Monday, October 20, 2008

Update

I have been away for a little while thus my blog has suffered. A few things have been going on with the most important being my partner Donna and I are getting married next year which is great. We have been together many years and there is nothing better than being able to marry the girl of your dreams. Beyond this I have been relaxing somewhat and trying to slow down but back at work and ready for new challanges.

Sydney FC W League Team
Finsihed pre season with the girls team and they are ready for the first round of the W League this weekend. The girls have worked very hard and testing results show a significant improvement in Vo2 (approx 15%) which I had predicted. The data on the DS protocol consistently shows such an improvement over a 4-6 week period and as mentioned previously with time limitations I feel this is an effective protocol that works. (see previous Posts re the DS)

Youth League Trials
As my previous post stated this is the disaster time for soccer in NSW and yet again I have been amazed by the lack of professionalism of clubs. What can I say except that something needs to be done or at least a course set up on assessing players too much politics, too many people pushing their own agenda as a Parent I find it upseting that parents would become sponsors of clubs just to get their son in the team - why would you do that if they dont have the talent. On the other side parents blaming anyone for the lack of talent of their child - I ask have they tried to develop their athleticism, have they put in the work. There is always 2 sides of the story but some decisions astound me such as one wiith a young GK I use to work with who is a great talent being cut from a team after a fantastic season. Keep your chin up Stefan it will work out for the betterment of you.

Ego
A funny word but has its place when we talk about people involved in Athletic Development. Isnt it funny that its always the most insecure I wonder if our cities A League club has worked out yet injuries may be related to the arrogance of the strength and conditioing man. I wonder why he is so arrogant - no formal qualifications may be the reason insecurity so he attacks everyone else. This is the genius that does no testing all pre season and claims everyone steals his programs. Sacked from most previous jobs we can hope this will be another one. Sorry I should not get personal but I get upset at people like this who do not treat people with resepect

Athletics

Started athletics training yesterday just to experience being coached by a very good sprint coack Shez from Sprintology (check the website) I enjoyed it very much and even though this is different from speed for soccer obviouly there is much to lean and the more you experience the better you will be. I am concerned that not enough people in our field know or experience the movements they are presecribing. Get out and do it

Coaching

Where have all the coaches gone? I mean we are doing something wrong in our university courses when few students come out ready to conduct sessions with confidence. I hope it is not a lost art but basic communication skills are not being developed at our universities

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Craig,

About your DS protocol: how many times a week did the girls perform the protocol?

Jeroen

Dr Craig S. Duncan said...

Hi Jeroen

For the first 3 weeks it was 2x and the last 2 it was 3x

Anonymous said...

Craig,

Did they perform "normal" soccer training together with the protocol during the week?

Thanx,

Jeroen

Dr Craig S. Duncan said...

Hi Jeroen

Yes on the other days the players completed normal soccer training e.g. small sided games, drills etc and they played 1 game/week

CD