Tag Archive for: Rugby

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 227: Game speed (with Dean Benton)

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Developing faster athletes for team sports doesn’t just mean training them like sprinters. Both sports require fast athletes, but in completely different contexts. Like anything, developing speed in a new context comes down to how you train and Dean Benton has spent his career trying to unlock the methods that can make his teams play faster. On this week’s GAINcast he joins us to discuss the significance of speed, how he defines the key elements of team speed, and his approach to developing game speed.

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Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 204: Prepare for the game (with Eddie Jones)

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Training is about preparing for the game. It’s a simple concept, but we often lose sight of that when we dive too deep into tactics, strength training, or other facets of training. English Rugby coach Eddie Jones tries to bring this concept to the forefront in his training. Everything they do comes back to the game. The structure of practice, the mental preparation, and fitness training all are designed with the game demands as the central focus. He joins this week’s GAINcast to walk us through is approach to preparing athletes.

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Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 196: Performance teams (with Dave Reddin)

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Dave Reddin has helped assemble performance teams and structures at England Rugby, the Football Association, and British Olympic Association. Together, they achieved historic results. On this week’s GAINcast he joins us to discuss how coaches can best work together to support a team, as well as thoughts on how sports science and monitoring can best fit into the performance equation. Read more

Martin Bingisser

HMMR Podcast Episode 230: Preseason planning (with James de Lacey)

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A teams success during the season is often tied with how effectively they prepare in the preseason. Integrating the tactical, technical, and physical preparation can be an art. Recently James de Lacey shared an 8-week preseason rugby training plan on our site. On this week’s podcast, he dives deeper into his principles of preseason training and discusses how they can be adapted to different environments and different sports. Read more

James de Lacey

Training for the demands of curved sprinting

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While great attention has been placed on how to train linear sprinting, in team sports running in a straight line is only a small part of the game. As players have to evade the opposition, sprinting is more often curvilinear and very rarely linear. Does this mean as coaches we should spend less time sprinting linearly and more time sprinting in a “sport-specific” curvilinear manner? Read more

Craig Pickering

Studying the effects of bilateral vs. unilateral training

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Rightly, or, as some people would argue, wrongly, resistance training is a major component within the training programs of most sports. We know from research that improvements in strength tend to lead to improvements in physical performance—such as sprint speed or jump height—and, in many cases, injury resilience. But how specific does that resistance need to be? Read more

James de Lacey

Finding transfer in training the legs for team sports

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In most team sports, the ability to withstand high ground reaction forces with the lower limbs is one of the important keys to top level performance. The legs have to be strong. Thus begins the pursuit of heavier loads to build strong legs through to two-legged, high resistance exercises. Read more

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 186: Training transfer (with Dean Benton)

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An athletic performance coach hasn’t done their job until you see the transfer of qualities onto the field. Rugby Australia’s Dean Benton has been a forerunner in bringing new training strategies to the sport from tactical periodization and exercise classification, to testing protocols and flexibility. The one thing in common is he is looking for ways to ensure developments off the field help athletes on the field. He joins us on this week’s GAINcast to discuss all those topics and more. Read more

Martin Bingisser

GAINcast Episode 184: Training teams (with Lachlan Penfold)

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When Melbourne Storm director of performance Lachlan Penfold came on the show in 2018, we focused solely on his coaching journey that has led him through the NBA, NRL, AFL, Super Rugby, Rugby 7s, Olympic softball, javelin, baseball, and much more. On this week’s GAINcast we have him back on to dig deeper into his approach to training team sport athletes, including his thoughts on workload, speed, monitoring, testing, injuries, and more. Read more

Martin Bingisser

HMMR Podcast Episode 217: Transition game (with Jenn Joyce)

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How you handle transitions is a key to sports, and a key to careers. Over the past few years Jenn Joyce has transitioned from world-class athlete, to youth development coach, to working with world-class athletes. Her newest role is working with the bronze-medal winning Canadian women’s sevens rugby team. On this week’s podcast we talk about transitioning to a new job, a sport, and a new level as well as insights on training for transitions and speed in team sports. Read more