THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS...

I am now in the throws of pre-season training with my athletes. The goal is to get through the national summer camp next month and ensure they are on form for the impending Netball Talent League and Superleague trials. This means all of my summer sessions are looking at nailing the basics and ensuring the girls are super fit. Ensuring the basics are not compromised under pressure is a whole new blog entry. I had a very interesting/frustrating session on Monday with my girls just looking at passing accuracy, but I will revisit that with you another day!

Instead, the topic for conversation today is fitness! I am a massive believer in an athlete being fit for the job in hand. Actually, re-phrase that, I believe that an athlete needs to be too fit for the job in hand. I was screaming at the television in complete bewilderment at the England football team as they trudged up and down the pitch against Italy in the quarter finals of the European Championships. Every body hails Wayne Rooney as a hero on the footy field, his skill in previous performances have helped him build a reputation as a world class footballer. I didn't see any evidence of that during the European Championships, did you? I am not a football expert, so I will not be critiquing his, or any of the other players' technical or tactical performances, however the glaring factor in their performance that let them down in my eyes was their lack of fitness. They did not have the fitness to cope with what the Italians threw at them. England looked lack-lustre, unfit, and in some points- they were blowing out of their backsides. Why are they not fit enough to last an entire game of football? They know what a high quality football game involves: 90 minutes of fast-paced running, changes of direction, elevation, taking a beating (don't even get me started on the diving which has crept into the game- footballers have certainly been practising that!), sprints etc, etc. So why can't they maintain this for 90 minutes? Did they prepare themselves in the best possible way for a game against the classy, skillful, fit Italians? The Italians ran circles round us for the entire 90 minutes and beyond. OK, yes we did then have to play a further half an hour of football, but so did the Italians, and they coped just fine. So why couldn't we?

Let us for a moment, analyse a good example of where an athlete is fit enough to cope with anything that is thrown at them.Watching Wimbledon as I write this, I am in awe of the players who can just keep going. Matches can last up to four hours with only minimal breaks. It is rare that you see the winner of those marathon matches fade towards the end. They just keep going, maintaining the same level of concentration, skill and execution from start to finish. That is because they are so fit!

Bruce Springsteen, the famous rocker from the US, recently completed a near four hour set in Milan. Four hours! Imagine singing, jumping up and down, running up and down the stage for four hours! You'll probably gather that I'm a bit of a Springsteen fan, and have seen for myself the 60 year old's magic in the flesh- and what always leaves me fascinated is his boundless energy. A lot of that could be put down to adrenaline, but Bruce recently shared his secret for his epic performances: he trains. He works out in the gym every single day to ensure he can give his absolute best performance for his fans. He knows what it takes to give a world class performance in front of thousands of fans, so he trains for it to ensure he is absolutely ready, and can repeat that performance time and time again.

I could go on and on about this, it is an area of any sport that completely baffles me because it is so easy to get right. Nail your fitness; ensure you can run, sprint, jump, change direction etc, for an entire duration of the game at game pace and you'll more than likely win! In my eyes, fitness is absolutely fundamental. It is the crux to any good, effective, successful performance. If your fitness fades, the rest of your game will come crashing down. We've all experienced it- when we are tired our concentration falters, our decision making becomes strained, we make mistakes, our basic skills- our bread and butter- diminish.

Enough of my ranting, and back to my pre-season training. My athletes are currently undergoing a variety of programmes to tackle their netball fitness. Firstly their aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and secondly their strength and landing skills. Being young athletes they struggle to muster the motivation to train on their own, and some are fearful they are not completing the strength exercises properly, so it is my responsibility to keep tabs on this and provide opportunity for some decent fitness training, as well as tick all the boxes.

Turning up for my session yesterday, heaving the ball bag off my shoulders and turning to face the girls, I asked them to immediately get into pairs, to grab a ball, a towel, their drink and make their way to the side line. They knew what was coming. The 12 Days of Christmas. It is my favourite fitness activity, borrowed from Tae Kwon Do, and such is the power of this fitness activity, rumours and stories about this activity filter round players before I even meet them as new recruits into my academy. This fitness activity is interval in nature, but while the athlete is working it requires all exercises to be completed at intensity and with quality. I had never completed The 12 Days of Christmas in all the years I'd been delivering it to my athletes until two weeks ago. I can honestly say, it is perfect of netball, and once you get into it, it isn't so bad! I'm not one for beasting players and making them sick. There is no fun in that, and that is the sole reason why athletes fear fitness training. I think The 12 Days of Christmas gets the right balance, and allows an athlete to push herself as hard as she wants too.


The premise to this activity is that you are familiar with the famous festive song, and like the gifts that increase in number through the duration of the song, as do the physical exercises. The activity is completed in pairs, with one player working while the other rests or is a feeder. The working area is a width of the netball third, with each player completing a sprint across court at the beginning and the end of their turn. Player one starts by sprinting to the other side of the court and back again before completing the first activity. Yesterday, the first activity, or 'first day' was one press-up. After completing the press-up player one then sprints another width of the court before player two does exactly the same. 'Day two' was two burpees, so after completing one sprint, player one executed two burpees, then one press-up before finishing her turn with another sprint. Player two then has her turn. The activities build in this nature, so that the players are counting down the days in reverse order, just like the Christmas song!

Below are the 12 days, or exercises my players completed yesterday:

Day 1: 1 press-up
Day 2: 2 burpees
Day 3: 3 squat jumps
Day 4: plank with 4 jumps in and out with the legs (keeping bum down!)
Day 5: 5 chest passes
Day 6: 6 right hand shoulder passes
Day 7: 7 jump passes, releasing the ball in the air before player lands
Day 8: 8 lunges (4 each side)
Day 9: 9 left hand shoulder passes
Day 10: 10 hops (5 each side)
Day 11: 11 squats
day 12: 12 jumping jacks.

This will usually take about 40 minutes to complete, relying on the girls to execute everything properly and with intensity.

This specific arrangement of exercises were conditioning exercises, working on the players' landing skills and core strength, but you really can do anything! In the past I have thrown in six sprints on day 6 for example. Be creative with it!

Afterwards, the girls had built up quite a sweat, were breathing heavily, and had clearly worked very hard. All agreed that this was the best fitness activity to keep them motivated yet work them hard. They were the players' words, not mine!

Give it a go and see what you think! I would love to hear your feedback.