The NAB AFL Academy has been in America for a 10-day high performance camp in Florida and Los Angeles. Throughout, highly rated Vic Metro and Sandringham Dragons key forward Max King has been writing a diary for AFL.com.au. Here is the second and final update.

Day six: Friday, January 19 

Bradenton, Florida 

Today was a big one for the group as it was our main conditioning session. This was broken up into four quarters to emulate a game, and consisted of a 2km time trial, eight 100-metre sprint efforts, a wrestling circuit and a 10-minute run to finish.

I was happy with my 2km time, having improved from our last camp in Darwin in December. I have been working pretty hard on my endurance between camps through a program given to us through our high-performance coach Paul Sealey, so was pleased how I went.

Because everyone gave 100 per cent in the time trial, the conditioning that followed was extra tough but we got through it. In the wrestling section, we had to try get the ball off one another and I was matched up against Jack Lukosius in what was an even battle.

Academy US tour diary: part one

Ned McHenry's leadership stood out during the session as he was helping everyone through with his encouragement, and he also ran a great time trial himself by finishing second overall.

In the afternoon, we had some team building exercises at the IMG Academy, which included some soccer games against the coaches.

Spotlight on: I've known Bailey Smith since we played together and against each other at under-12s level, so am aware of how hard he works. It was no surprise he took out today's time trial (running 6:07 minutes). It's hard to watch someone else while you're running, but by all reports he had a great run and deserved to win. 

Day seven: Saturday, January 20

Bradenton, Florida to Santa Monica, Los Angeles

After a busy week at the IMG Academy most of Saturday was spent heading to Los Angeles, via Atlanta.

I'm lucky enough to have previously been to Santa Monica on a family trip, where we're staying until Wednesday, so had a good idea of what it's like here but a fair few of the guys were excited to check out the famous pier when we arrived.

It was a nice sunset which made it pretty busy down there with plenty of buskers and tourists. We got a lot out of our time at the IMG Academy and enjoyed it, but it was also nice to get to LA for the final leg of our trip.

Spotlight on: It was no surprise to see Curtis Taylor and Rhylee West down at the pier together given they've been inseparable the whole trip. And they've been two of the guys to stand out on the track.

Day eight: Sunday, January 21

Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Everyone was eager to get to training this morning given our session was at the University of California, Los Angeles. We had heard a lot about the place but I was taken by the size of it when we got there – it's like a mini-city with people everywhere.

Before each training our coach Luke Power gives a short presentation using vision from previous days to give us some focus points to take into the next session. All the boys get a lot out of it, and he makes sure to highlight the good things we do and where we can get better.

Over the past two years in the Academy Luke has been great to work with. He's always willing to help and has a really good awareness of each player's individual strengths and areas to improve.

We did a drill in today's session with Brent Harvey, who is an assistant coach this trip, about breaking off the lines before kicking, as he was an expert at this throughout his amazing career.

In the afternoon we headed to the Staples Center to check out an NBA game between the LA Lakers and New York Knicks. It seemed most of us got some sort of Lakers merchandise to support the home side and that was a good thing as they ran away with a big win.

Spotlight on: I've been in Bailey Williams' group for lots of training on this trip and his marking and movement for a big man is really impressive.

Academy coach Luke Power directs players during a drill at the IMG Academy in Florida

Day nine: Monday, January 22

Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Our last main training of the trip was a hard one, consisting of game simulation drills. We've been working on quick transition of the ball across the last couple of weeks, and we put that into practice today.

Tarryn Thomas was really good in the handball drill and he's a player with great skills who should have a strong season this year, while Matt Green also trained well with his speed and agility.

After a gym session at UCLA we were lucky enough to have a tour of the campus, including getting a glimpse inside their basketball stadium.

Once done there we headed to the outlet shops about half an hour out of town for some shopping. I picked up some clothes but it was nothing on Izak Rankine's haul of shopping bags when he got back to the bus.

Spotlight on: Today's spotlight goes to the Boston Celtics, who we saw walk past us at UCLA before preparing for their next game against the Lakers. Nick Blakey tried to get a selfie with Aron Baynes, a fellow Australian, but was pushed away.

Day 10: Tuesday, January 23

Santa Monica, Los Angeles

In what was our first full day off of the trip, we headed to Disneyland in Anaheim in the morning. Ben and I had already been there before, but we were looking forward to checking it out again with the full group.

I spent a lot of the day with Isaac Quaynor across the day and he's been someone I've been able to get to know well across the tour, having not spent too much time together before this trip. We also spent a lot of the day with Bailey Smith and Matt Green, and we were all pretty good on most of the rides, except the Guardians of the Galaxy ride did get a few screams out of us.

Because the tour has been so demanding from a footy perspective, to get out to Disneyland as a group and enjoy a day away from training was a nice way to finish off the trip.

We had dinner at the nearby ESPN Centre before getting back to the hotel for the final night here in America before we travel back to Australia tomorrow.

Max King during the 2km time trial at the IMG Academy

Day 11: Wednesday, January 24 

Santa Monica, Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia

As we end the tour it's fair to say the group has become a lot closer as teammates. In previous camps, we might've stuck with teammates from our own states, but I've found over the past two weeks we've mixed more into different groups.

One of the guys for me has been Matty Walker, who I'd spent a bit of time with before this camp, but I'm keen to watch him play for the Allies and come up against him later this season at the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships.

I'm looking forward to getting home and back into the routine of school and my local teams, but it has been an amazing trip and getting the opportunity to travel across the world for my footy with some of my best mates is something I'll always remember and be appreciative of.