Marty Clarke provides a good insight into how the AFL has a more reasoned approach to training

A VERY interesting article from Donegal physio Dermot Simpson, who worked with the squad from 2012 to 2015, on the volume of training in relation to matches pre-championship was doing the rounds this week.

It was six sessions to one match and in championship season it was 10 training sessions to one match. A total of 66% of Donegal’s injuries were accumulated during training, now this is not to say there was anything specifically wrong with Donegal’s training but the law of averages would suggest you are going to get more injuries in training than a match if the ratio is 10:1.

Donegal certainly aren’t the only county where this situation occurs and I feel it’s not just restricted to inter-county level, it’s becoming more and more common even now at club level where you hear reports of club players going weeks, sometimes months, without playing.

In our own county here in Down, to be fair the proposed schedule for 2016 does look ok, there is only two occasions between April and September when there is a two-week break, but on every other weekend there is regular consistent games for the club players, 22 league games in total and minimum of two championship games, which makes a coach’s job much easier and a players experience more enjoyable.

Dermot also goes on to say, “If the GAA season was structured like the AFL model, the intensive training would be performed at the beginning of the season with only maintenance of fitness between the weekly matches.

“AFL’s hard training is done in the longer pre-season, which stems from mid-November until the end of February.”

This is very interesting because only this week I happened to have a conversation with Marty Clarke about the difference he has found, both mentally and physically, with playing every week in AFL to coming home to possibly training six months to play in two championship games.

He echoed a lot of what Dermot touched on. Marty made a couple of excellent points, players enjoy playing games, but supporters also enjoy seeing the best players ply their trade every week.

Imagine getting to only see Conor McManus once every summer, it doesn’t make sense. Routine is excellent for players, you know you have a game – it’s play, recover, play. Some players might not even break sweat at training that week because their week is all about recovery, and the games keep them conditioned.

Most interestingly, Marty talked about CKs, a test where protein in the muscle is checked. If you are not at a certain level you don’t train, making the observation that the fast twitch athletes (those that run at high speed/intensity) can take up to five full days to fully recover to a safe level.

When you consider all this, in a professional sport, and you consider what GAA athletes are expected to do at an amateur level, probably coming home from a day’s work on top of that, it seems like madness.

The massive emphasis not on training during the week but on the recovery between games in the AFL is the most interesting thing and can only happen if you have a regular flow of games, something the GAA is going to have to address very soon.

There are countless examples at inter-county level and club level that two nights after a game coaches have players, to use the phrase “run into the ground”, totally flogged at training and then we wonder why players are breaking down with injuries when we consider physiologically how long it actually takes the player to fully recover from a full game.

This pre-season at club level we are preparing to play now for nine consecutive Sundays. It’s excellent, because it allows us to condition the players through games – game-related fitness is completely different to any other type of conditioning.

I am hoping this approach will work, I believe it will and I believe the players will enjoy it more rather than slogging around lakes, parks or mountains.

Some coaches will argue its not the right approach, running is crucial, everyone will have a different opinion on it, it might not be the right way, who knows? One thing is for sure, we need to provide much more games for our players throughout the year and certainly not more training,