1,721,183 research outputs found
New practices and training trends
No full textAltitude Training
Since its popularity in the late 1960s, altitude training has become a commonly used mode of training for coaches and athletes worldwide. Sudden exposure to a hypoxic (low oxygen) environment or staying at altitude induces numerous physiological adaptions which can lead to an improved performance at sea level, or any level lower than the altitude being trained at (Płoszczyca, Langfort, and Czuba 2018). These mechanisms are generally attributed to either haematological, cardiovascular, or ventilator effects of altitude training, but metabolic processes, acid buffering, and mitochondrial density change are probably also involved (Czuba et al. 2017). Expected effects may be achieved by applying one of the typical altitude training methods
Size and strength of rugby players
No full textFollowing the success of the World Cup held in South Africa in 1995 and subsequently the International Rugby Board’s decision to develop rugby union into a professional sport, a number of changes have occurred in professional teams including the desire to have taller and heavier players for a competitive advantage and to ensure their longevity in the game. Size and strength have been identified as important characteristics for rugby players, which contribute to winning games, and have been used to discriminate between levels of competition (Lombard 2015; Argus, Gill, and Keogh 2012)
Effects of travel
No full textPlaying sport at home is advantageous for the home team for many reasons including fan support, familiarity but probably most of all they don’t have to travel. The away team must overcome changes to their normal routines and protocols, put up with what can sometimes be a hostile home crowd as well as getting through the negative effects of travel. Previous work in this area shows that home teams typically win more than 50% of their games due to their familiarity with conditions, local encouraging crowds, and lack of travel, with teams less likely to win away games particularly if their required travel is long-haul (George et al. 2015; Lo et al. 2021; Read et al. 2021). This information requires practitioners like strength and conditioning trainers and coaches to consider the negative effects of travel when performance planning
On-field training
No full textTheory of Training
An athlete’s performance is the result of accumulated training and subsequent recovery sessions. Training is designed to overload the body, mainly through the cardiovascular and muscular system, which then stresses the body. Monitoring an athlete’s stress response to an individual training session is important for checking how an athlete is adapting. But an athlete’s stress response to training can be due to more than just the training programme itself. There are various factors that can influence an athlete’s stress response to training, including personality, genetics, training history, sleep quality and sleep duration, academic pressure, family pressures, and more (Mellalieu, Neil, Hanton, & Fletcher, 2009). To understand the theory of training, it is paramount to understand the concept of stress
Rugby player testing
No full textThe game of rugby has evolved over the last 10-20 years, particularly with the introduction of professionalism, but also as trainers and coaches’ knowledge and understanding of the game and its demands have increased. The game of rugby union played at a senior level now involves more movement of the ball, bigger collision impacts, and tougher defensive lines. Therefore, the fitness requirements of the senior club player have also changed. In this chapter we reveal what we consider the most important fitness requirements of our senior club-level players. Coaches and trainers of younger players would need to adapt these requirements to the age level of their own players. Superior performance of today’s athletes is the result of a complex blend of many things including biomechanics, training, social support, psychological factors and so on. In addition, because rugby is a collision sport that can take a toll on the body, building injury resistance to maximise playing/game time throughout the season is also important. Modern coaches recognise that the most consistently effective methods of preparing athletes for competition is one which is based on proven scientific principles rather than on trial and error or on judgement alone. It is therefore more and more common for the coach and athlete to seek input from the sport scientist for the athlete to achieve their full potential. In many cases the sport scientist will test several aspects of fitness specific to the sport. The results from testing players are valuable in several ways for the coach and trainer. Fitness testing allows the coach to figure out where the players fitness levels are currently (and therefore what they may need to improve on and/or positions the player may be more suited to). Such testing also improves motivation for the player (if they know they are being judged on fitness gains), gives feedback to the coach on which players are putting the effort in, and allows the strength and conditioning coach to gauge the effectiveness of their training program
Female rugby players
No full textFemale rugby performance.
There has been substantial growth in women’s rugby with approximately 2.7 million participants worldwide and a 28% increase in registered players since 2017 (World Rugby, 2018). England, France and New Zealand Rugby Unions have also implemented professional or semi-professional contracts for players in national women’s teams (New Zealand Rugby, 2018; World Rugby, 2018). However, despite the rapid growth in participation and professionalization, there is considerable inequity in the provision of sport science support and research in women’s rugby relative to male rugby players
Planning and off-field training
No full textA considerable amount of planning and logistics goes into the seasonal training plans of modern rugby players. Planning in the preparation of players requires a careful balance of work and recovery sessions and detailed knowledge of players strengths and weaknesses so that ]training can be effective at improving not only the individual players performance but also the team’s performance
Player injury
No full textRugby union is a gladiatorial-type sport where high-impact collisions, vigorous scrummaging, mauling, jumping, running, evading, and sprinting are all required and can result in player injury. The New Zealand Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) is a government department responsible for among other things, recording the number and cost of sport accidents (injuries) in New Zealand (https://www.acc.co.nz). While the number of newly registered rugby injuries in New Zealand have decreased lately (63875 in 2019, 45082 in 2020, 52277 in 2021), rugby remains the sport with the highest injury numbers overall, particularly for men. High injury numbers are also found in rugby players in other countries
Preventive medicine needs to begin with our children
Full text linkAlthough cardiovascular disease (CVD) is typically associated with middle or old age, the atherosclerotic process often initiates early in childhood and is occurring at an increasing rate. There is a consensus that changes in life-style have driven the current epidemic. Adverse changes in physical activity, nutrition, and sleep behavior have been strongly linked to the development of a host of cardio-metabolic conditions, including obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. These conditions independently and additively increase CVD risk, even in children and adolescents. The result is that today’s children and adolescents are not only becoming pre-conditioned for CVD, but are also, due to developmental issues, unable to achieve the level of health achieved by their parents. Such early development of the disease risk factors also means that by simply focusing on the clinical manifestations of CVD that is “reactive” medicine, we are tackling the problem too late. Public health-care policy needs to place a stronger focus on paediatric “preventive” medicine, not only for the well-being of children, but to alleviate the increasing economic cost that is being placed on society through the prolonged burden of disease
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