy with it. Didn't notice I had it on one I got used to it. I'd post my stats and all the info it gave me but I am beyond useless with computers. Check the site I posted before, that's where I read about it.

What were your basic stats?

Do you think it would be worth while for a local side to have at least one or two?
 
What were your basic stats?

Do you think it would be worth while for a local side to have at least one or two?

the only purpose it would serve to have only 1 or 2 of them per team would be to use it as a kick in the arse for players whose workrate can drop off at times, otherwise it's best used for personal use
 
What were your basic stats?

Do you think it would be worth while for a local side to have at least one or two?
I also agree with what cptkirk said above. But if it was just for personal use, you and a mate getting one would be fine. Could even make a game out of it I suppose.

I used the tracker just on a 5km jog, but it told me where I ran on a heatmap which I thought was pretty cool.
 

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2015
Yearly Programming Webinar 3 Part Series

I probably should have done this slightly earlier in the "season' but I only got around to it last week so what I've done is a 30 something minute webinar on the outlines of how your training should look like through the various parts of the season.

Aimed at coaches, fitness staff and players it looks at personal and team training through the off-season, pre-season and in-season.

Today I will pop up the first part in the webinar series and I'll post the other 2 a few days apart this week.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments you have on on this through the Facebook page.

So with further ado - part 1!

 
Hey mate what would you recommend for someone who is probably a shorter/more solid version of Jack Martin and obviously needs to add some size?
 
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
The Ultimate Pre Season Team Training Session



Off the back of the pre-season training starting up for most, if not all, footy clubs at the moment, here's what a perfect pre-season training team training session would look like IF I had total control over the team and session:

Before Hitting the track everyone goes through the Be-Activated Zone 1 Activation Points with Diaphragmatic Breathing then run out as a team. This should take about 5mins.

In small groups or pairs depending on how many footy's you have, make sure you get 100 - 200 touches (kicks + handballs) on your bad side and 50 - 100 on your good side. This should take about 7 - 8mins.

As a team do a lap plus some tempo runs with dynamic mobility drills thrown in at each end starting with ground based movements and moving to standing movements as we progress through the warm up. This should take about 5 - 7mins.

Core and muscle temperature should now be raised with a light sweat so now it's time to prime the nervous system for the intense training ahead.

Now I'd set up stations for stiffness and single leg reactivity and break the team into 2 groups. Each station would have 2 - 3 exercises and performed for 3 - 5mins each so 6 - 10mins total.

So all up from start to finish the prep work should take about 30mins but you've actually trained physical traits in this time in muscle activation, joint mobility, skill development, lower leg stiffness and single leg reactivity.

Now to the actual nuts and bolt of the session.

Next up is acceleration work over 10 - 20m for 5 - 8 sets with full walk back rest resting 1min for every 10m covered per set (i.e. 10m = 1min, 20m = 2mins etc).

Next up we can work mobility with some small sided handball games in a tight confines doing for 20 - 30sec intervals and resting while other teams go x 2 - 4 sets.

Even though you'll have been training for 45mins or so by now there still should be limited fatigue build up as we've been predominantly working the alactic energy system which is covered with no longer then 10sec work periods with full rest so definitely going for quality over quantity here.

Next up you can throw some skill development in here with a good idea, depending on numbers, to run 2 drills at once. So use a bigger drill and a smaller drill and alternate your groups every 3 - 5mins. I think coaches can stick with some drills for far too long and players lose interest and get a bit bored. When setting up drills though try and make sure that players will get adequate enough rest for skills to maintained at a very high level. You can't improve technical aspects of any sport under fatigue, especially if you're skill level is low in general. Fatigue will simply make skill level worse and no one gets better, no one gets fitter and they just get tired.

So after your skill work which may take another 30mins or so, I would now suggest you do whatever aerobic work you have planned because now it won't interfere with skill and speed, traits that can only be improved in a fully non-fatigued state.

To warm down you can go through some ore dynamic or static stretches and finish off with some more deep breathing to get your players back into a parasympathetic state from a nervous system point of view which will get them into recovery mode straight after training.

To see how all this looks in an actual program then definitely check out the Ultimate Footy Training Manual on sale NOW!
 
What are you currently doing at the moment to get bigger?
I go to the gym 3 times a week, working out chest, back & shoulders, traps & Arms. I know I should be working out my legs but with the new work I've started which requires me to being on my legs all day I can't deal with the muscle soreness.
 
work legs for strength with low reps thus minimal fatigue then as the heavier load (compared to upper body lifts) will have a positive affect on growth hormone and testosterone you don't get with upper lifts

do full body days too as it cuts out a lot of fluff you might otherwise do (arm days for example), increases muscle stimulation and uses more cal's per session

and you'll only be sore for the first week then it should be gone if you're training within your means (i.e. not doing 100 rep sets for no real apparent reason to go on facebook to say you did via photo of you in the gym selfie style!)
 

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as bad as the first night of footy training the first practice game is way worse! you just cannot prepare for the 1st 10mins of that 1st praccy game no matter what you do and that first hard tackle? not fun

Definitely agree, not looking forward to it!

On a side note I am finding I need to invest so much more time into recovery now I am in my late 20s than what I used to have to as well! Hard work!
 
the 2 best things you can do is to make up a wellness survey you fill out each day as well getting a heart rate variability app on your phone and see how they match up...the app i suggest for hrv allows you to put some of the info of the surveys ion it so everything is in the 1 spot but what you're looking for are patterns (high hrv days after training and games) and hopefully you're able to get yourself back to hrv baseline asap after intense activity

i talk a it about heart rate variability here: http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/heart-rate-variability.html

and wellness surveys here: http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/monitoring-during-season.html

and all put together in a neat little 12 month program here: http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/contents-of-2016-ultimate-footy.html
 
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2015

A Timeline of My Knee Rehab



On August 16th I had a pretty serious, but not major, injury to my left knee. As you can see from the image above (taken 3 days post injury), there was quite major swelling which generally indicates not all is right. Here's a look at my timeline since then:

Aug 16th - Suffered Knee Injury
Aug 20th - Rack Pull x 5 reps at 30kgs...yes 30kgs - just a quite 100-odd kgs of my general max! But you gotta start somewhere I suppose.
Aug 27th - Rack Pull x 3 reps at 77.5kgs
Aug 31st - Rack Pull x 3 reps @ 87.5kgs...aiming to play in the Preliminary Final this Saturday!

Sep 1st - Attempted Tuesday night training where I hobbled through 12 run-throughs over 40m or so...pulled out of prelim final
Sep 6th - Got some pain meds from the doctor which I will test drive tomorrow
Sep 7th - Pain meds seem to work well it seems. I had 1 mid morning like I would pre-game next week and the pain did subside. 2 would definitely do the trick so I'm in for next week....except we lost!!F$$^^&K!!!!!!!!
Sep 10th - Rack Pull x 3 @ 97.5kgs
Sep 12th - did Front Squats for the first time post-injury and did 3 x 65kgs
Sep 16th - Rack Pull x 3 @ 112.5kgs and Front Squats x 3 @ 70kgs
Sep 21st - Front Squat 3 x 75kgs
Sep 23rd - Rack Pull 3 x 125kgs
Sep 25th - Front Squat 3 x 80kgs + started Bulgarian Split Squats x 8 at bodyweight.
Sep 28th - Rack Pull 1 x 140kgs...totally miscalculated here, I was going for 130-something!! Started Pistol Squats where I could lower about 3 - 4" only to a bench and get back up. How the mighty fall!

Oct 2nd - Front Squat 2 x 95kgs...Increased Pistol range of motion by about 2"
Oct 5th - Started Aerobic Capacity work which I have been doing by playing basketball where I've set up a little program I do and I time it which I described on Facebook around this time. It's low impact and low force as it's just basic shooting from various spots on the court and most importantly, it's not boring like running or doing the cross trainer. Started out at 30mins.
Oct 9th - Front Squats 1 x 100kgs
Oct 10th - Increased Pistol ROM by another 2"
Oct 12th - Aerobic Capacity increased to 45mins
Oct 13th - Started Front Squat Lockouts which I videoed on Facebook around this time 3 x 105kgs
Oct 14th - Increased Pistol ROM another 2"
Oct 15th - Started Band Drop and Catch Squats to work eccentric strength 3 x 65kgs
Oct 17th - Bulgarian Split Squat 6 x 15kgs
Oct 19th - Band Drop and Catch Squats x 3 @ 70kgs
Oct 20th - Increased Pistol ROM another 2" + Aerobic Capacity increased to 60mins
Oct 21st - Front Squat Lockout 3 x 110kgs
Oct 22nd - Band Romanian Deadlift 5 x 75kgs which I videoed on Facebook around this time.
Oct 23rd - Bulgarian Split Squat 5 x 22.5kgs
Oct 27 - Increases Pistol Squat ROM another 2"
Oct 28th - Front Squat Lockout 3 x 115kgs
Oct 29th - Band Romanian Deadlift 5 x 85kgs
Oct 30th - Bulgarian Split Squat 5 x 27.5kgs

Nov 2nd - Band Drop and Catch Squats 3 x 80
Nov 4th - Front Squat Lockout 1 x 120kgs + increased Pistol Squat ROM another 2'
Nov 6th - Band Romanian Deadlift 5 x 95kgs + Bulgarian Split Squat 5 x 30kgs
Nov 9th - Introduced Skipping 6 x 50 as reactiveness has all but left me from being ground based for so long + increased Pistol Squat ROM another 2"
Nov 11th - Front Squat Lockout 1 x 130kgs...a few days I started to develop a cyst on the inside of my left leg which I knew would be cut out once I went to doctors tomorrow so I maxed out on the Lockouts because I'll need the next week a half off legs while I have a small hole in my leg.
Nov 23rd - Started Reactive Ladder exercises, otherwise known as the agility ladder, to start increasing ground contact force as well to develop lower leg/foot stiffness.
Nov 24th - Romanian Deadlift Triphasic Training style 6 x 1 @ 70kgs + Moderate Hill Runs x 10 sets - 1st TIME RUNNING!!!
Nov 25th - Romanian Deadlift Triphasic @ 72.5kgs + Hills x 15

So here's been thinking in ordering my comeback:
Step 1 - Improve basic movement back the knee, especially flexion (general strength work performed in Aug/Sep)
Step 2 - Improve strength through my left leg, especially flexion again (high force strength work performed in Sep/Oct)
Step 3 - Improve ground force through the leg starting with moderate force and low velocity/impact (low impact jump/hops/hill work performed in Nov)
Step 4 - Improve ground force through the leg with high force and moderate velocity/impact (resisted flat ground sprints to come in Dec)
Step 5 - Improve ground force through the leg with moderate force and high velocity (acceleration flat ground sprints to come in Dec/Jan)
Step 6 - Improve ground force through the leg with low force and high velocity (max velocity work to come in Jan/Feb)

I will not start any other conditioning work, but still continue my Aerobic Capacity basketball stuff, until I can run at full speed. You've got to stay the course!

So as you can see small incremental increases do work wonders over time. I don't need to be at 100% until March/April (depending if I play practice games or not) so there is no need to be in a rush.

So if you are coming back from an injury then sit down and work out where you are now and where you need to get to then plug in the "how to get there" bit in the middle but give yourself time. You might not be 1000% fit for round 1 but is that really a big deal? Would you rather be 80% fit for round 1 but 100% fit for finals or the other way around?
 
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015
Train Horizontally to Go Forwards - Faster!



Back in September of 2009 an article was posted to www.t-nation.com called "Dispelling the Glute Myth" by Bret Contreras, a then up and comer in the strength and conditioning industry.

He followed that up with "Advanced Glute Training" 1 month later and in it he discussed 'Load Vectors' which refer to the direction of the resistance relative to the human body and since load vectors are relative to the human body, then you must take into account the position of the body as well as the direction of the resistance to determine the load vector.

To cur right to the chase most lower body exercises are train in the axial, or straight up and down, load vector so we're talking squats, deadlifts and most single leg exercises.

What you really need to take your sprinting speed and running economy to the next level is anteroposteriour load vector exercises. We're talking exercises that displaces your hips backwards and/or forwards when standing up and then displaces your hips backwards and forwards in a supine position.

So when you run your actually displacing your body horizontally through the air with each step so the squats and deadlifts will train for you to handle the vertical forces involved in ground contact but you need the resisted sprints, swings and hip thrusts to propel you forward with speed.

Here's a list of some of the best anteroposterior exercises that you should include in your training program starting yesterday:

Resisted Sprints -

Hip Thrusts -

Overspeed Eccentric Swings -

Sprints -

I posted an exercise on Facebook about this time last year I called Cable Swings which either a Swing on a cable machine or an Explosive Pull Through. Either way it looks pretty silly but I felt that I couldn't really get the overspeed eccentric on a regular swing as I train on my own I couldn't really do the partner assisted swings either so I suppose I invented these.

Anyway I did these for Dan John's 10'000 Swing Challenge and ran a 2.94sec 20m sprint without doing anything at all in those 2 weeks so it did something!

Cable Swings -

Keep some axial exercises in but do most of your lower body work in the anteroposteriour load vector for results that will actually carry over to the field.
 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015

Consolidation of Stressors Video (Programming)

During the week I put together a quick video detailing how the consolidation of stressors play a huge role in your long term training programming.

This is also covered in the Aussie Rules Ultimate Training Manual within the yearly program that's laid out in in for immediate use.

It only goes for 5mins of so but could make the difference between you peaking for round 1 or going into already fatigued.

 
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016
Best of from ART 2015

If you're a like-ee of the ART Facebook page (and why wouldn't you be?), then you might have seen that I just completed my Aussie Rules Training Best of 2015 list where I posted my best posts from last year.

To simply make it easier for navigation purposes I'm going to pop all the links in here and you can go at it!

I'll be back to new content in a few days time!!

Get Fit

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/a-simple-look-at-aussie-rules-footy.html

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/a-simple-look-at-aussie-rules-footy.html

In-Season Tools

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/monitoring-during-season.html

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/rate-of-perceived-exertion.html

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/heart-rate-variability.html

Get Explosive

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/be-explosive-for-4-quarters.html

Peak for Finals Footy

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/my-mini-pre-season.html

Become the Full Package

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/footy-training-concepts-you-have-to.html

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/footy-concepts-you-have-to-know-about.html

Off / Pre-Season Training Planning

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/yearly-programming-webinar-3-part-series.html

Team Training Session Planning

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/the-ultimate-pre-season-team-training.html

Rehabilitation

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/a-timeline-of-my-knee-rehab.html

Get Faster

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/train-horizontally-to-go-forwards-faster.html

Training Planning

http://aussierulestraining.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/consolidation-of-stressors-video.html

So you could read/watch all of these 14 posts, break them all down and try to make a plan out of all it (and a bloody good one it would be too!) or just outlay $100 dollarydoos for the Ultimate ART Manualthat has a full 10 month training program in it with everything taken care of. You read it, then do it! I couldn't make it any easier for you really.
 
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016
A Must Read for Coaches - How to Train January Flyers



It's the 3rd week of Jan which means your team training will be back in the swing of things with only 11 or so weeks until round 1 - that's 22 team sessions!

As a coach you'll no doubt have that core of senior blokes who showed up back in November and hasn't missed a session. They're right where you want them to be and ready for the final slog to peak in April.

But what about the blokes who didn't show up last year and are now trickling through for training now?

I've played enough football to know these blokes. There your 2nd tier players more then likely. They're the players who could cement a senior spot pretty much every week if they committed for the full 9 months. They'll be your bottom 6 - 8 senior players but also you're top 5 reserves players.

In a sense they can make or break your team's fortunes.

We've all heard the term "you're only good as your bottom 6" which is very true the higher the grade you play but not always true in lower grades but if you have 18 - 20 'senior trained" players then you'll start well, hopefully have less injuries, be able to off set injuries your players do actually get from greater depth and have a pretty successful season.

Getting back to our "January Flyers" - here's what you should do with them.

Do not train them entirely with the main group.

Hold up a minute, I said entirely.

Separate their fitness work is what I really mean.

The top group has more then likely done all the aerobic base work already. They've lowered their resting heart rates and thus their ability to recover quickly between bouts of intense efforts. They are now ready for some lactic type work, where if you've read this blog before, will know shouldn't really be trained until about 4 weeks pre-practice games.

The second group will need to go back to the first groups November training plan, you can't just have them skip the base training and expect them to make any fitness strides. It won't happen and they'll get injured - I guarantee that!

So a training session might look like this with 2 groups:

1 - Warm up for both groups focusing on the new players to the track but use shorter and slower running sets or the warm up becomes they're actual training session and the actual training session wrecks there entire week on and off the field.

2 - Speed work for both groups but where the first group might be doing acceleration and max velocity work, group 2 will only do the acceleration work with longer rest between sets but both groups will work speed for the same total amount of time. Alternatively the 2nd group can start on skill work while waiting for the first group finishes up sprint work.

3 - Skills drills performed by both groups but group 1 doing all short to medium skill drills and not the long drills. Nothing kills a skill drill like players that can;t keep up but you can pull them out now, unlike in-season, as you have more time to train and more energy resources to train with.

4 - Group 2 finishes with aerobic capacity work which should start at 15 - 20mins at 65% intensity or at a 3 - 4 out of 10 rate of perceived exertion. It's probably a slow jog for these blokes and if they can't keep a conversation while doing it then they're going to fast. or trying to go too fast. Aerobic capacity work is long but it's easy - make sure it's easy!

Have the group 2 players extra aerobic capacity work out in their own time buy slowly increasing the time to 60mins while maintaining the 3 - 4/10 rpe. They should complete at least 10 sessions of aerobic capacity work before doing any lactic work that isn't in a skill drill.

It might all look like this:

Week 1 - 3 aerobic capacity sessions x 15, 20 and 25mins = 60mins total doing 2 sessions at team training and 1 on their own.
Week 2 - 3 aerobic capacity sessions x 30, 35, 40mins - 80mins total doing 2 sessions at team training and 1 on their own.
Week 3 - 3 aerobic capacity sessions x 45, 50, 55mins = 170mins total doing 2 sessions at team training and 1 on their own.
Week 4 - 1 aerobic capacity sessions x 60mins = 210mins at team training.

For speed training, which is also vital at the start of training for any player in any sport, the 4 weeks will look like this:

Week 1 - 2 speed sessions at team training
Week 2 - 3 speed sessions doing 2 at team training and 1 on their own.
Week 3 - 3 speed sessions doing 2 at team training and 1 on their own.
Week 4 - 3 speed sessions doing 2 at team training and 1 on their own.

Stay away from any max velocity work that isn't performed in a skill drill until this 4 week block is completed.

Important - Let the players know what you plan for them. Let them know why they'll be doing this and how it will benefit them. This is not a punishment by any means, it';s about getting the most out of them in the time you have. Let them know they're still in contention for senior selection come round 1 but that you don't expect them to be at full fitness by then so they will still be a bit of work to complete to get to "senior fitness' during the early rounds of the season.

This all sounds like a lot of work so if you want the load taken off your hands then I'm available for some fitness coach consultancy if you don't have a strength and conditioning coach at your club so let me know if you need help.
 
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2016
A Timeline of My Knee Rehab Part 2

So during part 1 we reached the end of November and here's where I had accomplished since August when I first did the knee:

- got my front squat strength back up to 100kgs in about 4 weeks
- worked front squat lockouts up to 130kgs in the next 4 weeks after front squats
- worked my pistol squat down to almost, if not, parallel on the injured right knee in about 6 weeks
- finally started medium sloped hill sprints after 106 not being able to run with some knee pain but nothing bad enough to stop me (I'm amazing)
- and I had just started romanian deadlifts triphasic training style for posterior chain strength and some reactive (hate the term agility ladder - it doesn't build actual agility people!!) to lower leg stiffness and to start putting some force into the ground on a frequent basis.

My next steps were to improve ground reactive force with high force using these principles:

- High to Low Force

- Low to High Velocity

- Low to High Impact

I also planned not to start any other conditioning work until I've completed all my planned speed work.

So how have I ended up? Read on.

Days 1 to 8 - performed 3 sessions up the medium steep hill x 10, 15 then 20 sets of about 25m with the fastest set at 4.25secs. Triphasic romanian deadlifts up to 77.5kgs for 5 x 1 with 5sec eccentrics.

Days 10 to 15 - performed 3 sessions up the very steep hill x 7, 10 and 11 sets of about 27m with the fastest set being 5.50secs. Triphasic romanian deadlifts up to 82.5kgs for 4 x 1 with 5sec eccentric.

Days 17 to 23 - performed 3 sessions of sled resisted sprints with day 1 being 10m, day 2 being 10 and 20m and day 3 being 20m. Triphasic romanian deadlifts with 5sec eccentrics topped out at 4 x 1 2 85kgs then I shifted to 3sec isometrics stating back at 6 x 1 and finishing this week "block" at 85kgs as well for those.

Days 25 to 36 - performed various sprints over 10, 20 and 30m at bodyweight. Triphasic romanian deadlifts up to 97.5kgs for 4 x 1 by the end of this block. Had a somewhat testing day Christmas eve with a fair bit of fatigue built up from the previous 5 - 6 weeks and wasn't great but I time all my sprints and I hadn't been fast for weeks. Not a huge worry as I'm still in the "getting back to top speed" phase.

I had Christmas day and the next 2 days off to recover from the decent workload pre-Christmas and planned my next block which was aimed at improving ground force reaction again as well as reactiveness with depth vertical and long jumps.

During my third session of this I trained on a day that my HRV said to take off but alas I battled on and blew the back out! Didn't feel real bad when I did it but it hung around a bit longer then past blow ups and I didn't stand up straight for at least a good week after it! Still feel it a tad now actually.

So I had to alter my plan.

The depth jump blitz was to run for about 3 and a half weeks and then I had planned to start my aerobic conditioning block but as any form of impact was again out of the question (not cool) I shifted my aerobic block forward. Most of my conditioning stuff is 'off legs" stuff like cross trainer, boxing, manual treadmill, ropes etc so impact is minimal.

So my first block of aerobic conditioning I'm doing high resistance intervals x 3 sessions, explosive repeats x 3 sessions and aerobic plyometrics x 4 sessions. These are all methods taken from Joel Jamieson's book Ultimate MMA Conditioning which is THE go-to guide for conditioning these days.

I'll actually post what each of these are and how they improve your conditioning in a future post.

So right now my back is pretty good (finally), the knee is fine although I still feel and have some restriction there but I still haven't had it looked at but I have a MRI referral if I need it.

After my 10 "prep" conditioning sessions I then have another 12 conditioning sessions which is the main program followed by a 13 session speed block based on some of Chris Korfists's stuff. While I'm out of sprinting action I'm doing all the speed prep and warm up drills so I'm more then ready to go for the full sprints.

This will take me right up to April 5th which is the Tuesday before round 1 so without another hick-up (knock on wood), I'll be primed to kick a bag round 1!

This is my plan so what does yours look like? If you don't have one then try the one I made up for the Ultimate Aussie Rules Training Manual!

 
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016
Conditioning Methods I'm Using Right Now



If you're over on the ART Facebook page then you'll be receiving my daily updates on what I did for training that day. Right now I'm in the middle of my conditioning phase which consists of 2 blocks.

Block 1 was the preparation phase which was 9 sessions in 13 days that I have completed.

Block 2 is the main conditioning phase which will be 16 sessions that I aim to complete in no longer then 4 weeks. I'm almost at the end of week 1 today.

So what I want to do is talk a little about the methods I'm using for my conditioning of which you may never even knew existed.

For block 1 I used 3 different methods being High Resistance Intervals (HRI), Explosive Repeats (ER) and Aerobic Plyometrics (AP).

HRI improve the aerobic abilities of your fast twitch muscle fibers which are you fast an explosive fibers but they fatigue very quickly. This method can help extend the time to fatigue for these muscle fibers by supplying them with constant oxygen. You must use a mode of training that provides resistance such as hill sprints and cardio machines that allow for very heavy resistance to be used. I did manual treadmill, as high as it can go resisted cross trainer, heavy ropes and tall kneeling boxing. Do 15 - 20 x 10 - 12secs per session.

ER improves the fast twitch muscle fiber's aerobic repetitive power output by developing the slow twitch muscle fibers rate of oxidation meaning you fast fibers can recover faster between explosive bursts. You need to choose an explosive exercise, weighted or unweighted, and also be able to do 1 rep per second or thereabouts during these sets so look at plyometric push ups, bounds, low jumps, or even basic lifts done explosively with lighter resistance. I did band resisted feet elevated glute bridges and overspeed eccentric squats with my portable power jumper and push ups for 2 of the 3 days. You'll need to do 6 - 10 x 8 - 14secs x 2 series per exercise x 2 - 3 exercises per sessions, Rest 60 - 40secs between sets and 8 - 10mins between exercises too. So start with lower reps and higher rest and increase/decrease over time.

AP aims to improve the aerobic abilities ofthe fast twitch muscle fibres meaning higher power can be maintained for longer. Each rep should be of moderate intensity which means you need to choose your exercises carefully and do 5 - 15secs x 10 - 20mins with 30 - 10secs rest between exercises. I did a full on circuit for this consisting of line jumps, lateral line jumps, on spot sprints, low foot squat jumps, wideouts, skipping, ankle jumps, band assisted ankle jumps, rebound bench press, drop catch and throw bench press, plyometric push up, band assisted plyometric push up, rebound standing angle presses, alternate step toe taps, side to side step toe taps, step wideouts, on off step jumps, resisted sled bounds, square jumps, hops and jumps over low objects! Quite a list!!

You'll see that I didn't run at all during this preparation phase for a few reasons.

1 - Running bores the s**t out of me

2 - My knee isn't quite 100% yet

3 - The lower back was stiff iffy as well

All these conditioning methods, and the one's I'll describe on part 2 of this series, all come from probably the greatest conditioning manual there is to date - Ultimate MMA Conditioning by Joel Jamieson. He specialises in training fighters which is why it's titles as such but the methods can be used to suit any goal for any sport. Almost the best $70 I ever spent.

This is light years ahead of repeat 100m sprints you still might be doing at your current footy training. This is actual science and I'd love to hear a coach give me their reasons for doing some of things they do for fitness. If it's not backed by some form of evidence then there's probably a better way to spend this time and get far better results from it too.

Remember I'm available for team and personal online strength and conditioning coaching whether you want to me to look over your personal or team's training program, set a program for a specific goal (speed, strength etc) or you just want some feedback on anything. Let me know via the Facebook page or PM from there.
 
cptkirk , just saw the Joel Jamieson is doing a conditioning course in Sydney in April. Obviously could be tough to get to, but thought I'd let you know in case it interests you as I'd say it will sell out pretty quickly.
 
i got an email about just this morning actually - would be excellent but i work sat mornings can't really take any time off at the moment...there's another bloke coming to Sydney in May to I'd like to see (Douglas Heel) but that's on a Mon/Tue so even worse

Sydney's s**t, why not just come straight to the most livable city in the world?
 

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