The Barcodes have been the poster boys for high-altitude training for quite a while now. AussieRulesBlog makes no secret of our scepticism, but just about every team bar the Nar Nar Goon thirds is taking off for mountain climes during the off-season these days.

So, we were more than usually interested to see that a scientific study of the Barcodes’ high-altitude efforts had been published.

Not being sufficiently flush to subscribe to the publishing journal (see previous post), we rely on the abstract (summary of the paper for those not familiar with academic terminology) for this discussion.

Apparently players who train at moderately high altitude for an extended period — 19 days in this study — make slight improvements in their time trials and red blood cell counts. Hardly surprising. Thinner air at higher altitude means more red blood cells are required to transport sufficient oxygen to the body’s muscles. Pretty much anyone spending an extended period at those altitudes will have an elevated red blood cell count.

The kicker in this study is that the high-altitude trainers were only measured against their sea-level ‘controls’ at the conclusion of the high-altitude training and again four weeks later.

Just to refresh your memory, this high altitude training — which generates an improvement of two (2) or three (3) per cent in time trials and red blood cell count — is normally conducted in November. And the benefits in terms of training capacity last for “at least four weeks”. Do the benefits last for eight weeks, or twelve? The home and away rounds are twenty-three (23) weeks, plus pre-season, plus finals.

Lets apply the blowtorch of logic to this result. If 19 days is sufficient for the body to acclimatise and produce more red blood cells, it’s likely that elevated count isn’t going to persist for too long when the body returns to sea level.

Red blood cells live for 100–120 days, so the extra cells generated in the high-altitude environment will die and not be replaced back at sea level — before the home and away rounds commence.

The Age’s story reports that the study acknowledged that the placebo effect could not be eliminated as a contributing factor to the alleged success of high-altitude training — this wasn’t included in the abstract. The placebo effect — change of scenery, excitement at being somewhere ‘special’, being told that high-altitude training would make them into super-men — is a far more likely cause for any longer-term benefits than the high-altitude training itself.

So, the Barcodes players might be (allegedly) human after all, and just gullible enough to believe in the high-altitude hype.

Here at AussieRulesBlog Central we haven’t made a habit of commenting on specific games. We’re testing the limits of that tradition today in drawing from last night’s Barcodes–Saints clash.

It’s not an original thought — we’ve heard a number of radio talkback callers making the point — but we think it has become crystal clear over recent weeks that the Barcodes’ dominance can be explained in one word: fitness.

It’s probably the clearest exposition of the barcodes’ fitness that we’ve had for some time; the most competitive hitout they’ve had to weather, although the statistics for last quarters show it as clearly as anyone could need. Watching the game last night, the power and speed, but most importantly the effortlessness, of the Barcodes’ running was simply irresistible.

Is it the much-vaunted high-altitude training that provides the extra capacity? Frankly, we wonder how long that effect can stay in the body. It’s not like our bodies are not constantly being replaced at a cellular level. There must be a period after arriving at high altitude where the body acclimatises. Once that plateau is reached — if you’ll pardon the pun — there are presumably some benefits in terms of aerobic capacity, but AFL games are not played at high altitude and no AFL team is based at a high altitude, unlike the Denver Broncos, for instance, in the NFL.

Just as there’s an acclimatisation process when arriving at high altitude, we imagine there’s a similar process when returning to near sea level. So, how long might the benefits of the high altitude training last?

AussieRulesBlog thinks the real benefit of the Arizona expeditions might be mental. The Barcodes players believe that they have a physical advantage. Their last quarter running performance contrasted sharply with the Saints last night. Saints players were regularly seen sucking in the big ones. Not so the Barcodes players. They believe they are supermen — and they play like it.

We think the skill and finesse of the Cats might be the only meaningful hurdle to the Barcodes this year. Just as a good big man will generally beat a good small man, we think skill and finesse will trump fitness. Only time will tell.

For both AFL clubs and the AFL-focussed media, pre-Christmas is a very, very positive time of year. Ageing stars are having “their best pre-season for years”, last year’s draftees and rookies are shaping up as potential superstars and everyone is aiming for “finals footy”.

While the Barcodes continue to talk up their Arizona training camps and the Kangaroos, Tigers and Suns follow their lead — hardly surprising incidentally when you remember that Brad Scott and Guy McKenna are graduates of the Barcodes’ coaching academy — Chris Scott’s Cats are sticking close to sea level at Kardinia Park.

AussieRulesBlog has questioned the long-term physical effect of altitude training before. We feel like we’re in pretty good company with Chris Scott, Ron Cook and Bomber Thompson all figuring it’s not worth the effort or, more importantly, the expense.

As we’ve previously noted, that’s not to deny the possibility of mental advantages. The placebo effect is powerful and the old adage that a change is as good as a holiday holds true in 2011 as much as at any other time in the last fifty years.

But we do like the noises out of Cat land on this issue, so much so that we’re moved to borrow a nice turn of phrase from a commenter on the story in the Hun and use it as the inspiration for our headline. *Thanks Ish Mehta!

With three Premierships in five years versus one in twenty-one years, you’d have to think that attitude is well in front of altitude at the moment!

We’re a bit dim here at AussieRulesBlog Central sometimes. We’d be most grateful if some knowledgeable reader could enlighten us on the benefit of high altitude training in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) in November for an AFL season between March and September played at sea level.

Our very basic understanding of physiology suggests that, by March, said high-altitude trainers will have reacclimatised to sea-level conditions again. If the “high-altitude” training were done at Mt Wycheproof (15m), there’d effectively be no wait for the reacclimatisation!

If the 2011 Grand Final were to be played at the top of Mt Kosciusko, perhaps there would be an argument for spending a couple of weeks there beforehand (assuming you’d actually made it!).

Perhaps the Eagles, Dockers, Lions and Suns could go down to Mawson for a couple of weeks to prepare themselves for the Melbourne winter?

Please! Someone explain to us how this is not a joke.

Can we just quietly mention that we’re mightily pissed off at the Cats?

Having given Chris Scott and Ron Cook a congratulatory mention for ignoring the herd-like stampede to high-altitude training camps, we discover the Cats have been in Falls Creek.

Thanks for nothing, guys.