One of the most important parts of the game and one that we don’t practice enough. Daz, Bowie, Minnesota, Johnny, amongst others, get ready.
Training at 4pm
Sunday training will be at 4pm until further notice.
A note on tackling…
The purpose of tackling is to ruin your opponent’s disposal of the ball. If you bring them down with the ball when they had ample opportunity to dispose of it, you’ll earn a free kick.
Tell us about it, Wayne Campbell.
If you know any judo masters, bring them to training.
A note on shepherding…
The aim is to create a barrier for your ball-carrying teammate. When players are moving at full speed, you don’t need to take out the opponent to create space for your teammate, just make their pursuit difficult.
If you’re near the ball but not in position to receive it from a teammate, you almost automatically become a shepherding player.
The video evidence:
Shepherding impresses coaches, teammates, and knowledgeable fans because it’s a team-oriented action. You’re literally making yourself a shield for the ball-carrier. It’s these “one-percenter” actions that often go unnoticed but win the match.
Aussie Rules Fitness Blog
Check out this blog, run by an Aussie trainer, and focused specifically on footy. There’s no excuse not to train on your own time.
Players of the Week: March 9th
We have four noteworthy Tigers this week:
Jacob Dufrene, a newcomer, showed good speed, agility, and hardness at the ball, especially in packs. Good stuff for a new player.
Rugby Ray impressed last summer when he came out to conditioning sessions and quickly established his fitness. This week he bagged about 6 goals during the scratch match using both feet and from different angles.
Roo-ben sparked the team with his enthusiasm, but also impressed by routinely by following his passes up the field for support/opportunity to receive a handball. This is a match-winning skill and one that is a testament to fitness, but mostly desire.
Minnesota James continues to flourish in a defensive and midfield role by doing the little things: spoiling marks when caught behind, supporting teammates, and working hard in training to build on his already considerable fitness.
Good job, fellas.
Training Info
Be sure to purchase a mouthguard before training on Thursday. You never know when Joe’s going to go Barry Hall and hit someone in the mush.
Be at Highland Park at 6:15 to get loose before we begin training at 6:30, sharp.
Sunday Scratch Match this week! Stretch your legs, lay some tackles, kick some goals. Same place, but we’ll start at 4pm instead of 3pm. Be there.
Players of the Week
This week we’ve got a number of players to mention, led by our three new recruits: Lindy, Darren, and Nick.
All three have shown a willingness to run hard in drills and work through the awkwardness of learning new skills, but they’ve been impressive in just a few short practices. They look like a physical bunch. We may even have a new ruckman.
Joe Roy’s been working on his fitness and has looked sharp skills-wise this week.
Johnny Z’s also look sharp in training. You can tell he’s keeping a strict focus during drills.
Simple Preseason Workout
Since we’re not having an official cardio training day, it’s important to work on fitness on your own time. The easiest way to show your commitment to the team is to get yourself in shape before the first match, which is over a month away.
If you haven’t been doing much work over the holidays, here’s a simple workout to get your body prepped for harder training and cardio sessions.
stretch
5 min warm-up jog
20 min interval running
5 min cool-down jog
3 sets of ab exercises
3 sets of push-ups
stretch
Notes:
You’ll need a watch for the interval runs (which is great cardio training for footy) so get on of Walgreen’s 8 dollar specials. In an interval run, you’re alternating high intensity running with lower intensity running. For example: 15 seconds full stride running (just below a sprint) followed by 45 seconds recovery running (NOT a slow jog). Do this without resting for the full 20 minutes. If you can’t do that, then break it into two 10-minute runs with a SHORT walk in between.
As you build fitness, increase the ratio of high intensity with lower intensity. So 30 seconds high/1 minute low. Then 1 minute high/1 minute low. Then 2 minutes high/2 minutes low.
To be a successful footy player, it’s important to be able to “recover as you run”. If you’re walking or jogging slowly, you’ll be caught out of position quickly. Interval running trains your body to recover as you run.
Ab exercises can be a number of things: crunches, side crunches, bicycles, V-sits, accordions, etc.
Great Run on Sunday
We had a good turn-out at the season’s first training session. Although the drills were simple, the intensity was high and everyone, including the new guys: Nick, Lindy, and Darren, acquitted themselves well.
It’s important to lay down some fundamentals early in the season, so working on handball and kicking mechanics until they because monotonous is a good way build up the muscle memory.
Here are two videos breaking down these basic, essential skills.
Baton Rouge Tigers Australian Rules Football Club 