Strength and Conditioning for Fairy Freckles at Advanced Athletes Performance
Well looks like I have found a new market in Strength and Conditioning. Training childrens party clowns to be able to have the fitness for day in and day out parties. In the pic below we see Fairy Freckles jumping. Important part of the business. Jumping over fallen cakes and banana peels or simply doing a “TOYOTA COMMERCIAL” type jump.
KIds are demanding and functional fitness is needed. Bending/squatting/twisting etc. Specific games require agility and change of direction. Big rooms mean you can cover up to 2km in intermittent walking/cutting and jumping moves.
Added to this are fairy games which are very anaerobic and simply dancing non stop which can be very aerobic. Strength is needed because kids have to be picked up.Then simply doing 4 parties a weekend requires hard nosed conditioning.
I trained Fairy Freckles at the Preston Park off St Georges Road. Fairy worked hard and smart and for me I hope it leads to more work in this growth market. So all you Party Clowns out there. Come to Advanced Athletes Performance and enhance your Children Party specific fitness which in turns will mean more productive and energetic parties. And remember to look up Fairy Freckles for your next party!
Photo by Lilli Nonneman
VRDL All Stars Roller Derby do recovery at ADVANCED ATHLETES PERFORMANCE
The VRDL Roller Derby competition was in action again at the Showgrounds last night. And the ALL STAR team is off to Arizona in a week to play an officially approved International Flat Track Series in Arizona. So the sport is growing rapidly and the word is it will be PRO in the US soon. The teams are training harder and smarter now and part of their preparation was a recovery session at the Preston centre for Advanced Athletes Performance.
A few weeks ago I did a Heart Rate Analysis of Miss Chivas and certainly it is an imtermittent sport with high demands. Added to this is the load from cutting and body contact. Thus the girls have to recover properly. Like all sports, as performance improves, intensity improves and recovery becomes a critical factor in training.
So here are some pics of the girls doing their recovery session. Good luck to the team in the US.
Thanks to Geelong Football Club
2 weeks ago I contacted Geelong Football Club given I was interested in showing a tennis player I assist with itness ( Marija Mirkovic) the inside functions of an AFL club on game day. Also I was simply interested in saying hello given it was 6 years since the saga of 2006 and lots had changed at the club since then, so thought it was appropiate to ask. All happened in a day, so whoosh was a headrush.
I was given a tour of the new High Perofmance Centre at the club and then watched the warmup for the game. Met the old players and lots of staff and it was great stuff.
Marija loved the day and really interesting for her to see how big the club is and AFL is .
That was it and drove back down that familiar road to Melbourne.
I started at geelong in 1998 and ended there April 2006 so a big past of my life was spent there. So it was nice to be back and really appreciated the chance to be there again before everyone I knew was gone.
Pre-season training in Soccer in Victoria. The FFV has to step in!
The FFA pumps out the mantra that sports specific training with the balls must dominate a large percentage of training in Soccer. Especially with the developing player but throughout. Small sided games are proliferating at junior level which is great and generally till 13 or 14 there has been a shift to sports specific training. This article will not discuss the % breakdown of physical conditioning vs Soccer skills / Game related fitness that should occur. Suffice to say that Strength and Conditioning and general physical develpment should be a part of all players training programs. Not just the ball!
But the research points to the fact that decision making and specific tactical needs alongside fitness can be developed with the ball and/or in game related situations. And then it is up to the coach/fitness adviser on how to dose extra running or conditioning. This will vary with age groups and levels.
But there is a frightening trend I have noticed in Victoria with the VPL/State League teams and also associated U/21 & U/18 teams. Not only do many not use the balls much, more so they engange in archaic and ignorant methods of training. Many of the good juniors at 16 to 20 depend on these pathways to take the next step. IE To VPL or A League or overseas. But teams that are hellbent on winning their league often run countless laps of Princes Park and oodles of 200’s or run up and down hills and through sand and so on.
They engage in what I call the “aaaghhhhh” principle. Just smash them and get them fit and win. But by June heaps of players will be sitting on the sidelines with their beanies in dugouts and clubs will be buying or coaxing other players to play because in fact win loss ratios are crap.
So not only are these critical ” pathway” players not getting daily sports specific / decision making type drills and sensible and individualized trained. In fact their bodies are being trashed and no balls in sight. Lose/Lose.
So in the battle of the codes in OZ , soccer needs to look at this 2nd tier critically. And more so with training methods. From Skill Acquisition to Injury Prevention to enhanced athleticism. In the end we will lose generations of kids that have done all the right things with small sided games etc and then hit some lunatic coach who is driving them daily up the hills at Brimbank Park instead of working on the pitch or in the gym.They cant get a game because geriatircs dominate teams so they retire or wasted money on overseas academies.
Maybe the FFV and FFA have to grow some balls and change the structures of these competitions so that they do not allow them to just toss young players out mid season and buy old hacks. IE Salary caps and age structures. And then the tricke down effect could work down to training methods.
Some of the clubs in the VPL liek South Melbourne and Green Gully are quasi professional but most are developing players to send to commando camps and not European Soccer Pitches
Time to get smarter. Kids want to play the world game.
Nicholas Gonzalez chases a train doing Hill Work!
The Alex Cobo Soccer Academy uses Advanced Athletes Performance for their fitness needs. This year his main squad is Under 15 and they have mostly been with us for 12 months. I decided to take them to some pretty good hills alnongside the Tram Lines over a bridge in Preston. Approximately 130m in length but not so steep that they cant sprint.
Nicholas Gonzalez started his 5th rep just when a tram rattled past and he nearly stayed with it all the way up the hill. Power effort! The last pic shows that by the 7th rep the lads were exhausted. A great insight into what hard training is. 90% of their work is with the balls and we usually do core stability and core strength circuits coupled with run technique and speed. But once of was a good chance to do something different.
Physiological Analysis of Roller Derby at Game 1 VRDL
On Saturday night I went to the Showgrounds and watched Round 1 of the VRDL Roller Derby season. I have done some preliminary fitness testing with the girls at our centre in Preston, Melbourne. Advanced Athletes Performance. I found that most of the girls had reasonable Vertical Jumps using a Vertec. Some close to or above 50cm. So nothing amazing but ok. The Average so far of about 12 girls is 43cm. I did some other tests such as long jump one and two legs and some side to side jumps t look at single leg differences. I also did the YO YO Intermittent Recovery test Level 1 to assess their general intermittent sport metabolic fitness levels. A few girls were above 15 which is ok. Others were below 14 which is poorish. But how specific is off Roller Derby training? Is there a need for repeat effort testing done speciically? One girl I tested was quite down in Jumps & Power test but performed really well on Saturday. i didnt expect it so that reflects the high skill level required here. But all things being equal in all sports, everyone can play at the highest level so fitness becomes a priority.
A lot of the girls are right into different fitness pursuits so I have been interested in what it takes to perform at the Highest level in this sport. Some I think do too much “fluffy” stuff. Is it power or a mixture of endurance and power and strength. What do the “best” players get in these fitness tests and is there any correlation at all between the tests and ability given adequate skill levels. I watched the US girls last year from Texas and some looked really conditioned and strong, some were massive and most looked pretty fit. Where will this sport head fitness wise? Guess is power and repeat speed and grunt!
So I put a Heart Rate monitor on Miss Chivas from the Rock Mobsters and simply wrote down when she did some efforts and then looked at the download. Now as we know Heart Rate is a pretty poor reflection of the physiological demands of Roller Derby. Lots of sports science gadgets now exist that give insight into impact forces, acceleration patterns etc but hey this is a start. That will come.
Do some fitness tests. Add some skinfolds Sum 7. Watch a match. Do some RPE ( Perceived Exertion Data) analysis and then make some initial assumptions. In the end what I am trying to do is work out what the best approach to Strength and Conditioning and Fitness for Roller Derby is. It is a growing sport. Is there a need for lots of strength and conditioning? I will report on the RPE data next article and explain how to use this in training and competition.
Miss CHivas in the first half did heaps of Jamming ( at back and trying to get through blocks!) and one can see the same look on the heart rate curves that one see with interval training or even a football match. Look at the last part of Graph 1. I dont know Miss Chivas’s maximum heart rate but assuming it is 200 then she was working pretty hard. The emotional side of heart rate analysis in games can add 20 bpm and interesting that it rarely went below 140 even at half time. Maybe rolling around instead of walking keeps the heart rate up? All assumptions at this stage.
The question is what is the cost of all the jostling and bumping? That can be measured and needs to be. That is why all thsi data needs to be correleted also with RPE data and then some acceleration & impact data.
In the second half the maximum heart rate was 187 and average was 156. A fair load IF her heart rate is 200. Watching the players when they come off after sustained efforts, subjectively they are stuffed.
The other question is IF a girl never ever will be a jammer how fit does she need to be? Does she need to squat 200kgs and be agile.Is an elite blocker a bit like a front rower in Union? Very big, very strong and capable of sustained hard ( if not fast) work.
BUT at the international level in future when superfit lean, hard Roller Derby OZ girls try and smash the US ladies I think the Jammers will have to be superfit and super powerful. Have a look at the last part of the graph for the first half below and simply look at the sustained work Miss Chivas did with multiple Jams. Phew. Heart rate max 193 (might be her max-who knows until we do a max test) and just up there for workrate wahtever the sport given she is a fit girl. Add bumps and twists and turns and quite a body load.
Look at sustained efforts in last part of graph below! I think 8 repeated jamming efforts ( is that the right word?). This Heart Rate analysis below is the first half plus warmups and meetings etc. Long day at office!
Heart Rate Download of the Second Half. 3 fast jams at end.
A picture tells it all and here we see pics of Miss Chivas accelerating low an fast and below Ber Zerker getting low and strong and seeing how balanced the other girl is. Tough sport!
Advanced Athletes Performance in Preston adds Facilities
We have nearly got the second stage of our facility completed. Boxing areas, mats for various pursuits and platforms and racks galore for lifting. We are continually improving the place and a great venue to train now.This is the second warehouse now up and running and just the place to train at 64 Oakover Rd Preston!
Below are some pics
Young Athletes and Weight Training
Tommy Podaridis, a 15 YO Soccer player doing 2 arm / 1 leg Dumbell Rows. A good exercise to teach neutral spine, leg alignment and scapular strength & stability. This is the sort of weight training that young athletes should be doing. Simply learning movements and getting strong and stable in the process. The practice of 5RM’s and advanced weights with young athletes this age does not make sense. We see now with the Pathways and Developmental programs in place ( and pressures to make squads etc) that young athletes are loading up. So just on or just after puberty is a great time to start teaching movements and skills and on the way general strength levels will increase. Loading with growth spurts is dumb and even until growth is stabilized unnecessary.
Below is a pic of Josh Ross, trap bar deadlifting 200kgs. He deadlifted 245kgs in winter with a normal bar. But as a young athlete he played Rugby League and ran fast without huge loads in the gym. Once established then it is critical to load up so one can maximize forces on the ground. So it is a big decision when to load a young athlete. Especially when 20 plus is when most sportspeople shine.
Yarra Valley Grammer Ariels Netball Fitness Test
Advanced Athletes Performance travelled all the way to Ringwood Athletics Track to finalize the fitness testing for PXMAS 2011 for the Ariels Netball Team coached by Christina Puopolo.
Testing was held the week before at Yarra Valley Grammar and 3 girls went above 18 in the Level 1 Intermittent Recovery Test.
With Peter Venturich from AAP I conducted a speed/sgility and FUN session to wind up the 2011 preparation block.
Below is the ARIELS squad after the session with me, Peter and coaches. Gus Puopolo then had a great barbie ready and I delivered the Xmas break training program. Up to you now girls!
Also met Julian Wruck who is an up and coming Discus Thrower. Julian is staying with Gus Puopolo for a few weeks training. He is 20 but is a regular 60m plus thrower. He is studying at UCLA after transferring from Texas. Good luck
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loris bertolacci 
