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.
Friday 6 July 2012
Friday 11 May 2012
INTERVAL TRAINING FOR CENTRE COURT PLAYERS
Now that it's off season, and the majority of my players are in the midst of their exams, I've now got a bit of time to put together training programmes and sessions ready for the pre-season starting in July.
The first of these programmes I'd like to share with you is a really simple interval training programme which is ideal for all players, but specifically hits the needs of centre court players.
Centre court players are having to do most of the running, and are required to be explosive, fast, and in the right place at the right time. In order to be effective and successful, they need to keep up a high level of intensity for an entire game.
Interval training mirrors exactly the type of energy, activity, and intensity required in the game of netball, whereby activities or exercises are completed over a long period of time, but the intensity of which they are completed can change. A simple example of this is completing a 15 minute run on the treadmill, but every two minutes increasing the intensity to a sprint for one minute, followed by a 30 second jog, before returning to a steady pace. This is repeated until the 15 minutes are up.
In any programme or session I do, working athletes constantly for 15 minutes is crucial due to the fact a quarter of a netball game lasts 15 minutes. If a player can not sustain a certain level of effort for that duration they will not be able to do their job on court effectively.
What follows are three basic practices, with 4 variations per practice. Mix and match the variations to make up an entire hour of interval training, working in 15 minute blocks- so 3 variations per block. These practices can be used to develop a whole array of things; i.e. change of direction, a change of pace, turning in the air, driving hard on to the ball; so please feel free to use these practices to achieve different objectives. But for the purpose of this, I have used these exercises because they are netball specific, but can be altered for interval training as well. As a coach, I love to kill two birds with one stone!
Exercise one: The Clock
Using 8 cones/spots set up a circle, with a centre point.
Option 1:
Body and hips are always facing the direction of travel. Working clockwise, start on a spot round the outside of the circle. Run into the middle, plant foot and turn quickly, getting head and hips round before driving to the next spot on the outside. Continue working round the circle in this way, driving in, then back out again. Foot work should be quick with small steps- no lunging to the spots!
Timings: Repetitions (reps): 30 seconds steady jog, 30 seconds fast run. Repeat this 4 more times making a total of 5 minutes work.
Option 2:
As above with this change to the timings:
Reps: 40 seconds work (sprinting!), 20 seconds rest. Repeat this 4 more times to total 5 minutes work.
Option 3:
This time the player should imagine a feeder is at the front of the circle, and should also keep their head and eyes up, facing forward. This should promote the use of backpedalling on the backwards drives. Player works her way round the circle as above.
Timings: 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds jog. Repeat 4 more times, therefore the player is working continuously for 5 minutes.
Option 4:
Again the player is imagining a feeder at the front of the circle, therefore their body is always open to the front of the circle. Head and eyes up at all times! Player works her way round the circle as above, adding a jump upon reaching the middle spot.
Timings: 40 seconds fast run/sprint, 20 seconds rest.
Repeat this 4 more times, totalling 5 minutes work.
Exercise two: The Box
Not quite The Cube but players will be challenged by this all the same!
Using 4 spots or cones, set up a square as shown. The square should be a minimum of 3 metres.
For all of the options players complete the following pattern: start at the bottom left cone, driving straight up to the back left cone (movement 1). Turn and drive diagonally to the front right cone (movement 2). Turn and drive straight up to the back right cone (movement 3) before turning and completing the pattern by driving to the front left cone (movement 4). Turns should be quick with a strong push off from the outside foot. Head and hips turn quickly, use arms to drive.
Option 1:
Timings: reps: 40 seconds fast, 20 seconds rest. Repeat this 4 more times to make a total of 5 minutes.
Option 2:
Complete the pattern with diagional drives being sprints, and the straight drives being recovery runs.
Timings: reps 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest.
Option 3:
Timings: reps 30 seconds sprints, 30 seconds jog. Repeat this 4 more times so that the player is working continuously for 5 minutes.
The first of these programmes I'd like to share with you is a really simple interval training programme which is ideal for all players, but specifically hits the needs of centre court players.
Centre court players are having to do most of the running, and are required to be explosive, fast, and in the right place at the right time. In order to be effective and successful, they need to keep up a high level of intensity for an entire game.
Interval training mirrors exactly the type of energy, activity, and intensity required in the game of netball, whereby activities or exercises are completed over a long period of time, but the intensity of which they are completed can change. A simple example of this is completing a 15 minute run on the treadmill, but every two minutes increasing the intensity to a sprint for one minute, followed by a 30 second jog, before returning to a steady pace. This is repeated until the 15 minutes are up.
In any programme or session I do, working athletes constantly for 15 minutes is crucial due to the fact a quarter of a netball game lasts 15 minutes. If a player can not sustain a certain level of effort for that duration they will not be able to do their job on court effectively.
What follows are three basic practices, with 4 variations per practice. Mix and match the variations to make up an entire hour of interval training, working in 15 minute blocks- so 3 variations per block. These practices can be used to develop a whole array of things; i.e. change of direction, a change of pace, turning in the air, driving hard on to the ball; so please feel free to use these practices to achieve different objectives. But for the purpose of this, I have used these exercises because they are netball specific, but can be altered for interval training as well. As a coach, I love to kill two birds with one stone!
Exercise one: The Clock
Option 1:
Body and hips are always facing the direction of travel. Working clockwise, start on a spot round the outside of the circle. Run into the middle, plant foot and turn quickly, getting head and hips round before driving to the next spot on the outside. Continue working round the circle in this way, driving in, then back out again. Foot work should be quick with small steps- no lunging to the spots!
Timings: Repetitions (reps): 30 seconds steady jog, 30 seconds fast run. Repeat this 4 more times making a total of 5 minutes work.
Option 2:
As above with this change to the timings:
Reps: 40 seconds work (sprinting!), 20 seconds rest. Repeat this 4 more times to total 5 minutes work.
Option 3:
This time the player should imagine a feeder is at the front of the circle, and should also keep their head and eyes up, facing forward. This should promote the use of backpedalling on the backwards drives. Player works her way round the circle as above.
Timings: 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds jog. Repeat 4 more times, therefore the player is working continuously for 5 minutes.
Option 4:
Again the player is imagining a feeder at the front of the circle, therefore their body is always open to the front of the circle. Head and eyes up at all times! Player works her way round the circle as above, adding a jump upon reaching the middle spot.
Timings: 40 seconds fast run/sprint, 20 seconds rest.
Repeat this 4 more times, totalling 5 minutes work.
Exercise two: The Box
Not quite The Cube but players will be challenged by this all the same!
Using 4 spots or cones, set up a square as shown. The square should be a minimum of 3 metres.
For all of the options players complete the following pattern: start at the bottom left cone, driving straight up to the back left cone (movement 1). Turn and drive diagonally to the front right cone (movement 2). Turn and drive straight up to the back right cone (movement 3) before turning and completing the pattern by driving to the front left cone (movement 4). Turns should be quick with a strong push off from the outside foot. Head and hips turn quickly, use arms to drive.
Option 1:
Timings: reps: 40 seconds fast, 20 seconds rest. Repeat this 4 more times to make a total of 5 minutes.
Option 2:
Complete the pattern with diagional drives being sprints, and the straight drives being recovery runs.
Timings: reps 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest.
Option 3:
Timings: reps 30 seconds sprints, 30 seconds jog. Repeat this 4 more times so that the player is working continuously for 5 minutes.
Option 4:
As above with the diagional drives being recovery jogs, and the straight drives being sprints.
Timings: reps: 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest. Repeat this 4 more times to make up to 5 minutes.
Exercise three: Straight Line Drives
Set up as shown using 4 spots 3 metres apart. For each option complete the following pattern: start at spot 1. Drive to spot 3. Turn quickly, drive back to cone 2. Turn quickly, drive to cone 4. Turn to drive back to cone 3. Turn, drive back to spot 4. Turn, drive back to spot 2. Turn, drive to spot 3. Turn, drive back to spot 1. Start pattern again. Essentially, you're driving forward two cones, back one.
Option 1:
Timings: Reps: 40 seconds sprints, 20 seconds rest. Repeat 4 times.
Option 2:
Completing the pattern with the long drives being sprints, and the short drives being recovery jogs.
Timings: Reps: 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest. Repeat 4 more times.
Option 3:
Complete the pattern, adding a jump and turn in the air upon reaching every cone.
Timings: Reps: 40 seconds work, 20 seconds rest. Repeat 4 more times.
Option 4:
Complete the pattern, working continuously for five minutes.
Timings: Reps: 30 second sprints, 30 seconds jog.
These exercises really do tick the boxes for developing fast feet, turning in the air, changing direction, a change of pace- as well as working at intervals- mirroring the nature of netball.
With any exercise, practice or drill, ensure the quality is right. Demand high quality and high intensity from the outset. If the players cannot train at a high intensity and with quality, how do they expect to perform like that in a game, when it really counts?!
Monday 30 April 2012
IT'S GOOD TO SHARE...
At only 27 years old, so relatively new to the profession of netball coaching, I can only draw on the limited experiences I've had as a coach in a high performance environment. I have decided to start this blog with the aim of sharing everything I do as a coach both on and off the netball court. I am fortunate that my job is to coach, therefore I can dedicate my whole working week, and more, to perfecting my craft and becoming the best coach I can be. I hope that other coaches will use this blog as a port of call for ideas and resources to help in their coaching.
When I was learning to coach, and believe me- the more I learn the less I feel I know- I was privileged enough to be in an environment where netball was a high priority sport, and there were sessions running and well respected coaches around all of the time. I think the Internet is a whole treasure trove of information, hence why I'm using it to share my work. I'm already communicating with a network of coaches via the Internet through the wonders of Facebook and Twitter- don't be shy, check it out...!
Facebook: Netball London and South East Regional Excel Coach
Twitter: @LSENetballCoach
Reflecting on my own learning, I can honestly say I learned the most from coaches who were happy to open the sports hall doors to me, and willing to share everything they knew. Again, I was very lucky to work with one of the England senior national coaches who, one day completely out of the blue, rang me up because she had a training game in my neck of the woods, asking if I wanted to sit on the bench with her. It was such an amazing experience! Don't get me wrong, I was terrified! But I will always remember that experience and hold it up as one of the greatest learning experiences I've had to date. Now, I can't promise opportunities like that, far from it! But I can share my ideas, thoughts and observations with other coaches out there. I would also welcome with open arms any ideas, advice and thoughts in return. Learning as a member of a community of good practice has proven vital to learning and expertise development in many walks of life, so I aim to offer the same through this blog.Happy reading, and most importantly- happy coaching!
When I was learning to coach, and believe me- the more I learn the less I feel I know- I was privileged enough to be in an environment where netball was a high priority sport, and there were sessions running and well respected coaches around all of the time. I think the Internet is a whole treasure trove of information, hence why I'm using it to share my work. I'm already communicating with a network of coaches via the Internet through the wonders of Facebook and Twitter- don't be shy, check it out...!
Facebook: Netball London and South East Regional Excel Coach
Twitter: @LSENetballCoach
Reflecting on my own learning, I can honestly say I learned the most from coaches who were happy to open the sports hall doors to me, and willing to share everything they knew. Again, I was very lucky to work with one of the England senior national coaches who, one day completely out of the blue, rang me up because she had a training game in my neck of the woods, asking if I wanted to sit on the bench with her. It was such an amazing experience! Don't get me wrong, I was terrified! But I will always remember that experience and hold it up as one of the greatest learning experiences I've had to date. Now, I can't promise opportunities like that, far from it! But I can share my ideas, thoughts and observations with other coaches out there. I would also welcome with open arms any ideas, advice and thoughts in return. Learning as a member of a community of good practice has proven vital to learning and expertise development in many walks of life, so I aim to offer the same through this blog.Happy reading, and most importantly- happy coaching!
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