Playground Conditioning

Revisiting the Playground

I've been spending a lot of time talking to Robert Dos Remedios lately as we prepare for the functional training summit which is taking place this month here in the UK and all of the talk about CHAOS training reminded me of an article I wrote a few years ago about how a trip back to the playground and our childhood can actually provide us with some great training drills that will not only improve speed and agility but more importantly gross athleticism. Here's the article, I hope you enjoy it.

Bored of the same old training drills? Looking for a fun and imaginative way to get the heart racing and blood pumping round your body? Well rather than try to reinvent the wheel why not take a trip down memory lane to see if you can pick up some useful training drills. Exactly how far you go back is up to you but why not stop at your school playground for come inspiration. I’m sure that as a coach or athlete you are continually racking your brains for new training drills, but new is not always better, the games we used to play before the advent of computers now provide us with a wealth of training possibilities for adults. Still not convinced…try some of these in your next workout.

Tag: You can play tag with two people and it involves sprinting, change of direction, decision-making and the ability to adapt to the other players. If you work hard enough you will only be able to play for short intense periods of time making it a fantastic anaerobic activity full of sport specific movements. You will improve your ability to make rapid directional changes, variation of speed and the ability to ‘read’ other players movements.

Dodge Ball: A bit like tag but using balls to try and catch your opponent(s). Using one or more balls throw the ball at your opponent. It’s important to remember that unlike your old PE teacher during a game of STINGER you’re not trying to remove people’s heads from their shoulders! Use soft balls and aim below waist height (but not at your opponents most treasured possessions). Once hit with the ball they are on and your opponents are being chased. Add in some extra people and additional balls and you have a great drill for maintaining body awareness and agility. Remeber to 5 D's of dodgeball, Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and....Dodge!

Wall Ball: Throw a tennis ball against a wall and then try to catch it using one hand only. Sound simple…OK…. add some players into the mix to work on your positioning and agility. If your attempt to catch the ball is unsuccessful sprint to the wall and back before the next player picks the ball and throws it. Hand eye coordination, sprint speed and agility are just a few of the skills that can be developed with this game.

King of the Mountain: The mountain in this case is a wobble board or stability ball. The object of the game is to ‘attack’ the person on the ball and try to dislodge them by pushing them at different angles. Now you are not literally trying to knock them flying, you are simply teaching them to adjust their position and resist the attack. A great workout to improve your balance and core stability.

Pirates: Now I think that this game is no longer practiced in schools for fears of safety…what a shame I say. Who remembers the lessons where you arrived at the gym to find every single piece of kit laid out before you, wall bars, vaulting horses, ropes…. you name it they had it. Now what ensued was 30 minutes of running over, jumping off, and balancing on things in an attempt not to touch the ground (water) and be eaten by sharks!! Well this piece of nostalgia can be recreated using just about anything you have at hand and will challenge your body like no other activity. Sure you need to keep safety in mind but what a workout…and more importantly what fun.

Hopefully you can see from these examples that there are many good ideas for training sessions that as children we simply took for granted. I’m sure with a little imagination your training sessions will once again become a fun activity that you look forward to rather than the same old boring interval session.

Got any more ideas? Let me know.

Strength and Conditioning Journal
Vol 23 (4) 50

EXF Visit the Falcons

The Functional Training Summit is only 6 weeks away and EXF came up to Newcastle last week to go and see the facilities first hand. It was a really useful chance to catch up with Charles and Nik from EXF at the Newcastle Falcon’s stadium.

I know both Charles and Nik were were very impressed by the stadiums facilities. With plenty of room for both discussion and practical, the venue should help ensure that the Functional Training Summit is a success. If you haven’t yet booked your place there are still a few spaces available, please visit http://www.smartfitness.org.uk/ for more information.

EXF have a fantastic offer for all delegates attending the summit. The team at EXF are offering all delegates a 20% saving on all of their Sports Performance equipment ordered over the weekend of the Summit. That is a fantastic offer, and another reason why this event is a must do for anyone working in the fitness industry.

If you have booked, then we look forward to meeting you there.

Speaking, Speaking and More Speaking

It's been a really busy couple of weeks for me. I've been delivering a number of seminars and it's been great to get out and speak to so many coaches, athletes and students about what strength and conditioning can offer to sports performance as a well as general health and wellbeing.


On February 14th I spent a couple of hours in the company of a group of enthusiastic triathletes. This was the first session in a 4 part seminar series looking at various aspects of strength and conditioning and how to improve performances without having to spend endless hours out on the bike, in the pool or pounding the streets.



During the first 2 hour session Itook the group through the underpinning theory and concepts of strength training before moving into the gym to put participants through their paces. The practical element really brought the theory to life and gave participants real world training techniques that they could go away with and start using straight away.

The icing on the cake was a group ride led by Phil Gray from Total Racing International Coaching. For more details of the remaining events visit the multisportlink website

I then had a 05:00 start on Tuesday to make sure I could hook up with Neil Parsley down in Manchester to start putting together our presentation on Total Training for Combat Sports which forms part of the Smart Fitness Functional Training Summit. I spent the morning with Neil at the English Institute of Sport in Manchester (a place I used to frequent often when I worked for the EIS!) and we spent the whole morning throwing ideas around. The end result is what I think in my humble opinion is going to be a superb presentation, between the two of us we have some great concepts and Neil can bring some 'behind the iron curtain' training techniques that have to be seen to be believed. I can't wait until April and I know we have a number of top ranked MMA athletes attending the seminar, so it will be great to see what they think and have to say about our presentation.

Needless to say, the guys in this clip have not influenced our training methodology!

The next day I met with a business group to discuss a forthcoming project that I'm helping develop with fellow strength coach Nick Ward. The project is still in the early stages and I don't want to give too much away but we think we have a pretty special product that we will be making available to a select group of executive business men and women in July. The Executive Athlete Performance (EAP) Programme is unlike anything else out there at the moment and it's going to be a great challenge to work with high performing business men and women and opening their eyes to the training processes used by elite atheltes which in turn will help boost their business performance.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of speaking to a group from Northumbria University about Smart Fitness. The topic was business related and I spent 2 hours with the group and discussed the reality of setting up a business and the challenges faced during a difficult economic period. It's not until you take time to reflect on what you have actually done during the past 18 months that you realise just how far you have come.

The final speaking engagement was yesterday where I spent the morning with a group of tennis coaches based in the North East. Smart Fitness have been providing strength and conditioning support for the regions up and coming tennis players since August 2008, and during discussions with the Academy Director (Chris Sanderson) we struck upon the idea of sharing their training principles with the regional coaches to help improve the overall development of players within the North East region.

This session was the first of several sessions to be run throughout 2009 and focused on how strength and conditioning can benefit young players. I explained how improvements in a players 'gross athleticism' will tranfer to improved performances on court and once the underlying theory had been covered the group moved through to the indoor tennis centre where myself and Joe Wear put the coaches through their paces, showing them exactly what we are looking for when it comes to developing strong and robust tennis players. The next session is scheduled for March 23rd and will focus on the development of multidimensional speed and agility for the young tennis player.

So it has been a pretty busy couple of weeks and whilst it is always great to meet and spread the word I still enjoy getting back onto the gym floor.

Functional Training Summit - Download

I've been getting lots of requests for the booking form so to speed the process up click on the link to take you straight to a PDF file which contains everything you need to know about the Functional Training Summit in April.

If you still need further information you can e-mail me at nick@smartfitness.org.uk

Robert Dos Remedios is on his way...

Back in December I announced that Coach Robert Dos Remedios would be holding a 2 day seminar in April 2009.

Well, I can now announce full details and you can download your registration form right here.

The seminar will be taking place on April 25th and 26th and will be hosted by Smart Fitness, with EXF providing vital support throughout the event. We have a great venue, Kingston Park Stadium (home of the Newcastle Falcons).

This will be the first time Coach Dos has presented in the UK and I know it is going to be a fantastic seminar. In addition to Coach Dos I have managed to line up some great home grown talent. Full details of the event and registration details are on the attached file, but here is an idea of what you can expect at the seminar.

The Smart Fitness Functional Training Summit has been developed to provide trainers, coaches, athletes and therapists with a combination of lectures and hands-on learning experiences with top professionals working in the strength and conditioning, and fitness industries.

The presenters include leaders in the areas of training, conditioning and rehabilitation: Robert Dos Remedios, Nick Grantham, Neil Parsley and Nick Ward.

Topics covered include:
Power Training Through Performance-Based Conditioning
Total Training for Combat Sports - Conditioning for the modern combat athlete
Performance Planning Matrix – Optimising the Planning Process
Utilising Combination Lifts – Complex's, hybrids and combinations
CHAOS Speed Development – Taking Your Sport Speed to the Next Level
Ultimate Core Conditioning – Strong and Stable
Decision Training: Confusion-Distraction-Disruption

I'm just organising a link to download the registration form but if you don't want to wait and you fancy getting the jump on everyone else drop me an e-mail at nick@smartfitness.org.uk and I'll send you the registration forms and answer any questions you may have.

Keep an eye out on the blog for the link at some point during the next week