You’d expect the players predominantly wear running shoes inside, switch to footy boots on the ovals
So hardness under foot of indoor surface should be countered by running shoes
There are stacks of sports overseas with indoor facilities which no doubt we would have looked at when Hangar planned
It’s not the S&C teams’ fault that, due to the softness of the players on our list, every injury counts as a soft tissue injury.
I’ll see myself out.
Silly question
Why would you even need an indoor training facility when you already have 2 ovals for the players to train on?
So you can train inside if the weather is really bad, perhaps if you also want to practice game play things away from prying eyes.
Lots of clubs have them.
How often is the weather too bad to train ? I’m guessing probably once in every season if that.
Also consider heat in pre-season, and yeah there would be times you want to practice things in a more controlled environment.
Not about weather being too bad to train, more if the weather just doesn’t suit what you want to drill (wind too)
They play most of their home games under a roof so that’s the closest thing to those conditions. Pretty much any club that can have indoor facilities has them, and the ones that don’t are in the process of getting them.
Exactly. For example, our set plays from a kick in.
By designing and refining our kick in set plays in the Hanger we can deploy them (at least once) in game before the prying eyes of the opposition have had time to dissect them and then likely try and reverse engineer them. By that time, its too late and we’ve got the jump.
It is a silly question!
We don’t want our players to get cold, or worse, even wet before training even begins.
All jokes aside, I agree. Surely warming up in the cooler open climate will have their muscles etc. more acclimatised for training, but, I’m no expert.
That’s a lot of expenditure to hide “kick long to a contest at the half back boundary”
It isn’t just used for warming up though.
Cats are in the process of building their own (and the Hawks, and a heap of others) in an effort to catch up to other clubs like Pies, Swans, Dogs etc that already have them.
It’s just a controlled environment that more closely represents where they actually play.
I can’t believe the spongey floors have been called into question!
True. I was just having a bit of fun.
But, I was serious about the warming up. As I said I’m no expect; but, I would think warming up in the conditions you are going to train in would be less of an injury risk. It has been mentioned early about injuries occurring during the peak of winter.
As for the drills, this also concerns me a bit, given we are not that adept by hand or foot. If we are practicing our drills in a controlled environment, does that take away players ability to learn how to adjust to different conditions?
As I said, I’m no expert, but I do wonder.
Wind is a consideration here.
The players are much more likely to train in high wind than play in high wind due to the outdoor ovals at the hanger.
They are more likely in general to train in worse conditions than they play in, not better.
This isn’t just an Essendon thing. We can talk about the surface etc but the fact that an indoor facility exists isnt the problem.
I completely get it from a point of view of working on tactics/ strategy
But from an actual training and skills point of view, I wonder how beneficial it is
Fair enough.
Still helps to explain why they have it, and in the era of increasing professionalism most clubs have/will have them.
I think from a 0-50m ball movement perspective it makes absolute sense.
Updated
Yeah, but that would be to go to Fark Carlton. Who would sell their soul to do that?
I wish it it did. Was playing masters at Woodend. At least there is medical staff at the hangar… Oh hang scrap that I was better doing it at Woodend
Any different to a mod grass tennis court?
