Our conditioning coach

[Rampaging_Richo]

Injuries in the most cannot be helped. With these guys, they are pushing their bodies to the limit of physical exersion, so it is a very fine line between being fit and being injured.

A few years ago I heard an interview with Noel Duncan and Mike McCoy who run a fitness company togeather. They were saying that the information sharing between AFL, American football & basketball and European Soccer is massive, and coming into every new season, they would implement something new learned from overseas.

The most recent and they thought was the best thing was the recovery training. Previously it was a run, strectch, massage and a hot spa. Based on the NFL methods, they all changed to ice baths, cold water therapy etc.. Now virtually all sports in Australia follow this method.

 

[dmx]

Geez. Those comments about Anthony Shocca are interesting.

Watching the Scumwood v Port Scumelaide game on Sunday, the ball came out of the centre fairly quickly after a bounce. Shocca marked it 20m out from goal and looked like he was gonna' die he was so out of breath. He took an eternity to recover himself well enough to be able to take the kick.

I still reckon that guy is aerobically challenged.

Had to laugh when Spud's mentor Tony Shaw had ear marked him as a ruckmen.
I thought to myself, Tony you must be the eternal optimist, cant you see he is gasping for air 15 minutes into the first quarter of a game and you want him to roam the ground?

 

[Joshnbeks Dad]

Injuries come and go. We are no worse off in regard to injuries than any other team. To suggest otherwise is a copout for our poor performances.

I think we are physically as fit as any team. We are perhaps too light but more importantly we are not mentally tough. It is in the mental side of the game that we loose.

 

[dmx]

The only concern I have is that conditioning not only is related to the frequency of injuries but also to the time taken to recover along with a direct correlation to the seriousness of an injury.

This is where the tigers always have big problems.
When their players go down, they are 9 times out of 10 long term injuries, and this is what hurts us year after year.
You might call bad luck, but IMO its gone way past bad luck with us now.

 

[Tenacious Tiges]

AFL footballers have gone way beyond Olympians in terms of the fitness, strength and recovery required to perform on a week to week basis. 

Can't cop that. I think the AFL over the last 6-8 years is just starting to catch up to the rest of the elite sporting world .

A few years ago I heard an interview with Noel Duncan and Mike McCoy who run a fitness company togeather.  They were saying that the information sharing between AFL, American football & basketball and European Soccer is massive, and coming into every new season, they would implement something new learned from overseas.

The most recent and they thought was the best thing was the recovery training.  Previously it was a run, strectch, massage and a hot spa.  Based on the NFL methods, they all changed to ice baths, cold water therapy etc..  Now virtually all sports in Australia follow this method.

I think that a lot of other sports adopted this approach well prior to the AFL clubs and not the others following footy. Sports science is now a global thing with all sports from all over the world sharing and learning from each other. The AFL is part of that but definitely not a leader. It is coming up to speed and may eventually lead in certain areas but not yet.

IMHO I think Adelaide benefitted enormously in '97 and '98 from their fitness and conditioning management. Neil Craig was and still is their conditioning guru. His background has all the similar bits of paper and titles behind his name but he also had a solid background as a sports scientist with the AIS track cycling program throughout the Charlie Walsh era. They produced many world class cyclists that still ply and win at their trade on the international stage. If you look at those years the Crows had a pretty good list that you could say  would have finished at best, 2nd or 3rd but most likely 4th to 6th. So they had the goods, something I don't think they've had since, along with a good enough coach.

Anyway my point being is that Neil Craig (also from a footballing background at Norwood) introduced periodisation to their training over the entire season. Periodisation is where you set specific time zones (races/comp's in an atheletes case) in which you want to peak. You cannot be at a peak for an entire football season. So Neil Craig an assistants designed their program so that they peaked at certain times throughout the season with the major peak (and IMO gamble) being Grand Final day. The weeks prior to the finals Adelaide were very average because they were being flogged on the track with the training slowly tapering towards the big day. It's like a racehorse..

Since I think most other clubs have followed this approach but I have my doubts on some. I think Collingwood has defintely used this approach both last year and it looks like it this year. Last year I think they got it wrong by a week or two because come GF day they were shagged. It's a fine line. This year they have started very slow out the blocks but over the last 2 weeks have showed a lot of improvement and are coming along. I won't be surprised to see them make 6-8th again and give it a real crack. I really hope they don't but it will be interesting to observe.

Now whether or not the RFC use this approach both on a micro or macro scale is purely sepculative from where most of us sit so I cannot really judge. I just hope they begin to look outside the square in this field and do not just follow blindly the other AFL clubs or even other footy codes. Sometimes you need to be alert to all areas of sport and science.

Anyway for anyone that's managed to read to the end of this sorry for crapping on so long, but this is one of my interests.

 

[dmx]

Anyway my point being is that Neil Craig (also from a footballing background at Norwood) introduced periodisation to their training over the entire season. Periodisation is where you set specific time zones (races/comp's in an atheletes case) in which you want to peak. You cannot be at a peak for an entire football season. So Neil Craig an assistants designed their program so that they peaked at certain times throughout the season with the major peak (and IMO gamble) being Grand Final day. The weeks prior to the finals Adelaide were very average because they were being flogged on the track with the training slowly tapering towards the big day. It's like a racehorse..

Good post tenacious, and its quite eveident that the lions follow this sort of plan also.
This year is looking quite alot like the last 3 with their progress.
But you need to be in the position where you are quite confident that the team is Flag material before you can go planning on periodisation.

For teams such as the tiges they are caught between a rock and a hard place, in that, they are desperate to show the supporters that they are a competitive unit from the moment the gates open, to bolster memberships and morale.

To extend your racehorse theory, its like Lethal being Bart, and conditioning a Melbourne Cup horse, against us being prepared for a first up win in the Maiden at Mortlake so we can ecxecute a plunge with the bookies.

 

[FightingFury]

Its a lack of depth that makes any injury to our side all the more critical.
Port Adelaide have injuries to key players but cover them as they have a better talent pool to draw from.

 

[dmx]

Its a lack of depth that makes any injury to our side all the more critical.
Port Adelaide have injuries to key players but cover them as they have a better talent pool to draw from.

Of course a lack of depth plays a big role, but i would say that the length of time needed to call on that depth plays a pivotal role as well.

Port do have injuries to key players and have dipped into their cophers and have called on a few youngsters to fill the holes.
Everything is looking good right now and, as has been seen on a few posts, we are even talking up these youngsters as well.
But it is a long season, and it happens every year, the younger guys start to struggle as the year wears on and their preformances start to fall away, because their bodies are not fully conditioned to withstand the hard stuff of the AFL.