Opinion Speed and Endurance vs SpeedEndurance

[OneGreatClub]

Big Mladen spoke to SpeedEndurance.com 3 years ago.

http://speedendurance.com/2012/07/06/interview-with-mladen-jovanovic-5-questions/#
This is Part 11 of the weekly “Friday Five” series where I ask 5 tough questions to world class elite coaches.

With Spain defeating Italy at the 2012 UEFA EuroCup, I feel it’s only fitting I interview a Football (soccer) Coach. While the better team won, it was clear that Italy looked fatigued and sluggish, and you can’t argue that Spain had an extra day of rest to prepare for the final game. So I asked about conditioning, testing and training.

In this interview, we have Mladen Jovanovic, a physical preparation coach from Belgrade, Serbia, currently serving the position of head physical preparation coach at Hammarby soccer club from Stockholm, Sweden. He is also a representative for Tudor Bompa Institute for Serbia and Croatia. Friday Five is sponsored by Freelap Track and Field, a leader in electronic timing.

Interview with Mladen Jovanovic
Q1 – SpeedEndurance.com: You have a speed and power background and many coaches in football clubs are labeled fitness coaches as they tend to be very specialized in conditioning and very little on speed and power. While the sport requires great conditioning could you get into the needs of power in football?

Mladen Jovanovic: In my opinion most team sports are more similar in this regard than different – you need to have good vertical jump, good 5-10m acceleration, good speed (up to 40-60m, but that depends on the sport), good reactive strength, quick feet for quick repositioning and good, should I call it lateral explosive power. Compared to endurance qualities the power qualities are less trainable (which doesn’t mean we should neglect them, au contraire) and that might be one of the reasons why physical preparation coaches emphasize endurance – because effect of their work is easily seen by the naked eye, along with being less coaching and time demanding compared to power/speed training. Luckily, football (soccer) can be considered mixed sport (term I first heared from Lyle McDonald… see this link for more information) which mean that players doesn’t need to be extreme in neither speed/power nor endurance nor the training program in that regard.

Q2 – SpeedEndurance.com: You do some conditioning tests and training methods that are less known, could you share what those are and why you came to your conclusions?

Mladen Jovanovic: Not sure if the test we use are less known, but coaches still believe in VO2max testing and it’s utilization to evaluate training effects and prescribe training intensities. Recent research and review papers by Timothy Noakes[1] provide really great overview of flaws of VO2max testing. In the paper by Vollaard et al[2] they stated that:

Moreover, we demonstrate that VO2max and aerobic performance associate with distinct and separate physiological and biochemical endpoints, suggesting that proposed models for the determinants of endurance performance may need to be revisited (2009, pg. 1483)

In other words VO2max and aerobic performance are not the same. This is why I concentrate on aerobic performance. Test like MAS (5-6min or 1500-2000m time trial) and Martin Buchheit’s 30-15IFT gives me indicator where is the certain player with his aerobic performance (in the case of MAS) or his intermittent running ability (in terms of 30-15IFT) and allows me to individualize training more easily. Recent article by Dan Baker[3] will provide great starting point for interested readers.

Q3 – SpeedEndurance.com: Injuries are often part of the game but some are avoidable. Without living in paranoia how do you challenge the players but still keep things safe and sane?

Mladen Jovanovic: I think there is no single feed-forward solution to this. Coaches still believe that injury prevention is simple introduction of corrective exercise(s) in the training program, but as always things are not so simple as we want them to be. Overall loading, recovery and playing/living stress needs to be taken into account, thus we need valid and reliable feed-back (monitoring) system for assessing training loads, fatigue levels and adaptations taking place. Without that we are just guessing and doing voodoo magic with the newest prehab exercises.

At the moment we are trying to put a monitoring system to life and until that happens, players are challenged yet safe with using individualized workloads based on their testing results (like MAS test, squat, bench etc.). This is not perfect, but at least it is better than nothing. For evaluating practices we utilize Polar Team2 and this gives us some insight in training workloads as well.

Q4 – SpeedEndurance.com: What do you do for screening? You have spent some time in the US and have been exposed to American conditioning coaches such as Mike Boyle and Vern Gambetta. Any thoughts on what you have taken from them that is similar and what you have taken that is different?

Mladen Jovanovic: To be honest I have only basic knowledge regarding screening. That’s why we have Mikael Klotz in our coaching staff as our head physical therapist. Klotz is really great PT who is really into tracking data and using gadgets. He did some basic screening with the players to establish the baselines, so when the players are recovering from the injury he has a basic idea where they were before and how much they need to improve before joining the normal training.

My opinion regarding screening would be that we need to identify KPIs in this particular case as well and track them using reliable and valid tests. When I was with Mike Boyle, they didn’t do any particular screening of the general athletes over there, but they did FMS on some personal clients or athletes with special needs. They also have John Palloff there to assist with this kind of problems. To me FMS might be a decent start, but I not sure how valid it is actually. I had score of 19 if I remember correctly and I had and still have hypermobility syndrome. I think FMS might be decent start, but without more precise assessment tools I think it is just worthless. One test I like to keep track off is modified Thomas test where you get actual angles and you have research to back it up that shows correlation with hamstring injury. Again, this revolves around the same problem as with the previous question. There is no magic bullet.

Q5 – SpeedEndurance.com: You are doing a lot with data analysis, any suggestions you can share with coaches working in team settings with monitoring a diverse group of athletes with the needs of practice and travel? It seems that data is talked about but few are doing it consistently.

Mladen Jovanovic: Get someone else to do it! Joking a side, the key is to track pragmatic data that you are actually going to use and that is easily tracked. I tend to split the monitoring into the three different groups – (1) analysis of acute workloads (using objective data, like GPS, physiological like HR analysis and psychological like sRPE), (2) fatigue and readiness to train (using tests like vertical jump to assess NMF, HRV and subjective reports among many others) and (3) long term adaptations (like 5-10m acceleration, 30-40m speed, VJ, MAS, 505 Agility, squat, bench press, etc.). I am by no means expert in this and I am just trying to bring this kind of system to life as well as learning statistics and data visualization.

[1] Beltrami, F. G., Froyd, C., Mauger, A. R., Metcalfe, A. J., Marino, F., and Noakes, T. D. (2012). Conventional testing methods produce submaximal values of maximum oxygen consumption. Br. J. Sports Med. 46, 23–29

Noakes TD (2012) Fatigue is a brain-derived emotion that regulates the exercise behavior to ensure the protection of whole body homeostasis. Front. Physio. 3:82. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2012.00082

[2] Vollaard, N. B., Constantin-Teodosiu, D., Fredriksson, K., Rooyackers, O., Jansson, E., Greenhaff, P. L., Timmons, J. A., and Sundberg, C. J.(2009). Systematic analysis of adaptations in aerobic capacity and submaximal energy metabolism provides a unique insight into determinants of human aerobic performance. J. Appl. Physiol. 106, 1479–1486.

[3]http://www.danbakerstrength.com/wp-...trends-in-high-intensity-aerobic_training.pdf

I am in man love with Mladen already

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I am in man love with Mladen already

You can become a member of his site.

http://complementarytraining.net/become-memeber/
$15/month gets you access to all his protected content and $150/year gets access to all that and Annual Planner for Sports & Strength Card Builder which are $75 each which are used by Physical Preparation Coaches or High Performance Managers.

 

[Steve Dore]

Sounds like a recipe for a unique blend.

 

[*PAF]

Sounds like a recipe for a unique blend.

Sounds like a cue for Portia

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Not seeing any SpeedEndurance especially with White out.
Not seeing any real Speed from anyone except for Jasper.
The only endurance I'm seeing is like those plodding 10km jogs around the River Torrens.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

In the Burgess scrutiny thread manureid asked for questions for Burgo as they play at the same soccer club - I asked What specific programs will you implement to greatly improve our players SpeedEndurance? and asked what he would do to allow our players make repeated high energy high velocity bursts of play and maintain their high end speed over repeated efforts for all 4 quarters. I was thinking of Plyometric training like Lynford Christie did in this old video.

Plyometric's like visualization, interval training, periodization were developed under the old Soviet athletics program, which actually involved developing ground breaking techniques and ideas and not just the drug fulled pill popping that they also got involved with and their East German counterparts perfected.

Plyometrics are exercises used by track and field athletes especially sprinters - flat and the hurdles, and high jumpers, and to a lesser extent long jumpers and some of the martial arts - MMA/UFC guys also use them extensively, which involve a lot of jumping exercises to improve power ie both speed and strength by doing exercises that rapidly and explosively contract and then expand the muscles. All the football codes, basketball, volleyball, teams etc do them in varying degrees. I have seen Anna Meares do some grueling exercises as well. The questions is, are our guys doing enough of them to increase their explosive power and help with their speedendurance??

Power freak 2008 do you do these sorts of excercises with your clients??

 

[Power freak 2008]

In the Burgess scrutiny thread manureid asked for questions for Burgo as they play at the same soccer club - I asked What specific programs will you implement to greatly improve our players SpeedEndurance? and asked what he would do to allow our players make repeated high energy high velocity bursts of play and maintain their high end speed over repeated efforts for all 4 quarters. I was thinking of Plyometric training like Lynford Christie did in this old video.

Plyometric's like visualization, interval training, periodization were developed under the old Soviet athletics program, which actually involved developing ground breaking techniques and ideas and not just the drug fulled pill popping that they also got involved with and their East German counterparts perfected.

Plyometrics are exercises used by track and field athletes especially sprinters - flat and the hurdles, and high jumpers, and to a lesser extent long jumpers and some of the martial arts - MMA/UFC guys also use them extensively, which involve a lot of jumping exercises to improve power ie both speed and strength by doing exercises that rapidly and explosively contract and then expand the muscles. All the football codes, basketball, volleyball, teams etc do them in varying degrees. I have seen Anna Meares do some grueling exercises as well. The questions is, are our guys doing enough of them to increase their explosive power and help with their speedendurance??

Power freak 2008 do you do these sorts of excercises with your clients??

Yes and no. No... Not to the same intensity because it is not a good idea to use a cookie cutter strategy when designing programs. The power\plyometric exercise used is a progression of a previous exercise. But Yes.....in the sense that everybody who trains can employ power exercises almost as a reward for the strength that they have built up. Of course, the type of power exercise should reflect the strength and skill level of the athlete. Think of power exercises as a quicker version of some of the basic exercises we know. The idea is to increase strength and practice using it quickly. The idea of improving our strength training programs is to make our players be able to improve speed, quickness and agility. Let's hope we get the mix right. I was disappointed when Mladen said that he was here to learn from our strenght coach. Footy departments are a funny thing. Our strength and conditioning coach might not like to have someone step on his toes so perhaps nothing has changed. if we aren't strong enough I think I would start looking at the guy who actually does the work in the gym with the boys.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Looks like endurance running for endurance running sake has been scrapped and more SpeedEndurance work has been incorporated into 2016-17 preseason. About time!

 

[Nemisis]

In the Burgess scrutiny thread manureid asked for questions for Burgo as they play at the same soccer club - I asked What specific programs will you implement to greatly improve our players SpeedEndurance? and asked what he would do to allow our players make repeated high energy high velocity bursts of play and maintain their high end speed over repeated efforts for all 4 quarters. I was thinking of Plyometric training like Lynford Christie did in this old video.

Plyometric's like visualization, interval training, periodization were developed under the old Soviet athletics program, which actually involved developing ground breaking techniques and ideas and not just the drug fulled pill popping that they also got involved with and their East German counterparts perfected.

Plyometrics are exercises used by track and field athletes especially sprinters - flat and the hurdles, and high jumpers, and to a lesser extent long jumpers and some of the martial arts - MMA/UFC guys also use them extensively, which involve a lot of jumping exercises to improve power ie both speed and strength by doing exercises that rapidly and explosively contract and then expand the muscles. All the football codes, basketball, volleyball, teams etc do them in varying degrees. I have seen Anna Meares do some grueling exercises as well. The questions is, are our guys doing enough of them to increase their explosive power and help with their speedendurance??

Power freak 2008 do you do these sorts of excercises with your clients??

That' amazing footage. How do they train like that without tearing a muscle?

 

[Holden Hillbilly]

It remains to be seen whether they can kick forward 40 metres to position.

That is one of the main reason we are not a top 8 side as we have drafted and developed players from 2009 to 2014 who cannot do that.

 

[Janus]

Looks like endurance running for endurance running sake has been scrapped and more SpeedEndurance work has been incorporated into 2016-17 preseason. About time!

View attachment 322706

You'd be interested in this I think REH. The guys went to Oregon, right? That's where Alberto Salazar's Oregon Project is:

The legendary runner-turned-coach Alberto Salazar is a big fan of 300’s—so much so that all of his runners do them, while 400m intervals appear sparingly in his training programs. Obviously, 300m intervals can be run a little faster than 400m intervals, yet they do not administer quite the same endurance challenge. Salazar prefers them for long-distance runners especially for precisely this reason: they provide a little more of what’s missing in the other types of workouts that fill these athletes’ training logs: long intervals, tempo runs, long runs, and easy runs.

For example, many of Salazar’s star runners do a set of 300’s about once every other week, whether they’re training for track races or a marathon. Because this type of workout is not super-specific to either type of racing (meaning Salazar’s runners run the 300’s at a pace faster than they do in a 5K, 10K or marathon events), it is not approached progressively in the context of the training cycle. In other words, the workout does not become increasingly challenging with the addition of intervals each time an athlete does it. Rather, they do the same session almost every time to first develop–and then maintain–speed. Salazar saves the progressive approach for more race-specific types of workouts.

Specifically, many of Alberto’s athletes typically run 7 x 300m fast with 300m jogging recoveries between intervals. This is a good, solid workout but hardly a killer. Any runner can do it, although not every runner can complete his or her 300’s as fast as the runners in the Oregon Project!

If you’ve never done 300’s before, it will take a session or two to get used to them. You’re likely to run them too fast the first time, resulting in inflating interval times as the workout progresses, and you’re almost certain to become more comfortable running 300’s as time passes (initially, that last 100 meters of each interval seems excruciating). A perfectly executed set of 300s is one in which the interval times are consistent from start to finish and the last interval is more or less an all-out effort, meaning you’d be unable to match that time if you ran another 300.

I’ve seen coaches prescribe as many as ten 300’s in a session. There’s nothing to be gained by doing more, whereas you can start with as few as five and get something out of them. Seven 300’s appears to be the magic number for many of Alberto’s athletes, and if it’s good enough for them it ought to be enough for the rest of us!

http://running.competitor.com/2014/04/training/workout-of-the-week-alberto’s-300’s_13752

Of course, while the myriad of resources Salazar and his athletes have at their disposal through their relationship with Nike can’t be overlooked, here are five fundamental lessons from his Oregon Project model that runners of all ability levels can apply to their own training in order to take their racing to the next level.

1. Take a long-term approach

How can you take a long-term approach to your own training and racing? The most important lesson is to be patient. Set long-term goals for 1 to 3 years down the road, such as moving up to tackle the marathon distance or taking a large chunk of time off your current personal best. Give yourself plenty of time to mature as an athlete, work on your aerobic development, and improve strength and speed over the course of a few years rather than try to cram it all into a 10- or 12-week period. Of course, it’s important to give yourself short-term benchmarks along the way as a means of checking your progress, but don’t be discouraged if you’re not running a personal best every time you take to the starting line. Always keep the bigger picture in mind.

What have I been telling you? It's all part of a plan.

2. Find good training partners

Bottom line: group training works. The Greater Boston Track Club of the 1970s and 80s, and Mammoth Track Club, Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, and various Team USA training groups of today, are further evidence of the effectiveness of group training. You don’t have to be an elite athlete to become a member of your local running club, however, or simply meet up with other runners in your area to train with a few times a week. Find a person or persons who can push you to become a better athlete and improve your confidence when you step to the starting line on race day.

Well we've already got this covered.

3. Work on your running form

Salazar, who in his prime ran like an old man squatting down on the toilet, spent a lot of time tinkering with Ritzenhein’s running form after the two began working together in 2010. The reason was that Ritzenhein, a heel striker, was overstriding and essentially hitting the brakes every time his foot struck the ground, sending severe impact forces throughout his body, which contributed to multiple stress-related overuse injuries. The rationale behind getting him to become a midfoot striker was to land more under his center of gravity, thus reducing the severity of the impact forces radiating throughout his body with each stride.

Did it work? Sort of. Ritzenhein hasn’t been totally injury-free since falling under Salazar’s watchful eye, but he’s now landing noticeably lighter on his midfoot, running with a more relaxed gait and has improved his efficiency over longer distances.

Key points: 1. Land lightly 2. Relax 3. Move forward

A good way to practice the three points described above is to incorporate form-specific drills such as high knees, butt kicks, skips and bounding into your training two to three times per week. Also, learn how to sprint.

We suffered a lot of overuse injuries like hamstrings this season - I believe it's because our players don't know how to run efficiently.

4. Learn how to sprint

At the top level of the sport, particularly in championship races, an athlete needs to be able to close hard off any pace. For the citizen runner, possessing the ability to kick over the last quarter mile of a race can be the difference between an age-group award and hoping to win a raffle prize.

Aside from being able to finish fast, however, the main purpose of sprinting or speed development workouts for distance runners is to recruit muscle fibers that aren’t relied upon in traditional workouts such as VO2 max intervals, tempo runs and the like, which will improve your power and explosiveness while helping your stride become more fluid. Improving your sprinting ability enhances the effectiveness of all the other types of workouts you’ll do, allowing you to run faster and longer more efficiently.

* Practice Kicking: Upon completion of a more traditional training session such as long intervals or a tempo run, tack on a 4 to 6 repeats ranging from 100 to 400m in length at near full speed. This is an effective way to practice sprinting while tired, which is what you’ll need to do at the end of a race. This is a more demanding race-simulation type of workout than either of the aforementioned sessions, so be careful and use sparingly in order to avoid injury. Once a week is more than enough.

This would marry in well with the concept that 80% of running is done with ballwork, with 20% done with 300m sprints. And we known that Burgess loves to push the players when they are tired.

5. Train your mind

Physical training aside, a big reason why Farah and Rupp were able to medal in London was simply because they believed they could. When the two training partners stepped on the starting line in Olympic Stadium, they each possessed a high level of confidence in themselves and their preparation that had been developed through years of physical and mental training.

When Salazar started the Oregon Project some 10 years ago his aim was to get under-confident Americans to believe that they could compete with the seemingly untouchable athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia. Aside from getting runners like Farah, Rupp, Ritzenhein and formerly Adam Goucher, Kara Goucher and Amy Begley fit enough to compete against the best runners in the world, he had to get them to believe they could compete with the best runners in the world.

And this is why we brought in Lorimer Moseley and other psychologists to help with training.

Read more at http://running.competitor.com/2012/...m-alberto-salazar_57069/6#EqhOLARWWdspazzg.99

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I knew Salazar ran the Nike Project to find and develop middle and long distance runners in the USA starting in 2001. I thought he had a Colorado altitude training base but looks like from around 2008 he has employed equipment made by Colorado Altitude Training (CAT) from Colorado/Boulder to do the altitude training in Oregon as part of his Nike Project and the Nike Altitude House.

http://altitudetraining.com/

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

....We suffered a lot of overuse injuries like hamstrings this season - I believe it's because our players don't know how to run efficiently.....

That is a phurphy as to why we had so many soft tissue injuries in 2016. The player running technique might not be the most efficient but if that was such an important factor it would have happened in the previous 3 preseason and 3 seasons Ken and Burgo have been in charge. We had bugger all soft tissue injuries in 2013-15 years and the 2nd pre season in Dubai was the toughest running slog of any 10 day period, so if it was running technique, we would have seen a spate of soft tissue injuries after that.

Several things obviously went wrong in 2016, including poor injury management by the fitness department as well as a bit of bad luck I suspect.

But most of what you quoted from Salazar makes sense. But long term in athletics is different to long term in footy. Salazar took 10 years to make Galen Rupp - a white American - no east African genetics - an Olympic medalist in 2012 the 10,000m and he backed it up in 2016 with bronze in the marathon. Rupp hasn't won medals at World Championships. Your head coach and fitness head of a footy teams don't have 12 years to get you to the ultimate goal.

 

[Janus]

That is a phurphy as to why we had so many soft tissue injuries in 2016. The player running technique might not be the most efficient but if that was such an important factor it would have happened in the previous 3 preseason and 3 seasons Ken and Burgo have been in charge. We had bugger all soft tissue injuries in 2013-15 years and the 2nd pre season in Dubai was the toughest running slog of any 10 day period, so if it was running technique, we would have seen a spate of soft tissue injuries after that.

Several things obviously went wrong in 2016, including poor injury management by the fitness department as well as a bit of bad luck I suspect.

But most of what you quoted from Salazar makes sense. But long term in athletics is different to long term in footy. Salazar took 10 years to make Galen Rupp - a white American - no east African genetics - an Olympic medalist in 2012 the 10,000m and he backed it up in 2016 with bronze in the marathon. Rupp hasn't won medals at World Championships. Your head coach and fitness head of a footy teams don't have 12 years to get you to the ultimate goal.

The head coach and fitness head of a footy team aren't competing against the best in the world, just the best in Australia. So that means it shouldn't take 12 years to achieve it IMO. Besides, there's nothing but benefits to be gained from working on cadence when you're doing the 20% of pure running that we are doing.

Preventing Injuries

A number of studies have suggested that a faster running cadence helps to adjust a runner's form, and in turn, may lead to fewer injuries.

In a recent study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the biomechanics of step rate were analyzed. Researchers monitored three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics in 45 healthy, recreational runners and paid special attention to the hip, knee and ankle joints. They found that slight increases in stride cadence led to significant reductions in loading on the knee and hip joints, which, they hypothesize, might help prevent some of the most prevalent running injuries.

"It decreases the vertical loading rate and the stress on the skeletal system, in particular the knees, hips and lower back," says Dubois about increased cadence.


A quicker cadence generally leads a runner to hit midfoot compared to runners with longer strides. This longer stride causes runners to extend their legs out in front of their body, creating a breaking effect. This can slow you down and lead to injuries.

Improving Performance

The majority of elite runners strike the ground around 180 to 184 times each minute. This cadence remains whether they are running a 1500-meter race or a marathon.

"This can benefit efficiency by increasing running economy," Dubois says.

Running economy is all about how efficiently you use oxygen at a certain pace. The more efficient you are in using it, the better your running economy. Running cadence is inextricably linked to economy because it affects the way you strike the ground. Better form and optimal cadence translates into improved running economy and faster times.

http://www.active.com/running/articles/running-technique-the-importance-of-cadence-and-stride

So if you want to create SpeedEndurance, cadence is paramount.

 

[SwampRat]

imagine how good bolt would be if he could get off to a decent start...ad if he didnt slow down in the last 10 metres, i hope he has always been clean.

Bolt's starts are pretty damned good. comparable to the best on that list and better than others. Everyone slows down at the end. it's impossible not to.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The head coach and fitness head of a footy team aren't competing against the best in the world, just the best in Australia. So that means it shouldn't take 12 years to achieve it IMO. Besides, there's nothing but benefits to be gained from working on cadence when you're doing the 20% of pure running that we are doing.



http://www.active.com/running/articles/running-technique-the-importance-of-cadence-and-stride

So if you want to create SpeedEndurance, cadence is paramount.

Correct re cadence and that's why I don't understand why we haven't employed an athletics sprint coach in the preseason in previous years as a consultant- like John Donehue with wrestling - to oversee our sprint running and improve our players' technique even if it only increases their speed by 5-10% range. Unless we have mainly been interested in endurance running and getting the K's into the players legs.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

Correct re cadence and that's why I don't understand why we haven't employed an athletics sprint coach in the preseason in previous years as a consultant- like John Donehue with wrestling - to oversee our sprint running and improve our players' technique even if it only increases their speed by 5-10% range. Unless we have mainly been interested in endurance running and getting the K's into the players legs.

Even for endurance running form is important.

Posture, lean, foot fall etc etc.

I am amazed at how bad some players posture and running techniques are.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[Janus]

Correct re cadence and that's why I don't understand why we haven't employed an athletics sprint coach in the preseason in previous years as a consultant- like John Donehue with wrestling - to oversee our sprint running and improve our players' technique even if it only increases their speed by 5-10% range. Unless we have mainly been interested in endurance running and getting the K's into the players legs.

I've been on record saying that I believe that's exactly what it is. We're building up the tank first because only distance running can achieve that, and spending time working on correcting form and pursuing increases in speed is counter-intuitive to that goal.

Now, after three preseasons of endurance work - the emphasis shifts to strength and power running, to take advantage of that tank.

People think they've seen what Port Adelaide can do in terms of running. They haven't seen anything yet.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I've been on record saying that I believe that's exactly what it is. We're building up the tank first because only distance running can achieve that, and spending time working on correcting form and pursuing increases in speed is counter-intuitive to that goal.

Now, after three preseasons of endurance work - the emphasis shifts to strength and power running, to take advantage of that tank.

People think they've seen what Port Adelaide can do in terms of running. They haven't seen anything yet.

This is Ken and Burgo's 5th preseason not 4th. So by your own reckoning they got last preseason wrong concentrating on endurance. Sides didn't worry about pacing themselves with the limited rotation. They went harder earlier and hung on. We got it wrong and paced ourselves. It wasn't until we had racked up half a dozen injuries that we made adjustments to concentrating on going hard early.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The AFL industry waking up endurance isnt as important as speed.

Beep test, 3km time trial dumped from Draft Combine
THE BEEP test and 3km time trial have been scrapped from this year's NAB AFL Draft Combine as part of a range of changes to the annual trials at Etihad Stadium.
Having been key events of the national Combine over many years, the endurance tests have been changed to closer align with trends in the AFL industry.The beep test (also known as the shuttle run) will be replaced by the Yo-Yo run, with the AFL and combine sub-committee believing the beep test is not the most accurate measure to predict fitness levels for team sports.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-06-05/beep-test-3km-time-trial-dumped-from-draft-combine

The Yo-Yo test comes in for the high intensity stuff

The Yo-Yo test has similarities to the gruelling beep test in that players will need to run between cones that are 20m apart at timed intervals. Participants have a 10-second recovery period between the 20m sprints where they are required to jog to another cone and then back to the starting point before the next shuttle begins. A prospect's score in the Yo-Yo test can be presented in total distance run, the level achieved or his maximum rate of oxygen consumption. The Yo-Yo is shown to be a reliable indicator of high-intensity aerobic capacity in athletes.

It is rare for AFL clubs to do beep tests for their players once in the system, but juniors will still complete the test at local level at the start-of-season testing days around the country.

Clubs are doing 2km runs - Kane Cornes will have a cry - so they want the kids to do so

In recent years the 3km time trial has been the final event of the Combine, however this year it has been cut to a 2km run. This is in line with the majority of AFL clubs who prefer the shorter distance in their own fitness programs.

Bit surprised the 30m repeat sprints have been cut. what a joke that it placed fitness of players in jeopardy. Good they woke up that Lloyd's clean hands test isn't much chop.

In another change, the clean hands test and the 30m repeat sprints test have been removed.

The AFL felt with the increased load on draft hopefuls in that period of the season, including the introduction of the NAB All Stars game in Grand Final week, that the repeat sprints test placed the fitness of some players in jeopardy. Historically it has caused the most amount of soft-tissue injuries of the tests.

The clean hands test has been a part of the skills component of the Combine for several years after the test was developed by former Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd.

Clubs want more Choco crazy questions time

More time as been allocated to club interviews and medical screenings at this year's Combine, which will run from Tuesday, October 3 – Friday, October 6.....................

 

[Power freak 2008]

Just saw some of the comments about running and thought I'd add my two cents. Endurance running is different to field running. Field sports looks at the same things that sprinters do. Acceleration (building to top speed) and max velocity. Midfielders might need to train more acceleration while Backmen need both acceleration and max velocity. Darcy-Byrne Jones and Pittard, for example, might want to do more runs like Laird from Adelaide. The reason why some of these back-men don't get caught is that holding top speed is hard and is a different technique to building up speed.

An aging mid can survive if they still have acceleration. The first 5 steps is all they need. I think this is the area we have improved for putting pressure on the opposition ball carrier. We have cut down on overly long runs and focus more on tackle pressure from my observation. While we lost the second half of the Hawthorne match, it was the best tackle pressure I have seen from the boys. We often get caught with our high press because teams quick it over our heads. Still a few kinks to iron out but I am pretty excited. Still think there is a lot of room for improvement.

How much can a track coach value add in our football program. The answer is, considering how much running training is done in soccer, the fundamentals of track and field should be applied on the footy field. Probably not as much as some people may think but I believe there are always special people out there who are just great with athletes and can add a lot to the program

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

In post 56 above I talked about Plyometrics exercises used by track and field athletes especially sprinters - flat and the hurdles, and high jumpers, and to a lesser extent long jumpers and some of the martial arts - MMA/UFC guys also use them extensively, which involve a lot of jumping exercises to improve power ie both speed and strength by doing exercises that rapidly and explosively contract and then expand the muscles. All the football codes, basketball, volleyball, teams etc do them in varying degrees. I have seen Anna Meares do some grueling exercises as well.

I found footage of our Ambassador Anna Meares doing these gruelling excerise as she was getting ready for the London Olympics in 2012. Power freak 2008 BrockBlitz



An example of what that awesome strength, power and speed can produce.