Filling Buckets
With it being February and half way through pre-season for the majority of winter sports it’s a good time to talk about my thoughts around planning when it comes to training the field and court based athlete.
I was first introduced to this idea through following Christian Woodford from Woodford SSC. He talked about how the job of a strength and conditioning coach is to fill up all the physical qualities “buckets” that the sport itself doesn’t cover. This idea sat really well with me and is an approach that I have taken when planning my programs ever since.
When taking the “Filling Buckets” approach you need to look at the sport and consider what physical qualities are hit from sports specific training (Sport Training and Playing). From there you will then plan the rest of the training to focus on the areas that the sport doesn’t focus on.
The buckets that need to be covered to be a well rounded athlete are;
Strength
Power
Flexibility
Aerobic Conditioning
Anaerobic Conditioning
Speed
Muscle Mass
Muscular Endurance
Agility/Cutting/Change of Direction
Coordination
Because I am involved with Sturt, Mt Barker and Meadows Football Clubs let’s use that as an example. I look at AFL football as one of the most physically demanding sports out there, you need to physically be elite in almost every area plus have a high level of skill. However, when I look at a normal training session you don’t see many of the above buckets filled. The most common bucket that gets filled is the Anaerobic Conditioning Bucket, this would be through small sided games as they are completed at a fairly high intensity but without a full recovery before you go again. The Aerobic Conditioning, Agility & Coordination Buckets will get filled a little but at a much slower rate and depending on the actual training session. It can be seen that not many buckets are filled by just completing the sport specific training session, which is why me as a Strength and Conditioning Coach needs to work on areas that aren’t touched on during a normal training. This is done by getting into the gym focusing on strength through a full range of motion (During the off/pre-season) to assist both the Strength and Flexibility Buckets. I add max effort jumps at the back of warm-ups to add to the Power Bucket. Specific speed sessions where I am giving players enough rest in order for them to hit 95%+ of their top speed to add to the Speed Bucket.
It is key to note is that;
Every sport is different.
Every position is different.
Every coach is different.
During a game of netball you need to be able to cut/change direction a lot but this changes depending on what position you are playing, someone who is playing around mid-court will change direction at speed a lot more often than a goal shooter. So this needs to be taken into consideration when thinking of the demands.
In order to get the most out of ourselves we need to make sure that we are filling as many buckets as possible. Each separate bucket needs to be worked on in order to have a healthy athlete.
If we put all our focus on one bucket, it will most likely result in an overload issue or injury.
