Introduction to Preparing Athletes for the Challenging Sport of Rugby Union
By
Thomas McLaughlin
For those not familiar with the sport, rugby union is a professional,
widespread sport in Europe and countries in the southern hemisphere (Australia).
Working within the sphere of physical preparation for rugby union presents many
unique challenges and tests players to the limit of their mental and physical
resolve. The following will offer some insight into my environment working for
Bristol Rugby in England.
We are a fully professional club competing in the newly formed championship,
which is the second tier competition in England (one level below the equivalent
of the NFL). We are favorites to be promoted at the end of the season. All
players finished last season on April 24th and had to return to begin
pre-season training on June 8th. This gave me roughly 13 weeks to work on the
various aspects of physical preparation and six weeks without sport practice.
Over this period, I have to address the needs of 40 professional players whose
ages range from 18 to 36.
In my opinion, rugby is one of the most difficult sports to prepare players
for competition. It requires players to have high levels of muscular strength,
power, and speed, and players must excel in anaerobic energy system work. The
position of forward has the most complex demands. Players in this position must
be the strongest players but are also required to have high work capacity
levels. The backline players are required to be powerful and quick and must be
able to exploit gaps in the defense. A game lasts 80 minutes with only 10
minutes for half time. This often leads to games being won or lost in the last
15–20 minutes, when conditioning levels and high skilled players become more
prevalent.
The competitive season starts in September and lasts until May. There are 12
teams in the league, and they all play each other at home and away matches. In
February, the top eight teams split into two pools of four and begin the
play-offs. There is a “cup final” each week, and the pressure on coaches and
players to deliver is massive. Games are played on Fridays, Saturdays, or
Sundays. A situation that I find myself in is that we may have played on
Saturday and then have another game on Friday night the following week, which
produces a six-day gap between games. This places a large emphasis on
restoration, and I must thoroughly monitor all players to ensure they will be
playing at optimum performance levels.
At my club, I’m in a fortunate position due to my close working relationship
with the sport coaches. We ensure that each week is carefully planned and that
each session has a specific intensity level. If necessary, we plan blocks of
rest days into a long week to ensure players are fresh on game day. All of the
players wear heart rate monitors for their sport practices (about six teams in
the competition above ours have GPS-satellite navigation systems). The
information is downloaded to a computer, and feedback is provided to both
players and the sport coach. This may lead to a player needing some extra energy
system work or telling the sport coach that the practice needs to be at a lower
level of intensity.
To give you an idea of a weekly template in the competition block, I’ve
included an example below. The following displays a week where we have played on
a Sunday and are working toward a Saturday game.
Monday
Morning, massage and recovery
Evening, free
Tuesday
Morning, lower body strength, 50 minutes
Evening, rugby; skill-based games for 50 minutes
Wednesday
Morning, upper body strength, positional drill for 60 minutes
Evening, rugby; tough session involving contact and energy system work for 65
minutes
Thursday
Day off
Friday
Morning, power weights, short team run for 45 minutes
Evening, free
Saturday
Morning, free
Evening, game day!
Sunday
Day off
Thomas McLaughlin is the head of physical preparation for Bristol Rugby,
where he has been employed for five years. He assists within the strength and
conditioning department to ensure that all of the players are well equipped to
deal with the physical demands of Guinness Premiership rugby. Tom earned his
bachelor’s degree with honors in sport and exercise science from UWIC and is
also certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). He
recently completed Level 2 of the Charles Poliquin strength program. He can be
contacted at tjmclaughlin@me.com.
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