fitness at sydney uni

Training last night was excellent.

Steve and I rocked up to a dark oval so we headed out the back to a busy St Johns oval and threw for about 20 in wet conditions until others arrived. Pete Liddicoat again pulled some strings for us and we found a nice spot to start training in the Square. Kai brought a car load of equipment and proceeded to show us the new range of activities we can do in our own time. These included crouch/pushup/bring feet in/explosive acceleration for 10-15m; wall/chair drop off/jumps; and another that I seem to have forgotten. There will be an email explaining them shortly. They complement the plyo work we’ve been looking at. It is not really tiring, instead it’s more focussed on power.

We then looked at change of direction, turning 90 degrees at a cone. Braking power and preparing for the turn while disguising it are important things to consider. 2 people were attached with the Velcro belt and the first person took off with the second trying to keep up. The first runner could choose to turn left or right at the cone, so the second person had to stay close and react quickly to stay connected. Waz’s acceleration was very quick and Gav was very hard to get away from.

Kai then brought out the bungee cords. I like this exercise. 2 people are tied at the waist, joined by a bungee cord. The front person takes off, pulling the back runner along, creating overspeed running. I was tied to Glover and I couldn’t overtake him. Nice work Glover.

Last of all was everyone’s favourite, the resistance harness running. We did 10m resistance then sprints with one of the gimps throwing us a disc. This was tough but manageable. The lights went out at this stage, so Kai had to adapt the drill and of course make life more difficult for us. We had to go 20m, turn around, go 10m, be released and sprint to the next cone within 2 seconds. Very tough. I was finding it a very hard day at the office, the lungs were definitely struggling. We did this 3 or 4 more times and then took a break. To complete the evening we did another 3 sets.

These sessions are invaluable. I strongly recommend attending if you can.