Joined by youngsters Clay Cameron and Timmy Sumner, the players were taken through a variety of different swimming exercises designed to test their fitness and lung capacity under water.
Led by All Saints Head Swimming Coach – Ken Sabotic, the players were allowed 60 second rest-breaks in between their 10m, 15m and 25m sprints in the pool, with Cannon (McKenzie) showing Sabotic he was no stranger to the water with his impressive technique and limited amount of breathes needed to reach the wall on the other end.
Speaking after the player’s recovery session, Sabotic told goldcoastfc.com.au the GC SUNS weekly aquatic program would significantly develop the squad's fitness capacity as senior coach Guy McKenna strives to ensure the players can consistently compete throughout four quarters of football throughout the 2013 AFL Season.
“If they can increase their lung capacity it’ll be a competitive advantage for them,” said Sabotic.
“A lot of the swimmer’s in our program don’t actively participate in long-distance running, but finish in the top 5 of their age levels in cross country simply because they’ve built greater endurance and lung capacity through swimming.”
The experienced swim coach also said the benefits of taking the players through the pool was that they could still participate in physical fitness activities without such a high risk of causing injury.
“Similar to cross-training, swimming consists of training under a weight-resistance mechanism – meaning there able to keep their fitness up and increase their lung capacity without engaging in high-intensity activities that often result in injuries.”
Despite preferring to train on dry-land, Sumner conceded that an increased lung capacity would definitely take his game to another level.
“It was definitely found it challenging at first when Ken (Sabotic) took us through this morning's training session," said Sumner.
“But it's certainly an area of my training program I will be looking to build on throughout the 2013 season, and hopefully after time I will be able to reap the rewards on the training track and on-field if the opportunity arises."
