Rugby Strength & Conditioning
Planning & Periodisation: Power Training
Power is built upon strength and therefore, without a solid strength base, any power generation will be limited. Often power training without the strength base will lead to injuries and excessive periods of muscle soreness. In all power training sessions, be fast, reduce rest time and be explosive!
Rugby Union has numerous power related actions and movements, here are some examples:
1) Strength & Power through the legs - this drill will focus on staying on your feet and going forwards.
2) These next two focus on how we can use our body to power off the floor in the tackle, jackal & compete aspect of the game. The longer the player is on the floor the less impact they have and the less they tend to be involved.
3) Strong arms, shoulders and torso also allow players to control opposition players as they attempt to tackle or shut players down. Using a fend effectively we can then offload with better technical control.
Plyometrics Training is an excellent way to transition into applied power training where we reproduce many of the movements from rugby into a more specific power development session. Traditionally plyometrics has been the cornerstone of developing power in athletes and sports-people. It is important that a trained S & C coach or a coach with training in Athletic Movements be guiding you. Far too many injuries are caused in this phase of the season by simply poor technique or players doing too much / overtraining.
Using jumping techniques - medicine ball techniques or explosive movements we can transition confidently into expressing our strength in a rugby movement.
Remember that making a session fun is key! You can easily add in constraints for power by, for example, including a power press up or burpee into any game.
As we move into our POWER Development phase we also need to be aware that our muscles not only need to be strong and powerful, but they need to be able to repeat movement numerous time - this is Muscular Endurance and we will cover this next week.
The pre-season phase (macro cycle) can be chunked up into several other blocks or micro-cycles for example:
- 2-3 week strength
- 2 weeks - strength & power
- 2 weeks - Muscular endurance & speed
- 2 weeks - ME - Speed & Agility
If you are looking to set up a school or club account
with RCD then please get in touch with info@rugbycoachingdrills.com
