Port Adelaide Power’s fitness coach Darren Burgess revitalises squad through running
HOW fitness coach Darren Burgess borrowed from other sports to help Port Adelaide turn itself around through running.
EVERYTHING changed at Port Adelaide after Ken Hinkley was appointed senior coach and Darren Burgess returned as the high performance manager two years ago.
Burgess brought with him not only a broad perspective after working with Liverpool in the English Premier (soccer) League, but also a punishing approach.
The first thing that was identified by Hinkley, Burgess, and then-senior assistant coach Alan Richardson was that the club needed to get better at running.
It is at the core of what has happened at Port Adelaide, which before Ken Hinkley arrived was at the bottom of the ladder with few promising signs of improvement.
They have run ever since: outrun opponents in final quarters and pushed the boundaries in how hard players can be pushed.
Burgess has now let out a few secrets to the revival of Port Adelaide, and outlined the cornerstones of his fitness program.
Much of it has come from other sports, and soccer in particular, where players are regularly called on to play several games a week and the training load — in terms of running — is only matched by AFL clubs when they are on pre-season camps.
Some of Burgess’s key thoughts on training include:
INTERVAL running, rather than long distance running, is the quickest way to elite fitness
FORCING players to run by having fewer players in match simulation on a normal-size ground has worked at Liverpool, with the Socceroos and at Port Adelaide
PLAYERS need to learn how to run as well as run a lot. Part of it is about running technique, which includes leaning forward rather than looking up, treating stopping as an art form and learning how to use your arms by using linear movement
HYDRATION is overrated, in that people can push themselves much harder than they think, and
AFL players have undertrained compared to some of the leading sports around the world for years.
``If you compare AFL football to other team sports around the world — like NBA basketball, European soccer, even MLB baseball — they play a lot more games than we do and they train a lot harder than we do,’’ Burgess told Men’s Health. ``So my general theory is that AFL players can run a lot further and a lot harder than has traditionally been thought.
``That’s what we’re living and dying by here.’’
Burgess’s approach to pre-season — having fewer players on a full-size field — is thought provoking.
He suggested it would work at every level.
``My general theory for a pre-season football program,’’ he asked rhetorically. ``Play the game.
``Try playing five-ono-five or six-on-six on a full field.
``Whether you’re an elite footballer or a park footballer, that challenges you to run.
``That’s what we do here, and what we did with Liverpool and with the Socceroos.
``Small numbers on a big field. It forces you to run.’’
In a wideranging interview, Burgess also speaks about the importance of strengthening the mind before the body.
He regularly keeps the players guessing about the next workout — and the extent of it — to build the players’ resilience.
``I’m absolutely convinced that the mental barrier is the biggest barrier to physical success,’’ Burgess said. ``The more you can push yourself into that uncomfortable zone, the more used to operating in that zone you become, and the more used to pushing beyond that zone you become.’’
Burgess also talks about why he is such a big believer in heat training which has made Dubai the choice of location for the Power’s pre-seasons. The same approach will be adopted by the Crows next summer, with new senior coach Phil Walsh being a firm believer in the training method.
For the full interview with Burgess, Men’s Health is on sale now.
