“I woke up early and headed to the oval to train with Gawny[Max Gawn],Adam Tomlinson and Jake Lever. We warmed up with some agility to get the body moving then followed up with some 60-metre sprints.”
Christian Petracca takes fans through his drills with teammates.Getty Images
While many of us are still digesting the Christmas prawns and puddings,AFL stars are giving us a rare insight into their training as they film “day in the life” videos for TikTok.
Petracca,who is increasingly becoming known online for his cooking videos,including of seafood linguine,pork gyoza and banana pancakes,takes fans through his 30 minutes of drills with teammates,focusing on quick kicking and decision-making. Then a “deload day” of just eight kilometres before doing a core and leg workout in the gym.
“After the session I headed into the gym to do a core and leg workout. Had my first lunch for the day which was chicken,rice and salad. Then went to the beach to watch the Melbourne to Hobart race,” his voice-over said.
“Went for a 500-metre swim for some extra recovery,then practised my golf swing in the afternoon,had my leftover Christmas ham for dinner.” This is probably the most relatable part to most of us mere mortals.
Similarly,Collingwood’s Tom Mitchell,who recently switched colours from Hawthorn,gave AFL fans insight into “what training typically looks like over the Christmas holidays” on the Ball Magnets account,which included him getting up bright and early,making an omelette and heading to the club.
Christian Petracca reveals what a day in the life of an AFL footballer looks like during the off-season.
“Did a big session with the two Daicos boys[Nick and Josh] and IQ[Isaac Quaynor]. For those who don’t know,Q broke the beep test at training a few weeks ago,crazy effort,” said Mitchell’s voice-over.
He ran through their session,including goal kicking,handball and foot skills,some leg work in the gym,“and a lot of running” before heading to the cricket to watch the Australians play in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
While it can seem like a lot of work during an off period,Michael Crichton,strength and conditioning coach and director of Melbourne Fitness and Performance,said the holiday period is important for athletes to maintain fitness,while their bodies recover.
“It’s super important for athletes to still be maintaining some form of training schedule,but at the same time they also need to be careful because they’ve just done an intensive block leading into Christmas,” said Crichton,who has worked with Melbourne and Essendon Football Club.
“And they’re gonna also need to try and regenerate a bit because your soft tissues of your joints and also your nervous system need a bit of downtime before they go back to pre-season where training ramps back up.”
Crichton says while each player would have their own program,a big thing over the off-season or Christmas period is to maintain intensity of training but decrease volume,especially in the first week off.
He added taking a mental break over the Christmas period is just as important as physical rest.
“There’s a lot of physical and mental stress that[goes] into that first block of pre-season training. So,not having so much structure in your week is really important coming back into the next training block after Christmas ... So,super important to have that for mental health and obviously being around your friends and family. You don’t want to feel like a robot,you want to actually be able to enjoy the time you have with them.”
Damon Bednarski,strength and conditioning coach at TRIAX Performance and high-performance manager in the VFL,said a lot of players train consistently through the off-seasons,but stressed the importance of recovery leading into pre-season ramping up.
“It’s all sort of away from the club,that’s just part of the bargaining agreement,but it’s still an expectation that they would be maintaining those levels of training,” said Bednarski.
“If you looked at Christian Petracca’s stuff[online],he puts in a lot of recovery and rehab. So,he’s in the pool,massage,walking recovery,he does a lot of yoga and things like that. So,his recovery and getting himself right for training is as probably just as big as what he’s doing in terms of running and gym.”
Bednarski said social media content such as Petracca and Mitchell’s TikToks give fans an insight into what training for an AFL player looks like.
“It brings people into that inner sanctum that probably prior to Instagram and Tiktok and things like that people wouldn’t know about or get to experience unless,you know,there was maybe the odd TV special when they went behind the scenes and looked at what they do,” said Bednarski.
“But unless you work in one of those environments … you’re probably not going to know what they do on a day-to-day basis or what the daily set-up looks like. And I think there’s certainly a taste for that.”
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