Tomlinson claimed the vacant IBO Super Featherweight title with a unanimous points decision victory over Mexico’s Alan Herrera as part of the undercard at the Danny Green title fight in Perth last week.
Tomlinson spoke with the entire playing group prior to the boys' training session. Tomlinson spoke about preparing for his recent World Title Super Featherweight bout and the disciplines involved in his sport.
The interest from the players and coaches was obvious with Tomlinson asked many questions about his career, his opponents and his training requirements during the 30-minute meeting.
Looking more like the loser of the fight than the winner with 30-stitches in his face, he was asked what he did after being hit and facing adversity and his reply was that he went back to his game plan. This, of course, was music to the coaches’ ears.
The World Champion was full of praise for the team behind him and the support he was given and said he never cut corners in his preparations for the fight. In his five-week training camp in the lead up to the fight, Tomlinson slept on a mattress on the floor rather than in a hotel and suggested it was a little tougher than the accommodation at Emirates Palace the Carlton players had enjoyed in their visit to Abu Dhabi.
The association with Carlton is from an introduction to Carlton’s High Performance team by via the Sydney training group Competitive Edge, which is headed by super coach Hayden Knowles. Knowles guided Will’s exercise regime and requested some assistance with Will’s diet and supplementation regime.
For six weeks the Carlton High Performance team thoroughly matched Will’s diet to the training program designed by Knowles. Knowles the former Parramatta Eels conditioning guru, along with Anita Sirotic and Craig Catterick had been working closely with Will for some time and had him physically well prepared.
The assistance provided by Carlton’s High Performance team was to ensure that Will dropped 7-8 kg whilst maintaining performance. The synergy worked really well and Will made weight (58.8kg) with 200grams to spare. The balance between training and diet is of critical importance in this sport.
The best thing was that Will’s feedback throughout the camp was that he “felt” good and stayed strong even whilst reducing calories. His discipline to follow a plan resulted in a successful result.
Following the success of the program leading into the world title fight and the meeting with the Carlton players at Visy Park Tomlinson is expected to be seen around Visy Park more often during 2012. Indeed, he is likely to take up the offer from Justin Cordy and the Carlton High Performance Team to utilize the outstanding training facilities at Visy Park in preparation for his next bout.
