Combining Fitness for Rugby with Rugby Coaching - ‘How to’

Well, if my mail box is anything to go by I am sure most of the readers of the this blog are feeling sore after undertaking a few rugby fitness sessions with pre-season. For those of you in the middle of your season - good  luck - you have it all ahead of you.

I have lost count of the amount of rugby coaching sessions I have structured around combining getting fit for rugby and the coaching side of things.

But there is a simple format you can use - BLOCKS.

Blocks or stations are taken from circuit training. Groups move from one block to the next. Each block has a goal and a purpose. One block may be conditioning based. Another block may be strength endurance based. Another block may be skill based.

Setting Up

At the moment our training focuses around the completion of 4 blocks. 2 conditioning and 2 skills that are also conditioning based. Groups spend 20 minutes at each block or station. Each station is manned by an assistant rugby coach.You can divide your large groups into smaller groups and allocate them to start at a station.  If you are short on numbers that is ok just move with the group around the stations

Here is a run down of what we have been doing. Apologies if you are a visual learner. I am a participant aswell as an orchestrator so bringing a camera is not really going to make things easier…

Block 1 - Conditioning

Mixture of press ups, core work and strongman drills involving heavy tyre flipping. Wrestling drills are included in this section too. This is balls out intensity so leave it to someone who can deliver on this front. You want someone who is a nasty bastard.

Block 2 - Skills

This week ( I have to credit Eoin Burke for this one) we did a great handling drill that included working under fatique and pressure. Grid 30m wide and 22m deep with 2 stations marked at the end and the side of the grid. This is best played 6-8 vs 6-8 so if you have more numbers then make another grid.

Touch rugby - aim of the game is to score each time. Ball is ‘turned over’ once a mistake is made. A try resets the game with both teams returning to their lines before the coach blows the whistle.

Now here is the nuts and bolts of it - once a defender has mad a touch, he runs back to a station performs 10 press ups or sit ups and then returns to the game. The idea is that the attacking team can manufacture an overlap and recognise where the space is. The defending team will have to defend around the ball as this is where the space is once the tackle has been made.

Block 3 - Conditioning

We push small tyres and run phosphates. Fun. For those of you unsure, phosphates include sprinting every 30s for 40m before using a 20m jog recovery (out and back 10m). The group starts on the sprint line before the whistle blows again. I will post a video showing you how to use the small tyres. These make a great alternative to the prowler.

Block 4 - Contact

This is where we are phasing in contact. Each week contact is built with the skills being broken down and developed in to full blown contact situations i.e. 8 on 8. This transition normally takes 3-4 weeks. Although we have a trial match next week so that puts pay to that one. Sometimes just diving in can work too….

This is great way to structure your training around. Some additional pointers:

1) If it is conditioning then don’t stand around listening to the sound of your own voice. Communicate what you need to do at the start of the session during the warm up. You coach, you don’t play. Get into good habits by letting your players do the thinking on the pitch.

2) If you have a large group (40+) then you may have to divide into smaller teams. Allocate a team leader for each. Then each week make sure that you don’t start at the same point. Ideally you want every group going from conditioning => skills => conditioning => skills

3) Do not be frightened (particularly if you are an amateur club) of pushing your players to their absolute limits. Overtraining is hard to achieve. Mental staleness isn’t. Which means if you are doing the same thing over and over again then stop. Your players will find it tough to respond to the same diatribe each week. Train your players to face the cauldron that is match day by pushing them to their limits….they will think that playing a match is actually easy.

4) With point 3 in mind, make sure that every 4th week you take your foot off the pace to make sure some form of positive adaptation takes place. I wrote about this here. This is crucial. This is where you schedule something different, maybe some skill work or something different altogether  - we are running in the forest for example on our deload week.

5) Make sure that you encourage good recovery strategies and habits. Contrast baths, good nutrition, sleep, post workout shakes, massage, pool sessions and stretching are crucial. What you break down must be allowed to repair. Accelerate this process.

John Lark is author of Get Fit for Rugby

Tagged as: fitness 4 rugby, fitness for rugby, get fit for rugby, rugby coaching, rugby fitness