The off-season kicked off officially on Monday 12 November with the “traditional” 3 kilometre time-trial at the University running loop in North Adelaide. I battled through ok but the standouts were Kane Cornes, Cam O’Shea and Brad Ebert.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever see the day Kane Cornes get beaten in this event. He certainly hasn’t in my time at the club and I really can’t see it happening. It’s his pet event and knowing his competitiveness he won’t want to ever surrender his title. It’s a credit to him that he prepares himself so well and keeps himself in such great condition.
The big improvers in the time-trial this year were Matt Lobbe and Cam Hitchcock. They both ran personal best times and are set for big pre-seasons.
Since then our sessions have been very intense under our new high performance manager Darren Burgess and his fitness team with sessions involving tailored running programs, tackling and grappling sessions, high energy handball games and obviously drills to focus on our skills and ball movement.
Here’s an insight as to what I’ve been up to over the last few days since the start of December:
Saturday - 1/12/12
The group met at North Adelaide at 8am and spent an hour doing grinding hill climbs near the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Anyone who has done hill climbs before knows how difficult and demanding they are and my heart rate, along with I’m sure everyone else’s, was going through the roof.
After our session in North Adelaide I went back to the club and iced down as part of my normal recovery process. This allows for quicker muscle recovery so I’ll be fresh and ready to go for our next big session on Monday
I spent the afternoon relaxing watching the second cricket test from Perth. I was pumped up for a big day hopefully to see Ricky Ponting carve up the South African attack in his last test match. Unfortunately though, my perfect day soon came to an end when the great man was trapped LBW for only four runs. Although he referred it, I knew straight away he was in trouble and I felt for him when the umpire eventually put his finger up. Despite not having the fairy tale finish, Ponting will still remain one of the all-time greats of Australian cricket and a hero of win. I’m certainly not taking his poster off the back of my bedroom door yet!
After watching a few hours of the cricket, Butch, Hitchy, Moorey, Harts, Cam O’Shea and I went over to Dave and Wendy Goodwin’s house for the night for dinner. Dave is our legendary property steward while Wendy volunteers her time at the club helping out preparing player’s lunches. Both are such great club people and it’s really great to spend some time with them away from the club.
Sunday - 2/12/12
Being a Sunday morning and our day off, I took the opportunity to have a sleep in. Sleep is very important for all of us, especially the recovery process for an athlete, and I enjoyed a bit of extra shut eye.
After breakfast, I ducked out and fulfilled my household duties and did some grocery shopping on behalf of my two housemates, Butch and Hitchy.
Once I returned and filled the cupboards and fridge, Hitchy and I went down to the beach at Grange for some more recovery. There’s nothing like a bit of a wade through the seas water to ease some aches and pains from the previous day’s training.
After recovery, I spent the late afternoon and early evening watching the cricket again from Perth. I’ve got to say it wasn’t great viewing as South Africa plundered our attack to all parts of the field. Although it was tough to watch, you can’t help but admire the skill and concentration of the likes of Hashim Amla and AB De Villiers. It’s great to see fellow sportsman at the top of their game.
Monday - 3/12/12
Training started at Alberton at 9am and by now all of our train-on players had started to feel very much part of the group.
Liam Jurrah is one of group of train-on players who have settled in well
A group of players, including five Magpies players, Sam Colquoun from Central District and Liam Jurrah, had joined us on the previous Wednesday and had really settled in well. All players have really impressed with their attitude, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Having the new faces out has also added certain freshness to training so our entire playing group has really enjoyed having them around.
Sam Colquhoun has shown good footy smarts at training
All have caught the eye in one way or another but Liam and Sam have obviously been mentioned the most in the media. Liam has impressed with his speed, silky skills and footy smarts while Sam is also skilful and looks to have a great engine.
Our session was slightly shorter than previous sessions, given we had a very solid week’s training the previous week. After our session, we each split into our respective groups for weights sessions and meetings with Shaun Rehn and Matthew Nicks who discussed stoppages and defensive pressure from an entire team perspective.
We finished off the day with a massage which is so important in our recovery process.
Tuesday - 4/12/12
The group met at the club at 9am for a session of “walk throughs” where we spend time indoors working on our game plan and ball movement with the coaches. This process allows our coaches and players to openly discuss our game plan and set plays in a controlled environment.
The afternoon was spent doing pilates, to work on our core strength, weights and conditioning. This conditioning session involved a lot of repetitive boxing drills which are extremely intense and demanding.
Wednesday - 5/12/12
To mix our training locations up, we trained today at the Grange Hockey Fields, on the corner of Trimmer Parade and Military Road, from 9am.
The majority of the session involved highly competitive and intense handball games. These games are played in a confined area and flow like a basketball game, in that they are very much continuous and involve pressing up on your opposition as they try to handball their way through to the end of the playing area.
Throughout this session, players also split into groups practising their grappling and tackling techniques. These drills are also very competitive and intense but are also so rewarding and really help build up the trust and camaraderie within the group.
The training session finished around 11am and after a few hours off for lunch and recovery the boys met back at Alberton in the afternoon for another weights session and massage.
In between, the boys all took part in an intense wrestling session. This session is non-stop and it seems to go for an eternity. If anyone is too slow to get to their next opponent the whole group is punished with penalties, no questions asked. It is the most gruelling and torturous session imaginable and although we’re so exhausted it is a great way to cap off a solid day’s training.
Our wrestling sessions are gruelling
I’m looking forward to sharing another pre-season diary with you in a couple of weeks just before we break up before Christmas.
