Lavis, I wanna hear from you!
tell the boys about Wavy's session last night, and your core work you've been doing. I know you've been doing something, you told me so last night. Once you've written something you can pass the torch to someone else.
Stephen
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Kai's Session
Last night Gus, Steve, Kenny and I attended our first fitness session together with Kai and a few Fakulti boys (not sure if it's Kenny's first time but that's irrelevant). Super hard, super tough session but I feel much better for it, so I thought I'd share it with you.
Started off with a light jog and stretching for a warm up, then we got stuck in. First up was squats in pairs. Pairs were back to back, with thighs parallel to the ground using each other for support. With a stretchy band underneath both feet and attached to your hands, you had to raise you hands above your head. Now Gus Guy will agree that I was rubbish at this. I think we did a set of 15 and then 10. In between we used a stretchy band attached to you ankles. Balancing on one leg and pushing your chest forward, you had to keep your back and outstretched leg straight. Then you lifted your heel to your butt, with the stretchy band providing resistance.
After this we moved over to the ladders, which were set up across the width of the field, with two cones in front, one about 10m the other about 20m. Kai pointed out that in a game people do not stand in the sprinting stance before they run (one foot behind, one in front). They will have their feet side by side. Most people then usually put on foot back and propel forwards. Doing this he said actually means you are slower off the mark. So he made us put our feet side by side in two ladder rungs, then do a 10m sprint. He made us take our first step forward and use our arms to help. So if you were to start with your left foot, your left arm would be high initially, take the step with your left foot and at the same time drive upwards with your right arm. After you got going concentrate on getting your hands driving and getting them high.
This was really awkward to start and didn't feel natural at all. He gave us races against each other to prove his point. After the "GO", one person put their foot backwards then propelled forwards and the other put their foot forwards. The person who put their foot forwards always run the short sprint. If you think you don't put your foot backwards you should try it out, everyone of us did it. So we did a far few sets of those both 10m and 20m. In between we did a few push ups (holding for a second) and chin ups (well these were basically lying on the ground and using the 1m high fence railing to pull yourself up).
By now I was getting pretty tired, but this was only the beginning.
Next was resisted running. Once again we got into pairs. Put a harness on that had a tail and with the other person digging their heals in and holding onto your tail, you had to do a 10m sprint. Main thing to concentrate on was your running form, pumping your legs, and most of all pumping your arms raising them above your shoulders. These of course got extended to 20m. Can't quite remember how many we did. Maybe 5 each, switching each time.
Then it was onto and an interesting invention, the bungee rope. Once again in pairs, attach one end to person1 and the other to person2. One person stands on the start line, the other starts walking backwards till the rope is really tight (maybe 8m). After "GO" person1 starts sprinting and so does person2. Person2 gets massive acceleration and its a race to the 20m mark. Did maybe 10 of these, 5 in front, 5 behind.
Once again we did push ups and chin ups in between activities.
Next was the parachute. Basically you had a small parachute about 4m behind you attached around your waist. Your job was to ensure it was fully inflated while you did a 20m sprint, turned around sprinted back. We had a race between two groups which also involved more push ups and chin ups at the end.
Last was another similar race to above, except this time every second person was wearing a weight jacket instead of the parachute. We ran through doing 6 sprints (3 of each). More push ups and chin ups followed.
Now I was really in hurting. We then did a few throws and anytime anyone dropped the disc it was an immediate 10 push ups. I think we did about 30 throws each side. I was proud to say that none of the Dingos dropped any or threw anything away.
I was stuffed, which in my book means that it was a great session. Gus, Steve and Kenny felt the same. Lets get some more NSW Dingos to the next one.
Gav
Started off with a light jog and stretching for a warm up, then we got stuck in. First up was squats in pairs. Pairs were back to back, with thighs parallel to the ground using each other for support. With a stretchy band underneath both feet and attached to your hands, you had to raise you hands above your head. Now Gus Guy will agree that I was rubbish at this. I think we did a set of 15 and then 10. In between we used a stretchy band attached to you ankles. Balancing on one leg and pushing your chest forward, you had to keep your back and outstretched leg straight. Then you lifted your heel to your butt, with the stretchy band providing resistance.
After this we moved over to the ladders, which were set up across the width of the field, with two cones in front, one about 10m the other about 20m. Kai pointed out that in a game people do not stand in the sprinting stance before they run (one foot behind, one in front). They will have their feet side by side. Most people then usually put on foot back and propel forwards. Doing this he said actually means you are slower off the mark. So he made us put our feet side by side in two ladder rungs, then do a 10m sprint. He made us take our first step forward and use our arms to help. So if you were to start with your left foot, your left arm would be high initially, take the step with your left foot and at the same time drive upwards with your right arm. After you got going concentrate on getting your hands driving and getting them high.
This was really awkward to start and didn't feel natural at all. He gave us races against each other to prove his point. After the "GO", one person put their foot backwards then propelled forwards and the other put their foot forwards. The person who put their foot forwards always run the short sprint. If you think you don't put your foot backwards you should try it out, everyone of us did it. So we did a far few sets of those both 10m and 20m. In between we did a few push ups (holding for a second) and chin ups (well these were basically lying on the ground and using the 1m high fence railing to pull yourself up).
By now I was getting pretty tired, but this was only the beginning.
Next was resisted running. Once again we got into pairs. Put a harness on that had a tail and with the other person digging their heals in and holding onto your tail, you had to do a 10m sprint. Main thing to concentrate on was your running form, pumping your legs, and most of all pumping your arms raising them above your shoulders. These of course got extended to 20m. Can't quite remember how many we did. Maybe 5 each, switching each time.
Then it was onto and an interesting invention, the bungee rope. Once again in pairs, attach one end to person1 and the other to person2. One person stands on the start line, the other starts walking backwards till the rope is really tight (maybe 8m). After "GO" person1 starts sprinting and so does person2. Person2 gets massive acceleration and its a race to the 20m mark. Did maybe 10 of these, 5 in front, 5 behind.
Once again we did push ups and chin ups in between activities.
Next was the parachute. Basically you had a small parachute about 4m behind you attached around your waist. Your job was to ensure it was fully inflated while you did a 20m sprint, turned around sprinted back. We had a race between two groups which also involved more push ups and chin ups at the end.
Last was another similar race to above, except this time every second person was wearing a weight jacket instead of the parachute. We ran through doing 6 sprints (3 of each). More push ups and chin ups followed.
Now I was really in hurting. We then did a few throws and anytime anyone dropped the disc it was an immediate 10 push ups. I think we did about 30 throws each side. I was proud to say that none of the Dingos dropped any or threw anything away.
I was stuffed, which in my book means that it was a great session. Gus, Steve and Kenny felt the same. Lets get some more NSW Dingos to the next one.
Gav
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The Cono Gym
Gents,
Tim and I were talking a lot about strength training with a few of you, so I thought I'd share what i've been up to.
I've decided to avoid the gym for as long as possible. Mostly because cashing my paychecks from the US has become more exhausting than the work I'm doing and gym membership is pricey seeing as i don't need to do Body Pump with Kieren 3 times per week. Having said that, I'm not avoiding strength workouts.
I live on the corner of Queen St. and Oxford st. in Woollahra, and kitty corner to my home is Centennial Park.
So 2x/week i've been trying to head across and do similar workouts to the ones we were doing in the Stanford gym a couple years ago. (In the coming weeks I'm also going to start running in a more regimented way.) I decided that I already had the muscle memory for good technique in a lot of the power lifting so throwing rocks around in what Boothy calls "the Rocky workout" would be a good start. As i progress I will probably need to hit up a gym, but for now everything i need is right across the road.
The core of the program was developed with the help of a couple stanford football trainers who created strength training programs for us that were based on the Gridiron wide receiver programs used by the college kids. The general idea is that most of your jump actually comes from, or should come from, your hips. Activating your glutes and hamstrings. It's called a hip snap, and it's pretty important in these exercises that the bar/rock/woman is being displaced by the snap of your hips and the upward thrust of your pelvis, not by your arms or upper body.
The trainers gave us a bunch of exercises to do and we implemented them with the help of a fitness trainer as we saw fit. We varied it depending on what was heading our way early in the year.
My average strength workout involves the following:
Warm up jog and plyos: I use the warm up that most west coast US teams use, but just do whatever you want as long as you're warm.
One armed Snatch: I find rocks that I can palm in one hand and do 3 sets of 10 with each arm. I can't do it with a bar like this fella, but i do speak russian*
Some days, depending on how fatigued I am, my form drops off, and that is the perfect place to stop the exercise. With such large movements it's very easy to strain your muscles if you continue past exhaustion. So between sets, I take fairly long breaks (1 or 2 minutes), just to assess how i'm feeling.
Hang Cleans: I do these with a stick for now, and need to come up with a better method to add more resistance, but it'll do while I'm still just trying to strengthen my technique for the next week or so. These use similar muscle groups to the one armed snatch, so they definitely affect each other in terms of performance.
Here's a video on Hang Clean technique:
and one of a fella getting fired up after lifting 400lbs:
Overhead Cleans: So these are a little easier to master than the hanging cleans, because the bar finishes above your head and you're pushing the bar to it's limit, rather than stopping it somewhere in the middle of its range. It's the same technique, hip snap pushing the bar/rock overhead, but you just try to push the bar through the roof.
The bar starts on your upper chest (the end point for a hanging clean), and finishes above your head.
This video is very, very stupid, even compared to the others, but you get the idea:
Box Jumps: These are my favourites. I once saw my buddy Turtle do a 40 inch** box jump 6 times then crash off of the box with a thud. About 40 people in the gym turned around at hearing the sound of him hitting the deck and them watched in amazement while he just got up and did 6 more. It's the little things that get you through the gym workouts.
I usually superset the Box Jumps with the Cleans, just because box jumps don't really take a tonne of focus, it's just springing as hard as you can.
I do 3x 15, but i start on the box (weathered sandstone in my case), drop off of it, and spring back up as fast and as hard as i can. If i over-balance backwards and have to come off the box, that's fine i just step back up.
The theory behind starting on the box is that you develop strength in your eccentric (muscle lengthening contractions) faster than . . . It's been too long since I used my physiology degree, there's something to do with reflexes in there and golgi tendon organs inhibiting muscle activation, i think. I do trust my source that they're worthwhile doing that way.
Deadlift: Lucas Meaney from WA used to say that deadlifting was the solution to all injuries. I'm not so sure about that, but it does prevent me from getting a sore lower back after playing frisbee.
Squats: I'm not really sure why I do these last, they're less explosive and a slower movement, so perhaps that's why, but I have generally always finished with squats.
What do i use for a weight? I throw Jo over my shoulders and squat her. My mate bruss and i used to call it the caveman squat. With these it's important to get your ass as low to the ground as possible. I take them really slow and squeeze out a stretch in my groin. I have fairly tight hips, I was told recently by the physio, so this should help me loosen them and increase my ROM.
Some things to remember:
1. Some of these exercises involve fairly big movements, and I can't stress enough how easy it is to hurt yourself on them if you're not a. warm and b. focussed.
2. It's best to do the cleans and snatches early, and work on more localized movements later, like deadlifts and bicep curls or dips.
3. NEVER work out in this way past exhaustion, it's about developing good clean technique that will lead to strength improvements. See Cuni Booth's post for more info on that.
4. If you want to develop a strength training program and jump out of the gym then make sure you're doing it right. I'd be more than happy to help any of you, as I'm sure tim would be and anyone else on the team who has experience with this sort of thing.
5. THE SILVER BACK: You know those silly leather belts people wear in gyms? that's to prevent them from bending their back while lifting heavy weights. The thing is, that unless they have some kind of injury, it means that their entire bodies are not strong enough to handle the kind of weights they are lifting. Which is definitely not what we want to be doing. So, while doing these exercise, to prevent bending from your back, pretend you're a silverback gorrilla. Keep that back beyond straight at all times. If you can't keep your back straight, the weight you're lifting is too great, so you should drop down, work on your technique and build your core strength.
6. As Tim said, variation is the key to staying keen and motivated. I don't do the same workout everytime i go out, but these are the exercises i choose from while working on strength. Some of them overlap, and a few are adjusted to the limitations of working out in centennial park.
So that's it, sorry for the big gay videos, but i hope they help any of you who were thinking about doing anything similar. I can't stress enough how important proper technique is, and I'm no expert, but i slogged it out for months trying to get it all right, and ended up pretty decent at some of them, so don't hesitate to ask me for a hand.
What's next for me? Footwork. It's something that a lot of the teams train, and it became apparent to me whilst marking up on big tommy of the condors, that their footwork training pays off. I'll write another, hopefully less wordy, blog entry on what i'm doing to improve my footwork. Although, you soccer players out there probably have much more to offer on this than i do.
Stephen
* I don't speak Russian
** Approximately 2 cubits
Tim and I were talking a lot about strength training with a few of you, so I thought I'd share what i've been up to.
I've decided to avoid the gym for as long as possible. Mostly because cashing my paychecks from the US has become more exhausting than the work I'm doing and gym membership is pricey seeing as i don't need to do Body Pump with Kieren 3 times per week. Having said that, I'm not avoiding strength workouts.
I live on the corner of Queen St. and Oxford st. in Woollahra, and kitty corner to my home is Centennial Park.
So 2x/week i've been trying to head across and do similar workouts to the ones we were doing in the Stanford gym a couple years ago. (In the coming weeks I'm also going to start running in a more regimented way.) I decided that I already had the muscle memory for good technique in a lot of the power lifting so throwing rocks around in what Boothy calls "the Rocky workout" would be a good start. As i progress I will probably need to hit up a gym, but for now everything i need is right across the road.
The core of the program was developed with the help of a couple stanford football trainers who created strength training programs for us that were based on the Gridiron wide receiver programs used by the college kids. The general idea is that most of your jump actually comes from, or should come from, your hips. Activating your glutes and hamstrings. It's called a hip snap, and it's pretty important in these exercises that the bar/rock/woman is being displaced by the snap of your hips and the upward thrust of your pelvis, not by your arms or upper body.
The trainers gave us a bunch of exercises to do and we implemented them with the help of a fitness trainer as we saw fit. We varied it depending on what was heading our way early in the year.
My average strength workout involves the following:
Warm up jog and plyos: I use the warm up that most west coast US teams use, but just do whatever you want as long as you're warm.
One armed Snatch: I find rocks that I can palm in one hand and do 3 sets of 10 with each arm. I can't do it with a bar like this fella, but i do speak russian*
Some days, depending on how fatigued I am, my form drops off, and that is the perfect place to stop the exercise. With such large movements it's very easy to strain your muscles if you continue past exhaustion. So between sets, I take fairly long breaks (1 or 2 minutes), just to assess how i'm feeling.
Hang Cleans: I do these with a stick for now, and need to come up with a better method to add more resistance, but it'll do while I'm still just trying to strengthen my technique for the next week or so. These use similar muscle groups to the one armed snatch, so they definitely affect each other in terms of performance.
Here's a video on Hang Clean technique:
and one of a fella getting fired up after lifting 400lbs:
Overhead Cleans: So these are a little easier to master than the hanging cleans, because the bar finishes above your head and you're pushing the bar to it's limit, rather than stopping it somewhere in the middle of its range. It's the same technique, hip snap pushing the bar/rock overhead, but you just try to push the bar through the roof.
The bar starts on your upper chest (the end point for a hanging clean), and finishes above your head.
This video is very, very stupid, even compared to the others, but you get the idea:
Box Jumps: These are my favourites. I once saw my buddy Turtle do a 40 inch** box jump 6 times then crash off of the box with a thud. About 40 people in the gym turned around at hearing the sound of him hitting the deck and them watched in amazement while he just got up and did 6 more. It's the little things that get you through the gym workouts.
I usually superset the Box Jumps with the Cleans, just because box jumps don't really take a tonne of focus, it's just springing as hard as you can.
I do 3x 15, but i start on the box (weathered sandstone in my case), drop off of it, and spring back up as fast and as hard as i can. If i over-balance backwards and have to come off the box, that's fine i just step back up.
The theory behind starting on the box is that you develop strength in your eccentric (muscle lengthening contractions) faster than . . . It's been too long since I used my physiology degree, there's something to do with reflexes in there and golgi tendon organs inhibiting muscle activation, i think. I do trust my source that they're worthwhile doing that way.
Deadlift: Lucas Meaney from WA used to say that deadlifting was the solution to all injuries. I'm not so sure about that, but it does prevent me from getting a sore lower back after playing frisbee.
Squats: I'm not really sure why I do these last, they're less explosive and a slower movement, so perhaps that's why, but I have generally always finished with squats.
What do i use for a weight? I throw Jo over my shoulders and squat her. My mate bruss and i used to call it the caveman squat. With these it's important to get your ass as low to the ground as possible. I take them really slow and squeeze out a stretch in my groin. I have fairly tight hips, I was told recently by the physio, so this should help me loosen them and increase my ROM.
Some things to remember:
1. Some of these exercises involve fairly big movements, and I can't stress enough how easy it is to hurt yourself on them if you're not a. warm and b. focussed.
2. It's best to do the cleans and snatches early, and work on more localized movements later, like deadlifts and bicep curls or dips.
3. NEVER work out in this way past exhaustion, it's about developing good clean technique that will lead to strength improvements. See Cuni Booth's post for more info on that.
4. If you want to develop a strength training program and jump out of the gym then make sure you're doing it right. I'd be more than happy to help any of you, as I'm sure tim would be and anyone else on the team who has experience with this sort of thing.
5. THE SILVER BACK: You know those silly leather belts people wear in gyms? that's to prevent them from bending their back while lifting heavy weights. The thing is, that unless they have some kind of injury, it means that their entire bodies are not strong enough to handle the kind of weights they are lifting. Which is definitely not what we want to be doing. So, while doing these exercise, to prevent bending from your back, pretend you're a silverback gorrilla. Keep that back beyond straight at all times. If you can't keep your back straight, the weight you're lifting is too great, so you should drop down, work on your technique and build your core strength.
6. As Tim said, variation is the key to staying keen and motivated. I don't do the same workout everytime i go out, but these are the exercises i choose from while working on strength. Some of them overlap, and a few are adjusted to the limitations of working out in centennial park.
So that's it, sorry for the big gay videos, but i hope they help any of you who were thinking about doing anything similar. I can't stress enough how important proper technique is, and I'm no expert, but i slogged it out for months trying to get it all right, and ended up pretty decent at some of them, so don't hesitate to ask me for a hand.
What's next for me? Footwork. It's something that a lot of the teams train, and it became apparent to me whilst marking up on big tommy of the condors, that their footwork training pays off. I'll write another, hopefully less wordy, blog entry on what i'm doing to improve my footwork. Although, you soccer players out there probably have much more to offer on this than i do.
Stephen
* I don't speak Russian
** Approximately 2 cubits
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Careful...!!!
Had a bit of a scare last night boys.
I was running around in a game of league (was playing quite well actually) when I started to realise all wasn't as it should be with my right knee. Took an injury sub to do some self-diagnosis. Was pretty horrified to find my leg moving quite a lot from my knee. Panicked quite a bit...
It didn't swell up much overnight but still went to the Physio this morning expecting some pretty bad news. Turns out I've stretched / strained my Medial, Lateral or Anterior CL, perhaps all three a little. Prognosis is a couple weeks without turning and lots of one legged squats. Reassess before Regionals. That's pretty good news considering what I thought I was going to have to write in this blog today while trying to sleep last night.
I did a really hard beach training session on Tuesday night and didn't warm down / stretch adequately at all, and the Physio reckons all the tight muscles pulled my knee to pieces a bit. She also said that if I hadn't stopped when I did I most probably would have done my ACL.
I can take two things from this. No excuse for not warming down well, no matter how you feel, and pay attention to what your body is telling you.
See you in March.
I was running around in a game of league (was playing quite well actually) when I started to realise all wasn't as it should be with my right knee. Took an injury sub to do some self-diagnosis. Was pretty horrified to find my leg moving quite a lot from my knee. Panicked quite a bit...
It didn't swell up much overnight but still went to the Physio this morning expecting some pretty bad news. Turns out I've stretched / strained my Medial, Lateral or Anterior CL, perhaps all three a little. Prognosis is a couple weeks without turning and lots of one legged squats. Reassess before Regionals. That's pretty good news considering what I thought I was going to have to write in this blog today while trying to sleep last night.
I did a really hard beach training session on Tuesday night and didn't warm down / stretch adequately at all, and the Physio reckons all the tight muscles pulled my knee to pieces a bit. She also said that if I hadn't stopped when I did I most probably would have done my ACL.
I can take two things from this. No excuse for not warming down well, no matter how you feel, and pay attention to what your body is telling you.
See you in March.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Getting It Right
One of the problems with any type of training is knowing where your bodies limits are. Perpetually becoming injured not only hampers your preparation, it is also very frustrating. Watching your team play/train is like watching a slightly clad, sexy woman dance. The whole time she's making wanton movements, begging you to join in. You try to talk from the sideline, do what you can for the team, but its not the same.
After my recent ankle injury I was told to do a lot of balancing work, which then tied into more active hopping etc. So that's what I did, lots of balancing, on steps, gym balls, ankle boards. As soon as it got a bit better I started combining it with hopping, tuck jumps etc. Starting to feel good, started getting back on my local running track... maybe I'll be dancing again soon.
A couple of days later our Chilly pediatrist tells me I have tendonitis due to over use. Prognosis - another 2 weeks, no running, no hopping, no balance work. So I move onto the bike, stay at the gym and swim a little.
Lesson: Don't be in too much of a rush to go and join that siren. A well structured training regime, pushing hard on the days you plan too, then giving your body time to recover and appreciate the work you've done will pay dividends. More importantly it will present greater opportunities to score; it is a rookie error to rush in!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The Cuni
Hey guys. It only took me about 2 weeks to work this nerd shit out. So ultimate being the creme' of geekness, there should be no excuse for jonathon, mike, lavis, gardner, gav, dan , g-unit bra and gus guy to not have their trainin diary up on the spread sheet. If you read this and have these peoples number, call them or tell me, ill call em and tell them were the fuck its at. 0421916492
As far as my trainin ideas go, here are some thoughts:
I base my ultimate specific training over a minimum of 4 sessions a week. (my work is variable so this is best.)
At least One of those sessions must be a plyometric based.
Weight gym sessions can be supplimented into this.(more later)
I taper the ultimate training before a tournament
I rockclimb/train 2 times a week & surf when its good!
Some thoughts for you:
Think about how your exercise will transfer into your playing roll on the team. by this i mean you need to specify. ie running. You will play prob 1 in every 2 or 3 points on, goin hard then be off. Are you a handler? Defence? A cutter? what sort of running replicates what you do on the field?
At worlds the schedule is 2 games a day for 5 days. I say post nationals you prob want to train 2 times a day for 5 days straight. then have 3 or 4 days off and then repeat. Your body will be ready for Vancouver!
If you seem to be niggled by injuries cause your a bit wussy, get tough! i mean you have to work on your core. Look at opposing muscle groups. if you strain your quad, your hamstrings are prob out of balance.
If you want to be the best, you have to work your weekness. If you neglect this you neglect the team and your self to becoming a better player. (this is also a attitude/mental issue) if your jump is shit. work on it. if you cant flick huck into wind practice it. if you play O and cant get the D back with a layout block you gotta find it inside and froth on it. Its easy to train what you are good at, like anything in life.
The fundamentals of these strength & weakness can be grouped and trained by yourself:
1. Skills: Throwing/ catching. All throws in wind with execution.
2. Power: Take off speed. and vertical jump.
3. Agility: reaction time and quickness of movement
4. Strength: Ability to cut at 100% over and over for the duration of the game
5. Mongrel: Physical mark. laying out over or through people. getting up straight away. body presence on the field in O ie dominating the space around and above you. On D monstering the player and area.
Variety is the key for motivation.
Weight Training:
As i mentioned above your core needs to be worked and strong before you really are able to hit top end stuff. Mid section area/strength to weight/ stomach/ and muscle coordination are all core factors.
How to train. Free weights are the key! and using your own body for resistance. The machines are shit unless you are in rehab or a bumbag wearing pan licker.
The fundamental exercises is the 2 legged squat. Learn it, do it . an example of core free weights is dumbells bench press on a medicine ball. Dips. Sit up throws with a medicine ball to a partner.
Your base is 10 to 12 reps with 4 sets.
Now power. The best ultimate related stuff is track plyos, bouncing/jumping exercises and stairwork.
In the gym the reps are 6 to 8 and they are at 100%. also done at speed!
for example. bench press bar doin hang cleans, clean jerks, and power cleans. technique is crucial to prevent injury. You need a base before you start. Couple of weeks best. Ask me or your gym instructor how if unsure.
Now think of top end training like this. Training a movement over and over will give you endurance to that movement. (possible over use injury) If you train that one movement at maximum, the effort taken to do that movement will decrease which will make repeat movements easier.
For example: jumping 50cm in the air. If you jump 50cm over and over you will be able to jump 50cm more. OR, training to try and jump as high as you can. get better at your limit, then jumping 50cm will be easy and there forth can do it more.. Plus you can jump higher if you need to!
I know its alot, ive dribbled a bit. But take what you want and whatever you do, do it hard. I mantra / chant dingo in my head over and over, when im puttin in the big ones.
You owe it to yourself boys, the team and your country. If not.. well honestly. fuck off to mixed or go play golf.
Let the team grow and evolve
luv timbo
As far as my trainin ideas go, here are some thoughts:
I base my ultimate specific training over a minimum of 4 sessions a week. (my work is variable so this is best.)
At least One of those sessions must be a plyometric based.
Weight gym sessions can be supplimented into this.(more later)
I taper the ultimate training before a tournament
I rockclimb/train 2 times a week & surf when its good!
Some thoughts for you:
Think about how your exercise will transfer into your playing roll on the team. by this i mean you need to specify. ie running. You will play prob 1 in every 2 or 3 points on, goin hard then be off. Are you a handler? Defence? A cutter? what sort of running replicates what you do on the field?
At worlds the schedule is 2 games a day for 5 days. I say post nationals you prob want to train 2 times a day for 5 days straight. then have 3 or 4 days off and then repeat. Your body will be ready for Vancouver!
If you seem to be niggled by injuries cause your a bit wussy, get tough! i mean you have to work on your core. Look at opposing muscle groups. if you strain your quad, your hamstrings are prob out of balance.
If you want to be the best, you have to work your weekness. If you neglect this you neglect the team and your self to becoming a better player. (this is also a attitude/mental issue) if your jump is shit. work on it. if you cant flick huck into wind practice it. if you play O and cant get the D back with a layout block you gotta find it inside and froth on it. Its easy to train what you are good at, like anything in life.
The fundamentals of these strength & weakness can be grouped and trained by yourself:
1. Skills: Throwing/ catching. All throws in wind with execution.
2. Power: Take off speed. and vertical jump.
3. Agility: reaction time and quickness of movement
4. Strength: Ability to cut at 100% over and over for the duration of the game
5. Mongrel: Physical mark. laying out over or through people. getting up straight away. body presence on the field in O ie dominating the space around and above you. On D monstering the player and area.
Variety is the key for motivation.
Weight Training:
As i mentioned above your core needs to be worked and strong before you really are able to hit top end stuff. Mid section area/strength to weight/ stomach/ and muscle coordination are all core factors.
How to train. Free weights are the key! and using your own body for resistance. The machines are shit unless you are in rehab or a bumbag wearing pan licker.
The fundamental exercises is the 2 legged squat. Learn it, do it . an example of core free weights is dumbells bench press on a medicine ball. Dips. Sit up throws with a medicine ball to a partner.
Your base is 10 to 12 reps with 4 sets.
Now power. The best ultimate related stuff is track plyos, bouncing/jumping exercises and stairwork.
In the gym the reps are 6 to 8 and they are at 100%. also done at speed!
for example. bench press bar doin hang cleans, clean jerks, and power cleans. technique is crucial to prevent injury. You need a base before you start. Couple of weeks best. Ask me or your gym instructor how if unsure.
Now think of top end training like this. Training a movement over and over will give you endurance to that movement. (possible over use injury) If you train that one movement at maximum, the effort taken to do that movement will decrease which will make repeat movements easier.
For example: jumping 50cm in the air. If you jump 50cm over and over you will be able to jump 50cm more. OR, training to try and jump as high as you can. get better at your limit, then jumping 50cm will be easy and there forth can do it more.. Plus you can jump higher if you need to!
I know its alot, ive dribbled a bit. But take what you want and whatever you do, do it hard. I mantra / chant dingo in my head over and over, when im puttin in the big ones.
You owe it to yourself boys, the team and your country. If not.. well honestly. fuck off to mixed or go play golf.
Let the team grow and evolve
luv timbo
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Getting to the gym
Sounds like a few people are hitting the gym. To get everyone on board are there any suggestions on low cost or easily accessible gym options?
Matt said he had a gym at his apartment complex so maybe some of the sydney crew could meet up there. I have a yearly membership at Newtown which is about $600. Expensive but worth it if you go a couple of times a week. More than anything else the gym work has significantly helped manage my injuries.
Thoughts?
Matt said he had a gym at his apartment complex so maybe some of the sydney crew could meet up there. I have a yearly membership at Newtown which is about $600. Expensive but worth it if you go a couple of times a week. More than anything else the gym work has significantly helped manage my injuries.
Thoughts?
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Running and Balancing
So Piers, Dan and I have a benchmark on HoS which gives us a goal to work towards. It is running around Albert Park Lake (4.7km) trying to beat your pb.
Let us know what your benchmarks are, or put them in the spreadsheet.
btw I hear that Glover has organised a slackline challenge for next training camp, now that we have practised on it:
Let us know what your benchmarks are, or put them in the spreadsheet.
btw I hear that Glover has organised a slackline challenge for next training camp, now that we have practised on it:
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