For the past week, I’ve been working with a 20yr old rugby league forward. He needs to get ready for the upcoming pre-season and he hasn’t trained properly for 3months.
I only have 5 sessions in which to make a difference before he goes to his new club. What can be done in that time?
If I have him doing lots of running and circuit style workouts, how much fitter can I get him?
If I get him in the gym lifting heavy weights, how much stronger can I get him?
He needs to go to his new club and make a great first impression.
The first place to go, as always is to assess and find out where the brakes are. If we can remove the brakes, we instantly have a better moving athlete.
Create a good athlete and set the right mindset, then let the club’s pre- season training do the rest.
OK, so what was the main thing slowing him down?
– Lack of pelvic control
Because he doesn’t OWN his pelvis, he has a weak pillar ( torso), tight hamstrings, quads, hip flexors, leading to poor hip range of movement and his arms don’t really get involved in the running action.
Although he has very strong legs, the power is being
absorbed by the soft torso.
So his gym work is all about perfect posture and technique through increasing range of movement. No need for big weights as they can’t have enough effect in 2weeks. So a lot of technical coaching is required.
On the pitch, we’re working on acceleration. Long recoveries and very explosive. Due to his tight hips he was very effectively using a short pitter patter stride. So we’re focussing on applying maximal force through the floor for as long as possible with dynamic arm action and getting low.
I’ll update you with the results next week.
Don’t forget to leave your comments below. Have you ever had to get ready for something really quickly? How did you go about it?
Yours in speed
Rob
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