Jake Jennings (Bendigo Pioneers): Are you ready for the worst case scenario?

Jake is a strength and conditioning coach and applied sports scientist. He has extensive experience within academy, team and individual sport settings and has worked with athletes, male and female, both developing and elite. Jake has enjoyed a varied career which has afforded him opportunities to live and work interstate and internationally, having benefitted in learning from a range of people, across cultures and disciplines in sport.  Jake moved to Bendigo, VIC in 2019 to undertake an industry PhD role with the Bendigo Pioneers NAB League sides and La Trobe University where he is investigating the match-play demands of elite-junior and senior Australian Rules football, and characteristics associated with draft success. Jake has held youth development roles that he believes either suit, or challenge traditional LTAD models, providing him with a unique ability to blend an approach and drive performance.


In this episode Jake discusses:

  • An overview of AFL for the uninitiated.
  • His data collection across AFL and Junior competition and some novel metrics he is investigating.
  • How the training and match demands between Junior and Senior AFL compare.
  • How these metrics may relate to success in the AFL draft.
  • How much training volume is really necessary?
  • Should we spend more time on skill development vs physical development?
  • Breaking down GPS data to identify the what, where and when peak running demands occur.
  • Prescribing training drills and activities based on peak demands.

You can listen to the episode in full here.

You can follow Jake’s work on Twitter via: @jake_jennings1 and via his LinkedIn page.


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