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IRON TANKS
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How's your fitness? That's primarily what you'll want to nail (and the above)
Fitness is number one in AFL. Plenty of blokes get by being weak and very fit but strength is the icing on the cake.
As for fitness, running is what you have to do. Some coaches like to get fancy with swimming, bike, even kettlebells and other shit for conditioning. Apart from very early in the preseason or when injured its bullshit. When have you ever been swimming or ridden a bike on the footy field.
As for what running to do, my opinion will be different to what some others do. I don't like endless 400s or stuff like that. When do you ever do a max effort 400m sprint in footy? never. Footy is a heap of short sprints with jogging and walking in between.
You need to train to run out a whole game. As much as it sucks slow long jogs build up your endurance to run out a game. On another day do short 20m sprints with full recovery to build max sprinting speed. Don't do what every footy coach I have ever had does and turn sprint training into a heap of sprints with zero recovery. This won't help top end speed.
Basically think of footy as sprinting speed helps you win the ball in a contest and the aerobic endurance allows you to get to enough contests throughout the game and be recovered enough to put in a max effort. This is what you should train for.
Weight training. Keep it fairly simple. Squats, deads, overhead, bench and chins is a great start. Problem is getting footy players to squat is harder than pulling teeth. If I was training a group of footy players I would get a trap bar and just do trap bar deads as the lower body strength work, with overhead, bench and chins for upper.
Sorry for the long post.
As for fitness, running is what you have to do. Some coaches like to get fancy with swimming, bike, even kettlebells and other shit for conditioning. Apart from very early in the preseason or when injured its bullshit. When have you ever been swimming or ridden a bike on the footy field.
As for what running to do, my opinion will be different to what some others do. I don't like endless 400s or stuff like that. When do you ever do a max effort 400m sprint in footy? never. Footy is a heap of short sprints with jogging and walking in between.
You need to train to run out a whole game. As much as it sucks slow long jogs build up your endurance to run out a game. On another day do short 20m sprints with full recovery to build max sprinting speed. Don't do what every footy coach I have ever had does and turn sprint training into a heap of sprints with zero recovery. This won't help top end speed.
Basically think of footy as sprinting speed helps you win the ball in a contest and the aerobic endurance allows you to get to enough contests throughout the game and be recovered enough to put in a max effort. This is what you should train for.
Weight training. Keep it fairly simple. Squats, deads, overhead, bench and chins is a great start. Problem is getting footy players to squat is harder than pulling teeth. If I was training a group of footy players I would get a trap bar and just do trap bar deads as the lower body strength work, with overhead, bench and chins for upper.
Sorry for the long post.
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Neddysmith
Standard kunce
Pretty much what bazza said, I would be splitting into 3 day training sessions, first I where you just run/job for km's on end, maybe working up to 10km while trying to bring down your time, next I would be doing interval training, this would be best done on an oval over distances of 20/50 and 100 m intervals, then I would also do a day of 400's so walk 400, run 400 and time yourself, the idea is to be able to get quicker at each of these 3 days.
But I also think that this running training will als depend on the league and grade your playing in as well as the position you play, so a full forward will be going more sprint and strength work while a mid feilder will be doing sprint work as well as endurance work.
But I also think that this running training will als depend on the league and grade your playing in as well as the position you play, so a full forward will be going more sprint and strength work while a mid feilder will be doing sprint work as well as endurance work.
The Hamburgler
Spotter Loader
As Bazza says; get your running up to scratch then start to worry about other things
harry1970
Elegantly Wasted
Been around, trained as, and helped train AFL footy teams since mid 80's. Everyone now needs to run, what is becoming more important is recovery times between sprints. Keep them short.
You require strength in order to keep your feet, or if you do get knocked over you're thinking about getting up before you hit the ground. Squats during the pre-season are awesome.
Goosey
.
How old are you?
Strengthen the muscles used, including the neck and grip.
If you've been out for two years practice your skill as well.
But remember you've got to be fit to get fit, I'd focus on those two aspects prior to Pre season training.
im only 25 but played soccer for a while and got injured.
How should i go about strengthening my neck and grip?
I workout 4-5 days a week covering all body parts and just starting my cardio regime to get fit..
Ive started off jogging and riding will then hope to do sprint training later this month and some endurance squats / deadlifts / pushups and core work.
Pre season starts late November so I still have some time to get reasonably fit.
My skills are terrible right now so my fitness will be critical.
How should i go about strengthening my neck and grip?
I workout 4-5 days a week covering all body parts and just starting my cardio regime to get fit..
Ive started off jogging and riding will then hope to do sprint training later this month and some endurance squats / deadlifts / pushups and core work.
Pre season starts late November so I still have some time to get reasonably fit.
My skills are terrible right now so my fitness will be critical.
Like I said this is the way pretty much every coach wants to train sprints. While you will get fit I don't think it is optimal. It's definitely is not the best way to develop sprint speed and probably not optimal for developing endurance for a game of AFL.
With fitness start off easy so you don't injure yourself.
If your skills are terrible buy a footy and practice. It's something you can do pretty much everyday.
Neddysmith
Standard kunce
Not to mention you will find doing running training with a football much more enjoyable....or at least i did. Plus you get used to handling the ball at speed.
Yep and even things like just handballing into the couch at night. I used to be a spastic at handballing on my opposite hand. Broke my hand at training and in the couple weeks off learnt to handball on opposite hand almost as good as my dominant hand.
Also just kicking the ball to yourself practicing with both feet.
With the way the game is played now even at lower levels top skills are very important.
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Neddysmith
Standard kunce
Yeah very true skills on both sides of the body has really become important, i ended up handballing pretty well boths sides of the body and kicking was pretty gooes as well, the only problem was when kicking left footed i could never drop the ball with my left hand i always had to do it like i was kicking right footed, looked pretty awkward but i managed to do it effectively, hahaha
Haha the old left foot kick, right hand drop. Looks very award but plenty of people do it. The way I fixed that was just practice dropping it and kicking on left foot just back to yourself. Can even do it standing in the lounge room watching TV.
Neddysmith
Standard kunce
hahah, yeah trust me i tried practicing it for years, but for some reason just couldnt do it, even our kicking coach said to me not to worry and continue dropping right handed as it was far more ffective for me, haha