Darren Burgess is currently the High-Performance Manager at Adelaide Football Club. Previously, he was the high-performance manager at Melbourne Football Club and prior to that, Darren’s roles have included Director of High Performance at Arsenal Football Club, High Performance Manager at Port Adelaide Football (AFL) Club, Head of Sports Science for Football Federation Australia and Head of Fitness and Conditioning at Liverpool Football Club. Darren also worked as a lecturer in Exercise Science at Australian Catholic University in Sydney and completed his PhD in movement analysis of AFL and Soccer in 2012. Darren has had multiple papers published in peer review journals and has spoken at many international conferences.

QUOTES

"It took me a while to realize but we (strength and conditioning coaches) are very much in the background and I really thought in my early days that fitness could win you a title"

"In elite European football, the training dictates everything and if we can squeeze a 10 min lift in, we will, but to do so, you really need to identify your core lifts"

"We are in a skill-based sport so the skill will come first before gym work"

"In order to be very good and very prepared as a coach, you really need to know the game you are working with well"

"It is very important to expose players to as specific a match demand as possible"

"Creating competition in training is paramount both on and off the field"

SHOWNOTES

1) Darren’s journey in strength and conditioning to the highest levels of football

2) Where does strength and conditioning coaches fit into a high-performance department

3) Monitoring tools in AFL like sub-maximal heart rate tests

4) Promoting communication and structures in a high performance department

5) Where S&C should fit into a schedule based on a coaches plan and the specificity of the sport you are dealing with

6) Being good at both the technical and personality aspects of the job

7) Luis Suarez and the importance of consistency of exposure to stimulus on and off the pitch compared to a recovery based performance system

8) Game specific conditioning and low tech solutions if without GPS

9) Getting hired in a foreign job markets and the importance of repeated exposures

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Dave Watts

Bill Gates

Cal Newport

Adam Owen

Dave Carolan