The time has come for a return to football training for another gruelling pre season. For some, football season is a distant memory having missed out on finals in 2019, for others it might feel like footy season has only just finished after a long finals campaign. We are going to try and give you a few practical tips to make sure these first few weeks back are injury free and enjoyable.
So how is it best to approach this? Throw yourself head on into all of the running, drills and skill work or ease yourself back in?
The answer to this is probably dependent on how you have been spending your time off since season 2019 concluded. If you are one of those people who has been diligent in keeping up with their running and strength work throughout this time, you will probably have maintained your conditioning to a level where you can handle just about anything the coaches throw at you. If however, you have taken the time since football to enjoy some time off from exercise filled with footy trips, presentation nights and thinking about just about anything other than footy, you might need to approach things slightly differently!
Tips:
Hopefully these very simple tips will help you survive the initial weeks of pre season – getting through that training block before the Christmas break is important to setting yourself up for a successful and injury free upcoming season!
Shin splints, AKA medial tibial stress syndrome, is a condition that causes discomfort on the inside or front of your leg (between your knee and ankle) and can affect up to 35% of people who run or jump. We see this very commonly in the pre-season phase, or with people who have just started out running (yes, a lot during lockdown) and it can be extremely frustrating! So, how can you prevent it?