Leigh Colbert and Loris Bertolacci and VCFL
Leigh Colbert asked me to do the fitness in 2006 for the VCFL team. It was also an opportunity to work with Jeff Oxley who used to be the physio at GFC with me. Leigh organized a few sessions at the Lexus Centre and dragged everyone in from James Hird to Paris Hilton .
Anyway off to the Gold Coast ( hard gig in July!) and game 1 at Carrara . It was pouring and we played and lost and then the other games were called off. That night we hatched a few plans to get through the tournament with more rotations, more gatorade and better breakfasts. Also Anthony Stevens and I had a dance off that night. I won. He was a great footballer but wont get a gig on Dancing with the Stars.
We were eating brekkie smack bang in surfers and bacon and eggs was the favourite. We had to change that to cereals and toast. Mind you I must admit the original brekkie was nice but not sports science friendly. Recovery sessions at Surfers and Lectures on the beach were the go.
Next day the games were at Surfers and due to the rain the rooms were shocking. So Leigh decided to set up the rooms under some trees in a park about 400m away from the ground. Shaded and airy and simply beautiful. I poured Gatorade down their throats and we won all our games and clawed our way into the finals the next day.
Finals day was a challenge. Real hot. I went all over the Southport ground and sought out anything I could use. Fans, cups, ice and so on. I made the VCFL staff buy so much drink and ice and get so many fans they thought I was crazy. We warmed up in a primary school under some trees about 100m away from the ground to get away from the sun and there was a concert being set up there. The organizers of the concert turned the speakers up to 100% volume and let loose with classics like “eye of the tiger” whilst we warmed up. Out of control and more gatorade.
Game was a beauty versus ACT. We went into the shade at the breaks but ACT stayed in the sun. So be it. We rotated the players and poured gatorade down their throats and cooled them down at every opportunity. Basic heat prevention strategies. We were a goal behind at the end of the game and Joe McLaren ( ex St Kilda) kicked a huge goal from the centre. Massive kick that if done in an AFL final would have been legendary. Extra time and we bolted away and maybe that is when the cooling and gatorade kicked in. Thats the theory. Big day and big win and great fun.
C Grade Italian Womens Volleyball Fitness Program
I translated this, or moreso copied it from an Italian website for volleyball . Pretty big focus on strength and power and proprioception. Just some information and hope it is interesting. I dont know if Serie C is semi pro. Seems so given they only train 4 days a week.
Womens National Volleyballers in Melbourne
FRIDAY 7pm: UNI BLUES vs UTS SYDNEY at Melbourne University
SATURDAY 11am and 5pm Dandenong Stud Rd Dandenong Basketball Centre
SUNDAY 11am Dandenong Stud Rd Dandenong Basketball Centre
Victorian Country Football League win against VAFA
Last week I went to Ballarat with the VCFL where they conquered the VAFA in a thrilling game. We arrived in Ballarat on Saturday.
Off to training in a bus with coaches and players and staff. We were driven to a small barren ground and the driver bundled us out. In the bus we had the Collingwood and Geelong game blaring on radio in front of a huge crowd and what we stepped out onto under this mountain could not have been further removed from the MCG. It was freezing and eerie and very quiet. I think it was right next to Mt Helen but it was so cold and misty it could have been Kilimanjaro.
Anyway this ground was just a little kids ground and was overun by shrubs. The rooms were well too old to be given National Trust rating and anyway we couldnt get in and I think if we opened the door a few skeletons would have fallen out. I saw a small human being on the other side of the ground and ran to him hoping he could get us in but it was a kid with a Geelong jumper on. He ran away! Wonder why? What had happened was that the driver had dropped us off at the wrong ground.
There was no water tap for the bottles so I ran into a front yard over the road and filled the bottles up. Anyway the boys were very positive and trained and to be honest it looked like a scene from the TV AD for AFL footy with kids “gimme that thing” .
On Saturday night the boys had a dinner, team photo and coach Kevin Morris spoke to them. Nathan Bower presented a video to the players that was very motivating on the difference between country and city players.
The game on Sunday was tight all day and really my main function was to hydrate the guys and make sure they were well nourished and warmed up. This is an area that is always lacking at anywhere below elite level. Like last year in Queensland Brett and Shaun Connell gave me everything I needed.
Great result on the siren with Saad Saad marking and kicking the vital point. I had to leave on the siren and drive straight to Green Gully to warmup the soccer team prior to a draw with South Melbourne. Long day and really Green Gully could have used Saad Saad to get over the line. Should have put him in the car. After all he is a Brunswick boy!
Anyway I think I should also document last years final in QLD with Colbert and CO because that was an amazing sporting experience.
Do fitness tests reflect speed on the ground
Recently I was asked whether the 20m test generally used as a speed test is reflected on the ground. To be honest most times yes. Some players just read it better so in games dont look as slow as their tests suggest. Watching Pearce from Port Adelaide run at a draft camp a few years ago one could see he would explode later. The 20m test obviously doesnt measure max speed and/or many other variables. But in reality if one strips the science away from it I have always found that players who test quick generally look quick on the ground. Agility as researched by Young and Shepherd is a complex mix of speed, acceleration, change of direction abilities and many other attributes, with the ability to see what is happening and process it a crtiical factor. So players such as Harvey from St Kilda may have just reasonable tests results ( don’t know his speed) but due to decision making and change of direction abilities can get on their bike and scoot away from supposedly quicker players. Players like Dustin Fletcher at Essendon tested very quick and with his tennis background and football ability has been the package deal. Of course in his prime a player like Saverio Rocca at Collingwood was the best over 5 metres, a reflection of his ability to power clean nearly 150 kgs and throw a discus 60m plus. Wanganeen was simply the quickest I have measured over 10m ( 1.54) and I saw him run 11.1 sec for 100m at Aberfeldies one day without blocks and untrained. Again the package deal and like Fletcher these two were fast twitch animals with not so good aerobic qualities. In fact that day he ran 11.1 and Michael Long ran 11.2 and I think Lachlan Ross 11.3 and the next one home was a guy called Mick Symons who ran 11.6 ( 2,75 for 20m in gates). So yes test in a straight line and then test change of direction but as Warren Young and Jeremy Shepherd found in their research on reactive agility , getting away from players requires quite a lot of variables to come together. Then put it together at game speed in enclosed areas. And get strong in the gym and powerful with plyos in both legs. Some quick players can run one or two repetitions but after a few repeat speed efforts “slow” guys run past them. This is why rotations have had a big effect in footy allowing the fast guys to come on and smash it and why limiting rotations coupled with the new rules from 2006 will even more bias aerobic “slower” players and possibly stunt the explosive bursts from “fast” guys as the game goes on and even maybe limit their careers.
Preston Athletics Club
I recently joined up the club again. Jeff Hawkins is the coach there and has done a great job in getting some really good juniors up and running. Very organized and motivational coach. It is amazing how many kids these unpaid coaches help. My father was a very successful coach at the club just like Gus Puopolo is at Ringwood. They produce champions but help all. And all these guys do it for nothing. And they all do a great job and in fact right up to the standard if not better than many professional strength and conditioning people around the place. Just no money in Athletics and thus little kudos unless one produces an Olympic Medallist. There is a nice synthetic track at the lake now and recently I saw Adam Basil training there so must be a good track. Unfortunately there is no fence so on nice days it can be a bit crowded with bikes and festivals.
Tennis Development in OZ
I have been involved with some juniors in tennis since the late 80’s. Obviously in Australia we have fallen back since many countries have jumped on the tennis bandwagon since money came into the sport. One issue that keeps coming up is the lack of comprehensive conditioning these kids in OZ get and the one sided development they get from tennis coaching. They often are so weak and sloppy. Fit yes but no conditioning. Often a bit of speed ladder work and a few kms and the odd push up is added. Often some kids miss the multilateral devleopment needs required for fitness because they specialize early. Some should be playing football and netball and swimming whilst developing their tennis skills. The double whammy that occurs is that coaching does not address specific fitness devleopment needs but moreso that it takes a long time to get to elite status unless one is a real superstar or child prodigy. So parents pouring money into kids at 12 might have to wait till they reach 23 before they crack the top 800 in the world. Rankings for men average 25 at any one time and 24 for females at others. There is a bit of change from year to year but I found that on average 22 year old females break into the top 100 each year and 27 year old girls fall out. Is that the crucial window? Can people wait that long and does tennis have systems to keep players bubbling till they are 21. Again I am not talking about superstars here. They play early and retire late. They are the exception. Rather I am referring to players like Molik who pushed their way into the top at the ages described. All just theories and interesting but food for thought. I have added some stats in this word doc. below and again they are there to show trends and may have small errors because I am not a statistician.
loris bertolacci 