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Putting the squad through their pre-season paces - a look....


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..... at the impact of sports science:

 

 

Having spent the last 5 years studying Sports Science and then Strength and Conditioning at University, it is always with great interest I approach any article or story regarding Adam Owen at Rangers. As Owen was appointed to his current position at Rangers I was coming to the end of my undergraduate degree and as a Rangers fan it is therefore unsurprising I am intrigued by any stories of the work Owen is implementing at Rangers and any training improvements or changes he has influenced.

 

In perusing the newly re-launched official club website it will, therefore, come as no surprise that my attention was immediately grabbed by the ââ?¬Å?Blue Blogââ?¬Â section of the website and the first new post after the re-launch entitled Swapping Sand Torture For Science. It gave a wee taster of an interview with the Head of Sports Science at Rangers to be published in the new look club magazine. With the increasing physical demands of the modern game a greater reliance on upon sports science and a greater understanding of exercise physiology has become paramount at all football clubs.

 

Everyone associated with Rangers Football Club is aware of the legend of Jock Wallace and the brutality of Gullane Sands. Anyone who has competed in football, or other sports for that matter, to any reasonable level will have their own memories of an unforgiving pre-season training regime. Players would often not see a ball for the first few weeks of training as they participated in running, running and more running sessions.

 

Jock Wallace ran his pre-season training like a military drill sergeant and it cannot be argued it produced results. However, football, fitness training and our understanding of how the human body responds to training has advanced greatly since the days of unrelenting pre-season running schedules. No longer is it appropriate to have your squad sprinting up and down hills until the point of exhaustion and even being physically sick.

 

Pre-season is the opportunity for the Sports Science staff to prepare the players for the coming season. Football is not like some other sports such as athletics, where there are obvious competitions for the individual athlete to prepare for. For example, Rangers competitive season begins early in August and will not end until May; a 10-month long league season. And with the nature of league football you need to be on top of your game from the first round of fixtures until the 38th and last. As such, it is difficult for the management team and the sports scientists to improve upon fitness attributes during the season. It is in pre-season where the bulk of the physical training must be conducted and then the aim is to maintain these levels of strength and conditioning throughout the season.

 

So, spending your training session flogging your squad up and down hills will improve their ability to run up and down hills, but will it improve their ability to contend with the physical demands of a gruelling season of football?

 

Training for any sport has to follow the principle of specificity. Is the training delivered specific to the sport? Is it specific to the individual, to their position, to their level of fitness, to their injury history? Is the training specific to the intended training outcome? If not, the performance improvement (or adaptation) will not be specific to the sport and the individual.

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It was refreshing, therefore, to see this improved understanding of training for performance in football, an improved understanding of sport and exercise physiology and human responses to training in a BBC blog earlier this month. In Paul Fletcher’s article; “The fine tuning of pre-season”, Fletcher relates a conversation with Bristol City manager Gary Johnson.

 

"I remember that well," Johnson told me. "I remember every pre-season when I was at Watford - and every pre-season I wanted to give the game up.

 

"There is a way to build up a players' fitness and if someone is throwing up at the top of the hill you have not done it right."

 

“At least the enthusiasm for finding the steepest hill and forcing players up it until they are sick seems to have passed.”

 

That is not to say pre-season training is an easier ordeal for the modern player. Johnson insisted that the week his squad spent in Portugal would be “gruelling”. The difference is in the application of science to training programmes. Every exercise, every set, every repetition of a training session within a training programme has a specific aim or performance outcome it is trying to achieve or enhance.

 

This more professional and sport-specific approach to training for football can be seen in a number of different ways. I am sure many of us will have browsed the club website over the summer eagerly awaiting the players return to training signalling the fact the new season is fast approaching. You will have noticed the photo’s of the squad as they returned for pre-season beginning with a battery of fitness testing and the excellent condition in which Steven Whittaker and Nacho Novo returned to the club on July 9th.

 

Gone are the days of players leaving for their holidays and returning to the club looking like Ricky Hatton months after his last, and before his next, bout. The players are given a programme to keep themselves at a good level of physical fitness during the off-season. This will often involve participating in other sports, swimming or tennis even, to keep the players in shape but giving them a psychological break from football and avoiding burn out. The training is of course at a much lower intensity than pre-season, but the binge eating (and no doubt drinking) summer holidays are gone.

 

It will often form part of a player’s contract that they must maintain certain levels during the season or on returning for pre-season. Body fat measurements are taken and can lead to financial sanctions for the player. Money may not be the ideal motivator, but it is effective. (Having said that at the SRU and London Wasps there are leader boards for performance in testing or in lifting weights. The male ego is another powerful motivator).

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Whilst performance testing will be compared to previous season’s results, testing at the start of pre-season is not just completed to ensure the players have looked after themselves during the off season. Performance testing is essential for Owen in designing the players training programmes over the season. I mentioned specificity before. Specificity is not just about training specific for your sport, it is also about ensuring training is specific to the individual. So the players training programmes will be specific to their position. An older article detailing Micah Richards typical training demonstrates this. Richards as a defender was conducting sprints in short bursts, more closely reflecting the requirements of his position, whilst midfielders at Man City were conducting sprints of a greater length.

 

Training prescribed will also be specific to the individual test scores of the players achieved in pre-season. It is no good designing a training programme for a player that is of too great a training load for the player, or one which will not be sufficiently intense to initiate overload and stimulate a performance improvement.

 

This helps introduce the idea of needs analysis. Prior to designing any training programme, the sports science specialist must conduct needs analysis and this has two major components; the sport for which you are training and the individual undertaking the training. Adam Owen, after consultation with the technical coaching staff will identify the physical characteristics required for elite football, modified by position specific differences. Owen will also utilise performance test results to identify any weaknesses or injury concerns for an individual player and in conjunction with the sports requirements will design individualised training programmes.

 

Football, though, is a complex game to train for. Not only will the time Owen gets to spend with the players be restricted by the need for the squad to spend a significant amount of available training time with Walter Smith and the technical coaching staff, but he most also strike a compromise between the various physical characteristics the players need to develop and maintain.

 

Unlike some other sports, football requires players to develop or maintain a decent level in a variety of attributes including aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, speed, strength, power and agility. Training for certain aspects affects or impinges upon others and so it is a careful juggling act to design a periodised training programme for footballers. Indeed whilst the modern footballers’ training practices are underpinned by science, many practitioners consider designing the optimal training programme is an art.

 

So, where does Adam Owen get the knowledge and skills to perfect this art? In addition to years of study and practising his trade at the elite level, the head of Sports Science at Murray Park is always looking to expand his skills and experiences. Training practices are continually developing in professional sport. From the academic viewpoint, our understanding of optimal training practices comes from scientific research conducted on novel training concepts. In sport new training strategies are implemented by coaches using their knowledge and experience to employ new strategies and techniques to attain optimal improvements in performance. It is often the case that coaches at the “sharp end” of sport lead the way introducing fresh training concepts that are subsequently tested and proven through scientific research.

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However, collaboration between elite sports performers and academic research institutes is necessary to undertake this scientific testing and it is common place these days for sports clubs and universities to form collaborations to achieve combined and individual aims.

 

Again, if I refer you to the pictures on the main site of the pre-season testing there is evidence of such a collaboration, with a University of Glasgow lecturer pictured putting Novo, Whittaker and the rest of the squad through vigorous physiological testing. The club benefit from the skills and knowledge of academic expertise, while the university will command a consultancy fee and opportunities to publish leading research.

 

Adam Owen, in a commitment to developing his own skills and experience in order to develop the programme he delivers to the Rangers squad has taken the idea of collaboration further. Last year he spent 10 days at Milanello Sports Centre, AC Milan’s state of the art training centre. The Italian giants are leaders in the sport of football for their commitment to Sports Science. Based at Milanello is Milan Lab. This is a research facility set up by the club in 2002 to “optimise the psycho-physical management of the athletes”. It is a facility dedicated to implementing sports science to manage the well-being of their squad and enhance their training, testing and injury management and prevention. It is this commitment to sports science in looking after their players that is largely responsible for the enduring career of club legend Paolo Maldini. Milan Lab combines expertise in physiology, psychology and nutrition to inform and augment training practices and therefore to achieve the best results where it matters, on the football field. Milan Lab has developed partnerships with other research facilities in Europe and America to enhance the quality of support provided to the club.

 

The Rangers Head of Sports Science could not find a better facility and organisation from which to learn from. Owen has recently admitted that whilst Milan are now 9 years into their Sports Science programme, we by contrast are just 2 years into the programme the Welshman has introduced. It should be noted that even English Champions Man United trail the Italian’s in this respect. It is however encouraging that Rangers have now realised that to compete at the highest level of the game we need to modernise the club and commit ourselves fully to all aspects of player development and support.

 

The excellent facilities at Murray Park, the legacy of the Advocaat years, compare very well with that of Europe’s other top clubs. In the Italian version of the Milanello web pages pictures of the facilities are available and from the English page detailing what the Italian side provide at Milanello this demonstrates that the facilities at Murray Park put Rangers up there with Europe’s elite. In any feature online or within the club magazine there are often snapshots of the Murray Park facilities and again these compare well with the equipment utilised at many of the Universities and research institutes that I have experienced first-hand across the country. Olympic lifting platforms for use in strength and power development training programmes, hi-tech treadmills, cycle ergometers, heart rate monitoring systems and breath gas analysis equipment. This all demonstrated a more professional and modern commitment to player’s physical development and no doubt is a feature in mind when players discuss the opportunities available at Rangers not available further down the footballing ladder.

 

Owen might not have quite the same level of infrastructure at his disposal that is afforded to Italian giants AC Milan. Rather than an entire research facility, Owen has the support of his department and the coaching staff at Murray Park. Walter Smith has afforded autonomy to Adam Owen over the physical development and management of the playing squad’s physical well-being. It is again an encouraging sign of this growing recognition of the importance of sports science and the skills of qualified expert to utilising these skills and principles to enhance player performance on the field of play.

 

Owen has commented that we are just two-years into his programme. And it is important that fans understand that training and player development is not just a season long process but an ongoing commitment. We should therefore expect further improvements in the players’ physical development in the coming seasons. Owen’s vision for sports science provision and player development will be implemented from the youth teams’ (by Jamie Ramsden) right through to the first squad and should lead to the young bears being more capable of making the step up to the first team.

 

This article does not aim to decry older training methods, or say they had it all wrong. Felix Magath re-introduced hill running at Wolfsburg with his infamous [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/may/25/bundesligafootball ]“Mount Magath” and his techniques have transferred his success at Bayern to the less fancied Wolfsburg. Instead I hope it has demonstrated that a more scientific approach is taken in preparing players physically and mentally for the duration of an arduous football season.

 

 

Links

1. http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/blueblog/0,,5~1721645,00.html

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/07/tune_in_and_tune_up_as_preseas.html#105862

3. http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Headlines/0,,5~1717663,00.html

4. http://soccerlens.com/micah-richards-and-his-manchester-city-training-routine/4504/

5. http://www.acmilan.com/InfoPage.aspx?id=460

6. http://www.acmilan.com/InfoPage.aspx?id=41293

7. http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/blog.php?b=2561

8. http://www.acmilan.com/InfoPage.aspx?id=135

9. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/may/25/bundesligafootball

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good read mate!

 

Shame there are is no Rangers publication section in Nature or Science :P

 

hope you get a job in the field soon!

 

I posted that up and then thought "no cunts gonna read all that". So i'm pleased with the one so far. :D

 

Glad you enjoyed it (or were too polite to say otherwise). :thup:

 

So do I mate. So do I.

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Very interesting, S_A. Thanks for writing that.

 

It would be fascinating to compare the effects of the old Jock Wallace way of doing it to the new methods and see just how much of an improvement there is, given that such things could be measured, I assume.

 

Also, what is the psychological effect of the old sand dunes? Could they help the team mentally? Possibly something that cam't be answered.

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Very interesting, S_A. Thanks for writing that.

 

It would be fascinating to compare the effects of the old Jock Wallace way of doing it to the new methods and see just how much of an improvement there is, given that such things could be measured, I assume.

 

It probably could be tested. There are issues with the methodology that would affect the (ecological) validity and reliability of the study.

 

As I alluded to, many coaches will still utilise what may be considered "old school" training methods. Magath's hill he had constructed at Wolfsburg being a prime example.

 

The difference now being there is more method to manager's beasting there players. You don't make your squad run until they are sick or can no longer continue. Each training exercise is part of an overall plan and players are still pushed as hard as possible, but not to the extent that you may lead to issues such as injury, performance decrement and over training. At least that is the theory and a well-armed and experience coach should be able to achieve this.

 

Also, what is the psychological effect of the old sand dunes? Could they help the team mentally? Possibly something that can't be answered.

 

That would be more difficult to test. The psychology of sport is generally a more subjective issue imo and any "results" are usually qualitative rather than quantitative (i.e. not numerical). It may therefor prove difficult to measure/answer something like that.

 

You also have the issue of the reactions of different players. Some players flourish under adversity, others would spit the dummy or give up.

 

However, as a general approach I imagine it would be effective for team bonding and team unity. There are various psychological models and theories for team building, but for a more general appreciation of the point if you look at any group of young men who are put into situations of extreme adversity e.g. young men going off to war, or going through a boot camp or summer training camp (obviously the severity of the situation varies between these), the difficulty of the task and the shared experience of tackling and completing the task would increase team unity imo.

 

Putting players through difficult trials such as that will certainly have a place in team building, but again planning training programmes is a long term project with a number of different aims and as such it is all about finding the ultimate compromise.

 

To help highlight that. Training for speed/power is negatively influenced by endurance training in general terms. However as I stated above, footballers require a number of different physical attributes and have to train each of them. The compromise is achieved in still training each of these capacities, but training with sufficient rest between each training session type (on the same days some times), training on alternate days, or training them in specific orders. E.g. Power/ strength training before endurance so you are not fatigued when completing the high intensity power/strength work.

 

Hope that all makes sense.

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