“Exercise physiology is the secret to increased performance for football players throughout Victorian Leagues.”
There are many important physiological characteristics essential for improved performance within football players. A large number of these characteristics are neglected by a majority of individuals involved in the sport, as they are not aware of the benefits associated with utilizing an Exercise Physiologist (Allied Health Professional). It is vital for a club’s success and more importantly an individual’s growth in performance to identify and address these characteristics. A proactive approach to physiological maintenance, assists in gaining peak physical conditioning, profoundly reduces injury and maximizes individual player performance.
Football clubs in Australia have medical staff that are inundated with the treatment of players who are frequently injured or have chronic pain and stiffness. This is to a large extent initiated by an individual’s lack of overall conditioning. This would include limited strength\muscle activation, cognitive functioning, proprioception, neural firing, flexibility and range of motion. These areas of conditioning and training are neglected due to a large cross section of the football community not being aware of the physiological implications that prevent players from performing at their best.
Currently there is a greater emphasis on alleviating symptoms such as soreness and tightness, as opposed to identifying why the weakness is occurring and resolving the problem through precise training measures\interventions. It’s great that club physiotherapists and masseurs facilitate reducing a footballers symptoms, it plays an important role in keeping them performing week in week out, but the problematic area remains, this is because the source of the problem is not being treated through exercise prescription which helps prevent symptoms from occurring.
I don’t believe there is a marked difference between the talent of NPL and A-League players. The biggest discrepancy lies in the physiological training, treatment and management of players’ performance at a functional level.
Our professional program provides specific player management screening\testing measures, and ongoing exercise interventions\programs, to all senior squad members from the commencement of pre-season training. We also conduct several weekly ‘prehab’ sessions (pre-rehabilitation to significantly reduce injuries from occurring through specific conditioning training) to increase the level of player management and ensuring they are performing at peak levels, and regularly improving their functional capacity.
When a footballer suffers an injury, it needs to be recognized that the surrounding structures around the injury need to be assessed, as there is predominantly weakness to those areas also which happen to damage the most vulnerable point within that region.
The focus is to inform players and coaches to be aware of functional weaknesses associated with playing football and educating them about their musculoskeletal anatomy, cardio-respiratory demands, stages of rehab and physiological weaknesses that are common amongst footballers. This is applied through structured group or individual programs and interventions to improve these focus areas that are completed before\during\after training, at home, and during supervised group sessions run by myself.
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Evan Christodoulou (Accredited Exercise Physiologist) of ‘Walking Tall Exercise Physiology’ has targeted his expertise to the physiological mechanics of ‘Footballers’, and has formed a working partnership with his club Green Gully along Dr. Maurice Luna (Chiropractor). With a career as a player spanning 6 years at NPL level or equivalent at this current time, Evan fully understands the complexities of training and playing football at this level which has allowed him to remain injury free for a two year period.
Evan Christodoulou specializes in delivering exercise prescriptions\interventions to manage and prevent injuries and potential future injuries from occurring. He develops personalized professional programs to improve Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Musculoskeletal\Neural Functioning. Through the introduction and implementation of the Exercise Physiology program, Green Gully will benefit through greater player availability, consistency and level of performance.
Evan Christodoulou is making these services and assistance available to other NPL clubs, and leagues throughout Victoria to help steer Australian football in the right direction.
He is prepared to attend club meetings (with the board members, coaching and medical staff) and provide insight to the benefits associated with accessing my Exercise Physiologist services to maximize individual performance of players. He will provide a short presentation entailing his services and allow a free trial period with individual and group summary reports, so clubs can understand how exercise science can increase performance at a physiological level, allowing players to perform regularly without injuries.
For more information you can visit his Facebook page ‘Walking Tall Exercise Physiology’ or email on walkingtall.ep@gmail.com
Other services include:
-Postural analysis.
-Pre-\post injury rehabilitation.
-Pre\post-surgery rehabilitation.
-Flexibility programs.
-Reducing chronic pain and re-occurring injuries
-Proprioceptive\Balance programs.
-Weight loss programs.
-Pre-Season, Mid-Season Fitness Programs.