Does Pre-season Training Help?

On Thursday night. the NRL season starts!!!

I can't wait... The pre season has been looonnnnngggg, for players and coaches. I'm going to explain some thoughts here about preparing for Rugby League but this can be carried over to anyone working with someone towards an event or a specific outcome.

Here we go..

All the work is about to be put on display for all to see!  Players at every club have worked hard getting themselves ready for the 2016 season. Long conditioning sessions, sprints, weights, torture camps and wrestling dominate the preseason schedule in most clubs. The aim is to build a players capacity to handle the rigours of the NRL.

What amazes me every year is the resilience to physical work that the players show. Every year players get through a little more work (well those that don't make the top 8 anyway). My respect for NRL players at every club I have been at is immense. I often think to myself that I don't tell the players often enough how much respect I have for the 'grind' they put themselves through every preseason... And in every game! The volume and intensity would sink the strongest of athletes. They are a tough breed of humans.

There are a couple of things that always leave me a little puzzled though....

When players / coaches / trainers make announcements during the preseason that we are 'fitter than we  have ever been'.

Really... How do you know? Beep test or yo-yo score went up? Or covered more km's? Or maybe just some observations?

What GPS tells us in footy, is that players don't run at any great speeds for very long. And no great distances are covered in an 80min period (max 10km's).

Every player always gets to the start of the season a little unsure about how they are going to travel in round 1. Why? Because they haven't played a full on game yet. Trial games act as a 'greasing of the wheels' and most players don't play their normal duration and the intensity is certainly not there.  Other sports lack the contact of Rugby League so it is much safer for them to get very close to game intensity in their training. Rugby League needs the real competition to find this intensity! When there are competition points on the line the collisions rise!

So how can you know if you are 'fitter' until you have played a game? Because in the end, does energy system training equate to on field performance?

Many other sports rely far more heavily on playing the game to get fit.  European soccer players sometimes have 2 weeks to get ready for their season after their break from the last season. How can they be ready in this time?.... The game makes them fit. They play the game for 10-11 months of the year so the games get them and keep them fit!

I am starting to believe that making the top 8 is beneficial for several reasons.

1. It means you have a solid level of success and you get to stay in your job for another year! Helpful!

2. Your preseason is shorter, more games and less preseason flogging.

I have heard others say it but Adrian Brough, an S & C coach I worked with at the Knights used to say "the game is the biggest session of the week". That has to be the priority. Work back from that!

The volume of the preseason acts to build resilience and tolerance to load. Much of it is not making the athlete sport specific fit. The balance between producing better athletes and 'getting load' in is a difficult one. Every club attacks this slightly differently.

Next time you hear your favourite player say they are fitter than ever... Ask again once they start playing. Footy con and training con are 2 different things!

But that's another blog....

If you're a Performance Coach, think about which of your measures correlate most to performance and how you could make your training matter a little more. Mostly this involves broadening the overall stimulus - more balance, dance, mobility, juggling but also loading up on the specifics that make the difference to winning or losing, game situation skills, contact, awareness, situational decision making under fatigue etc.

Fuel for thought on the quest for the perfect athlete development system.