No matter how we train, contact sports such as rugby will always have an inherent amount of injury risk. That’s part of the business when people run into each other at speed. As coaches we might not be able to eliminate that risk, but we can minimize it. This article offers a few ideas of how we can help mitigate many needless head, shoulder, and wrist injuries that occur during tackling practice and games by teaching players how to move better.
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Our mailbag is full, so it’s time to go through some listener questions about a variety of topics. On this week’s episode we dive into questions on the planning for truncated seasons, recovery, teaching the Olympic lifts, rest periods in circuit training, who do we want to grab a beer with, and more.
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Some good food for thought and discussion. This is from master coach Jim Richardson, former women’s swim coach at University of Michigan. He shared this with one day when we were talking about the progression for practice and learning when changing technique: Read more
Some exercises are built for load, and some are built for athleticism. I see a lunge as an area for improving coordination, mobility and co-contraction in all planes of motion. What it is not, for me, is a movement pattern that invites heavy resistance. I feel as though when it comes to lunging variations and progressions a lot of coaches and physios divert down the resistance path to the detriment of the other qualities I mentioned above. Read more
In modern coaching, all kinds of modes of exercises are paraded around, often to the exclusion of others. Bodyweight exercise is one mode of training that is making a comeback, even before the onset of the recent pandemic. Read more
The annual GAIN conference brings together some of the best minds working in different fields, different sports, and different countries. This year’s theme was building on the basics, and we put together a panel discussion on progression the athlete with Jimmy Radcliffe, Greg Thompson, Angus Ross, Grace Golden, and Johnny Parkes. Read more
Off-season training is about to start up in many sports. Like other coaches, we are putting our plans together and using this time to reflect back on how things went last year. On this week’s podcast we discuss what we’ll do differently next year in a few key areas like in-season training, periodization, progressions, and more. Read more
