Carlton Supporters Club

When you're set on a plan, you're doing a lot right and it's just not happening, it can be frustrating.
You're confident you're on the right track, so you just go that little bit harder, figuring that if you give that little bit of extra effort it will make the difference.
What you're actually doing in effect is 'trying too hard' and the mental impact of extra effort=poorer result doesn't really compute.
It can leave you angry, frustrated and unhappy.
I'm wondering whether we've been seeing a little of that in the first half of this year.

In my own experience of coaching and competing in track and field, the best performance sometimes comes when you're relaxed.
You'll see it in100 metre races where one sprinter looks loose and fluid in his running while the guy alongside him looks to be straining, tightening up giving what appears to be greater effort, but losing all form and going backwards.
I've sometimes had athletes coming off a week of sickness, no expectations, yet producing a personal best.

Give them a week off.

Coming up after the bye is more a mental than a physical issue.

I disagree, maybe because I'm a hard task master by nature. At the end of the day, 1. What does it mean to them? 2. Are they prepared to leave no stone unturned? 3. Can they look in the mirror at the end of a failed year and say "I did everything I could"?
I reckon I know what they would answer to all the above.

If we are to have a week off or low intensity it would have been planned well in advance.
The greater issue will be the mental impact of the bye and having the players ready to go in the right frame of mind against Hawthorn.

In any training annual period there has to be times when you have heavy and lighter loads....'periodization'.
Peaks and troughs of intensity
A continual demanding load through the season is counter-productive...it leads to burn-out and injury.
Russell and the fitness crew should be all over it.
The season would have been planned well in advance to peak at the right time of the year...and in thatb process there would be times of heavier and lighter loads.

If we are to have a week off or low intensity it would have been planned well in advance.
The greater issue will be the mental impact of the bye and having the players ready to go in the right frame of mind against Hawthorn.

They go on a break after a good win, get on the piss, lose momentum, play like dogs against Haw. Lets revisit the argument when that occurs.

If that's the level of their professionalism then that will reflect on them.
Not on the coaches or fitness staff.
You might be right.
That would be in the words of Stewie Dew "beyond disappointing."

If the Hawthorn game is a debacle I suspect it will be more a break in the momentum gained, caused by the draw rather than not having a week of intense training.
The draw is beyond our control.
The whole purpose of the bye is a for a break and rest for the players in a very long season.

Like I said, if I was the Captain, my mind would be in a different space.

Like I said, if I was the Captain, my mind would be in a different space.

I was listening to an interview with Stan Longinidis of Kick Boxing Fame on SEN, great fella to listen to BTW. Talked about his motivational speaking he does with kids, adults etc. He mentioned how he is a Coll supporter and when all the De Goey stuff with Bali was going on, he said he couldn't understand how he would so that and how in general players go on holidays mid season. His said "how much are you prepared to sacrifice?". And that's exactly what my point was with all this. What does it all mean to you and how far are you prepared to go?