Beginner’s guide to S&C for rugby
We’re thrilled to share the insights of Omar Hayward, England U20s Lead S&C over the next few months. This is the third in a series of articles written by Omar which tackle some important topics in women’s rugby right now.
In this part of our series with Omar we discuss where to start with your physical development for rugby. The aim of this article is to set some guidelines to those who are new to strength and conditioning and who want to begin training effectively to improve rugby performance.
Omar writes:
When beginning the physical development journey, it’s important to remember that creating positive changes in physical characteristics takes time. Think of physical development as a marathon, not a sprint - there are no quick fixes. The key is to keep it simple, do the basics right and repeat… for a long time.
So, what are the basics? The Athletic Motor Skill Competencies [1] have been proposed as the movements that serve as the foundation for all athletic movements. This means that most athletic tasks will use some type of combination of Athletic Motor Skill Competencies to be performed well.
The Athletic Motor Skill Competencies are:
Lower Body Bilateral
Lower Body Unilateral
Upper Body Push
Upper Body Pull
Anti-rotation and Core Bracing
Jump, Land and Rebound
Throw, Catch and Grasp
Acceleration, Deceleration and Reacceleration
A comprehensive physical development programme should include all the elements of the Athletic Motor Skill Competencies. The exercise selection or loading of movements should be progressed as competence of movement improves. Below is an example resistance training curriculum that was designed to offer a progressive approach to the Athletic Motor Skill Competencies [2].
[1] Lloyd, R.S., Oliver, J.L., Faigenbaum, A.D., Howard, R., Croix, M.B.D.S., Williams, C.A., Best, T.M., Alvar, B.A., Micheli, L.J., Thomas, D.P. and Hatfield, D.L., 2015. Long-term athletic development, part 2: barriers to success and potential solutions. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 29(5), pp.1451-1464.
[2] Radnor, J.M., Moeskops, S., Morris, S.J., Mathews, T.A., Kumar, N.T., Pullen, B.J., Meyers, R.W., Pedley, J.S., Gould, Z.I., Oliver, J.L. and Lloyd, R.S., 2020. Developing athletic motor skill competencies in youth. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 42(6), pp.54-70.
