This has been in the works all year but I’ve finally gotten round to writing it – just about in time for the winter off season most players will be enjoying! Given colder weather and training alone usually make it harder for people to get out running, I hope that these drills help you get out the door and keep up your conditioning by being more interesting.
Overview
The benefits of doing your fitness with a disc include:
- making it more engaging and fun
- it will tap into your natural field mechanics far more easily than just sprinting from cone to cone
- ‘repetition without repetition‘ – it’s very easy to run the same straight lines between cones but adding in a disc produces slight (or big) changes that mean you can be doing the same drill with the same outcome goal but you’re achieving it in slightly different ways each time
- there is a reaction component involved – this is often completely missing in standard S&C training
- if doing it on your own, it will be quite novel to you as even through you may be used to chasing discs, usually they come from other people and the flight paths are more predictable and familiar. Throwing to yourself adds in a new element that creates a problem solving environment which is excellent for athletic development results.
Roller Sprints
The first sprint drill is your basic straight line sprint.
Goal: throw a roller and sprint straight away to get to the disc and touch it as quickly as you can
Higher level goal: get to the disc before it stops rolling
Throw, Run, Catch
Goal: throw the disc ahead of you and aim to catch it
Higher level goal: mark out distances and see what is the furthest point you can throw to while also successfully catching the disc
Throw, Jump and Catch
This next one is about adding in a jumping action to get more of a plyometric effect in your training. This drill is also excellent for learning to read the disc well.
Goal: Throw the disc up high and catch at your highest point
Serpentine Agility with a Disc
Some of you may be familiar with the agility drill known as the serpentine. This modification simply adds in a throw to yourself to each cone ahead of you. Naturally, you may feel quite slow at first but you will likely notice significant improvements with a few attempts. I recommend starting with no more than 3 cones to get used to it and decrease your chances of frustration starting off!
Set up: Set up cones in a zig zag pattern about 5 paces apart. Choose anywhere from 3 cones up.
Goal: Throw the disc to the cone ahead of you and aim to catch it. Turn quickly to the next cone and repeat.
Higher level goal: As soon as you have caught the disc throw it in the next direction. You should feel like you never stop moving.
Want a full list of progressions to work off using these drills? Purchase any TOP Programme today and you’ll be able to access it in your content folder as a bonus resource!
