by Vida Footy | Nov 26, 2015 | Coach Development
Welcome back to our insightful look into Anthony Rocca’s article about contested marking. If you have not read the first one we recommend you click here to catch up on the story. Today’s second installment will cover the other two important factors in taking a contested mark.
Body positioning/Strength:
It might appear to be an oxymoron but the best-contested marking players more often than not mark the ball un-contested. The best do their work in the lead up to the contest so they can gain a metre or two on their opponent or trap them under the ball to mark with little pressure.
Constant movement is critical. This does not allow a defender to get set or believe that he has mastery over the jostle for best position.
(Movement also enables a forward to become a bigger or more available target for team-mates. Movement ought to equal multiple leads and adjustments that provide options for team-mates and draw defenders and defences out of position.)
So where does the strength come from?
Gaining the best body position in a contest doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use a lot of strength. It’s about shifting the defender enough to get both hands to the ball unrestricted. Unexpected contact with the opposition is always the best contact, for it puts them off balance and doesn’t give them time to set their feet and weight, to activate their strength.
The feet, legs and arms play an important part in contested marking.
The feet need to be quick to set up, plant and spread for balance. The foot closest to the defender needs to be grounded as early as possible or at least before the opponent has the chance to get set. Once these foundations are set in place, with the back leg akin to an anchor, the leg closest to the opponent will drive into the legs and allow you to push up into the opponent to force the opponent away from the drop of the ball.
The arms can assist in this role by being strong and stiff; the ideal spot for the arm is under the opponent’s armpit. From here the arm and closest leg can be used as one to create the maximum amount of power.
A mistake marking players often make is to allow their front arm to collapse or drop to an area where it is either trapped or cannot source functional strength. Arm positioning is a point neglected by many and an area of significant potential improvement.
Clean Hands:
So you have done all the hard work.
You understand how your teammates will dispose of the ball, you have used the strength in your feet, legs and arms to shift your opponent out of position and away from the drop zone and all you need to do now is mark the ball.
One clean grab is all it needs.
You want to release both hands from the contest. This will give you the greatest chance of marking the ball. Freeing your hands is obviously important for a clean take is very difficult without both hands being available.
Clean and strong purchase on the ball as it arrives is equally important. Thumb positioning, with both thumbs spread to halt the flight of the ball, like a safety net, and fingers spread to wrap around a majority of the football are needed.
Improving hand positioning to elite standard demands, possibly, hundreds of hours of practice, with thousands of footballs kicked into your hands developing technique and muscle memory.
This is also practice for the eyes. Just as cricketers developing will follow a delivery on to their bat, elite marking players must watch the football all the way into their hands.
by Vida Footy | Nov 26, 2015 | Coach Development
Last week we discussed mindfulness in the AFL. Here is the second instalment on the issue.
Remember, to learn more about mindfulness in sport – and how to integrate it into your daily practise; contact Vida Mind/Dr Damien Lafont [email protected]
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by Vida Footy | Nov 26, 2015 | Coach Development
Being an AFL player requires a tremendous amount of talent, fitness, physical ability, games sense and endurance. However, a previously overlooked part of a players attributes is their minds. Players are now learning how to better engage their minds to help with the physical demands of a game of football.
The following article from Adam Baldwin from the AFL players association highlights these factors and how players are going about improving their mindfulness.
The AFL is an extremely competition industry. The difference between first and eighteenth might be huge on the scoreboard but in the tangibles it is miniscule. Every team has talent, every team is fit, every team is full of competitors, every team has a clear game plan ingrained from precise a preseason and every player who takes the field gives every ounce of effort. Every club is searching for an extra one per cent that can elevate it above the rest.
Where does that one per cent that lie? Why do we see upsets in results throughout the years? Why do we see variance in a team’s output each week? Jack Dyer used to say that football is a game “played mostly between the ears” and the role of sports psychology has long been recognised as a crucial element of success. But in a time where professional athletes are placed on a pedestal, poor performance due to mindset isn’t tolerated by clubs and fans. What do players actually mean when they say their “mindset wasn’t right”? AFL Players’ Association psychologist and wellbeing services manager Dr Jo Mitchell says reaching optimum mindset for sporting performance is crucial but difficult to achieve, especially with the range of expectations and distractions players and teams carry. “Have you ever been driving from home to work and suddenly you are there but mentally you are elsewhere. It’s that experience where physically your body is there, but mentally it is off somewhere else. You are actually not present,” Dr Mitchell said.
“If you want to perform at your best, whether that’s as an athlete or a parent or in any aspect of your life then you need to be there for the important bits. You need to be mentally and physically present in that space.”
The Players’ Association run programs for players based on the concept of mindfulness; a process of awareness that involves paying attention to what is relevant to performance in the moment as opposed to being caught up in thoughts or analysis that only serve as a distraction.
“On the field you need to be in the moment, if your head is going back to what happened a few minutes earlier in the game you are not mentally there and present and ready to respond to the next thing to happen,” Dr Mitchell said.
Mindfulness is most commonly associated with meditation. The AFL Players’ Association delivers initiatives to help players build their mindfulness skills by tuning in to performing practical every-day things “The idea is that you tune into your senses. If you can touch, taste, hear, see and smell you are present. If you are analysing what you can touch, taste, hear, see and smell you have disconnected again. But if you are just in that moment observing and are present in that process – you are being mindful,”. “By spending two or three minutes every day when you brush your teeth attending to the process and noticing when your mind drifts and noticing where it has gone, you need to practice the ability to unhook it and then bring it back. It sounds simple but it is actually hard to do.”
Mindfulness has been employed outside the sporting arena by bodies such as the US Marines and it has been embraced by some AFL stars but still has connotations of being “a bit hippy or a bit mystical”. Her team are trying to communicate to the players that their minds require as much training as any other parts of their bodies.
“It’s about working out the neural pathways in your brain that actually help it to fire to become stronger. We want to build a super pathway rather than a really faint connection so that you are really in the right space to be mindful,”.
Professional athletes commonly use techniques such as imagery in their preparation for sporting performance, but mindfulness is a more effective technique because it allows the mind to be flexible and adapt to whatever the game throws up. “Nothing is actually real except your lived experience, I think imagery can be helpful in some circumstances but also it can get in the way as well. “We are all human and if you don’t train that ability to be present and be in the moment variances in the game can throw athletes,”.
Now, through the Manage Your Mind program players have the tools to change this and ensure their mind is as flexible as their spine. The program is a key component of the football apprenticeship program for first year players.
– to learn more about mindfulness in sport – and how to integrate it into your daily practise; contact Vida Mind/Dr Damien Lafont [email protected]
