Not Enough Conditioning

Recently, this article from Matt Rhea (former Alabama S&C, now the High Performance Director for the New Orleans Saints) has been making the rounds and sparking debate on Twitter. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse...

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Leech Letters - Issue 19 - Not Enough Conditioning

Recently, this article from Matt Rhea (former Alabama S&C, now the High Performance Director for the New Orleans Saints) has been making the rounds and sparking debate on Twitter.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-conditioning-do-football-players-need-matt-rhea-mprbc?trk=public_profile_article_view

In the article, Dr. Rhea talks about some of the trends he is seeing in the field of Football S&C with regards to conditioning. Because of the vast amount of information gathered from GPS data, coaches are perceiving high weekly workloads to be the root cause of injuries and overtraining. There's also a stronger emphasis these days on max velocity numbers and how workload can negatively impact top speed. As more and more coaches look at reducing practice volume, Dr. Rhea provides a different mindset.

Rhea argues that for those concerned that higher practice volumes reduces game speed, don't be. His 20 years of data does not suppose these claims. Also, in-game top speed isn't a metric we should be focusing on. I've talked about this on social media before, the best athletes play at 'Gamespeed' which is naturally a little slower and under control.

Rhea also argues that when done well, practice NEEDS conditioning to fill in the gaps. Quality practice is filled with periods of mastering technique, scheme, and taking controlled reps. That demands full rest and recovery. Conditioning can and should be used to prepare the athlete for appropriate game work to rest ratios, without interfering with skill development and strategy understanding.

Some coaches believe in practicing with an uptempo pace to devolp conditioning, but I agree with Rhea that this may not be the ideal practice format. Doing this hinders the learning process when it comes to strategy and scheme and can hinder skill development. Sport coaches should make sure their athletes can dominate the sport and allow the S&C Coach to dominate the conditioning component after.

The last point from Rhea's article (you should read it if you haven't) is that workload is typically overrated and recovery is underrated. Cutting back practice times or volumes should ONLY happen once an athlete's recovery is dialed in. There's no point in trying to keep an athlete fresh by reducing volume when they only average 4 hours of sleep a night. Continue to educate athletes on how to take care of their bodies and you'll be surprised how much harder you can push them.

Now every team and every situation is different, so take all of this information with a grain of salt. Read the article for yourself, draw your own conclusions, and let me know what you think!

Until next week, keep the fire burning.

Leech

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