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The Importance Of Pre-Season Training
Growing up, pre-season training was often viewed as one of two things;
- Something you absolutely love
- Something you absolutely dread
Usually, it depended on the coach and how tough they were.
We all have those fond (or not so fond) memories of doing shuttle after shuttle after shuttle…
Looking back now (with a much better understanding of the human body), we may not have enjoyed it at the time, but we’re thankful we did it.
Today, we’re going to dig a little deeper into the importance of pre-season training and why it’s important that you complete a pre-season training program before returning to Touch Football this year… especially given current times.
- DE-CONDITIONED & COVID-19
De-conditioned is a term that translates to ‘having lost fitness or muscle mass… particularly due to lack of exercise’.
COVID-19 has forced us as a community to change our current training habits and behaviours. We went from training outside with team mates and friends to being stuck at home in the matter of days. In a matter of days, it turned into months. For those of you who are reading from outside of Australia, it’s even longer! Now, unless you had complete access to your own personal home gym and training facility, chances are your training program had to make some slight changes. And that is completely okay. - BUILDING A SOLID BASE
We harp on and on about building a base. The wider the base, the higher the peak.
This statement couldn’t be more true given the times.
Building our training up progressively over weeks allows our bodies to adapt to the stresses that Touch Football puts on our bodies. Regardless if you play socially or competitively, Touch Football requires you to do a few fundamental things; run, sprint, step and pass. These skills do not change – the level of intensities in which we do them do. This means that if you are playing social touch with your mates, you will still need to step and accelerate at some point. If you are playing competitive, you will still need to step and accelerate – probably just a little bit faster than in social.
Our base (work capacity/fitness) allows us to get more work done. This, coupled with strength and speed training, allows us to express these qualities on the touch field. The more we can handle, the more robust and durable we become. - INJURY PREVENTION
This leads us to our last point. You only have to flick on the TV at the moment to see the current rate of injuries occurring in the AFL and NRL. This past round there were 6 ACL injuries alone.
We (unfortunately) see it time and time again. There’s that person that comes down to play Touch Footy. It’s game #1 for the season and they haven’t done a whole bunch of training and *BOOM*, there goes a hamstring or a calf, or worse…
Now, sometimes these things happen and bad luck strikes.
We just want to give ourselves every possible opportunity to ensure we’ve done the work, prepared ourselves as best we can and continue playing the game we love.
Pre-Season training not only ensures we’ve put in weeks and weeks of work, but also allows us to replicate the ‘game demands’ as best as possible.
Remember – there is a massive difference between running on the treadmill for 20min and playing a high speed game of Touch Football.
We hope that this information kick starts the need to start/continue training in preparation for the return of Touch Football.
For any more questions, please reach out.
Thanks!
Sammy and Ash xx
You can read a little bit more below —>