Coaching Footy Tips For Grassroot Coaches

[Colin D'Cops]

I found these grassroot coaching tips on the net and it's written by Mark Neates. (Former Sprint Coach with West Coach Eagles and current coach with the Fremantle Dockers).

Tip # 1 – Expose Players to Spring Training

To start with, Mark simply recommends exposing players to sprint coaching in the first place.

“Most sports like hockey, soccer and football don’t expose their players to a lot (if any) type of running training. Yet running is a massive part of their game. And unless a young kid goes to little athletics, he probably will not be exposed to any sort of running training at all during his football life.”

Which is a tragedy, because as Mark explains, “Sprint training is a part of footy that hasn’t yet been exploited in Australia, whereas in countries like the US it has and they have seen massive success with it in their sports?”

For coaches of junior and amateur level senior teams, Mark recommends dedicating around 10-15 minutes to sprint work during each training session. This should be done after the warm up and before the main skill session to ensure players are not fatigued. As Mark explains, “Unlike other elements of our game, players only benefit from sprint training when they are able to work at maximum capacity, which is why you should do it at the beginning of a session and not the end.”

Mark also emphasizes that sprint training must be specific for it to be effective. “Doing 5 kilometer runs will only increase a players ability to run 5 kilometers – not improve their take off speed.”

As a side note, Mark revealed what AFL clubs generally do for sprint training.

According to Mark, clubs will generally run a dedicated sprint training session twice a week during pre-Christmas, then reduce it to two sessions a week post Christmas. These sessions will vary in length, but will generally last around an hour.

During the in-season, clubs will then shorten their sessions to just one “microsession” a week, lasting around 20-30 minutes. This session is normally done at least 72 hours after a game to allow players to recover at the neurological and soft tissue level, and to prevent risk of injury.

Tip # 2 – Leg and Core Strength Must be Given Priority Over Upper Body Strength

The next thing Mark recommends is to focus on your players’ leg and core strength. According to Mark, “a lot of perceived upper body strength in football actually comes from the legs and the core.”

“In a one-on-one marking contest for example, people don’t realize that so called upper body strength actually starts at the legs first, then transfers through to the core, before finally allowing the upper body to become involved. So a player’s upper body strength is really driven from a strong base and core. Without it, upper body strength becomes irrelevant.”

In fact, Mark pointed out that developing leg and core strength not only improves a player’s speed, it also helps improve jumping, kicking distance, scrimmaging, tackling, change of direction and a player’s ability to get off the ground (something that Dr Les Fabre also highlighted to us in a previous article on core stability training).

Tip # 3 – Work On Flexibility

Finally, Mark also recommended that coaches don’t overlook the importance of flexibility in their training.

According to Mark, “If players aren’t supple, they can’t develop a good stride length. And stride length is responsible for at least 50% of a player’s speed, so it doesn’t matter how good a player is, because no stride length means no speed.”

And like Mark said before, “A player suffering from a lack of flexibility often takes up to 2strides extra over 30 metres than say, your Chris Judd types, and be upto 4 metres slower over this distance. And this can kill you infootball.”

Final Thoughts

Speed over the first 10-15 meters is a big percentage of our game and AFL clubs have realized this fact, proofed by the amount of emphasis they are placing on it at training and in their drafting strategy.

Sadly however, it is also an area that is often neglected by coaches at the community and grassroots levels. If you are one of those coaches, then look at the bright side. You now have an opportunity to add it to your training arsenal and possibly get the competitive advantage you’ve been looking for.

More here ; http://www.coachafl.com/index.php?pr=Feature_-_Sprint_Training

Most people would understand a large percentage of what Mark was talking about, but it's good to hear it from some of the pros in the sport.

Has your local club been focussing on these areas of coaching?
Anything you can add to Mark's tips?
Anything you question from Mark's tips?

 

[getthefooty]

Interesting article.

I think tip number 1 is right on the money. Using myself as an example, I am known to have a horrible running technique. I can feel it when I run, my legs and arms spray everywhere and I can tell I lose a lot of speed. Still, I have always been thereabouts with pace, I am certainly not one of the slow ones. On the few occasions I have been in the presence of an athletics coach, he has always been able to give me tips and I felt my technique improving in that short space of time. Consistent running training would help no end in improving the all important first 20m. Definitely not enough time is spent on it, from my experience it is all about fitness, fitness, fitness.

I only play U/17s, but since U/15s the focus has always been on core strength. My coach for school footy is the strength and conditioning coach at the Oakleigh Chargers, and about 3 weeks ago he demanded we all attend core sessions twice a week in preparation for next season. It is all important for a footy player; he doesn't even let us touch the heavy weights yet. Its all about the crunches, bridges, pushups, raises, situps, etc.

To be honest, I have never really cosidered flexibility as important so it is interesting that Mark points it out. I have heard all the stories of the full forwards taking dancing lessons and such, not sure if they are true but it would certainly make sense. Flexibility has never really been stressed during my time playing footy.

 

[HawkPatrol]

My tip for grassroots coaches....

Base your training drills etc around in-game situations. Its all good to do a handball to handball drill, but its highly unlikely that situation will arise in a game.

Also, don't be afraid to experiment.

 

[carntheroos4eva]

Wow what an awesome article GS. Great find mate.

very relivant for today's group of afl stars.

 

[sante]

You want your boys to be focused, but to still have fun, thats what its about for the younger players.

In game situations is where you learn the most IMO, I know I did, its also a lot more fun.

 

[carntheroos4eva]

I just googled up AFL coaching methods and come up with John Northey's website.

http://www.swoopercoach.com.au

Interesting stuff.

 

[TheBigUnit]

Agree with all the points mentioned - particularly the first two. I think flexibility is promoted well, but IMO there's too much emphasis on static stretching in warm-ups when it should be dynamic mobility.

The AFL clubs are now putting a much greater focus towards sprint training with a lot of clubs hiring specialised sprint coaches, but I still think there's still a lot of room for improvement at the lower levels where the focus is still too much on slow distance running.

For those interested, some good simple drills here to improve acceleration mechanics without a coach here (I'd also add short hill sprints as another drill that has significantly helped me improve my acceleration technique).

 

[jgb99]

VERY good point with regards to the kids having fun, sante.

I don't know how much it happens in footy, as I haven't had as much junior coaching experience there yet, but having done a bit of volunteer coaching in junior aths and it's disappointing that many kids hate or don't look forward to going to training because they're just doing boring laps and repeated sprints over and over again and eventually drop out. I'm thinking this would be true in a lot of sports.

I think that would be my no. 1 tip to grassroots coaches is to first and foremost make sure the kids are having fun ... because that's what sport should be all about. No one wants to do mindless dull drills all day ... mix things up, be creative and give them a variety, get them playing mini games and give them plenty of challenges. The improvements will be much bigger if the kids actually want to be there.

 

[Dan Moody]

According to Mark, clubs will generally run a dedicated sprint training session twice a week during pre-Christmas, then reduce it to two sessions a week post Christmas. These sessions will vary in length, but will generally last around an hour.

wtf? to me this is exactly the same, what's the difference

anyway, i get the newsletter subscribed from this site, heavily leaning towards wa football.