Tommy Podaridis, a 15 YO Soccer player doing 2 arm / 1 leg Dumbell Rows. A good exercise to teach neutral spine, leg alignment and scapular strength & stability.  This is the sort of weight training that young athletes should be doing. Simply learning movements and getting strong and stable in the process. The practice of 5RM’s and advanced weights with young athletes this age does not make sense. We see now with the Pathways and Developmental programs in place ( and pressures to make squads etc) that young athletes are loading up. So just on or just after puberty is a great time to start teaching movements and skills and on the way general strength levels will increase. Loading with growth spurts is dumb and even until growth is stabilized unnecessary.

Below is a pic of Josh Ross, trap bar deadlifting 200kgs. He deadlifted 245kgs in winter with a normal bar. But as a young athlete he played Rugby League and ran fast without huge loads in the gym. Once established then it is critical to load up so one can maximize forces on the ground. So it is a big decision when to load a young athlete. Especially when 20 plus is when most sportspeople shine.

Testing was held the week before at Yarra Valley Grammar and 3 girls went above 18 in the Level 1 Intermittent Recovery Test.

With Peter Venturich from AAP I conducted a speed/sgility and FUN session to wind up the 2011 preparation block.

Below is the ARIELS squad after the session with me, Peter and coaches. Gus Puopolo then had a great barbie ready and I delivered the Xmas break training program. Up to you now girls!

Also met Julian Wruck who is an up and coming Discus Thrower. Julian is staying with Gus Puopolo for a few weeks training. He is 20 but is a regular 60m plus thrower. He is studying at UCLA after transferring from Texas. Good luck

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But the TAN is a messy run. The Anderson Street Hill, then the downhill slope and in fact the length. Add the fumes. Nice look about it but massive pollution levels.

For scientific purposes a 3km or even better a 2km run is better to do at local level. 2km willl tell you all you need to know if run on an athletics track and allows players to have a crack.

And if you want to be fancy the velocity one runs a 2km in can be useful information for a fitness person to base training on. IE The average speed. Then one can plan aerobic interval training efffectively.

One year I ran the TAN with the Essendon players as a 40 YO ex hammer thrower. Fit of course! Anyway I went hard up the Anderson St hill with some good fit players and hit the wall at the top and crawled home. Terrible time. 4 weeks later we retested and all I did was sit behind Choco Williams. I knew his time from before and waited till 10m from home ( not 20m!) and outsprinted him. 2 minutes faster by just not oercommitting up the hill.

So as a run great for  AFL players, but as a test with some useful data no.

Boys having a break from lectures at Advanced Athletes Performance CERT 4 course

Soul Fresh boys doing a CORE circuit

Georgiana Ruhrig after a session

Squats!

Tonight we were back at the centre where client Ali Murad has organized a big group of friends to train at 7pm.

Below are some pics of the session. Victorian Premier League Soccer Player Dario Lasic running alongside young athletes working out on scooters ( both legs!).

Dario Lasic versus 12 YO Zena on a scooter!

And below the lads gearing up for some heavy power cleans in main weight training area in building 2.

Paul Cugnetto working on some shots in building one.

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Now the odds of getting it right are okish given some team has to improve and others of course slide.  But often this “panic buy” has not reflected the full rationale of why a team has done well. There are so many variables that contribute to success and these added to player ability and team balance should be critically examined before rushing into spending massive amounts on coaches and assistant coaches.

Very few of these overpaid gurus are going to rewrite Bompas book of periodization or come up with a complex model of skill acquisition for training. Most clubs have great IT back up now and also statistical coverage and interpretation. Obviously some of these coaches are very ambitious at first and often really show infectious enthusiasm on the track. That is great and then “Chinese whispers” inflate the value of these guys. It often reminds me of the 1979 movie BEING THERE with Peter Sellers and Shirley Mclaine. Chance the gardener looked distinguished but actually was of pretty low IQ. Anyway he said something in front of dignitaries once and then rose to the top of the pile in politics. Very funny but scary. His famous quote was “I like to watch” when Shirley Mclaine was undressing but little did she know he was watching TV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_There

I have met a few chancys in AFL and good luck to them! HA. One was so poor he cost a team a big final but could sell snow to eskimos and a quote reminds me of him. “It is a great art to know how to sell wind”. But it is quite odd how each team quickly copies the “best” team’s tactics. Usually gleaned from other sports anyway. And other clubs are desperate to find out some IP.

Media, public and those men in suits that run clubs create perceptions and then panic buying occurs. And boards need to be very wary of those men in suits that now invade middle management in AFL footy departments. Many work in the best interests of the club but many just jump on the marketing/perception bandwagon and then hope success comes and hope more they can keep their job.

I have seen some pretty average coaches get paid massive amounts simply because they were linked to a successful club. AFL is a sanitized competition. It is cyclical.

There is a good chance that a club may have a surplus of a certain type of player that can carry out new tactics. Maybe a heap of midfielders with pace & endurance OR defenders with perfect kicks OR a perfect blend of 2 or 3 big defenders and heaps of attacking defenders. Whatever! Often then one can create a system around the cattle one has. Bang they win, everyone copies and 2 years later tactics change. Think! So what happens to those guru coaches who are paid millions and developed amazing tactics 2 years ago that are now redundant. They are now seen as passé and new gurus get paid more money.

Those men in suits need to think a little and not get affected by having mobile phones too close to their brain hinder their logic. Also what I call the ‘AM coffee plus newspaper” research model that occurs. Add this research reading the papers plus a call to an ex mate in the AFL and ‘whack” there goes another 500,00o bucks of AFL money to a coach who really could not take the next step in a long term elite sporting environment..

That is why Alistair Clarkson was an inspired choice. Had done the hard yards in coaching. Was academically astute. Has done well.

Clubs need to really work out why success comes. They must realize it is biased young and that it takes almost a decade to rejig. Then not panic cull OR more so panic buy!

Let’s get this straight Rohan Connolly . July 8, 2011. Read more:

 http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/afl-news/lets-get-this-straight-20110708-1h6zg.html#ixzz1RkmSWnPB

Obviously they have had a frustrating season and also have a player with the yips. And yes there does exist a concern in medical and fitness departments when players go out at any time t do extra kicking.

The argument that it is ok to lose a player or two given more kicking does not really have logic especially inseason. There is more leeway with this philosophy in pre season with kickiig and fast running. But I can assure readers that if a fitness guru does more sprinting to increase speed ( works!) and loses player then much stress surrounds this.

That perfect practice and then more practice works cannot be disputed. Junk training no. And of course practice of a skill  is the aim.

The caveat is simply individual needs. Some players can be bashed with baseball bats and hung upside down all day, then sprint and kick all day and never get injured. Bartel for example. But if a player HAS core instability problems and other musculoskeletal issues then doing heaps of kicking may lead to injury and more so impaired mechanics. That is changed skill to avoid sore spots, tightnesses etc.

Thus everyone acknowledges that more practice ( and practice with a purpose) will improve a skill.  But the specific issue here is that if a talented young player has groin, osteitis issues etc,  then these problems must be addressed first

I think the issue here is simply one of individual needs and then of course how one practices and why and . My major gripe with players (and clubs) is that these technical needs should be addressed in October to Xmas. That is the time to perfect skills.

But losing players. No way, that never works as a philosophy.

Interesting article in papers today pn Tomic and his training background. His old coach said he had been a State Rep in Cross Country running as a kid and also a very good Soccer player. He claimed he could have been good at many sports. Thus maybe he is not just a “tennis player” but a tall and talented athlete. Cross Country suggest a great aerobic base and Soccer points to skills, footwork and speed. Interesting when one reads that Federer and Nadal also were good soccer players.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3255577.htm

“NEIL GUINEY: Yeah very good, very good and could have been good at any sport in my view. He was quite a good soccer player. He was in the state team as a cross country runner. If he’d picked up any other sport and was well trained he’d be going really well at that too.  So yeah you need the product. So he was talented physically and eventually became a very good competitor and that’s what you see out there. He thrives on competition. He’s been a defender most of his life because he’s been playing tournaments a couple of years under his age group and it’s now that he’s starting to sort of grow sideways if we can call it like that. He’s starting to fill out.”

I think most people would have thought he was one dimensional and had a poor fitness base. Basically what he has needed is strength and power and this has come through maturity and also training. Read below and put the pieces together and one can understand his exploits this week. He has shown ability as a junior resulting in a Wimbledon title.

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/interviews/2011-01-20/201101201295505489338.html

“Q. What would you say has improved the most in your game in the past months or year?

BERNARD TOMIC: I’m definitely physically much stronger and fitter. I remember last year when I played a first round, even against a qualifier, I wasn’t feeling too good in the second round, feeling tired.

But here when I played today, I was feeling fresh and energetic. Even today after the win, I feel good right now. That’s what I’m going to need against Nadal on Saturday.”

Q. Can you talk about the way you’re practicing, your workout? Did you do something special?

BERNARD TOMIC: I’ve been training up in Gold Coast. A lot more physical stuff, it’s paying off. Pushing my body to the limits. That’s what I need for me to be physically strong. I’ve got the right tennis to play tennis, I just need to get physically stronger. It’s sort of balancing out, so I can see it on court. Once you’re fitter, you’re mentally strong, everything is better on court.