Newcastle's "Hour of Power"

I'm too excited with thoughts about worlds today to do any actual work, so I figured I'd write something about our Newcastle sessions.

Since a couple of weeks before Nationals we've been doing a Power and Agility session on Friday evenings with a personal trainer up here in Newcastle. Friday evening is not the most ideal time, but with all the other training going on there weren't too many alternatives, and it has the additional benefit of reducing Tats's drinking opportunities.

The guy who runs our sessions is Marc, I met him some time ago as he is a trainer at the gym I go to and he drew up a training plan for me before world clubs in Perth. He has represented Australia at "Floor Ball", which I think is something like hockey on an indoor court. So he knows what it's like to be an elite athlete playing an obscure sport, and he took me seriously from the start when I told him I wanted to train for elite level ultimate frisbee.

Marc is not your typical "drill sergeant" type trainer. He's more like Kai - quiet, knowledgeable, authoritative and ruthless...you know, a sadist basically.

Before Nationals we had 12-14 people at each session, mostly the I-Beam guys. After nationals the numbers droped off a bit, but we've generally been getting around 8-10 people at each. There's the 3 Newcastle Dingos, Greenie and Graig from the Masters, Leanne from the Barramundis and Ellie Sparke from the Junior Women. Not all of them come to every session, but there's usually a few other Newcastle frisbee people who come along too. Their support has been gold.

Anyway, Marc runs similar sessions for other teams like soccer, rugby and afl teams in Newcastle, and although he doesn't know much about ultimate he's tailored the sessions based on what I've told him we need to work on. The sessions are held on an indoor netball court and are different each week, but last Friday's went something like this:

- 5 lap warmup on the 250m upstairs running track in the gym;
- 5 mins sprinting through a marker cone course - side to side between cones, sprint up to next cones, side to side etc
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- 5 mins through the marker cone course, this time focussing on keeping low the whole time (working the quads)
- one lap race on the running track
- 1 minute rest
- 5 mins sprinting through a zig zag course, doing 1 standing vertical jump at each cone down the court, reaching down and touching the cones on the way back
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- 5 mins of "suicides". This is not just a name, and it's one of Marc's favourites. Sprinting through the same zig zag course, but at each cone drop to the floor like a push up and jump back up again. There's about 12 cones in the course so you probably do about 60 of these. After about 3 mins its pretty hard to explode back up sprinting, you're just trying to survive it without Marc adding another minute if he sees you slacking off. They suck, but good for developing the strength and stamina required to continually lay out and get back up sprinting again in a game.
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- In pairs, get down in the bottom of the push up position, one person with their feet on the wall of the court, the other in front of them. The back person jumps up and runs to the front and gets back into the pushup position, then the next person gets up does the same (kinda like leap frog). Do this as fast as you can till you get to the other end of the court. Then back.
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- Same pushup thing again.
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- Last exercise, get into squat position at one end of the court. 10 pulses of the squat, then sprint to the end of the court and back. Do this 3 times, no rest in between.

It was a good tough session. Tim won most of the 250m races, but I got him on the ones after the upper body things. Leanne was also looking strong, she'd usually be the first to get from the court to the track and we had to work hard to chase her down. Craig is also very fit, he was up there with me and Tim most times.

Other sessions have followed a similar format - a few mins of an exercise followed by a lap on the track. Exercises we have done in other sessions include:
- Starting lying flat on the ground, on Marc's call get up and sprint 25m then lie down again. x 30 (with no rest in between, maybe 5 secs if you're quick while he waits for everyone to get down - brutal)
- sprinting from one end of the court to the other, but when Marc claps you have to hit the ground, roll to the right and get up again (he starts this easy, but on the last few laps he's a real bastard).
- sprinting down the court holding a medicine ball above your head (works your core)
- sprinting up the hill outside the gym holding a medicine ball above your head
- Working up the hill as a group in single file, everyone close together holding a squat, the back person runs to the front of the line and gets into squat position, then the new back person runs to the front etc.
- boxing - not real sparring, just fast punching pads held by your partner. This was the one where me and Tim couldn't lift our arms above our heads for a few days.

You get the idea. Most sessions get me close to vomiting at some point.

This Friday is the last one before we leave, can't wait!

Chris