I'm about to start working on that soon too, once my leg heals up. I don't know too much about it; I mainly just do hollow sprints and track work. There is alot of cool **** you can do for speed work if you have the right equipment, running with sleds for example, but I don't have access to that so it's not doing me much good. Any one have some good tried and true workouts?
Hill sprints,
Plyometric exercises (google it, or there's a topic/post on here somewhere by O'Rothlain about them),
Like RuggerSP said, pulling a sled/running with a small parachute on your back (they sell them on alot of rugby sites) helps as well
Focus on Sprint Work vs Long distance running.
Include some Fartlek training in your weekly regeime.
Parachutes or sleds are great.
Box Jumps.
Stair Sprints.
Strength training: Squats (focus on your form, not the weight), leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, lunges.
Read through Universitas Rugbeia. You'll find a lot of advice, sample workouts, explanation for the terms like "Farlek" etc.
Hit us back with any questions and let us know how you're progressing.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (O'Rothlain @ Dec 1 2009, 02:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
Focus on Sprint Work vs Long distance running.
Include some Fartlek training in your weekly regeime.
Parachutes or sleds are great.
Box Jumps.
Stair Sprints.
Strength training: Squats (focus on your form, not the weight), leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, lunges.
Read through Universitas Rugbeia. You'll find a lot of advice, sample workouts, explanation for the terms like "Farlek" etc.
Hit us back with any questions and let us know how you're progressing.[/b]
General sprinting will help too. Shuttle Sprints are good, you'll see a difference with any sort of sprint training after a couple of months.
If you want to have a game sort of activity, play touch , 3 v 5. The team with less players has to do more sprinting work to keep up with the other team.
Dunno about you but I find that having game activities doesn't feel as tough as just straight up training!
Very good point.
One of the best sprint training activities i found was the 'field sprint'.
Stand under your rugby posts, start your stop watch and sprint to the other end of the field. Wait for 20 seconds to pass on your stop watch and then sprint back up to the other end of the field.
At first you should reach the posts with at least 9 seconds to spare, so you can catch your breath, but doing this 10 times, you don't make it to the end as fast and therefore your rest period shortens eveytime.
If, before your 10 field sprints are over, you take more than 20 seconds to run the length of the field then your aim is to keep coming back until you can do it.
Then keep improving.
3 minutes 20 is all the time it takes. But it f***s me over well and truly.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RC @ Jan 5 2010, 03:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
Very good point.
One of the best sprint training activities i found was the 'field sprint'.
Stand under your rugby posts, start your stop watch and sprint to the other end of the field. Wait for 20 seconds to pass on your stop watch and then sprint back up to the other end of the field.
At first you should reach the posts with at least 9 seconds to spare, so you can catch your breath, but doing this 10 times, you don't make it to the end as fast and therefore your rest period shortens eveytime.
If, before your 10 field sprints are over, you take more than 20 seconds to run the length of the field then your aim is to keep coming back until you can do it.
Then keep improving.
3 minutes 20 is all the time it takes. But it f***s me over well and truly.[/b]
I totally agree with this one too. We did this for sevens training last year and it is a killer! But it builds not only speed but endurance for high octane stuff as well, which is important.
It means that you won't be totally buggered after one sprint, which is just as important as having the pace in my opinion.
optimal speed training requires full recovery. just like training strength in the gym, you don't want to perform sets (or sprints) under noticeable fatigue
intervals are a good training tool, but develop fitness not speed.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RC @ Jan 4 2010, 02:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
Very good point.
One of the best sprint training activities i found was the 'field sprint'.
Stand under your rugby posts, start your stop watch and sprint to the other end of the field. Wait for 20 seconds to pass on your stop watch and then sprint back up to the other end of the field.
At first you should reach the posts with at least 9 seconds to spare, so you can catch your breath, but doing this 10 times, you don't make it to the end as fast and therefore your rest period shortens eveytime.
If, before your 10 field sprints are over, you take more than 20 seconds to run the length of the field then your aim is to keep coming back until you can do it.
Then keep improving.
3 minutes 20 is all the time it takes. But it f***s me over well and truly.[/b]
