Client training snapshots: Charlie. Rugby & Olympic Lifting

Charlie at Cotham Park Rugby Football Club.

He loves his sport, loves power and came in with a good awareness of his technical strengths and weakness in his game, which fed into what we felt he needed more of ahead of his upcoming season.
He wanted more power, more acceleration from a stand-still, and to be able to repeat these efforts throughout his match play. ‘Power endurance’

I have always admired the intent and commitment with which Rugby players have to apply.
We discussed aspects of his game; his own needs in relation to the demands of the sport, and increasing his capabilities in these areas:
In terms of Force production, including e.g. accelerating, driving, tackling,
and Force absorption including e.g. change of direction, resisting or taking a tackle,
and scrums and malls in both.

In short, we need both production and absorption of force qualities in abundance to reduce the chance of injury and maximise performance!

Charlie had an interest in the Olympic lifts.

He and came in with good all round levels of strength, more than enough with his Barbell Deadlift, Squat, good shoulder mobility, control and strength, good Hip and Thoracic mobility and lumbar stability.

Setting about learning the full C&J, rather than only derivates, seemed valid, especially with time out of competition season,

We found some areas where some bespoke targeted myofascial release and flexibility were helpful – he had an inkling he could do with more flexibility in places. Charlie learnt and employed these exercises and methods with good results as part of the training block.

Through learning the C&J, there were several ‘bonus’ areas where Charlie felt the results and was visibly stronger, which he knows can now feed into his game:

-Grip strength up – grappling opponents.
-Learning new movement patterns – a lot to process. So, using drills, developing stages, then trusting in the whole movement…as it has to happen quickly, without time to think through every stage!
-Fine tuning – thinking and feeling, where is the weight in relation to base of support, i.e.. front/mid/back of feet.

As well as increased power, what also comes with Olympic lifting is further confidence and precision, due to the high level of neural demand /movement mastery aspects.

I love the transfers this will bring Charlie going into pre-season and then competition season!
It was cool too, seeing Charlie’s (pleasant!) surprise as to the energy system demands! …High metabolic conditioning aspects…

I also wanted to make sure we gave Charlie at least a bit of time on accelerating in free-sprints, also getting some reactivity demand in, all the while aiming to make use of some PAP (Post activation potentiation) and allowing him to feel some transfer there and then.

Some training video snapshots on Instagram & Facebook…social media links at bottom of page…

Post-script: Some of my notes and reflections

• Within the training, I programmed a bespoke RAMP warm up, including plyometric progressions
• We tested out Charlies movement, and his main lifts,
• Barbell complexing was utilised – such good work in so many ways including as extending warm up and preparation for loading up and progressing the lift.
• We utilised several methods to increase power, including other loaded jumps, Kettlebell, barbell and hex bar jumps of various loading, and explored the differences,
• As in match play having variety of motor patterns and ways to problem solve and to draw upon are useful!
• He was no stranger to the sled push and lapped this up, aiming for a high % for him of high speed running.
• It also gave me the opportunity to look at his leg and trunk mechanics and have a ponder.
• The video clips also and importantly are my opportunity for reflective practice, ‘What was the aim, the focus, and on seeing the movement, what to get into, what to leave, which cue…when/why… was the outcome what I wanted… why/why not’
• And the results by the session , by the week, were they good enough by my and Charlie’s standards etc. etc. And How did it inform my programming…
• Towards the end of the block we evolved the session , going from power (with near full recovery) to power-endurance (decreasing the load he got to with his lift, and doing relatively extensive reps) including with explosive med ball throws.

…Awesome to see the levels of intent from Charlie – beneficial for his team not just himself! Brilliant to know he has stacks of ability to continue on with his development in his own training now over the rest of this summer.

Charlie’s testimonial

Charlie:
“ Nick was really flexible in his approach to training and we had a long discussion at the outset to discuss my aims. He’s knowledgeable, personable and very encouraging. In 6 weeks of weekly sessions, I was really pleased with the outcomes, starting as a complete novice in the Olympic lifts and saw quick progress in the clean and jerk. Recommended!”

Shout out to Thomas Stringwell and Gary Hutt for the initial Olympic weightlifting training and assessment, and Jez Birds for the training and mentorship…2017 was just the start!

For pre-season team training enquiries and bookings drop Nick a line.

Nick has tried and tested methods for team sport preparation in the BGS gym, which he can rent out exclusively for you and your team in which he will program, lead and direct your training for success.