After last season ended with a whimper for Essendon, a host of the club's leaders embarked on an off-season trip to a world-renowned training facility in the United States. The result has been one of its best starts to a season in the last two decades. Here's a look at what the Bombers did in Arizona.
The Bombers' first season under Brad Scott started brightly, with the club sitting inside the top four after going 4-2 through the first six rounds of the season, before a familiar slide began.
After seeing his team's season end with a whimper, Ridley reached out to Exos Sports, an American company that had developed a reputation for working with elite athletes all over the globe. "That was another good part of the group, we had some guys that were younger and then we had guys like Jordan and Jayden that were on the older side," Gollis recalled.
"They were the ones who were constantly corralling the young bucks and realised getting them away from their situations back home in order to come here and put the work in was a major key. "It was so much fun to work with them and it's awesome to see how well they're doing right now because it was a blast and an honour to get to work with them."
"A lot of the guys that came out were leaders on the team, and they were aware of it and that was the main point of conversation around a lot of the training," he recalled. With the Bombers wanting to simulate late-game situations where they would usually be exhausted, Pruett and his team worked on "trying to completely empty the tank" on the players, allowing them to work past the point of exhaustion.
"From the side of resistance and strength training we were completely in the dark ... we didn't really understand where they were going to be at in the weight room," he said. "They were covering anywhere between five to 10 kilometres depending on what they had planned for their session on the weekend, so we were also having to stay in communication with them on that so we could auto-regulate our program based off of what they were doing on the pitch during the weekends."
"We thought about filling that bucket of intensive conditioning where we would have them do non-contact conditioning. "Any time we have the opportunity to work with teams that have that mindset, it's always a recipe for success."Exos' relationship with the German Football Association , meant world-renowned manager Hansi Flick was on-site when the Bombers were in Arizona.
"He would tell me, 'These guys are cracking jokes and laughing but they're still running harder and faster than any athletes that I've ever seen before'. "Obviously, our dietitian was talking him through how to properly do that. I'm not going to say it was us by any means, we might've shown him a few good things that he could take away, but we were looking at pre and post pictures and he'd definitely beefed up a little bit."
"It's not uncommon for players to come here and be transitioning into a different position," Pruett said of Durham's transformation."Different positions across every sport have different body types. The next part of it is the education and understanding. "He asked a lot of questions from all the staff, all the guys did, but I just noticed him in particular. Even with myself, he was asking how the business works and talking with our PTs and getting insights.
Essendon Bombers Jordan Ridley Andrew Mcgrath Jayden Laverde Jye Caldwell Sam Durham Archie Perkins Kyle Langford Elijah Tsatas Ben Hobbs Jade Gresham
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Inside Anglo American’s rushed break-up planSome of the most senior executives at Anglo American were caught off-guard by Duncan Wanblad’s spectacular break-up plan. Even the CEO himself.
Read more »
BHP Anglo American takeover: Anglo American rejects BHP deal extensionAnglo American has rejected BHP’s request for more time to negotiate a $75 billion takeover offer, meaning the deal is off for at least six months, unless BHP lobs a formal bid by 2am. BHP is unlikely to make a bid before the deadline.
Read more »
Essendon enforce COVID-style protocols as virus races through club7NEWS brings you the latest local news from Australia and around the world. Stay up to date with all of the breaking sport, politics, entertainment, finance, weather and business headlines. Today's news, live updates & all the latest breaking stories from 7NEWS.
Read more »
Essendon coach Brad Scott confident club has 'avoided catastrophe' as virus forces drastic training changesEssendon has been thrown back into the days of COVID-19 after being forced to implement protocols to keep players safe from a virus that has swept through the club in the lead-up to this weekend's clash against the Gold Coast.
Read more »
Can Essendon go all the way this year?This week on the Real Footy podcast, Jake Niall, Caroline Wilson and Michael Gleeson discuss the Bombers, who are now unbeaten in seven games.
Read more »
Dustin Martin declares ‘he’s back’ as Richmond fall short against Essendon in Dreamtime thriller7NEWS brings you the latest local news from Australia and around the world. Stay up to date with all of the breaking sport, politics, entertainment, finance, weather and business headlines. Today's news, live updates & all the latest breaking stories from 7NEWS.
Read more »