Written by Steve Moore – Carlton College of Sport Strength & Conditioning Coordinator and Carlton AFLW Head of Strength & Conditioning.
Well – what a semester to start the year! Our Strength and Conditioning unit at the Carlton College of Sport didn’t quite have the Semester 1 as we envisioned but it was still a memorable one at that. In this unit, students gain an insight to what goes on in a high-performance environment whilst being equipped with the knowledge and skill set that can be applied to any level fitness.
With the current climate we were forced to take our predominately practical subject online and transferred the learning to more of a theoretical basis. Despite this inconvenience, the students met all the challenges that were put towards them and throughout the semester we had some outstanding compliance within the subject.
Semester 1 of Strength and Conditioning is aimed providing the students with all the important and fundamental skills required to be able to coach athletes in a gym setting. The students were provided with an opportunity to design and create their own programs based on a case study of their choice. I was pleasantly surprised with the high quality and understanding that the students showed in the presentation of these programs.
As the semester progressed, we delved a little bit deeper into the important topics that make up the role of a high-performance coach or unit in an AFL environment. Some of the further topics we covered were conditioning programming, sports science, warm up and recovery protocols and strength testing. But in my opinion the most important topic that we covered in Semester 1 was coaching and communication. To be a successful strength and conditioning coach, most of it comes down to how you utilise the finer skills of coaching including communication to build trust with the athlete or client that you are working with. Throughout this topic we discussed how each of skills were adaptable to all forms of coaching that the students may undertake in their time at the college but also how these skills can be utilised in everyday life.
At this stage the structure of next semester may be still a little murky but we are hoping that a return to the weight room and the field is not too far away as we look to get a whole lot more practical. If that’s not the case the students will still get experience the more advanced topics of strength and conditioning as we look to develop an exciting crop of young coaches ready to be employed in the health and fitness industry.
Hope everyone is staying safe and looking forward to a big Semester 2!
Steve Moore
CCoS S&C Coordinator
Carlton AFLW Head of Strength and Conditioning