There is one thing that always confuses me about speed, and athletic performance in general.
We see players put in blood, sweat and tears during the off-season determined to make next season better than the previous one.
They are so focused - nothing is going to stop them!
Soon they start reaping the rewards and get faster - they are more powerful, and lightning sharp.
But when the season rolls around, when all that hard work should start paying off they start getting distracted by training and games and forget to do the work that put them ahead of the pack.
What happens then?
Slowly their gains disappear and they are slower off the mark.
They aren't making as many breaks as everyone else, meaning they are no longer ahead of the competition!
I see this all the time, whether it be working with a player one-on-one or during one of my speed clinics. When it's time for me to come back and run a clinic in their town or at their club, it's clear that they've neglected to continue on with their speed training. Basically throwing away the money that Mum and Dad spent in the bin.
Speed is a skill, and like any skill in life you need to practise and repeat otherwise, you will lose that skill.
Why do players attend general footy training sessions every week?
The answer is because you need to keep refining your skills. Your coach and your team expect nothing less.
You would never dare show up to Game Day without having a few training sessions under your belt, so why would you do that with your speed?
The in-season is not the time to take your foot off the pedal and slacken off, in fact, it's time to step up your child's game
This is exactly what the fastest and best players in the world do. Their lightning speed off-the-mark doesn't get slower during the season, it gets sharper which means they are scoring more tries and making more try-saving tackles.
Your child needs to be constantly working on their speed.
As the saying goes "use it or lose it"
So, if you haven't yet worked out what the #1 mistake rugby players are making, it's that they are taking their foot off the pedal during the season.
They stop working on their speed during the season when they should be working on their speed every week.
Now I'm not saying that you need to be training speed every day. That would be counterproductive.
Training speed too much will result in your speed going backwards and not performing the correct drills and exercise will result in zero speed gains
Your child needs to get the balance right, as well as the drills and exercises that they are performing.
But, I'm not talking about going down to the park and training for 2 hours every day.
I'm talking about spending no more than 30mins, 2/3 times a week.
They need to be doing simple things like performing 10 reps of 5m and 10m sprints.
Working on quickness drills like these ones - 3 RUGBY QUICKNESS DRILLS and stretching every single day to improve their range of movement, which will improve their speed.
They also need to be performing core strength exercises to improve their stability and speed.
It's that simple.
So, if you want a program designed for the in-season that has the right balance of performance-improving training then you need to click on the link below. You won't regret it.
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