A good (or bad!) preseason rugby training schedule can sometimes make or break a team’s season. Here are six core principles to follow.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: March 5th, 2024
4 min read

Contents

1. Summary
2. Train the sport from day one
3. Keep the conditioning as close to the sport as possible
4. Prioritise speed in weekly training plans
5. Warm-up slots are critical and should be specific to the onset of training
6. Concentrate on the most important element first

Summary

Preseason rugby training schedules are vital for athletic performance and there are six core principles to follow. The sport should be the number one priority, so train the technical and tactical aspects of the sport from day one, with conditioning performed as close to the sporting movements as possible. As preseason time is limited, the earlier athletes can be exposed to the sport-specific movements of their sport, the more prepared they will become for competition.

Train the sport from day one

“So many teams and coaches struggle to focus on the sport they are playing. Usually when people think of preseason, they think it is all fitness-based with a little bit of sport action at the end,” said de Lacey.

“You should plan your preseason differently. A sport-specific focus should be the priority, as training in that way best prepares athletes for the various elements of their sport. You can be a physically conditioned athlete but without the tactical/technical awareness, you can’t execute the game plan.”

The experienced strength and conditioning coach continued, “physical conditioning is still a very important part of preseason training. However, it is secondary to the sport-specific training required and the volume of conditioning work should be built up during a preseason period rather than front loaded at the start.”

Keep the conditioning as close to the sport as possible

“The more time an athlete can spend conditioning themselves for the movements and tasks that will regularly occur within the sport, the better the outcome,” said de Lacey.

For example, rugby is a sport that involves lots of linear and multi-directional running with lots of contacts and collisions, so training should incorporate these sport-specific movements from the start of your preseason.

De Lacey continued: “The earlier you can safely expose your athletes to those movements, the better. You shouldn’t go full-out to start with, especially with contacts and collisions, but you should build this into the start of your planning to effectively condition athletes for the sport.”

Prioritise speed in weekly training plans

“Speed is the number one physical ability to be prioritised in a plan in rugby and sports alike. In order to do this, you should break out your training days to have a high-intensity day followed by a low-intensity day, as this gets the best results,” explained de Lacey.

“Sprinting, ground contact strength work, and power should be the focus during your high-intensity training. Your low-intensity days enable athletes to recover and set their bodies for the coming high-intensity days.”

Low days should cover aerobic conditioning, skills/structures, and easy gym sessions to enable athletes to focus on their high-speed training days, where athletes should look to elicit max outputs.

Progress volume and intensity together

Traditional models of preseason suggest coaches should start with high volume and low intensity, with this slowly inversing as preseason goes on.

De Lacey instead suggested “volume and intensity should be progressed together in a logical manner, since that allows athletes to adapt earlier to heavier workloads.”

When doing this, he said: “a problem might arise if your athletes have come to preseason having done nothing or very little. To get around this, progress volume and intensity together slowly to avoid any risks.”

Warm-up slots are critical and should be specific to the onset of training

A coach’s time is limited and even more so when you factor in all the progressions teams and athletes need to make in preseason to be prepared for the upcoming competition or season.

“To maximise the time you have with your athletes, a ‘random’ 15-minute warm-up shouldn’t be completed. Instead, use the warm-up to reflect the training that is planned for that day or a skill that you want your athletes to develop,” said de Lacey.

“You could focus on a speed-based warm-up with sub-optimal sprint drills, before moving into your sprint training session. Ultimately, the warm-up should feel part of the session rather than something completely opposite to training.”

Concentrate on the most important element first

Previous preseason models suggested organisation of training should start with a strength-based exercise.

“This is often because coaches didn’t want fatigue to interfere with improvements in the gym. Although I argue that you should focus more on your training objective first, rather than strength,” said de Lacey.

“If, for example, speed is the priority, then training specific to that objective should be completed first when athletes are fresh. This ensures that you focus on the high-risk part of training when athletes are most prepared and low-risk, towards the end of the day, when fatigue takes place.

“If strength is the priority, then you should first focus on strength. But very few sports, outside of strength-based lifting and some athletic sports, have strength as the priority. Often the priority is speed.”

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To effectively develop athletes, coaches should follow three progressive steps in their training plans: define the demands of the sport, categorise those demands into coachable components, and model training plans to target athlete skill mastery.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

• Athlete development relates to the process of mastering skills, becoming more efficient at sporting actions and enhancing athletes’ technical understanding of play to become more competitive.
  
• To effectively develop athletes, coaches should follow three progressive steps in their training plans: define the demands of the sport, categorise those demands into coachable components, and model training plans to target athlete skill mastery.
  
• These three steps give coaches a structured tool to use to coach successful performance actions within competition.

Athlete development: What coaches need to know

There are many factors that make up athletic performance — coaching, training and nutrition to name a few — and each factor carries with it a lot of ambiguity. Therefore coaches often develop unique approaches as they try to find a way to consistently improve their athletes’ performance.

However, implementing models and frameworks to develop consistency can be vital, a leading performance and rehabilitation coach says.

“Models and frameworks are important to developing the consistency required to produce successful performance routinely. They aim to simplify and systemise our strategies, enabling unique coaches to train athletes appropriately in their development,” explains leading performance rehabilitation coach Joey Wannouch in his Science for Sport presentation titled “Athlete Development Framework’.

3 progressive steps for athlete development

Wannouch mentioned coaches should follow three progressive steps in order to simplify and systemise their training and development strategy:

1. Define: Identify Demands
2. Categorising: Coachable Components
3. Model: Strategic Planning and Periodisation

Define: Identify Demands

During this stage, “coaches should define key movement processes. To do so, conduct both sport and athlete-orientated needs analysis,” said Wannouch.

“Your sport needs analysis will allow you to understand competition level, sport duration, game stoppages, and positions of play. This is fairly basic but it is important to outline the context in which your athletes compete.”

For a sport like football (soccer), an example needs analysis features below:

Categorising: Coachable components

Once you have completed your needs analysis and identified sport demands, you can categorise the tasks and movement patterns.

“Find the common movements across each sporting task and then identify the coachable athletic components. Typical components include: stances, linear and lateral movements, acceleration/deceleration, multi-directional agility, jumping and landing, and others,” mentioned Wannouch.

The process of categorising simplifies processes that would otherwise be overwhelming and enables coaches to develop compound drills that can improve multiple movement pattern qualities.

“At this stage of the framework, you should have defined the demands of the sport and the actions required during competition, identified the movements associated with those specific actions, defined the demands of the athletes and identified their strengths and weaknesses, and categorised the movements into coachable athletic components,” said Wannouch.

Model: Strategic Planning and Periodisation

“In this stage, you should apply your knowledge of athletic drills to improve the underlying qualities associated with identified movement components. This allows for skill mastery and increases the quality and consistency of the actions within the sport; thus, improving performance outcomes,” outlined Wannouch.

To master and improve performance outcomes, coaches need to strategically progress the movement components through increasing stimuli and imposed demands. Wannouch outlined five stages athletes should be taken through:

1. Predictive conditions – athlete dictated (initiates, directs, and grades movement)
2. Reactive conditions – movement executed in response to stimulus (e.g., coach calling out which direction to move in, left or right)
3. Resisted/loaded movements – develop directional strength (strength, power, and speed in movement should be focused on, such as performing resistance band movements)
4. Perturbative/unstable conditions – Challenge athlete stability with unstable surfaces or resistances.
5. Controlled chaotic conditions – real-time scenarios that are closely related to match demands.

For a lateral progression, specifically focusing on a side shuffle movement, Wannouch’s five stages could look like this:

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Speed is as critical to performance as technical and tactical mastery, as well as strength and conditioning. Here’s how to develop it to blow your opponents away on the pitch.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

• Speed training in football is as critical to performance as technical and tactical mastery, as well as strength and conditioning.

• There are many components of speed which athletes can develop – linear, multidirectional, deceleration, acceleration, change of direction and agility, and top speed.

• In order to achieve the right adaptations for speed improvements, coaches should supplement their drills with power-based strength and conditioning exercises.

Speed training in football: Why it’s crucial

Speed is one of the most vital dimensions of sports performance. Defined as the rate at which someone moves, speed is as critical to performance as technical and tactical mastery as well as strength and conditioning.

Without effective levels of speed, athletes can struggle to compete, so it is vital coaches and athletes focus on developing this aspect of sports performance.

“There are many components of speed which athletes can work on to improve their speed – linear, multidirectional, deceleration, acceleration, change of direction and agility, and top speed,” said leading strength and conditioning coach Andy Hyde during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Game Speed in Football’.

Components of speed

Linear
Linear speed efforts often happen while athletes are already in motion. In football, linear runs do not often exceed 20m and “45% of goal scoring scenarios are preceded by a linear sprint,” said Hyde.

Linear speed is measured by straight-line distance over a period of time.

“Elite football players average 17m per sprint, with forwards, wingers, and fullbacks performing more linear sprints compared to centre midfielders and centre-backs,” explained Hyde.

“To get started, wall drills are a great way to ensure athletes develop the right technique. Athletes should drive their knees forward with force and extend fully at the hip.”

Once the proper technique is adopted, shuttle runs can be included to work on linear acceleration to develop overall speed.

Multidirectional
True change of direction speed in invasion sports is rare – 77% of change of direction in football games are at an angle of less than 90°. Multidirectional speed is associated with curved angled sprints.

“Athletes who are faster in acceleration usually have greater entry velocities into change of directions, which can result in slower exit velocities. Therefore, it is important for coaches to develop athletes’ eccentric strength, eccentric rate of force, deceleration tasks, and efficient technique,” said Hyde.

To develop multidirectional speed, coaches can set up sprints that involve various changes of direction – cones and poles are helpful in forcing athletes to change direction.

Deceleration
Deceleration efforts are highly intense and should be managed and progressed carefully. According to research, high-intensity decelerations occur more often than high-intensity accelerations in field sports.

“Deceleration can be a very damaging skill and can lead to injuries if performed with incorrect technique. When in-season, be very careful when training deceleration skill development since athletes are exposed to lots of those movements during games,” explained Hyde.

YouTube is a great platform to create a needs analysis for your athletes and contains a wealth of content from elite athletes who demonstrate best practice (hips behind the feet to create breaking force), said the leading strength and conditioning coach.

Top speed
In games, athletes rarely reach their top speed – research shows athletes reach on average 92% of their top speed.

“Despite not reaching top speed, athletes engage in frequent but brief exposures towards 85-95% of maximum velocity. The goal here is to ‘bulletproof’ athletes’ hamstrings,” said Hyde.

“Coaches shouldn’t focus too much time on top speed mechanics drills, instead they should incorporate drills in the context of game-specific movements in which acceleration and decelerations are common.”

Four progressions to improve speed

Each progression should last for four weeks to enable athletes to adapt to the drills, new stimuli thrown at them, and overload safely.

“Exercises and skill progressions should be the focus, not sets and reps. In order to achieve the right adaptations for improved speed, coaches should supplement their drills with power-based strength and conditioning exercises,” said Hyde.

Progression 1

• Skill – Lateral shuffle
• Drill – Lateral mirror shuffle
• Power – Skater hop & land
• Strength A1 – Cossak Squat
• Strength A2 – Single-leg Romanian deadlift
• Core – Kneeling palloff hold

Progression 2

• Skill – Lateral shuffle
• Drill – Lateral mirror shuffle against opponent
• Power – Loaded skater hop & land
• Strength A1 – Lateral lunge
• Strength A2 – Single-leg Romanian deadlift
• Core – Standing palloff hold

Progression 3

• Skill – Lateral shuffle
• Drill – Lateral mirror shuffle with shot/block (sport-specific movement)
• Power – Reactive skater hop & land
• Strength A1 – Lateral lunge drop
• Strength A2 – Single-leg Romanian deadlift
• Core – Standing palloff hold & twist

Progression 4

• Skill – 65° cut
• Drill – Bib bulldog
• Power – Lateral hop & land
• Strength A1 – Lateral lunge push
• Strength A2 – Single-leg Romanian deadlift
• Core – Kettlebell pull-through

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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Fitness testing for smaller organisations
3. Why bother with fitness testing?
4. Fitness testing process considerations

Introduction

Fitness testing, irrelevant of budget, is critical for creating and developing a periodised program to improve performance. Coaches with little-to-no budget need to adopt a bottom-up approach, which begins with the problems at hand rather than a vision and objectives. Your fitness test should enable you to take action, adapting your training or shaping the direction of your program to enable your athlete to improve their performance.

Fitness testing for smaller organisations

Many elite organisations have massive budgets that enable them to utilise the latest fitness testing to ensure their athletes are primed for competition. But for those not working in an elite team, budgets can be slim and the prospect of fitness testing can be daunting.

But a leading physical performance coach says too much is made of expensive fitness testing and there are plenty of effective ways coaches and athletes can complete performance tests on limited budgets.

“An effective performance testing program can be performed without a large price tag. Irrelevant of budget, testing is critical because it enables coaches to understand the physical and physiological components of their athletes and the demands of their respective sport. This is central to creating and developing a periodised program to improve performance,” said physical performance coach Tom Watkins during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Fitness testing with Zero Budget’.

Why bother with fitness testing?

According to Watkins, it is important for all coaches to test the fitness of their athletes, irrespective of budget. The physical performance coach outlined the following distinct benefits of fitness testing:

1. Assess an athlete’s readiness to perform.
2. Establish the strengths and weaknesses of athletes (individually and collectively).
3. Compare and benchmark athletes (athlete-to-athlete or year-on-year).
4. Assess and evaluate the effectiveness of each phase of the periodisation training plan.
5. Inform program design.
6. To be used as a pre-injury marker, before a competition.

Fitness testing with a limited (or zero!) budget

“Coaches and athletes with little-to-no budget will need to adopt a bottom-up approach when completing their fitness testing process,” said Watkins.

A bottom-up approach refers to starting with what can be done immediately and beginning with the problems at hand (e.g. equipment, facilities, and the performance level of athletes) rather than with a vision and objectives (top-down).

“A top-down approach is often used by more elite teams that possess extensive budgets,” Watkins said. “They use this approach to create a ‘picture’ of what they want to see (or objectives they want to achieve) from their performance testing. [But] without significant infrastructure — time, resources, and budget – it is too hard to create an objective picture.

“So those with limited or zero budgets should default to a bottom-up approach, assessing and evaluating the challenges they are faced with currently.”
So, what fitness testing can you complete on a limited or zero budget? Watkins described various options coaches should engage with either on the field or in the gym.

Table 1. Budget field tests and gym tests

Testing process considerations

Whilst engaging in the tests listed above, Watkins stated that coaches should follow the following testing order in the hope of reducing the risk of injuries:

1. Non-fatiguing power-based testing
2. Agility testing
3. Maximal strength testing
4. Fatiguing anaerobic capacity tests
5. Aerobic capacity tests.

“Slight adjustments can be made to this process to allow for discrepancies in facilities or equipment, but coaches should follow this process as closely as possible to ensure tests are completed in the least risky manner with respect to injuries. Also, following this process makes it easier for coaches to establish a form of testing consistency, improving the reliability and validity during year-on-year and athlete-to-athlete comparisons,” said Watkins.

And finally, Watkins explained: “Testing is part of the process to improve performance and your test should enable you to take action as a coach. For instance, will the test data be used to adapt your training program or shape the direction of your program and how your athletes train and compete? If not, then stop the test and chose an alternative that allows you to take constructive action.”

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There are myriad variables an athlete and their coach must navigate when it comes to performance and one way to mitigate this complexity is through a sports needs analysis.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
5 min read

A sports needs analysis is the formal process of identifying and assessing the training that athletes should engage with to meet the specific demands of a sport and its competitions.

There are four main reasons for a needs analysis – they are the current best practice when assessing sport demands and athlete needs; enable coaches to objectively share athlete-derived insights among other team staff; bring new team staff quickly up-to-speed on team performance strategy, and provide the framework for future strategy development.

When creating a sport needs analysis, the athlete should be seen as the glue that provides the context and background to a coach’s decisions and insights. To build a comprehensive sport needs analysis, coaches should follow seven pillars – athlete, sport, injury risk, psychology, monitoring, programming, and an annual plan.

Sports needs analysis: An introduction

There are myriad variables an athlete and their coach must navigate when it comes to performance – training, injury risk, human biology and strength and conditioning to name just a few. But one way to mitigate this complexity is through a sports needs analysis, a leading physical performance coach says.

“Factors [coaches must juggle] include, although not limited to: sport and athlete context, athlete biology, training programming, nutrition, injury risk, conditioning and speed,” said Adam Crook during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Holistic Sport Needs Analysis’.
“So, coaches should complete a sport needs analysis, [which is a] formal process of identifying and assessing the training that athletes should engage with to meet the specific demands of a sport and its competitions.”
A needs analysis is often referred to as situational analysis, problem assessment, and/or diagnosis which involves the collecting of background information, understanding the demands of the sport, identifying benchmarks, potential obstacles, and the resources required to perform.

The process of creating a needs analysis is one of the most time-consuming aspects of developing a performance strategy.

“Yet, it is valuable. They are not an evaluation, instead, more of a process of identifying the facts around performance and the athlete to help coaches identify and close the gaps and/or differences between what is done in training and what athletes should be doing as part of a performance strategy,” explained Crooks.

Why complete a needs analysis?

Crook says coaches should engage in a needs analysis for four main reasons:

• Best practice

“A needs analysis enables coaches to better understand the demands of the sport played, competition level, age groups, positional differences, and build a library of resources for future use and objective reflection.”

• Knowledge exchange

“With the objective assessment of an athlete’s needs complete, your multi-disciplinary team (physio/medical, sports coach, strength and conditioning, sports science, nutritional, psychology) can exchange information and create an athlete-specific plan for their development and performance improvement.”

• Education

“The information you can build around your sport and athlete is particularly important for those staff new to your organisation. It enables them to get up to speed quickly on the demands of the sport, what the short- and long-term plans are for the athlete, and support the team as effectively and quickly as possible.”

• Value

“Your sport needs analysis work contributes back to the athletes and provides value for others trying to model their training and/or performance levels.”

Holistic versus traditional approach

Ultimately, a sport needs analysis enables coaches to fully assess and therefore understand the context in which their athletes are performing. A traditional approach to a sport needs analysis considers the following factors:

• Metabolic – What are the main physiological demands of the sport, athletes, and position?
• Biomechanical – What are the main movement pattern demands of the sport, athlete, and position?
• Injury – What are the common injuries?

Crook suggests the approach to a sport needs analysis needs to be more holistic in nature than as described above, as the traditional approach does not encompass the modern nature of sport and is sport-specific rather than athlete-specific.

“Performance is complex and multifactorial – a focus on a single coach/team department is too limiting, so sport needs analysis’ should integrate all interdisciplinary departments. Keep the athlete as the focus of your plan rather than just assessing the demands of the sport, and be progressive enough to reflect sport changes (rule/competition) and an athlete’s lifestyle (relationship/family developments),” explained Crook.

How to build a sports needs analysis

When creating a sport needs analysis, the athlete should be seen as the glue that provides the context and background to any decisions and findings. Crook outlined seven pillars coaches should follow to build a comprehensive sport needs analysis.

• Athlete

Assess: background, context, social environment, training history, and previous medical/physiotherapy.

“Social factors are a key component in providing context to an athlete’s background … and technical competency frameworks (inventory of anticipated knowledge, skills and abilities) such as an OHS Assessment can be used to gather this critical information. Also, screening tools are subjective but they can be utilised for detecting underlying musculoskeletal limitations that might predispose an athlete to injury,” said Crooks.

• Sport

Assess: physiological, biomechanical, and physical.

Crooks explained: “during this stage, coaches should gauge aerobic and lactic capacity required, kinetics and movement demands, movement type, duration, intensity, and frequency, movement patterns and categorisation, and the desired strength, power, and speed of the sport.”

• Injury risk

Assess: relationship to sports activity, mode of onset, mechanism, and injury classification.

“Injury risk is arguably the most important, yet overlooked pillar. If not already in place, practitioners should record injury data according to the classification systems of: Sport Medicine Diagnostic Coding System (SMDCS) & Orchard Sports Injury & Illness Classification System (OSIICS). Also, they should be cautious about claims surrounding ‘injury prediction’ and ‘injury prevention’,” mentioned Crooks.

• Psychology

Assess: Behaviours, traits, and values.

Crooks suggested: “practitioners spend a large amount of time, effort, and energy profiling an athlete’s physical qualities. Less can be said for an athlete’s psychological profile. Subjective archetyping (pattern of behaviour) may be a useful tool for better understanding individual preferences and communication styles. It is important to note that any psychometric evaluation/interventions should come from a qualified sports psychologist.”

• Monitoring

Assess: Testing practices and reliability.

“Monitoring practices are vital for understanding baselines, ranking athletes, evaluating training impact, informing rehabilitation and programming,” explained Crooks.

Performance testing (fitness testing) should follow a logical sequence and should be standardised to ensure the reliability of results.

• Programming

Assess: Rationale and justification for exercise selection and implementation.

“Use the sport and athlete context derived from the other pillars to objectively assess your plan for your athletes, and use it as a reflection tool in the future,” said Crooks.

• Annual plan

Assess: calendar, key fixtures, and travel.

“Extended competition seasons, multiple training goals, concurrent training, time constraints, and impact of physical stress from the sport should all be assessed during an annual plan. Annual plans extend far beyond just the sport and its competition, it should also consider an athlete’s personal calendar,” outlined Crooks.

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An elbow injury can often impact athletes who perform movements like the baseball pitching action, tennis shots, and golf swings, and a rehab program that is staged and structured will best prepare athletes to return to their respective sports.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
3 min read

Elbow injury ‘epidemic’: The dangers of repetitive stress

Elbow injuries plague athletes who perform movements like the baseball pitching action, tennis shots, and golf swings. These movements place repetitive stress on athletes’ joints and the recent rise in these injuries can only be described as an epidemic, a leading performance physical therapist says.

“Year-round play and long competitive seasons are a significant reason for the epidemic of elbow injuries. Research by Leland et al., 2019, outlined that elbow reconstruction surgery, as a result of injury, has increased by 3% (2012 – 2018). The current prevalence of injury reconstruction surgery stands at 26% and 19% in Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball athletes respectively,” leading performance physical therapist Ziad Dahdul said during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Elbow Injury Rehab’.

What are the common elbow injuries?

There are a number of elbow-related repetitive stress injuries seen across all levels of sports like baseball, tennis, and golf.

“These sports place repetitive valgus stress (when the forearm is angled out away from the body when the arm is fully extended and affects medial collateral ligament) from concentric and eccentric loading during their sport-specific movements. Related elbow injuries are referred to as golfer’s and tennis elbow, or to give them their scientific terms, medial and lateral epicondyle tendinopathy,” says Dahdul.

In addition to golfer’s and tennis elbow, Dahdul explains there are a number of other common repetitive stress injuries: “these include ulnar collateral ligament tears, medial apophysitis (referred to as little league elbow), olecranon bursitis, and olecranon stress fractures.”
Anatomy of elbow with lateral, posterior or anterior view vector illustration.
These all-too-common injuries occur at various parts of the elbow and recovering from them effectively is dependent upon the extent of the injury, a structured rehab program, and athletes’ rest and behaviour changes.

Rehab and recovery from elbow injuries

Designing a rehab program that is staged and structured will best prepare athletes to return to their respective sports, Dahdul said.

Dahdul’s five-step recovery plan:

1. Reduce pain, allow the athlete to rest
2. Improve strength with isometric and heavy slow resistance work
3. Build functional strength through progressing into tasks that are closer to the desired sporting motion
4. Introduce plyometrics to develop the stretch-shortening-cycle (the ‘pre-stretch’ action that is observed during explosive human movements)
5. Add sport-specific drills

Before a full return-to-play, Dahdul said: “it’s important to integrate body regions into compound movements to allow for good translation to their sport. The primary goal during repetitive stress rehab is to decrease excessive loading, improve tissue capacity, and determine the root cause of your athlete’s issues.”

Other things to consider with elbow rehabilitation

Dahdul said: “whilst focusing on the elbow and the injured area, it is also important to focus on areas outside of the injured area. The shoulder, thoracic spine, and hips play a significant role in the recovery from elbow injuries.”

Rest and improved technique are also important aspects to mitigate repetitive stress injuries or their reoccurrence during rehab.

“Each athlete is going to recover at their own pace and managing the entire human body through sleep and nutrition all play a credible part of rehabilitation,” explained Dahdul.

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Yoga provides many recovery benefits from both physiological and psychological stress, which can correlate to improved athletic performance.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
3 min read

• Some stress is required for athletes to achieve their optimum performance, but it’s a balancing act – too little stress and athletes become bored but if stress becomes too high, they can experience anxiety.
• Yoga provides many recovery benefits from both physiological and psychological stress which correlates to improved athletic performance.
• Athletes should complete two 30-minute yoga sessions per week to maximise their recovery.

Yoga for recovery: Why you should ponder it as an option

Stress is often perceived as inherently bad for athletic performance. It has been cited to be one of the main contributors to feelings of anxiety, depression, and even physiological  issues like cardiovascular disease. Despite technological and medical advancements, stress can be difficult to recognise, manage, and can negatively impact performance.

Despite the negative impact of stress, Yerkes and Dodson (1908) explained not all stress is bad. In fact, some stress is required for athletes to achieve their optimum performance. Commonly referred to as the inverted-U theory of stress, the researchers’ work dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only to a point. Too little stress and athletes become bored, but if stress becomes too high, then the very same athletes can experience acute anxiety or unhappiness, says a leading performance coach.

“Stress and recovery need to be strategically implemented to elicit increases in athletic performance … where lots of coaches struggle today is that they do not emphasise the importance of recovery, or lack the recovery modalities to accurately address both physical and mental stress,” said Paige Schober, assistant athletic performance coach at the University of California, during her Science for Sport Presentation titled ‘Recovery Yoga for High Performing Athletes’.

Athletes commonly experience the following, if stressed:
Physical stress

• Muscle damage
• Fatigue
• Sleep disturbances
• Testosterone imbalances

Psychological stress

• Burnout
• Staleness
• Depression
• Mental health issues

How yoga can mitigate stress

There is a high correlation between the variables studied in physiological and psychological stress accumulation and the benefits of yoga, Schober said.

“If done correctly, yoga can play a key role in maintaining and improving the physical and mental health of athletes whilst also developing athletic performance through improved recovery,” said Schober.

Yoga helps by improving an athlete’s mindfulness, breathing, movement, relaxation response, and psychological resilience. Schober explained that together, this leads to favourable on- and off-field performance improvements including but not limited to:
Physiological benefits of yoga

• Decreased soreness
• Increased pain tolerance
• Improved sleep
• Increased immune function

Psychological benefits of yoga

• Decreased self-reported stress
• Increased energy
• Increased self-reported recovery
• Decreased depression levels

Yoga prescription for athletes

Schober outlined some best practises for how to prescribe yoga effectively for athletes:

• Athletes should complete two 30-minute yoga sessions per week to maximise their recovery.
• An additional 60-minute session is recommended if the athlete’s time schedule accommodates.
• Teach a prolonged exhale technique to take control of breathing during yoga practice.
• With reference to movements, start with a simple, accessible posture to target mobility and flexibility needs.
• Allow your athletes to become more resilient by progressively challenging and overloading through different yoga examples.
• The greatest influencer for athlete buy-in is word of mouth from other athletes who have attended, so be sure to share testimonials from similar other athletes.

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1. Introduction
2. Speed development: How it can be a game-changer
3. Why correct running mechanics are vital
4. How to assess running mechanics: The 4 Ps

Introduction

Running mechanics are crucial for improving running economy, injury prevention and maximising athletic potential. Team sport athletes don’t need to aim to be 100m sprinters, but sprinting techniques can help any athlete generate more force. The 4 P’s – Posture, Positioning, Placement, Patterning – provide a framework to categorise drills, allowing coaches to emphasise particular components of running mechanics with athletes.

We spoke to Nathan Griffith who is currently the head of academy strength & conditioning at Oxford United FC and undertaking a PhD at the University of Birmingham, understanding and evaluating the relationship between acceleration and deceleration within academy football to find out more.

Speed development: How it can be a game-changer

Running with the right technique is vital for athletes and, with the correct mechanics, they can maximise their speed and ability to perform sport-specific actions. And perhaps more so than ever before, speed is essential as the pace of play in many team sports has increased exponentially in recent years, with athletes, coaches, and teams focusing more on speed development year-on-year, leading strength and conditioning coach Nathan Griffith says.

“Speed is such an important part of team sports and so ensuring your athletes have the right running mechanics is key to ensuring they can compete at the required level of competition. The correct technique leads to improved performance and athletic development,” Nathan Griffith said.

Why correct running mechanics are vital

According to Griffith, running with the correct mechanics has the following three benefits:

• Running economy

“The right mechanics improve an athlete’s economy, which is how efficiently they run. With a high running economy, athletes are able to maintain sub-maximal velocity for longer periods of time, enabling them to work harder for longer,” explained Griffith.

• Injury prevention

Griffith continues, “Coaching the correct technique reduces the risk of injury. At high speed, incorrect technique can expose athletes to a high risk of hamstring injuries, something to be avoided. It is essential to coach ground contact and [foot] strike on the floor.”

• Maximising athletic potential

“Using the correct mechanics ensures you are optimising your athletes’ ability to deliver maximum speed. Through maximum speed, you can improve true athletic potential by allowing your athletes to produce high quality speed movements,” mentioned Griffith.

How to assess running mechanics: The 4 Ps

Before an athlete can implement the right running mechanics, it is important to understand any technical deficiencies.

“We are not training our athletes to become 100m sprinters; however, we are taking qualities out of sprinting which improves technique, thus enabling an athlete to improve their capacity of developing force,” explained Griffith.

To assess running mechanics, the leading strength and conditioning coach suggested a 4 P’s framework – posture, positioning, placement, patterning.

“The 4 P’s enable coaches to categorise drills, allowing them to emphasise particular components of running mechanics within their athletes,” he said.

Posture relates to an athlete’s body alignment and ensuring force is directed towards the desired direction.

“Poor posture will limit their potential, and under- or over-reaching will increase the risk of injury. If aligned properly, athletes can generate maximum force,” said Griffith. “To assess alignment, take a ground-to-head approach to assess your athlete’s body alignment. You should identify if their striking leg is directly underneath their hip at the point of ground contact.”

Positioning explains the angles and mobility of the body’s joints during the mechanics of running.

“All athletes have elastic potential, and the correct running mechanics maximises this elasticity. The desired flexibility and mobility to produce sprinting force can be seen in exercises like repetitive pogo jumps,” he said.

Placement is wholly related to strike and ground contact. Are athletes striking the ground with the correct foot placement?

“For effective placement, understand the angle of the shin and the dorsiflexion at the ankle joint. You want to see a positive shin angle to get the maximum output. Plyometric exercises like bounding are a great way to assess the positions your athletes get into,” suggested Griffith.

“You should also consider if your athletes are excessively bending their knees at the point of ground contact as you want to maximise the stretch-shortening cycle.”

Patterning concerns the rhythm and tempo of an athlete’s movements.

“Actions should be worked in coordination with each other. For example, your arms need to work with your legs to form a pattern that is seamless. Where possible, encourage coordination to avoid awkward movements in isolation, since awkwardnesses may cause a decline in performance as the body transitions through specific movements,” said Griffith.

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Force plates are used to analyse the ground reaction force of athletes during walks, runs, or other physical exercises like jumping. But how do coaches and athletes get the most out of them?

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

What are force plates?

A force plate is an instrument that allows athletes and coaches to detect and measure forces exerted onto the ground during movement or exercise. They generally look like a simple square or rectangle pedestal that sits flat on top of gym floors, but can also be embedded into the ground to sit flush.

“The force one exerts into the ground is known as a ground reaction force, and the plates follow Newton’s third law (whenever two objects interact, they exert equal and opposite forces on each other). Regarding force plates, when a person is standing, the ground reaction force corresponds with the person’s body weight,” said leading sports scientist Adam Wylie during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Getting the Most Out of Force Plates’.

Force plates are used to analyse the ground reaction force of athletes during walks, runs, or other physical exercises like jumping.

“The plates detect and measure accelerations, reactions and athlete imbalances to provide training insights for coaches and to support rehabilitation processes,” said Wyile.

​​What do force plates measure?

“With force plates, you can complete a number of tests and therefore measure body symmetry, rehabilitation effectiveness, running/walking gait, balance, and changes of pressure,” explains Wylie.

Collectively, this testing and data can be used to study the posture, power, and positions of athletes as they move, for diagnostic and rehabilitation purposes. This information can be combined with other data, such as limb mechanics, to establish an athlete’s movement efficiency.

“Force plates, therefore, provide a range of athlete-specific information and a quantitative assessment of your athletes, creating a picture of how your athletes move, cope with stresses, and respond to training and competition,” Wylie said.

Creating this athlete picture enables coaches to reduce injury risks and optimise performance.

Testing options

Strength and jump testing are the two most common uses of force plates.

Examples of strength tests include different bilateral strength testing options: isometric mid-thigh pull and isometric squat hold. In addition, unilateral strength testing options can be completed: single leg isometric mid-thigh pull and single-leg squat hold.

“Force plates enable you to test key strength metrics, such as an athlete’s peak force output, rate of force development, and limb asymmetry which are essential to determine when assessing strength,” mentioned Wylie.

The second most common testing options with force plates are jump-movement based.

Examples of jump tests include bilateral strength testing options: countermovement jump, squat jump, and drop jumps. Furthermore, unilateral strength testing options can include: single-leg countermovement jump, single-leg drop jump, and hop and return.

“With these tests, coaches can improve their understanding of jump height, peak force, and reactive strength index. Collectively these tests empower coaches’ decision-making, improve athlete performance, and help athletes prepare for the stresses of their competitive environments,” he said.

Training interventions with force plates

Wylie suggests coaches should consider two key measurements when looking to make their first training interventions with force plates.

1. Dynamic Strength Index (DSI) – the difference between an athlete’s maximal and explosive strength capacity.

1. Eccentric Utilisation Ratio (EUR) – an indicator of lower-extremity stretch-shortening cycle performance in athletes.

“Jump height and concentric force are used to calculate DSI and force plate tests, countermovement jump and isometric mid-thigh pull, help to facilitate this assessment. EUR is an indicator of lower limb power output and key force plate metrics such as jump height provide coaches with this important indication,” explained Wylie.

If your athlete has a low DSI range, Wylie suggested: “coaches should focus their attention on plyometric and rate of force development training interventions – for instance, tall to short landing drills, hurdle jumps, and loaded to unloaded jumps. This way coaches can help their athletes overcome deficiencies in their maximal and explosive strength.”

In addition, “an athlete with low EUR should focus their training development on stretch-shortening cycle activations which include plyometrics, progressing to higher amplitude with hurdle jumps, hurdle hops, and depth jumps,” said Wylie.

Adam Wylie is a sports scientist currently working at Athletes Authority. His passion for performance comes through the use and implementation of data and analysis to help drive positive changes in an athlete’s sport or rehabilitation.

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Motivation needs to be managed and channelled in the right direction to elicit the best performance outcomes – so how can coaches and athletes ensure they stay motivated?

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
5 min read

• Motivation is the driver for doing things and the satisfaction that arises as a result. It can be perceived as drive, determination, effort, dedication, resilience, focus, persistence, ambition, and eagerness.

• The best training environments get the most out of athletes, maximise professionalism and long-term athlete growth, channel a team and/or individual’s motivations towards a common goal (unity), and maximise organisational connection.

• Goal setting, education, values, leadership, legacy, fun, physical environment, investment, player selection, and coaching strategies are all key factors to be aware of when designing a motivating training environment.

Motivation for athletes and coaches: An introduction

Motivation is what drives people to do things and the satisfaction they feel as a result. Biochemically, motivation stems from chemical reactions in response to a stimulus that drives us to resolve the stimulus, e.g hunger, thirst, and fear.

“Almost everything we do is defined by motivation and dopamine (a neurotransmitter made by your body to send messages to nerve cells). Dopamine gives off a pleasure response in order to reinforce behaviour,” said Head of Performance and Medical at Sydney Kings Basketball Tom Banfield during his Science for Sport presentation titled ‘Growing a Motivating Training Environment’.

Motivation can be perceived as drive, determination, effort, dedication, resilience, focus, persistence, ambition, and eagerness and several theories of motivation have been developed to help us understand the often complicated nature of motivation.

Theories of motivation

Banfield explained there are three theories of motivation all coaches should know when aiming to create a motivating training environment:

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Motivation is the result of our desire to fulfil five basic needs, in this order: physiological (water, food, shelter), safety (employment and health), social (team, goals, purpose), esteem (respect and recognition), and self-actualisation (reaching potential, fulfilment, greater good).
2. Self-Determination Theory – Motives are intrinsic, extrinsic, or emotive. Motivation levels to act, perform or learn are highly dependent on autonomy, competence, and relatedness. “The more free an athlete is to do a task, the more motivated they are,” said Banfield.
3. Achievement Goal Theory – Motives can be a task (learning, mastery, process, growth) or ego (competence related to the performance of others) orientated. Often athletes compare themselves to others’ motives and outcomes.

Role of motivation in athlete development

Motivation needs to be managed and channelled in the right direction to elicit the best performance outcomes.

“Motivating training environments get the most out of their athletes, maximise professionalism and long-term athlete growth, channel a team and/or individual’s motivations towards a common goal (unity), and maximise organisational connection,” outlined Banfield.

“Intrinsic motivation [doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction] is highly correlated with performance, but extrinsic motivation [reward-driven behaviour] becomes more effective at higher levels of competency. Where and how motivation is channelled will affect performance. This is particularly true regarding risky or destructive behaviours e.g. overtraining, obsession, addiction, fear of failure etc.”

Key factors of athlete motivation

Goal setting – “Goal setting is an important factor when channelling athlete motivation in the desired direction. It is important to set organisation, team, and personal aims but before setting goals, coaches must understand what motivates the athlete.”
Player education – “Athletes are more likely to be motivated to do things if they understand the ‘why’. Education links back to autonomy – for example, some athletes might not want to wear a GPS monitoring device, but through educating them on the benefits of GPS use, we can improve athlete compliance, enabling them to be more objective, potentially run faster and avoid injury.”
Expectations and values – Expectations and values channel athlete motivation. “It improves accountability, sets clear standards to aim for, rewards positive behaviour and punishes negative ones. It’s also so important to reward the intangible behaviours and those who exude your values. For instance, a player might put their body on the line for the team despite not scoring many points – it is important to identify and support this behaviour for the individual and team.”
Leadership – “Leadership promotes responsibility and motivates those to deliver. Community engagement, helping and growing others, taking on responsibility, and distinct roles are all a way to lead. Providing a platform for your athletes to lead is key for their own commitment to the team.”

Legacy – “Being part of something bigger than yourself is vital for athletes. Often, athletes want to contribute to the team’s legacy, making history in order to be remembered, and this serves to motivate and maximise performance.”

Fun – “Ensuring your athletes and staff enjoy coming to work is essential. There is a fine line between focus and fun but through rituals and games, coaches can ensure there are fun elements found within the often brutal environments sports athletes operate within.”

Physical environment – The area you train (gym and facilities) has a huge impact on athlete motivation. “From the design layout to the words written on the wall, it is important to instil the values and the expectations you set for your athletes and coaches. Regularly investing in your training area can fill the team with pride.”

Investment – Financial, time, and resources are crucial motivating factors. “Underpaid/undervalued athletes are some of the least motivated in a team environment. Set up processes and structures that enable players to contribute to and discuss their ‘investment’.”

Player selection – “Getting enough minutes on the pitch or court is fundamental. The opportunity to prove they can play and perform is key to maintaining squad motivation – the burning question for athletes is ‘have I got the opportunity to grow as an athlete?’.”

Coaching strategies – “Process vs results, training scoreboards, competition between sub-team groups all influence an athlete’s motivation. It is important for a coach to assess their ask of athletes and the style in which their coaching is communicated.”

About the Coach Academy presenter

Toby Banfield is currently the Head of Performance and Medical at Sydney Kings Basketball. Prior to this, he worked as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Gallagher Chiefs (Super Rugby) and Rehab Specialist for the Newcastle Falcons (UK Premiership).

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Jet lag and travel fatigue are no fun for anyone – but here’s some tricks and tips to combat them.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: March 1st, 2024
4 min read

How can athletes combat the effects of plane travel?

Athletes have travelled to compete in sports as early as 776 BC, the year of the very first ancient Olympics. They travel for multiple reasons including better weather, to compete for more money, and the chance to test themselves against the very best. But travelling often creates challenges for athletes and has been shown to negatively impact performance, a leading sports researcher says.

“In the past, athletes faced many challenges with some enduring long travel times. The 1930 FIFA World Cup in Uruguay is said to be one of the first competitions which was attended by multiple nations and athletes. At the time, travelling to Uruguay was not easy [relative to today] and took several days for some teams and athletes who travelled by boat,” explained acclaimed sports researcher Dr Michele Lo during his Science for Sport Presentation titled ‘The Effects of Travel on Athletes’ Performance’.

Today, the logistical challenges of travelling are not the most impactful on performance. Instead, Lo explains there are two other reasons why travel is detrimental to performance.

“Travel fatigue and jet lag are the often unavoidable symptoms of travel which detrimentally impact sports performance,” said Lo.

Travel symptom 1 – travel fatigue

Travel fatigue is a post-travel state of weariness and “occurs every time we travel and is a result of physiological, psychological, and environmental factors,” according to Lo.

Physiological factors include the position athletes sit in as they travel. Human bodies are not made to sit in a cramped position for an extended period of time and this leads to stiffness and muscle soreness.

Also, travel fatigue can be worsened by psychological stresses.

“The fear of flying, baggage claims, forgetting your passport, and arriving on time are examples of what can cause psychologically-derived travel fatigue,” said Lo.

“Finally, environmental factors lead to travel fatigue. Dehydration, air conditioning, and altitude exposure [cabin pressure on planes] are all common reasons why athletes feel fatigued after they travel.”

These factors work collectively to stress our bodies and minds, causing a negative response and therefore impact on athletic performance. They can take effect even from a single journey, but they are compounded if athletes continue to travel across their sports season.

Lo explained: “Travel fatigue affects athletes’ performance acutely and over time, but can be reduced through effective travel planning – to ensure the smoothest journey – and can be reduced by keeping your body moving when travelling with stretches and wearing compression garments.

“To further mitigate travel fatigue, you should allow your athletes a good night’s sleep after they travel and before a competition. Research has shown that rest and sleep are the most effective way to mitigate travel fatigue.”
For example, if an athlete is competing on a Sunday, it would be better for them to travel on Friday to allow a day of recovery on Saturday.

Travel symptom 2 – Jet lag

Jet lag is different from travel fatigue in that it only occurs when there is a desynchronisation of circadian rhythm (a pattern of human bodily function – for instance, a human’s wake-sleep cycle).

“Jet lag does not occur every time athletes travel but the effects of the symptom are compounded the more timezones crossed,” explained Lo. “Circadian rhythms last about a day, and typically, athletes recover from jet lag at a rate of one day per timezone crossed.”
Flying from Dubai to London, for example, crosses three timezones and generally takes about eight hours of flying time.

Jet lag causes our body to fall out of sync with its regular processes and that reduces athletes’ chances of performing at their best. To combat jet lag, Lo outlined a number of strategies:

1. Avoid bright lights before sleep when adjusting to a new timezone.
2. Exercise post-travel.
3. Adjust to the new timezone before you travel.
4. Consume sleeping tablets and/or caffeine to delay the onset of jet lag.
5. Check melatonin (sleep hormone) levels and amend with supplementation.

Dr Michele (Mick) Lo completed his PhD in 2018 at Victoria University in Melbourne with a thesis on the effects of travel on professional rugby union players. In the past, he completed a  Bachelor’s degree in Sports Science (2007) at the University of Milan, Italy, a Master’s in Sports Science and Exercise Physiology (2009) at the University of Brescia, Italy and a Bachelor in Physiotherapy (2013) at the University of Brescia and Universidad Francisco Vitoria in Madrid, Spain.

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How can you develop maximum power output? There are various tricks to follow that can take your power training to the next level.

By Will Ambler
Last updated: February 29th, 2024
4 min read

How to take your power training to the next level

• To develop maximum power output, maximum intent is needed alongside efficient movement, which comes from coach feedback and power-based programming.
• To develop power, exercise needs to be ballistic in nature and should be sport-specific, while athletes need to be fully recovered.
• Compound training methods are most effective for power development.

In order for an athlete to elicit maximal power during an exercise or activity, their intent to do so is an integral piece of the training program puzzle. Twelve-year strength and conditioning coach Nico de Villiers described athlete intention as the “desire of an athlete to move explosively in a movement,” during his Science for Sport Presentation titled ‘Power Programming’.
“Power distinguishes between elite and notice athletes … and max intent does not necessarily result in max output, the desired outcome,” he said. “For max output, maximal intent is needed but athletes need to be efficient in the movement.”

Power development is multifactorial and traditional strength-based exercises alone, such as the bench press, aren’t enough to allow athletes to develop power in line with elite competition demands.

What makes up power? The maths equation

“We tend to see that the faster runners, the most explosive jumpers, and the hardest hitters are those who are able to express the greatest possible force in the time they have available,” de Villiers said.

He added that power could be broken down into a simple equation: Power = Force x Velocity.

“Power is a factor of the speed of movement and the full force of overcoming external resistance … basic physics tells us to rely on both force and high-velocity outputs,” de Villiers said.

Athlete intent is vital for developing power

Behm & Sale (1993) stated that velocity-specific adaptations are ultimately determined by the effort exerted by an athlete during training.

De Villiers elaborated: “if an athlete does not complete the movement with the highest velocity possible or with maximum intent, the power produced during that movement will be insufficient to create a true performance improvement.

“You should move the ball, bar or bodyweight as explosively as possible to actually get the training effect that you desire.”

But intent (velocity) is only half of the equation

“Max intent does not necessarily result in max output, the desired outcome. For max output, maximal intent is needed but athletes need to be efficient in the movement,” de Villiers said.

“Athletes need feedback in order to help them achieve the most efficient movement. This can be achieved through a coach’s eye or through technology and data, and is a critical element of power programming and development.”

So what is best for power development? de Villiers suggests programming should:

• Be sport and movement-specific

Regardless of performance level, many sport-specific movements are ballistic in nature and require the recruitment of type-2 muscle fibres (often referred to as fast-twitch).

“To develop power, exercise movement needs to be ballistic in nature … plyometric-based exercises in power training programmes have been shown to significantly improve maximal power output during sports-specific movements, like change of direction,” de Villiers said.

•  Be completed by athletes who have fully recovered from fatigue

“The fatigue status of an athlete plays a key role in the effectiveness of the program and an athlete’s ability to produce peak power,” he said. “So power output training should take place when the athlete is recovered.

“To recruit the type-2 muscle fibres needed for short bursts of power, firstly you must recruit them, then fatigue them through movement-specific training and allow the body to recover to allow adaptation.”
He said to monitor athletes’ fatigue levels through establishing individual benchmarks and completing regular handgrip strength tests and wellness questionnaires.

• Contain compound training methods

There are various training methods that can be used to develop power – complex, contrast, and compound. But compound training, through research and practice, seems to be the most effective method, de Villiers said.

“With complex methods, athletes perform strength- and speed-based sets in the same session using heavy loads, typically 80 to 85 percent of 1-rep max. For example, a squat followed by a box jump.

“Compound methods of programming include strength-based exercises followed by ballistic exercises … with this method, you’re making use of the post-activation potentiation across different days.

“An example of a compound method includes athletes completing box squats and bench presses at 85 percent [of 1-rep max] on day one. Then on day two, athletes can do bench throws and squat jumps at 30 percent at high speed.

“Contrast methods combine heavy and light load exercises in a session. The key difference here is that heavy load exercises are completed at the beginning of a session and light at the end.”

A simple example of a contrast training protocol is the use of heavy back squats followed by a biomechanically similar, yet lighter load, exercise such as vertical jumps (after an adequate rest period).

To summarise the effectiveness of the different methods, de Villiers stated:
Compound > Complex > Contrast

About the Coach Academy presenter

Nico de Villiers is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist with a Master’s degree in Sport Science. He has 12 years of experience as a full-time S&C coach in various levels of rugby as well as netball. Currently, he is the Strength & Reconditioning Coach for Stormers Rugby Franchises in Cape Town, South Africa.

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