Off Season Training Plans – As another ITM Cup closes with a wonderful record-setting
Off Season Training Plans Ashley Jones As another ITM Cup closes with a wonderful record-setting 5th title in a row to the Canterbury team, players, trainers and coaches minds will start turning to prepare for next season.
Personally, I believe that a player needs about 2 weeks off physically but 4 to 6 weeks off mentally from the rigours of the game. Whatever time you have you can plan the work around your schedule to achieve the best possible result you can, given the time you have available to you.
I am currently based in Australia and since they do not have a professional competition immediately below the level of Super Rugby they have a wealth of time to physically prepare, the following are a few week plans allowing you to develop into the preparation to ensure injuries and minimised and results in physical performance are optimised for the goals you set your players.
I am a firm believer that since during the season we take weekends away from players to play and travel that during the offseason preparation we get all our work down Monday to Friday to ensure that players have time away from rugby to spend exclusively with family and friends.
Intro & Down Load week – 2 days/4 sessionsWeek 2 – 4 days/7 sessions
Depending on what time you have available for off-season you can repeat this cycle twice or simply just one time through. Session times will vary in duration but will usually be around 60 minutes in duration. Most of the activities are self-explanatory but for Major Game you could do any other sport that you feel would transfer both relevant skills and fitness back to rugby; I am a huge fan of European Handball and Basketball for this spot in the weekly timetable.
Being a former Crusaders trainer I would like to dedicate this article to Tabai Matson (Head Coach), Mark Drury (Trainer), George Whitelock (Captain) and all associated with the successful Drive for Five Canterbury season, well-done guys you have made this old s & c coach very happy,
cheers,
Ashley Jones
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