Renowned trainer Bill Knowles has spent a fortnight with the Gold Coast Suns, as the side aims to breakthrough for a maiden finals appearance in 2023.
Knowles has worked with some of the biggest names in sport across his career, including Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez and Andy Murray.
AFL Media reported on Sunday that Knowles has spent a fortnight at the club, persuaded to make the trip from America in part due to Suns high performance manager Alex Rigby.
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“We just thought we could get great value, not only with the injured guys, but staff and our wider group,” Rigby told AFL Media.
“I see high performance as getting leaders in all areas and adding to your programs.
“If we‘re not constantly being curious and reaching for the stars like we did with Bill, we’re not high performance.
“When you stop doing that you stop growing and learning.”
Set to return to America on Monday, Knowles completed one-on-one training drills with Ben King, Lachie Weller and Connor Budarick, as all three recover from long-term knee injuries.
Knowles said learning to decelerate was as important as learning to accelerate when it came to recovering from an ACL injury.
“I‘ve had the phrase for years ’if you can’t slow s**t down, don’t speed it up’. You’ve got to be able to stop whatever you accelerate,” he said.
“If you can’t put the brakes on aggressively, you’re not allowed to run fast. It’s simple.
“You may have to become more biased to the deceleration and braking to this athlete because they‘ve had a knee injury. You don’t have to train all your athletes this way, but for a joint compromised athlete, you have to change your strategy.”
Knowles has worked with several AFL players across his career, including Nic Naitanui and Christian Petracca.
