My take on the Hamstring Injuries and Game Speed…

Now I’ll keep this short because this is all it needs to be to explain what I think is happening in the game of football with these injuries. As the speed of the game increases, the physical stress on the player increases. Now this increase in stress and exertion requires more time to recover from [Read more]

Sports Science: Too much technology is bunk; coaches should rely more on instinct

By Clint Youlden I’m all for technology when it comes to sport, but I do see an alarming trend towards over-analysis. Isn’t the whole idea of sport to compete against others on an even playing field? Shouldn’t it be the cast that coaching and winning instinct make the difference between victory and loss? I’m wondering [Read more]

Daniel Harris speeds to another level in six sessions with the Cannonball

The challenge for me, Clint Youlden, along with Daniel, is to re-program his body to be more coordinated, run faster and more efficiently. This will give him greater speed and agility as well as enable him to run out the game better and faster. In order to do this, we will have to go into [Read more]

Is poor player management the reason why players get a premature exit?

by Clint Youlden I met this AFL footballer (let’s call him Player X) through a friend of mine, Tavis Perry. Tavis has long been involved with me, and my training innovations, for the past 5 years and encouraged this player to seek out my expertise in speed and coordination training. Tav floated the idea to [Read more]

Sports Science: Why speed is the most important fitness component in football

So let’s look at why speed training is probably the most vital fitness component of a footballer.  I admit that this article might be of less interest than others during the finals period, but you can use this information to gain an insight as to why some of the great players in the top four [Read more]

Sports Science: Why most speed training drills are a waste of time

By Clint Youlden So what do all these ‘innovative’ sprint-training drills do for a footballer? I emphasise innovative there because the most common form of sprint drills is mostly a series of exercises I can only label as ‘time wasters’, by ‘experts’ who’ve read a few textbooks in the acquisition of speed. A good example [Read more]

Sports Science: Ice baths and dips in cold water work against recovery

By Clint Youlden We live in strange times when you consider that recovering from physical activity now receives nearly as much attention as training. As an athlete and sports scientist for the past 10 years, I’ve tried every feasible recovery method. And I thought I might give a breakdown on one of those methods, the [Read more]

General Footy Writing: Demetriou is way overpaid compared to overseas contemporaries

By Clint Youlden Allow me to talk about Andrew Demetriou’s salary. There is not one national sports chief executive or commissioner, not even anyone close, who earns the salary that Demetriou earns in comparison to that competition’s best player. Demetriou was paid $1.6 million last year and the highest paid player in the competition was [Read more]

Sports Science: Clint Youlden reckons he can have you kicking longer in an instant

The Cannonball – “Instantly ad metres to your kick” by Clint Youlden If you are a right-hander (and presumably a right foot kick) and I asked you which leg is your strongest leg, most of you would answer “my right leg `cause I kick with it”, you would however, be incorrect. Most people believe that [Read more]

Sports science: AFL players should practice kicking far more often

By Clint Youlden I’m a sports scientist who specialises in biomechanics. As a sports scientist who’s interested in footy, it destroys me to see the lack of effort that AFL players put into practising kicking. I heard Matthew Richardson say that “players would have 40 to 50 shots on goal a week … but you [Read more]