Conditioning the measuring stick

If any footy fan doubted the importance of conditioning in AFL success, an article today in The Age should remove those doubts. The article concerns Luke Ball and his journey since deciding to leave St Kilda.

 

Not to put too fine a point on it, Ball was a junior superstar. Taken at #2 in the 2001 National Draft, behind Luke Hodge and just ahead of Chris Judd, Ball showed his class immediately. After a couple of years, it was obvious that Ball was slowing down, his kicking lacked penetration and his effectiveness waned.

 

As Michael Gleeson’s article relates, the conditioning and sports science people at Collingwood have fixed Ball’s body in two short years — a task that seemed beyond St Kilda’s capacity for half a decade. There have been a number of comments in recent days lamenting St Kilda’s loss of conditioning coach Dave Misson on the heels of Ross Lyon’s departure. Without knowing about budgets and support staff and facilities, and so assuming them to be equal, the change in Ball’s capacity must put some sort of question mark over Misson.

 

Can there be a starker demonstration of the value of the very best off-field staff?

 

The simple facts are that the best teams in the competition can go just as hard as everyone else at the start of the game and keep up that pace for longer. Teams that drop off during a quarter are almost certainly demonstrating a lack of conditioning.

 

AussieRulesBlog is fond of telling anyone who’ll listen that AFL is played 95% between the ears and, despite the previous paragraph, we’re not going to run away from that statement. Better conditioning means that players’ bodies are less stressed and can devote more resources to brain activity. Making better decisions under pressure is usually the path to victory. Better conditioning leads to better decision making under pressure. It’s quite simple really. All that’s left is finding the conditioning coach who can lift the team’s capacity to the top of the elite level . . .