Posted on July 2nd 2018 by Richard Hicks

Pre-Season Planning and Periodisa

Planning and Periodisation

Delivering an effective training session should not be guess work, it takes time and effort to plan a coherent strategy for on and off field performance. To aid in this creative process coaches develop skills in planning, goal setting and preparing players.

**Video: How Important Is The Pre-Season Phase**

To aid the planning we use periodisation, which in essence is the chunking of the season into workable units or phases, each with a specific aim in mind. These phases with time periods for a guide are as follows:

Rest phase - End of season to early/mid July
Pre Season - 8 week block
Early competitive - Early September
Competitive phase - Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec
Transition or rest phase - Xmas and New Year
Competitive phase - Jan/Feb/March/April/May
Repeat above!

Our focus right now is with the rest phase and pre-season phase - we can set some specific SMART goals in these phases that underpin the season ahead. The quality of the pre-season phases can very often determine the success in the competitive phases!

**Video: Pre-Season Tips From The Pros**

There are several approaches that you could take: fitness based, skills based, fun based or all three! Without a doubt pre-season is seen as a chore because traditionally coaches viewed it as an opportunity to train their players hard, but not smart. So training was boring, repetitive and definitely not fun - this is easily changed.

Your pre-season planning needs to encompass, use the clips to help build these into your coaching.

Maximal strength: Watch here 📺
Strength endurance: Watch here 📺
Muscular endurance: Watch here 📺
Power: Watch here 📺
Speed Endurance: Watch here 📺
Agility: Watch here 📺

These film clips give you ideas from which to develop your own rugby fitness training. Remember to have outcomes for each aspect so that you can measure improvement for individual development and provide specific feedback.

To make it fun play games and add in criteria that will develop aspects of fitness you want to work on. For example, to develop aerobic endurance play a drop touch variation:

A sample 8-10 week pre-season plan

Week 1 - Aerobic endurance and strength
Week 2 - Same as week 1
Week 3 - Anaerobic endurance - strengh
Week 4 - Anaerobic endurance - power development (jumping)
Week 5 - Same as week 4
Week 6 - Speed endurance/muscular endurance
Week 7 - Same as week 6
Week 8 - Speed & acceleration - muscular endurance
Week 9 - Same as week 8
Week 10 - Speed & Agility

This is a very simplistic approach but be aware that you build on each layer, miss one out and you will not gain the development you should do. Once you have profiled you team and players you will have a much better idea of which areas you need to develop.

Remember that by using games you build specific aspects of a players understanding but rarely do you get time to be technical. Therefore don't forget to provide technical coaching in specific areas also!

If you are looking to set up a school or club account with RCD then please get in touch with info@rugbycoachingdrills.com