5/12/07

Australia Day Three

Spent the day presenting “Child to Champion” seminar to a group of coaches. It was a great group of coaches. There were coaches in the audience who had produced Olympic Champions, World Senior and Junior Champions. The interaction was tremendous. I will present today to the same group plus additional coaches on coaching and in the afternoon on functional training.

In the evening I was able to attend the South Sydney Rugby League game against Canberra in Olympic Stadium. The seats were at field level, which really gives you an appreciation for the game. It really is a continual series of car crashes for eighty minutes. Grant Duthie, the assistant strength and conditioning was kind enough to arrange it for me. I was able to be in the locker room before the game, on the field for warm-up and see and listen to half time. During warm-up I got to meet Lloyd Carr, Head Football coach from University of Michigan who has been this week as a guest of South Sydney, most specifically as guest of Russell Crow who is one of the owners of the team. It was interesting talking to him and get his observations of the athletes, their fitness levels and the preparation. Needless to say he was impressed, especially with their fitness levels ands speed. Everything I saw and the people that I talked only convinced me more that rugby is way ahead of American football in terms of conditioning and recovery.

2 Comments:

At 5/12/07, 7:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saw your face pop up on the screen as they panned across some of the injured Souths players while I was watching "Foxsports" tonight Vern.

Your comments are very interesting - in the 70's and 80's it seemed a lot of Australian coaches were heading across to the US to tap into American Football tactics and S&C ideas.

I watched the Rabbitohs warm up when they played up here in Brisbane. I've been using a similar style of dynamic warm up for quite a few seasons which has not gone down well with the "jog and stretch" set in my sport. It's only now when people see similar warm ups being done by NRL teams that they have become "acceptable".

Most importantly, did you enjoy the game Vern?

Rob

 
At 5/13/07, 7:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting that you have been to U of M how many times working with the swim team and you meet Coach Carr in Australia.

Any discussions/comparisons between school PE/recess and youth sports leagues in Australia compared to USA?


Mark Day

 

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