Is altitude worth high price?

The Gold Coast Suns, pictured here hiking the Grand Canyon, are one of many clubs sold by the benefits of high-altitude training. Picture: Ben Jaensch. Source: Supplied

OVERSEAS high-altitude training for AFL clubs is all the rage these days.

Once upon a time, a pre-season training trip consisted of a drive to the surf at Breamlea to run up the sand dunes followed by a barbeque and beers on the beach.

This was the approach of former Geelong coach Bob Davis, and it worked as he led the Cats to the 1963 premiership.

But that was a long time ago.

Today, many clubs think nothing of spending many thousands of dollars to send their players overseas as they search to gain a competitive edge in a game of centimetres getting smaller by the year.

Players on these trips spend up to two weeks climbing mountains, hiking in the snow, training and pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion up to 3000m above sea level.

The Brisbane Lions battle on in Arizona. Source: Supplied

They then inevitably return home and speak of their improved fitness, how tight the group now is and the benefits of the camp.

Some clubs swear by it, others like Geelong have never been further than Falls Creek yet have won three flags in six years.

With football department spending escalating like an arms race, it poses the question: Are these high-altitude trips sports science magic or just over-hyped holidays?

St Kilda - under former coach Grant Thomas - set the trend in 2004 when it paid a bomb to fly to South Africa and train 1343m above sea level.

Collingwood followed a year later when the Pies headed off to Northern Arizona University, situated 2100m above sea level and the home of a renowned high-altitude training centre.

The club's fitness boss David Buttifant had visited the university a year earlier with some Olympic athletes before he came to the club.

The Magpies have returned every year until this one - they instead headed to Utah, where North Melbourne also trained.

North Melbourne's pre-season training camp in Utah last week. Source: Supplied

Northern Arizona University is located in Flagstaff, Arizona - or "Flag" as the locals call it - a quaint mountain town home to 60,000 people, two hours out of Phoenix and very close to the Grand Canyon.

It is also now a regular destination for AFL clubs, including Carlton, the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast in the past few weeks.

Suns coach Guy McKenna went on two trips to Arizona when he was an assistant at the Magpies, and when he got a team of his own, it was high on his to-do list.

The Suns' playing group has now been on two trips to the US.

"It was a no-brainer because I could see the benefits in the playing group," McKenna told News Limited.

"Some of the scientific boffins out there say there are minimal gains, but I think that is where AFL is
at.

"You look at the Sydney-Hawthorn Grand Final this year, a percentage or clearance here or there means you win games of footy.

"You need a percentage you can pinch from somewhere and I think this type of conditioning relates to
on-field performance.

"Given what I saw from two camps in Arizona (with Collingwood), I was going to bring my group back wherever I ended up, that's for sure.

"I saw the immediate benefits and the long-term benefits."

Collingwood footballers walk the Grand Canyon in 2011. Picture by Collingwoodfc.com.au Source: Supplied

The craze has become a business for places like Northern Arizona University, who rent their facilities to the AFL clubs.

Sports management companies co-ordinate the camps in conjunction with the universities.

Hypo2 Sport Management has run the altitude camps for Gold Coast, Brisbane, Carlton and Collingwood.

Company owner Sean Anthony, who is currently in Utah with the Magpies, said he was not surprised by the popularity of the camps.

"I think, in the world of elite sport, that everyone watches what everyone else does," he said.

"There are not a lot of training secrets and so when a club tries something a little off the beaten path and it appears to reap them benefit, like Collingwood doing altitude training from 2005 to the present day, then other teams begin to look at how to do something similar.

"And it's a very small industry, so if you have success with one team, team members who were part of that success inevitably move on to other teams and then want to emulate that."

NAU spokesman Steven Shaff said the institution is happy to accommodate the clubs, even though they clash with university sport teams.

There are definite physiological as well as mental gains made by the players and staff by going away for a training camp, whether it be to altitude or not.

"Northern Arizona University and the Flagstaff community welcome visiting teams from around the world. It is point of pride for the campus to have the top teams in a variety of sports train here," he said.

"The university schedules the workouts and training sessions for the international teams around the schedules for the intercollegiate teams.

"The facilities can be very busy during visits by international teams but it is a welcome problem as the camps are such an exciting part of life on the Northern Arizona University campus."

Carlton hike Mt Humphreys in Arizona with coach Mick Malthouse leading the way. Supplied by Carlton FC. Source: Supplied

Altitude training has become a crucial part of the training program for elite athletes as it seen to stimulate the production of red blood cells because of lower oxygen levels.

But does training for two weeks before returning to lower altitudes actually do anything for the players?

There are some skeptics, such as Australian Olympic marathon runner Lee Troop.

"For 10 days there's no effect, there's no benefit whatsoever in doing altitude training for that long," Troop told the Herald Sun in 2005.

"You've got to be there for at least 21 days to help increase the red blood cell (count)... ideally, a month. I understand they have got an altitude chamber but there are so many variables that go into altitude training.

"So as far as them saying they're going to altitude and this is what elite athletes do, it was just a crock.

"If they were serious they would've been there for three weeks, if not more.

"It just bewilders me that people have got more money than sense."

But Australian Sport Performance Network director Kate Veidreyaki says the science is proven.

"There is definite benefit in athletes, particularly endurance type athletes such as AFL players, in attending altitude training camps," she said.

"The main physiological benefits the players will receive from training at altitude is an increase in their red blood cell count, which directly relates to an increase in the bloods oxygen carrying capacity."

When asked if the gains made are more mental than physical, Veidreyaki said:

Nathan Buckley and Andrew Krakouer in Utah. Picture: Collingwoodfc.com.au Source: Supplied

"There are definite physiological as well as mental gains made by the players and staff by going away for a training camp, whether it be to altitude or not.

"By removing a team from their usual environment and placing them in a location where they are surrounded by their teammates, coaching and support staff, away from media attention and possible other distractions of their daily lives, put their mindset in a whole new place.

"They live, breathe and think football.

"Training camps are a great tool to introduce new players to the team and expose them to training expectations and to work on training ethic and culture.

"The psychological benefits are more difficult to quantify as they are less black and white in comparison to drawing blood and measuring the red blood cell count."

McKenna, who just returned from Arizona with his Suns' players, agreed with the professional assessment.

"They (the players) live in each other's back pocket and get to know each other, so it is a fast-tracking
of building chemistry in the group," he said.

"(But) if we just got the chemistry response and didn't get a physical adaptation to it, we wouldn't go.

"The one sort of measurable response is the ability to endure and to stay hard and strong.

"That's what you can do there because it is not a normal way of life for these players who live and play at sea-level to have to endure this shock to the system."

Anthony, who has been involved in the management of altitude training sites for 16 years, said the camps were about giving teams a winning edge, however small.

"The gains from altitude training seem, from the outside looking in, to be quite small - perhaps one to three per cent," he said.

"But in high level sport where the margins of victory are so unbelievably small and the levels of fitness and talent of the athletes so similar, such a seemingly small percentage can actually be a game-changer and often means the difference between winning and losing.

"In my experience of working with the AFL teams, they are very smart about getting the most out of the relatively short altitude camps.

"And they are smart about knowing what they don't know as well, taking advantage of the ample outside resources in Australia's greater sport science community to bolster their knowledge base and craft as efficient an altitude camp as possible."

McKenna said he uses the training camps to gauge the mental strength of his players.

Suns player Jacob Gillbee hiking through the snow in Arizona. Pic: Ben Jaensch Source: Supplied

"With any good group or organisation, it is about finding out about your individual mental and physical capabilities," the Suns coach said.

"Once you find out who is good, bad, indifferent or average, you get to understand which players at certain stages you need to encourage to push harder.

"And I'm sure Collingwood would say after four or five years of doing that, they learn to endure longer."

Veidreyaki said there were different schools of thought in regards to duration of exposure to altitude and subsequent long-term benefits.

"Logical thinking would deduct that the longer the exposure, the longer the benefits," she said.

"In the case of AFL teams doing altitude training in October-November, they are not conducting these camps in order to have a better chance to win on actual Grand Final day in September the following year.

"The presumed intention of these camps being conducted when they are in the year, is to attempt to improve the quality and productivity of the training sessions of the players during the preseason/early season, which will have a positive impact on the team come game time."

So - whether you are a believer or not - expect to see clubs returning year after year.