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Youth Small Group Strength & Conditioning Informat

Youth Small Group Strength & Conditioning Information Night, Friday 26th of August!

Shoot us a message if you will be attending!

Injuries are a part of court sports just like all

Injuries are a part of court sports just like all sports. The reduced space and abrupt changes of direction compared to field sports increase the risk of injury.
Players can also be susceptible to poor preparation due to lack of opportunity to warmup and multiple games.
It is also common, if you are good at court sports, you will find yourself in multiple domestic, representative, state and even national teams, which means plenty of competition and not a lot of preparation, which can lead to overuse injuries.

Programming Considerations for Contact Sport Athle

Programming Considerations for Contact Sport Athletes

Sports like Rugby, Aussie Rules and Boxing can be highly combative and require a larger emphasis upper back/neck Strengthening to reduce the likelihood upper limb and head injury.

A few options to consider and include when programming for contact sport athletes;

🔹 Zercher Squat - great Squat derivative to build the upper back as an A1 and replace a conventional Back Squat

🔹 Banded Y-Press - upper back/posterior shoulder strengthening

🔹 Neck Bridges - isolating the neck, prone and supine positions using a bench. Begin these with support from hands (not shown)

HIIT VS Small Sided Games: What is better for cond

HIIT VS Small Sided Games: What is better for conditioning for court sports? ⛹️‍♀️

When it comes to court sports such as Basketball and Netball, due to the high demand for change of direction and agility, HIIT has been used as an effective method of conditioning. But with the high demand of agility, sport specific conditioning such as Small Sided Games (SSG) can be a more effective measure in meeting court sports high demands of change of direction.

Research studies have compared these two types of conditioning in the short term 4-6 weeks blocks and what the found is:
• Average Heart Rate and RPE were similar between both HIIT and SSG.
• Both interventions improved repeated sprint ability.
• They found that SSG were great for improving the technical skill and game awareness of lower-level athletes.
• They found HIIT training overall was more time effective method in terms of hitting loading targets for the athletes.

Overall, Small Sided Games were found to be more beneficial for lower-level athletes that also needed to improve the technical skill of the game or game awareness as well as conditioning. Whereas, when it came to higher level athletes although Small Sided Games were good for a bit of variety and helping with match simulation, HIIT training was found to be more time efficient and beneficial in reaching loading and aerobic capacity targets.

Isometrics, which are a contraction against an imm

Isometrics, which are a contraction against an immovable object, can be very valuable in the rehab setting.
Rehab exercises such as Spanish Squats (as shown in picture) can provide a resistance training stimulus to muscles without extra joint movements that may irriate the joint early in rehab process.

Strength can be increased by 20% either side of the joint angle of the specific isometric. So isometrics will allow strength gains during the rehab process without setting off the injury.
Isometrics are also great in the initial phases of tendinopathy as they help reduce pain. Isometrics should be done in a position where there is no tendon compression, which usually in the mid-range.
You can play with different rep schemes, but something similar to 20-60s Holds 4-5times or 3-5reps x 5-20second Hold with 5-15seconds break between reps for multiple sets being effective.
So next time your injured, have niggle or just want to try something new add in some isometric training.

Improving shoulder strength in more compromising p

Improving shoulder strength in more compromising positions is key to improving shoulder integrity & potentially reducing risks of injury/re-injury 🔑
If you’re struggling to get your shoulder back to 100% get in contact today to see how we can get you ready for pre-season 💪🏼

Coaching through vision Athletes can learn new t

Coaching through vision

Athletes can learn new things in a variety of different ways, one of these being watching vision of themselves perform an exercise. Learning through seeing is a great tool to help athletes gauge how there body is moving at speed when they might not be aware of incorrect technique / actions.

Personally as a coach, I have used this technique with a lot of younger athletes who are learning new movements for the first time so they can understand how the language relates to the actual movement.

From the videos above we can clearly see everything we want to when focusing on change of direction sprinting. Vision allows us to slow down the footage so we can see every finer detail from triple extension of trailing leg to the whiplash motion of the knee cutting across the body.

Donor sports are a great way for the body to learn

Donor sports are a great way for the body to learn a skill with assistance from another sport.

A common donor sport is basketball, this is usually a donor sport for a variety of other sports such as AFL, Netball, and Soccer.

Donor sports can be used as a way to change training stimulus which can give the body a break and change up. Donor sports are a good way to stay fit during an off season while giving your mind a break from only competing in one sport year round.

Speed & Power Development 💥 We've been using C

Speed & Power Development 💥

We've been using Cleans for @joshgerolemou_ as a major focus area in his programming to aid with improving explosiveness & speed.
As Cleans are quite a complex movement we like to take these things into consideration with programming;

- Using correct priming movements prior to this key lift (practice explosive hinging; KB Swings, BB High Pulls etc)

- Program at the start of the sessions when we're our freshest. As it's quite complex and taxing on the CNS we don't want to be lethargic or we won't have appropriate outcomes/technique can be compromised

- Use less complex derivatives if necessary. We can get similar power outcomes using less complex movements like a Rack Pull or a Trap Bar High Pull for example.

What does testing with us look like? 👀 We cove

What does testing with us look like? 👀

We cover multiple movements depending on the athlete and sport they play but this is a small snippet of what you might see!

Recovery is important an important part of your tr

Recovery is important an important part of your training schedule to restore, rebuild, reduce injury & continue seeing results in your training.
Making time to prioritize good quality recovery is often overlooked, but its equally as important as putting in the effort in the gym or on the track!

Welcoming the new @melbourneathletic performance a

Welcoming the new @melbourneathletic performance and recovery facility 💪🏼

If you’re an athlete wanting to improve your strength and conditioning to achieve the next level then this is the place for you!

Ever thought about running in an event? Or have yo

Ever thought about running in an event? Or have you ran event & looking to get back into it? Or looking to stay fit in the preseason? 🏃‍♂️ A running event can be perfect thing to keep you focused.

See the running calendar provided for some local running events in Melbourne that provide a great amount variety of events for different levels of running.

Running in an endurance event can be done by anyone but a gradual training program needs to be followed.

Tips for an endurance training plan:

➡️ Start small don't go straight for a marathon build up with smaller events first
➡️ Follow a structured training plan (couch25k) or get in touch with a coach to create a specific running plan for yourself
➡️ Make sure running program is gradual
➡️ Continue or start strength training
➡️ Get correct footwear
➡️ Focus on recovery
➡️ Learning to run efficiently

Let us know what event you’d be participating in! 👇🏼

All our coaches are different here at Melbourne At

All our coaches are different here at Melbourne Athletic. Here we provide a quick insight into their favourite and least favourite exercises 🏋️‍♂️

Swipe to have a quick view of our coaches performing some of their favourite exercises to program and complete themselves!

How young can an athlete be, if they were to start

How young can an athlete be, if they were to start strength training? 👀

It’s a question we get asked a fair bit at Melbourne Athletic, and the answer is always different for quite a number of reasons including age of the individual. The other reasons are:

✅ Sport and level is the athlete competing at
With sports such as gymnastics or figure skating, the competing age of high level athletes are much younger than those in elite AFL systems.

✅ Training age & experience in a gym / school environment
Some schools or sporting clubs include basic S&C training through curriculums they create at the beginning of the year

✅ Overall goals and desires of the athlete
What level do they want to compete at? What timeline are these goals going to be completed in?

✅ Testing and screening data
What are the athlete’s strengths & weaknesses? Do they have a good base of competency around different movements? This will determine the starting stage our coaches will begin with the athlete.

The answer is there isn’t an age you can place a hard fix on! We have clients as young as 12 training with us, although there sessions look very different to a 16 year old, they all include the same basic components of learning technique correctly and safely with progression to weights beginning as there training age becomes more experienced.

Some of our coaches have been working with Mackill

Some of our coaches have been working with Mackillop College at their St. Mary’s campus in Werribee South taking the students through boxing sessions.

Here we have some information on how to improve force from rear hand punches with great research published in the Australian Strength & Conditioning Journal.

Shoulder Health 💪🏼 It is important to maint

Shoulder Health 💪🏼

It is important to maintain your shoulder health throughout the season to keep the joints fully functioning and minimize the risk of injury. Our joint mobility can deteriorate due to bad postures during the day or being overloaded during our sport. Here are a few exercises that can be easily added to ypur warmup

⚡️Wall Slides
⚡️Shoulder T & W
⚡️Scapular Pushups

Complete 3-4 sets of 10 for each

ACL Rehabilitation- Reteaching Mind-Muscle Connect

ACL Rehabilitation- Reteaching Mind-Muscle Connection

In our First Phase of Rehabilitation for an ACL-R, the main focus along with regaining range of motion is having strong, efficient activation of surrounding musculature, particularly in the quad/VMO muscles. The connection between mind-muscle regresses drastically as a result of surgery, typically for the VMO, and as a result can lead to more loading on the knee structures rather than being taken through supporting muscles if an athlete is progressed too quickly through this phase.

Here are a few basic drills we begin with to reteach activation & mind-muscle connection early stage;

1 - Banded Terminal Knee Extension (feeling muscle to increase connection between mind/muscle)

2 - Wall Knee Drive (aim is locking in the grounded side glute heavily, along with knee/ankle)

3 - Hamstring Curl ISO (aiming to feel the push of heel into the band and maintain tension)

With GPS becoming the gold standard of load monito

Big improvements for @corey._grant on the Barbell

Big improvements for @corey._grant on the Barbell Bench Press! From initially lifting the bar now he can bench 30 for 5 reps!

Corey has been able to achieve this goal by consistent weekly training which helps all our youth athletes become stronger, powerful and quicker while maintaining an injury free body!

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