Training Report - 19/3/10
By jackie mihocek
Training in showery conditions at Windy Hill.
For the first time that I can remember a woman has taken about half of the one hour training session which makes it an historic occasion in my book.
Dee is one of the high performance fitness advisors/rehab specialists at the club. Someone may post a photo of her but to put you in the picture she has an intense dedication to her job which she manages to do with an appropriate degree of humour and relaxation. Her distinguishing feature is a stylish chestnut helmet of hair which unfortunately gets hidden sometimes by the ubiquitous baseball cap.
Dee put the entire group through a systematic series of well planned drills emphasizing stretching and running techniques giving clear commands to her charges punctuated with flashing smiles to which the players responded like cubs to a den mother.
Highlight was the “Fletch handshake drill” so named because she chose Dustin for the demonstration. They stood facing each other on one leg – the stork and the ibis – and Dee extended a hand which Fletch grasped in a handshake. They then proceeded to tussle in this stance until Dustin lost balance and had to plant his foot to the amusement of the assembled throng. Players then broke into pairs and practiced trying to maintain balance.
Eventually when her time was up the players went onto the usual handball and passing drills with the other coaches with gusto. In the modified group Tyson Slattery showed he is not far away from overcoming his wrist injury by marking with both hands – Jetta will take a little longer.
Hurley arrived later at training – Dee put him through some three quarter pace running and sideways movement tests which he coped with quite well. Nothing serious here as he joined in the rest of the training.
I guess what we saw today opens the debate about how far women can go in the football department. A big tick to day for Dee’s efforts but could a woman ever coach a league team?
Sandra Bullock gets fairly close in “Blindside” – its already become a favourite movie of mine but I guess I would go to see her even if she wasn’t coaching – she has many talents.