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This page looks at the fitness requirements for rugby. You link to more specific pages from here. This part of the site is based on the:
- Speed, Agility and Quickness, SAQ(r) book & video.
- Brian Mckenzie's Sports Coach website and newsletter.
- John Kenbeek has added a strength training program.
- Plyometrics work based on a video from Human Kinetics.
- Fitness requirements for Rugby from Dave McLean, former Scottish Rugby Union fitness adviser.
- Other material and lots of discussions with other people.
With all those books you read on the rugby and fitness topic it is difficult to digest a program that is suitable NOT for full time professionals but for rugby teams that train two - three times a week.
I have used SAQ (r) for a couple of years now as the basis for not only my fitness work but as a basis for everything I do. I am very enthusiastic about it. Apart from everything else, if your team has fitter, faster, more mobile players you are earlier at the make-or-break situation than your opponents and you will win games. Increasing the potential of ALL your players is something you can achieve when implementing the SAQ ideas. Yes, SAQ is much more than dribbling across these ladders.
I will present the SAQ model (the SAQ Continuum) but also try to show how this is also a generic model for learning new skills. First, what is this SAQ stuff? It is about activating the nervous system using special exercises and equipment that helps providing feedback to the body. SAQ does not promote a warm-up of three laps around the pitch! It does not include any running of longer distance at all.
The SAQ Continuum structures a training session as follows:
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Dynamic Flex (Warm-up+)
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Getting ready, physically AND mentally. No stretching whatsoever!
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Mechanics
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learning the skill
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Innervation
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Increase the tempo
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Accumulation of potential
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Mixing in more elements
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Explosion
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High intensity. Focus on the speed of execution
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Expression of potential
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This is where it all should come together in a game like situation.
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Warm-down
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This is cooling down - some stretching is done
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The SAQ books and videos are all based around this idea and it is all focused on learning evasive running skills. I will try to describe how the learning of other rugby skills can be done in the same model.
Mechanics |
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On the mobility aspect: Co-ordination and programmed agility are instructed through light plyometrics, zigzagging through a row of markers, little shuttle runs, picking up the ball, head-roll and other similar exercises.
The emphasis here is on teaching bio-mechanically sound movements to develop the all the motor skills the body needs to make high frequency movements possible. For example starting with small steps keeping feet tot the ground.
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Think about working on the team's contact skill using hit shields. Focus on the individual.
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Innervation (Activation of the neural pathways) |
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This transition stage in the training session between warm-up and high-demand periods of work is characterized by footwork drills for co-ordination, such as the Fast foot ladder, dance-like foot patterns, or read-and-react tennis ball drills similar to the baseball infielder's drills. Key is increasing speed while keeping the mechanics sound.
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More general: this is where you traditionally add more variables to the exercise.
In my contact skill training you can bring in several hit shields a bigger group.
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Accumulation of potential |
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This is the "conditioning" time of practice and programmed agility, but in very controlled quantities. The potential for injury is high if you mix fatigue with high quantities of drills and prolonged elapsed time of direction change. Combination of different running styles in one exercise like an obstacle course run is great for varied stimuli movements.
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Again, for the regular rugby stuff you can imagine that this is more the training in game like situation and speed.
In my contact skill training example: this is where I ditch the shields a go for a more realistic approach. Group - and grid size are important control parameters here.
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Explosion |
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In this stage, where programmable and random agility is trained, work is done with medicine ball throws, high-quality plyometrics jumping over tackle bags and contact shields, and short speed bursts. Tennis ball drop and recovery drills, and resistance running either by players holding each others shirts, sprint harnesses and downhill running. Or over speed running, downhill are all part of the Explosion phase.
Look at the intensity of this work-out: this is the place for fast action, but not tongue-hanging-out fatigue.
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This is where you would do your game like rugby training. high intensity work. Interval training is a good format. When defining a set of interval runs you can get a feeling about the players by measuring the drop off throughout the set.
Another good format is resistance training, this is the ability to overcome a resistance or hold against a force. Strength can be very static, like scrumming, or very dynamic like breaking out of a tackle. Therefore strength training can take various forms. This is why I have made plyometrics an integral partf of training programs. Plyometrics is based on the principle that a contracted muscle can deliver more force. It also uses the body as the weight in the exercises so lots of exercises are easy to implement on the field. There are lots of plyometric and resistance running elements in standard SAQ anyway.
Read about lactate thresholds and more complicated stuff below...
Fortify your team psychologically, with this I mean you team's ability to put in the hard work. Applaud and complement your team on their work ethic.
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Expression of potential |
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With the last stage everything comes together, the practiced skills applied in a game like situation.
Speed is important in sprinting but also important in reaction time or speed of thought. Agile players can evade tacklers and quickness means explosiveness. With the special SAQ programs developed to improve the performance of athletes involved in team sports. It is very useful in rugby.
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This is the where your sessions is nearly game like. You can control it by realizing the ball (I always carry several balls), how much you allow and focus on only those elements you did before.
In my contact training example I would have a 5v5 game in a 10x10 grid. Every stoppage I would release another ball.
Using your voice is very important here!
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Coaching Tips 
