Ashley Jones Q&A Archives Page 11

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Ashley,
when you have an player that has been in the system for a while, what are the main things to consider with them whilst training them. do you have any articles or information that can help with this.is it a matter of just trying to keep them on the park or…..well I don’t know what else!!!!! I’ve been asked to help put a program together for the older athletes and I’m a little confused or maybe overwhelmed with the guidelines I should use.

john rahme
Sydney
Australia
Hi John, I like the philosophy of Billy Johntsone, the legendary trainer in the NRL, he divides, or used to, it has been a while since I saw his programs, his group of athletes into various categories, one of which is a seniors group, these guys may well do less weight bearing work, and do more cross training, also the ageing player has a higher risk of hamstring injury, so ensuring that recovery is optimised, I also like to give them a bit of of a free rein when it comes to what they do within the overall program, they have earned the trust and know their bodies better than anyone, so we institute a university style off season plan where there are mandatory sessions and then a range of tutorials sessions that are optional or directed learning sessions, cheers, and best wishes for your off season, ash
Please note: 22 August 2007
Thank you for your interest in Ask Ash . Due international commitments Ash will not be able to answer your question until he returns. Sorry for the inconvenience. However your question will be answered on his return to New Zealand.

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Ash,

Thanks for your inseason weights routine, it’s been s great help. We have just started back club sessions for the season, fitness is high on the agenda. The problem I have is that due to work I can only attend 1 club evening session per week meaning I have to train in the morning on my own. I was wondering if you had any fitness sessions that would keep me from falling too far behind the others? I have access to Bike, Rower etc, also use of the club field. As the season starts should I change my weekly fitness session appropriately to include more specific exercises? I play lock forward.

Thanks for your help,

Lloyd.
Hi Lloyd, some sessions on the bike or rower that I have found useful are interval based conditioning:

Rower: 45 seconds on: 15 seconds off @<1:45 x 20, or 30 on 30 off @ <1:35 x 20, or 15 on 45 off @ <1:25 x 20 this can be done on a bike as well

my favourite running fitness is to firstly do a 2.4 km time trial on the track, from there determine what your metres per second is and then do after a 5 minute warm up 20 reps of 40 seconds on and 20 seconds rest, followed by a 5 minute cool down, for example if you run the 2.4km in 9 minutes your metres per second is 4.44 m/s so you would be running 177.6 metres every 40 seconds so round it up to 180 metres.

As for the weights check on this web site for the power work and do one full body strength and one full body power workout per week in season, cheers, ash
hello ash,
where can i get a read of your article “Strength without Flexibility is in fact a Liability”

john rahme
sydney australia
John, I will search my archives and try and find it and then post it on this web site, cheers, ashley
Hi John, you may be referring to the pneumatic machines that were double concentric with no eccentric, they were heavily used in circuit training, since there is no eccentric you can not maximise your strength potential also since they are machines you also minimise the transfer of strength power to the field, so I would use these as a circuit during season, they would not be my go to but would provide a useful change of pace, by the way Nautilus was a pin loaded equipment with a cam that changed the resistance through the range of motion cheers, ash

I am off on 2 weeks holidays so can you hold any questions for a few weeks, cheers, ash
hello Ashley,
when I was boxing I experimented with nautilus.( I have a mind block on whether it is called this or not, the machine had resistance in both ways concentric and eccentric , you could adjust pressure to make it harder or lighter ) I quiet enjoyed it for a good weights conditioning circuit and had the theory that it would give me overall muscle balance in strength development.allot of injuries are coming from muscle imbalance and so forth.I believe that in rugby and rugby league that our game calls for strength in every direction that we can move.would you recommend this training today, if so, what part of the season.

looking forward to your response

john rahme
Sydney Australia
Hi Ashley
I have been reading your articles for some time and I thank you for the wealth of information you provide. My question is that I train at home and cannot make it to a gym, however I dont have a squat rack or a bench press due to financial reasons. As an aspiring rugby prop I was wondering how much of an impact would it on my performance have to perform front squats and deadlifts variations over back squats and overhead pressing over bench pressing. Also if you know of any other substitute exercises that would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Jon
Hi John, glad to be of assistance, I think the variations you speak of are just as good as others, to be able to squat and deadlift and overhead press may well be a blessing in disguise, I would do the triple treat pressing workout, where you start with military press, then when you can no longer press go to push press then finish with push or split jerk, I think you will have less shoulder related problems than those props who live entirely by the “how much can you bench” credo, also check out http://www.combatconditioning.com for some fantastic bodyweight exercises which will enhance your at home program, you could also do the front squat back squat routine, where you go to failure with front squats then immediately go to back squats with the same weight and work to failure again, a fantastic workout, hope that helps, stay strong, ash
hello Ashley, could you give me your thoughts on the following QUOTE

“Strength training enhances the ability of our muscles to exert force which can be a huge advantage,- but it doesn’t teach your muscles and tendons to work together both contracting and relaxing in harmony at high speeds – processes that occur during just about all sporting movements. The ability to relax completely is just as important as the ability to contract. Now I’m all for getting as strong as can be but if you train your muscles, both in the weight room and with regards to your outside activities, so that your muscles, tendons and connective tissues aren’t used to working in harmony – contracting and relaxing at high speeds with efficiency – you will either get an inferior result or an injury.

UNQUOTE
again like always I look to you for help and understanding.
with regard to the last part where it refers to getting an injury. I can see the merit in that. would a transfer session be advisable. what I mean by that is creating an on field session where REACTIVE ABILITY ( reactive function reactive strength ) can be trained.what sort of a session would it be.

your thoughts my friend

john rahme
Sydney, Australia
Hi John, when thinking of a sports performance program you need to think the bigger picture than just getting athletes stronger, it is a combination of power training, speed work, flexibility, years ago i wrote an article entitled “Strength without Flexibility is in fact a Liability” I still believe this. So when designing a program the area of strength training although very important is not the be all end all of training, in fact we regularly test an athletes performance variables such as 10m speed to see if a gain in say squat strength contributes to an improvement, if not maybe we need to do some more reactive work and less strength, so all are intertwined, no man is an island and no one element of training should be trained in isolation to the many others that contribute to overall performance, cheers, ash

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