Any footy club’s strength and conditioning coach will know one thing: preseason is the most crucial time in any club’s season. Preseason is the time when players rest from the previous season, but also commence a rigorous training program to be fit for the coming season.
Players have to be in peak physical condition coming into the new season, especially when it comes to ability, agility, speed and strength, so there is no more imperative a time to work on these four attributes than before the first bounce of the season.
With this in mind, grab your club’s top AFL merchandise, head out on to the oval and begin work with these vital elements in mind:
- Make sure you have a plan
You can’t step into preseason training without any of how you are going to run the program. You need to have a clear indication of what works for your team, what needs improvement, and how you can train them to maintain their quality attributes and to step up their game in the ways that count.
If you don’t have a plan for your club, you run the risk of stepping out onto the oval with no idea in mind as to how you can take them to the next level in the coming season, how you could take them from a finals team to a granny winner – all this comes before the season actually starts!
- Ensure your players are in top condition during the off-season
Obviously, your players need some time to rest at the off-season’s commencement. They can have their Mad Monday, their Bali trip and their time kicking it at home, but if your club is serious about going to the next level in the coming season, they are going to have to get back onto the field and into the gym a while before the season actually commences.
Even if you start slowly and ease into a more rigorous program, it is still important for your players to keep up their physical condition in the off-season, whether that be through weights, skills, speed and agility exercises etc.
- Monitor your players’ performance
To ensure a positive, winning start to the season, it’s important to monitor your players’ off-season progression and whether or not they need any extra work to up their game. Players can improve and drop in particular skill levels during the off-season, especially after a leisurely break, so it’s important to keep an eye on which of these skills could use some improvement and that need to be maintained to ensure everyone’s game is optimised!
- Create skill training for different players
Every player is different, and every player requires a little work with AFL merchandise in specific parts of their game. Whether a particular player needs a program of endurance maintenance, or a player lost a little strength in what appears to be a rather-hedonistic month off, there is no better time (the only time, really) to ensure your players are ready to go by implementing individual training programs.
- Increase the intensity as you go on
You don’t want to burn your players out as soon as you get them back into training mode – ensure they can ease into a more rigorous program the closer you get to first bounce. This way, you can be sure that they will gradually improve on these individual parts. They may need some attention, and you can get them back into a more intense sports system a few weeks before you start another winning year!
Jack Sylvester is a freelance writer, He is extremely fond of anything that is related to ghostwriting, copywriting, and blogging services. He works closely with B2B businesses providing digital marketing content that gains social media attention. His aim to reach his goals one step at a time and He believes in doing everything with a smile.