After having his initial plans for the post-season break ruined by a foot injury, Kurt Tippett turned to unconventional training methods in a bid to ready himself for the start of the Crows’ first pre-season under coach Brenton Sanderson.

Determined to keep up with the increasing aerobic demands on forwards in the modern game, Tippett started training almost immediately after returning home to the Gold Coast in September.

However, a flare-up of an existing foot injury confined the 24-year-old to ‘moon boot’, putting a serious dent in his offseason fitness regime.

Unable to run, Tippett took embarked on a rigorous program of swimming and boxing under the tutelage of legendary surf coach Pat O’Keeffe, whose pupils have included ironmen Trevor Hendy and the Eckstein brothers.

“I wanted to come back to pre-season training in good shape from an endurance perspective, so I did some work during the post-season break … I didn’t really stop training,” Tippett told afc.com.au.

“In the last month of the season I had a sore foot.

“I thought the rest would allow my foot to heal, but a couple of weeks into the offseason it still wasn’t better.

“I went for a run and it blew up, so we did the scans which showed it was a stress fracture.

“Because of the stress fracture, I couldn’t do much running and had to find other ways to get fit.

“I have friends back home, who are ironmen.

“I did a lot of swimming, boxing and cross-training with them.

“That training has helped me and I think I’ve taken a step forward with my endurance.

“The injury could’ve been a blessing in disguise really - I got some rest, did some cross-training and my body feels really good now.”

Tippett also hit an indoor rock climbing centre as part of his cross-training program.

“Rock climbing was cool,” he said.

“A friend of mine, who is a strength coach, takes his clients rock climbing as an alternative to everyday strength training.

“It doesn’t look that hard, but the guys that do it must just be so strong.

“It’s a good chance to get out of the gym and it’s certainly very challenging.

“I’d love to be able to go outdoors and do it, but I should probably master the indoor version first.”

Unable to adhere to his regular Pilates and yoga routine, Tippett also dabbled in meditation.

“My mum was going to a meditation class one day, so I decided to tag along,” he said with a laugh.

“I was doing a lot of swimming and cross-training, so I used the meditation for a bit of down time and to freshen up a bit.

“We live fast-paced lives these days and don’t always get enough time to relax, so that was my time to do that.”

Tippett’s offseason training program put him in good stead for the start of the pre-season, where his focus shifted to ‘skill development’.

The former basketballer, who only took up Australian Football as a teenager, could regularly be spotted on Max Basheer Reserve before training having a kick with development coach Tate Kaesler.

“I kicked and marked the ball a lot over the summer,” he said.

“Poor Tate … I grabbed him to come and have a kick with me so many times.

“We joked that I was trying to wear out his quad and that he’d be the first one to get injured out of the two of us, but I wasn’t able to do that to his credit.

“We’ve certainly done a lot of extra work and I appreciate the time he puts in to helping me.

“I’m feeling a lot more confident as a result of that extra training and, hopefully, it holds me in good stead going forward.”

Tippett also worked closely with former Crows ruckman and current development coach Matthew Clarke.

The 202cm, 104kg, goalkicker played almost exclusively as a forward last season, but ventured outside the forward 50m to pinch-hit in the ruck during Adelaide’s NAB Cup campaign.

“‘Sando’ sees playing in the ruck as a part of my role … so I’ve been trying to improve in that area,” he said.

“I’ve really enjoyed playing a dual role.

“Playing in the forward line has probably still been my primary focus, but I’ve also been able to give Sammy Jacobs a bit of a relief in the ruck.”

In another slight adjustment under Sanderson, Tippett has been tried in a high-forward role, at times leaving Taylor Walker or trade week recruit Tom Lynch to man the goal square.

Tippett hoped experience up the ground would make him a ‘more-rounded’ player.

“I’ve been playing up the ground a bit, which has been good for my development because I’ve played a bit closer to goal previously,” he said.

“Hopefully I can get that mix right, so I can help out wherever the team needs me.”

The ninth-most used target inside 50m in the AFL, Tippett shouldered too much of the load in the Crows’ forward line last season, finishing with a return of 31 goals from 18 matches.

In contrast, Adelaide averaged 11 different goalkickers in its last three NAB Cup games.

Tippett was hopeful the multi-faceted forward line and the faster ball movement also on show throughout the pre-season competition would make the Crows a dangerous team to play against.

“As a (forward line) group we were pretty consistent over the NAB Cup and that’s probably due to the wide range of contributors we had,” Tippett said.

“Everyone popped up and kicked goals.

“We haven’t been reliant on one player and I think we’re going to be hard to match up on.

“We’ve become a bit more predictable to each other, but in a good way.

“It’s hard to defend if the ball is moving quickly.

“Teams are playing more ‘team defence’ now, and fast ball movement can be effective against it because defenders can get lost or caught out of opposition quite easily.

“Hopefully, it can give us an advantage if we’re able to move the ball quickly.”

Check back later in the week to read the rest of afc.com.au's chat with Kurt ahead of the Club's season-opener against Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Saturday