There are many large gyms, 24 hour gyms and various Personal Training studios in Melbourne but there is very few places where you can Train Specifically For Sports. At No Regrets Personal Training we provide not only the type of facility and equipment that is suited to training for sports, but we also have the knowledge, experience and proven programs to take your sporting performance to the next level. If you are a keen sportsmen or sportswomen who wants a training program to improve performance and make you the best at your chosen sport, you need more than the regular personal training “go hard, go home” style of training. You need a well designed by someone that understands how to assess your body's requirements for your chosen sport.
Once an assessment that defines your strengths and weaknesses has been completed, the program must include all of the intricate movements and skills required for your sport. Only a plan that can deliver this type of training will allow you to see real results truly improve your sporting performance. This is why our program works so well, as just like elite athletes, we are endlessly striving to find ways to excel and develop new methods and techniques, to get the best out of our clients body.
Unlike most personal trainers and the current Strength & Conditioning models, we break down the barriers of traditional thinking and introduce concepts like reactivity training and organised chaos! Our reputation in the Mitcham and Vermont area with local VFL Football Players, Tennis Players, SEABL Basketball Players, Golf Professionals and Netball players proves our ability to provide specific to the athlete training, that gets results.
Every sport is unique with specific skills, abilities and movement patterns. Although many of the ball sports share common traits such as explosive change of direction and agility. The key to developing a "great program" is determining what skills your sport demands of you and what your level of ability is compared to what the sport demands. The only way you can do this is via a detailed assessment.
The way strength training is used for sports has improved a lot in recent times but it still has a long way to go. Many of the sports conditioning coaches recognize that body building exercises and methods have no place within sports. For these exercises are all about looking good in a mirror and not about improving movement, speed, power, agility and essential skills needed for any sportsmen. Unfortunately many sports coaches are still stuck in a mindset of powerlifting and with the belief that strength over rides all other skills.
If strength was all you needed to be great at sports why do we see athletes like Stephen Curry from NBA basketball team the Golden State Warriors, Roger Federer and Novak Dokic dominate their sport yet appear quite lean, and not all buffed? Bulking up in the gym trying to lift massive deadlifts and Olympic Lifting exercises does not relate to the skills that make them dominate.
Strength does not and cannot improve things like balance, reactivity, agility, coordination and braking skills. It definitely plays a part but it is not the only factor and it is not the most important either. It must be noted here that an emphasis on braking skills instead of acceleration is what is common to ALL athletes who dominate their sport. Being able to stop suddenly and change direction with incredible balance is what makes them appear to have more time and be faster than their opponents. But it is not their ability to sprint in as straight line that makes them fast, (watch Curry run to see what I mean) it is their ability to BRAKE that makes them fast!
It is also in this braking phase that we see disastrous injuries occur! ACL injuries for example are season ending if not career ending injuries for sportsmen and only a conditioning program that develops the necessary strength, stability and movement skill can prevent this injury. Yet how many programs focus on this skill or even know how to do it? The worst thing you can do is put an athlete on a machine strength training program (see article Leg Press Vs Squat). Even for rehabilitation, actually especially for rehabilitation. This is where sports coaches fail, by not recognizing the need for Stability Training & Movement Skills. Stability precedes strength for the muscles must provide correct alignment of joints and the body in order to move. Without stability, strength potentials cannot be achieved, compensation and dysfunction creeps in, and poor performance and injury is now the only options left.
Again elite athletes now recognize the need for conditioning not just to improve their game but to stay on the field. If they get hurt they don't play. It is that simple. If you have read this far then you are already ahead of 98% of people playing sports today who still believe they just have to play more sport and go for a run and the random go hard go home training sessions with exercises like burpees, planks and push ups that improve nothing in their body needed for their sport.
Knowing how to break up your year with programs, methods, exercises specific to the time of the year is also very important. The type of training you do during the season needs to be so different to what you do in the off season. I cannot tell you how many people I see in the gym doing the same exercises all year round. I cannot tell how many football players I see never doing any leg strengthening work at all! And they wonder why they get so easily injured as soon as they hit pre season and doing ridiculous endurance running sessions their body was never able to hold up to.
FOOTBALL & BASKETBALL SPECIFIC STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
The sports of AFL football and basketball are two of the most popular sports here in Melbourne. While the games are much different in terms of the rules and skills required, the physical demands are very similar. And the injuries sustained from poor physical preparation are identical!
Every year we train many young up and coming football players hoping to make it in the VFL, the AFL and even soccer! More recently this also now includes females as the explosion of Women's Football takes over in Victoria. We have 3 female players training now, even one of our trainers plays. Make sure you read our article The Best Strength Training Methods For AFL Football. We have also worked with several NBL players and SEBL juniors trying to break through the ranks by improving their physical strength, power and fitness. You can read more about specifics of this in the article about basketball specific strength & conditioning.
Our program is all about how to put together a specific plan for your body and how to train specifically for football.
Some of the key components we cover are:
- Strength Training to add muscle size to break tackles and hold position in contests
- Improve your lateral movement to sidestep opponents with ease
- Develop explosive acceleration to burst away from stoppages
- Build a stronger core to outpoint bigger opponents in one on one battles
- Improve stability, agility and balance to keep your feet in a contest
The days of just bulking up using body building exercises are over. You must evolve to using advanced techniques and methods that mimic your sport with the intention of creating improvement in speed, power, agility, balance and strength. Just adding bulk to someone does not improve any of these skills. In fact many of the more popular gym exercises such as bench press or leg press are performed lying down usually lifting weights at slow speeds. The game is played standing up and at high speed, usually on an unstable surface performing some complex movement all while getting knocked or bumped! How can lying on your back lifting a heavy load improve this type of skill? This type of training besides making you dysfunctional and likely to get postural injuries like hamstring strains, groin strains and shoulder problems WILL make players slower, not faster!
Only a well designed program that takes into account ALL of the variables a basketball or football player needs will correctly prepare them for the game. In total there is 8 Must Haves For All Athletes.
Below is a list of the abilities we test our football athletes and design programs for? I have rated out of 10 the importance of each ability to give you an idea of what a program should include. When thinking of a rating try to think of 10/10 being the best in the world for that ability. For example a weight lifter would need a 10/10 for strength and power.
- Strength - 7/10
- Speed - 9/10
- Power - 9/10
- Agility - 10/10
- Balance - 8/10
- Endurance - 8/10
- Co-Ordination - 8/10
- Flexibility - 7/10
The You Tube videos below give you a better understanding of how we assess sports players based on their needs and demands of the sport.
Here is what one of our clients has to say about our Football Specific Training Program
“After years of partaking in monotonous and unrelated training programs, training with Nick has opened up a whole new world of fitness, giving me that edge I needed. Playing high level football is one of the most physically demanding activities I can imagine, and I found myself asking how can I possibly be better than the guy next to me if I am doing exactly the same training as he is.
My knowledge of training components has increased dramatically since training with Nick, escaping the traditional body building training routine that most people get sucked into. By utilising whole body exercises with dynamic strength training, and improving my posture, Nick has helped me become fitter and stronger in ways I didn’t know existed. I have not necessarily learned to train harder but certainly smarter, our training sessions have not only been helpful physically for myself, but mentally as Nick has a wealth of knowledge, helping me understand what I need to know in many different areas of health and fitness.
Overall I have benefited immensely from my training with Nick; areas of my game have been specifically replicated in our training programs which have helped me reach great heights in my football career. Playing first division with Box Hill and getting the opportunity to play each week even with a full Hawthorn list playing would never have been possible were it not for my intense training sessions with Nick.”
Luke Andrews
TENNIS STRENGTH & CONDITIONING TRAINING
The game of Tennis is unique and often under rated by many as to the physical requirements needed to play. The game requires extended periods of exertion in the form of explosive sprints in virtually any direction, with body movements in all conceivable combinations of movement planes. The neuro-mechanical demands of tennis requires perfect timing of the stabilizer system in conjunction with the movement or mobilizer systems. In addition, tennis movements require the player to have the ability to effectively utilize gravity and maintain perfect balance at high speeds in order to hit the ball to an exact spot on the court. Effective utilization of gravity is critical to performance and prevention of injury. It is crucial for ALL tennis players to learn how to improve skills like balance, stability, agility, speed and power all at the same time! This will not only prevent injury but dramatically improve performance.
What Is Involved In Our Tennis Conditioning Program?
Firstly the reason most programs in the gym don't work for tennis players because they do not take into account the basic physical demands of tennis. The energy demands for tennis are similar to a 100m sprinter! Yet most programs given to tennis players are designed as if they are a marathon runner!
Here are some statistics to keep in mind.
- The average point length is less than 6 seconds.
- Ninety-three percent of all tennis points are less than 15sec.
- The maximum time players are allowed to take between points is 20sec but the average is 15.2sec, and players are allowed to rest for 90sec every 2 games they play. Taking into account average point durations and rest periods, players can therefore expect to rest for 2.3-3.2 sec for every second of work performed.
Running, Cycling & Triathlon
As I mentioned earlier we do relate skills specific to other sports and we do also cater for endurance sports such as running, cycling and triathlon.
Injury prevention and efficiency is everything to these sports. These sports are extremely repetitive so chance of overuse injuries is high, as is poor performance due to an inefficient movement. Any great runner or cyclist will tell you how important technique is to find a way to move faster, and longer with less effort. Learning how to effectively use postural correction, and strength training methods to improve this can mean the difference between winning and coming last, or for many amateurs finishing the event or registering a DNF, (did not finish).
You can check out our articles below for more information on how we train endurance athletes.
WHY LISTEN TO US?
As Fitness experts and athletes ourselves from various backgrounds, with a genuine passion for every kind of sport, we are proud to be able to offer first-class sport specific training in Mitcham to the weekend warrior right up to the semi professionals. We base all our sport specific training on methods supported by scientific evidence and years of extensive training with many highly acclaimed institutions like Twist Conditioning (see www.twistconditioning.com) and CHEK institute (www.chekinstitute.com) plus extensive practical experience with many professional athletes. Check out our full credentials by clicking here
A full consultation with us will establish your strengths and weaknesses and the particular athletic objectives you want to achieve. We will then design a program of sports specific training that we guarantee will take you to the next level.
Our programs can focus on creating superior movement patterns and abilities specific to your sport in order to improve your general performance and decrease your risk of injury. We have a strong emphasis on improving the body's efficiency at performing key movement patterns along with what is known as Bio-motor abilities.
The key movement patterns every sportsperson needs to improve a player’s function in the sports environment are push, pull, twist, lunge, squat and bend. It is important that these are developed to a high standard and in the standing position. I highly suggest you read our article on why Movement Skills Success and Training Muscles Does Not
Having expert coaches who know how to train movement and have the skills, tools and experience is essential. We provide video analysis of every movement pattern and can break this down into step by step process of where you are not performing correctly. This type of training you WILL NOT get at any standard gym. See below for examples of our exercise analysis.
The Bio-motor abilities we test our sportsperson on are strength, balance, flexibility, speed, power, co-ordination, endurance and agility. Because we know ALL of these skills are completely essential to most sports and along with efficient movement patterns, we design programs to meet your needs accordingly. Swiss balls, BOSU's, balance boards, slingshots, medicine balls, cables, dumbbells and barbells are just some of the tools used in conjunction with specific exercise to help us build these skills, and ultimately your strength and power. Deficiencies in any of these movements or skills will increase the chance of injury and lead to undeveloped motor skills and ultimately poor performance!
Often the environment you train in is as important as the training program. We are an exclusive facility that offers superior sports training to talented and determined sportspeople. We have no machines in our studio and plenty of space to be able to move like you would in your chosen sport. By choosing No Regrets you will workout in a focused, professional and comfortable environment.
Our sports specific training will leave you feeling stronger, faster and fitter than ever before. Our fully-qualified trainers will also be on hand to motivate and encourage you at every step of the way. Fill in the consultation form below and we will be in touch with you within 24 hours to organize a time to meet up and discuss your goals so you too can be the best at your chosen sport.
If you would like a Free Consultation to discuss your training goals fill in the form below.
