A view from the dark side

[Gloskarlos]

My mental image of you Puja, suggests you could turn through 180 deg on a sixpence in no time at all.... you’d rip it up.

[Puja]

My mental image of you Puja, suggests you could turn through 180 deg on a sixpence in no time at all.... you’d rip it up.

My quick wit and fleet turn of phrase hide the fact that I have a body that makes me spend every preseason reconvincing the coaches that, not only do I not prop, I also cannot prop, and do not wish them to spend any time trying to convert me.

Puja

[Gloskarlos]

My mental image of you Puja, suggests you could turn through 180 deg on a sixpence in no time at all.... you’d rip it up.

My quick wit and fleet turn of phrase hide the fact that I have a body that makes me spend every preseason reconvincing the coaches that, not only do I not prop, I also cannot prop, and do not wish them to spend any time trying to convert me.

Puja

you should see some of the fly halves I play with.

[paddy no 11]

Beauden done a 4.12 bronco

Think McCaw's bleep tests were way past everyone else

[Mr Mwenda]

Bet Wilko still does them. He just can't stop.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Whole of the U13’s squad and all coaches did our baseline bronco this morning. Very happy with 5:06 at my ripe age . Much more impressive, one of our players got 4:42. Quite amazing.

That's cracking; on both counts.

Thanks! I was actually running with the kid who got 4:42, he’s a great cross country runner. I kept with him for the first 40% of said bronco, but then he showed me up for the old man I am. Nearly half the squad were under 6 mins which was quite pleasing, not as inactive over the last few months as I thought they might have been. Planning to run them every fortnight to monitor progress, can’t really find much on line about how regularly to do this sort of thing with this age group, I reckon fortnightly is about right, any other opinions or experiences?

That is really good. I've not seen anything on regularity. I'd be inclined to go longer between 'formal testing' runs, but run them as part of general fitness work more regularly, or variants of them. That way there is a bit more of a break to make gains before you get a recorded time.

A few years back we used to do 60 metre sprints, with a walk back, but when you got back to the start you had to do a plank, which started at 30 seconds and gradually increased each time. If memory serves it increased by 15 seconds each time. If you failed to hold the plank you were out. Also had to do the 60 metres in a set time too. I think it was 12 seconds. Again outside that and you're out. That was hard! Very much a love hate exercise.

[Digby]

I was going to say add a plank, though there's little benefit to just doing longer and longer planks, I'd limit hem at 2 minutes tops, lots of people will say you can got to 3 minutes, some weirdos go really long, but it's just too boring as part of any ongoing work

[Which Tyler]

I was going to say add a plank, though there's little benefit to just doing longer and longer planks, I'd limit hem at 2 minutes tops, lots of people will say you can got to 3 minutes, some weirdos go really long, but it's just too boring as part of any ongoing work

Agreed - no need to do long planks - but there is benefit in increasing the challenge for the plank
Stick with 2 minutes, or even 90 seconds - hell, even 60 for more challenging versions.
First one with a wide base; second with feet and hands/elbows together; 3rd with feet up on a ball; 4th with feet and hands/elbows up on a balls; 5th up on balls, but one foot raised off...
You can even hold a plank whilst people throw balls at you (not hard, just enough to challenge the balance)

Lower Core i.jpg

Same with other stuff - you can all do a single-leg squat - but how about a single-leg squat up on a BOSU ball? Adding balance training to any other for of exercise is incredibly useful - even just passing around a circle!
Adding fun makes training way more effective as well - you learn a new skill something like 6 times faster if it's fun.

[Gloskarlos]

Thanks chaps. I’ll vary them a bit and get some plank offs involved

[Digby]

This is also where tackle bags finally have a use, giving a target that gets people to the ground during a running exercise, and then you can determine how people get back up, ideally bouncing up without using knees. The more you add moves that take people to ground and require an instant recovery to feet the more you're a sadist, burpees are ever popular as an addition to any such move

[Gloskarlos]

This is also where tackle bags finally have a use, giving a target that gets people to the ground during a running exercise, and then you can determine how people get back up, ideally bouncing up without using knees. The more you add moves that take people to ground and require an instant recovery to feet the more you're a sadist, burpees are ever popular as an addition to any such move

Absolutely, do a lot of this in a normal pre season. Current RFU guidelines however state ‘minimum shared equipment’, which we as coaches have decided to mean one ball per group (5 players plus one coach in a bubble, always socially distanced). This means we are having to get quite creative with what we are getting the kids to do without boring them senseless . ‘Set set press’ and drift defence alignments from a lying flat on the ground start are wearing thin already

[Epaminondas Pules]

I was going to say add a plank, though there's little benefit to just doing longer and longer planks, I'd limit hem at 2 minutes tops, lots of people will say you can got to 3 minutes, some weirdos go really long, but it's just too boring as part of any ongoing work

It was dull as anything once it got beyond 90 seconds, but they kept us doing them. But then you just 'fail' early on say 2 mins (mostly through boredom) and then its pretty easy to show improvements later in the season.

Always enjoyed the drop and ideally bounce back to feet without knees. Well, when I say enjoy.....

[Epaminondas Pules]

I was going to say add a plank, though there's little benefit to just doing longer and longer planks, I'd limit hem at 2 minutes tops, lots of people will say you can got to 3 minutes, some weirdos go really long, but it's just too boring as part of any ongoing work

Agreed - no need to do long planks - but there is benefit in increasing the challenge for the plank
Stick with 2 minutes, or even 90 seconds - hell, even 60 for more challenging versions.
First one with a wide base; second with feet and hands/elbows together; 3rd with feet up on a ball; 4th with feet and hands/elbows up on a balls; 5th up on balls, but one foot raised off...
You can even hold a plank whilst people throw balls at you (not hard, just enough to challenge the balance)
Lower Core i.jpg

Same with other stuff - you can all do a single-leg squat - but how about a single-leg squat up on a BOSU ball? Adding balance training to any other for of exercise is incredibly useful - even just passing around a circle!
Adding fun makes training way more effective as well - you learn a new skill something like 6 times faster if it's fun.

Cracking stuff. Thanks Which.

[Digby]

Beauden done a 4.12 bronco

Straight out of lockdown, it's almost like the lack of contact helps though it helps if the players look after themselves. Ruru was apparently right on his shoulder too

[Puja]

Went to my first pre-season training after lockdown last night. Good gods, that hurt. I can't believe so many of you are on the side of evil and set fitness challenges, as opposed to the righteous side of struggling through and swearing at them.

Puja

[Mr Mwenda]

I always try to start my own sprint training about two weeks before preseason so ahead of the curve and avoid unnecessary punishment...

[Digby]

I like to see the time you're waiting for the kettle to boil as a chance to do some star jumps, some running on the spot or what have you. I'm still overweight, but more virtuously so. It does tend to start a few conversations at the work tea/coffee making area mind