It has been a few weeks since my last update of the young blokes training of a morning. Here is a video of Ben Quinlan from this morning's session deadlifting 135 kg x 4 reps on a small podium at 75 kg body weight.
The progression has been very impressive. Strength in the gym has been improving well, and more importantly performance on the field has improved big time. All the boys are much stronger now, faster, and their conditioning is far ahead of where it was when they began. They have had next to no injuries and when they do get minor injuries from games they now recover from them much faster and are learning how to train around them so they can still make progress.
A great example of the progress made on the field for me is Bryce Shaw. Last year he played in the Western Suburbs Magpies S.G Ball team where he started about half the games and came off the bench for the rest. He could only last 15 minutes at a time and by then he would be gassed. This year he played in pretty much every Sydney Shield game and played big minutes. By the end of the year he would play 50 to 60 minutes straight, in the middle, as he is a prop. Bryce still has a lot of work ahead of him to get his game to a high enough level to continue to progress through the grades but he is on the right track when looking at the progress he has made this year. The hard work just has to continue, or like everyone else, he will stall.
I started training these young men to give them the opportunity to be as well prepared as possible to achieve their goals. This is something I wish my friends and I had when growing up. At 17 years old I was no chance of deadlifting 135 kg for 4 reps with good technique. We didn't really start lifting until we were 18 or 19 and even then there wasn't a great enough emphasis put on it. A lot of the progress made was purely on natural ability. I often imagine what level we could have gotten to if we knew what I know now. I have been fortunate to have learnt from the best strength coaches in the world and I am so grateful for what they have shared. These young blokes are about 10-12 years ahead of where I was at their age. They don't have to go through the injuries, pointless training, poor nutritional advice, crappy supplements, horrible technique in the gym, they just have to work hard and stick at it.
It is a pleasure getting up and training this crew and I look forward to every session.