Who?
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Training from the road side of the fence, a little annoying given how far away we were from the players. Warm, windy morning for training. Good to see @nackers @CJohns and @SofStar99
I arrived at 9:15, informed that training started at 9. Pretty much all of the 1-4 year players seemed there. Smith joined the modified group of Johnson and Hird. As @CJohns said, Zerrett was out there and looked sharp.
All of the draftees made appearances, but didnāt do much. Young Eyre is a really good size.
Some modified match sim, skills were pretty good given the wind. Players at large looked pretty sharp, bar a few errors.
First look at Caldwell, pretty impressive. One occasion where he was about to be tackled, he spun, rode the tackle and got the handball. Really clever.
Players finished with some 400s (for fun, I guess). Francis was well behind the pack, but great to see McGrath, Merrett and Langford run with him to get him through. To his credit, Francis didnāt stop running.
Largely, the boys look in reasonable nick. A little worried about aerobic fitness of some, but they look sharper than last year.
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Was Merrett ālikingā his team-mates?
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He was not following them in the 400s.
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EFA - 2.0
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Yep coaching principle since the early 1980ās. Running laps makes you good/better at running laps
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One would think this year would be Francisās last chance to impress and continue his career at Essendon. Hopefully he keeps improvingā¦but the fact he is already clearly struggling is a concern.
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Just glad to hear that Reid is going to be big when he gets big.
I will let @nackers who was there do the proper right up. It was a lengthy session today (9am to 11:30). Was a lot of players coming in and out for certain drills. Felt like some work was done in the Hangar or increased gym work insideā¦ but there was always a decent group on the ground. Today was centred more on midfield work for me
The new boys were there just to say hi and do some kick to kick and minor marking drills. Perkins only did some light jogging only. More a say hi to everyone and check out the place i would say. Josh Eyre, Cox and Brand were doing 30-40m passes to each other and they are all good by foot. Eyre was like a left footed Ridleyā¦ has a picture perfect kicking technique
Good to see Merrett out there and was quite supportive of the younger boys. He was very sharp and looked in great nick actually.
Caldwellās skills were pleasing. I thought that he was the sharpest i had seen himā¦especially in the full ground ball movement drills. Drills consisted of 30 metre quick kicks from one end to the other. Jones was the key target that was pleasing to the eyeā¦ kicked a long ripping goal just quietly.
Lot of repetitive long running drills at the end. Was a tough slog.
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Unfortunately you need to have driven players that start pre-season in great shape, otherwise you need to get them running laps to get them fit. Match practice and drills are great, but nothing breaks a player more than doing laps. Its as much mental as it is physical.
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Eyre bandwagon is filling up quickly
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Francis is never going to be a 400m reps type of athlete, and thatās ok.
What Iād be interested in the track watchers thoughts on is how is he doing these? Is he getting off the starting line strongly and then fading after 200? And then getting to the start and starting off strongly again? Or is he struggling for the first 50m and then hanging on the whole way.
What he needs to be able to do is to produce repeat effortsā¦80m, rest, go, again and again. And my measure for his ability to do that is whether with the recovery between 400ms his heart rate is coming down quickly and heās getting to a recovered state quickly. If after (say) 30 seconds or a minute of recovery (depending on whether heās at max effort on these repa or at 75% or whatever) his breathing is all over the shop and he is all hands on knees and unable to go again, then he has a lot of work to do.
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Thank you @MattPocock18 and @CJohns. Love all news/observations.
Great to hear the guys are getting around Francis.
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Break a player? The purpose is to get players fit to play a specific sport! Fitness is acquired by increasing the intensity of each sessions example increasing session length, lowering recovery times etc. the best training is simulation of game specifics tasks, which also allows technique development ( motor skill) and then skill ( applying the technique under pressure). Training has nothing to do with breaking a player and all to do with skill development, mental toughness and resilience
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Training has everything to do with pushing a player until he breaks. Itās only then that you know how far they still need to go. In a game where everyone is tired, you want players to be able to push through fatigue. This is why every sport in the world forces players to do running. Whether it is repeat sprints of long distance running, its all relevant.
You donāt do it all pre-season, but itās important to build up running capacity before you get into games.
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Have any of the new recruits been presented with Conor McKennaās car yet, Iām sure he left the keys on the front right tyre.
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Agree. The best training is to start with a few laps and calisthenic type exercises, simply to stretch and warm up, doesnāt need to be strenuous. You then follow that with drills that are applicable to the skill sets you want to highlight and improve, so short sharp handpasses or 30m spot up kicks, centre square set ups etc. You then throw in some simulation be it game play or ball movement exercises. Done correctly, players will always run further and harder if their is a ball involved.
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Was this pack that he was behind mainly midfielders? Iām curious to know how his running compares to others KPPsā¦ based on his inability to get to a good running level, I think KPP is his only hope
Francis running was instantly a tempo he could do for long distances. So he was behind straight away but pushed through where he was. It was repetitive 400m runs but he never really gained or slowed pace if that makes sense. In fairness to him it was a group of about 12-15 that were ALL midfielders. He was the only key position player. Merrett, Langford and McGrath in the last 3 laps deliberately ran with him despite their running being completed. All in for each other is a spirit i will take any day. Francis really ran through it well and Gia gave him a huge tap on the back to say well done.
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400 metres is a bloody hard distance to run.
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