Whats an Easier Job….Preseason or In Season ??

The Preseason is the Strength and Conditioning Coaches busiest time-his bread and butter so to speak – So much planning, testing, retesting and so much to deliver. The Director of Rugby will hand 90% of the sessions to the S&C Coach (at least he should) in order to prepare the players for the tough season ahead and this will last anything from 6-12 weeks-it’s bloody hard work but of course very enjoyable (for the coach!!).

This is a challenge of course but in my opinion the In Season training is an even bigger strain on the S & C Coach. How do you keep getting Fitter, Stronger, Faster????

Honestly….you DON’T because you cant! In our league, The Championship, we have a game every week. Sometimes the games are on a Friday/Saturday-sometimes on a Sunday, so the week make up can mean an 8,7,6 or even 5 day turn around.

So to try and get my athletes any fitter, stronger or faster is pretty much impossible so the key to it is getting the players to recover and maintain what they have achieved in the busy Preseason period.

Its all about getting your players FRESH for the weekly battle.

I’ll Blog about what methods I use to help with recovery and maintain the performance levels of my Athletes as well as how I am preparing London Scottish for the Play Offs in March.

Elko

Don’t Make Mistakes In The Championship

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Haven’t blogged for a while so I thought I’d do something a little different…..currently sitting on the coach on the way up to play Nottingham…… on a Sunday!!!
The Championship is in its 2nd year and it is already proving to be a fantastically challenging league for all the teams.

The Pirates drew for the 3rd time yesterday and we are not even half way through the season. Bedford, who’s home Goldington Road in previous years has been a fortress, went down to Leeds Carnigie yesterday and Rotherham who sneaked into the Top 8 last season comprehensibly beat league leaders Brisol to go 2nd.

What is clear to me is that if teams dont turn up and play well and consistently for 80+ minutes they will lose. With London Scottish, we have been there or there abouts in all are league games so far, bar the Bristol game. The difference between the teams that we have played and ourselves is that they have taken their chances ruthlessly. Its something we as a group are learning to deal with…dont make mistakes and when the opposition make a mistake punish them and SCORE!

We know this afternoon will be difficult, Nottingham are a very professional outfit led from the top by Glen Delanney, however we fear no one and have had some exciting additions to our squad over the last 2 weeks , be in no doubt at we are on our way to Nottingham to play.

New Signings: Alfredo Lalanne (Argentina) Augustin Gosio (Argentina)

New Dual Registered Players: Elliot Daly (London Wasps) David Sisi & Guy Armitage (both London Irish)

The Big I….

If you are going to coach your athletes anything coach them the importance of Intensity.  Intensity by definition is; Strength/Amplitude/Level/Magnitude. The gym should be the epicentre for your sporting organisation. In elite sport if you don’t have The ”Big  I”, forget it.

He def had the Big I

For the last 4 weeks I have been in my new role as Head of Strength and Conditioning at London Scottish Rugby Club and when I arrived the biggest thing I noticed was a lack of intensity. Without it nothing really happiness, guys ‘turn up’ for training, they ‘get through’ the sessions but the results are minimal and the culture of the place can be cancerous.

If you compare the first session my guys did  to what they are doing right now it is night and day. I can’t tell you how happy I am with their effort and change in attitude. Guys rush to training, get there early ready to go, they don’t ‘get through’ the session they smash whatever is put in front of them and push every one around them to do the same.

An organisation with intensity is a winning organisation and luckily intensity can be established anywhere by educating your athletes. By explaining what they can achieve, why rest time is as important as what they are lifting and how many times.  By getting them into organizing and planing their workout stations so they have smooth transition and efficiency. And most importantly when they do buy into it and the atmosphere in the gym changes, congratulate and praise them!

Establish intensity and watch your athletes achieve PB after PB.

Good Times Good Luck Goodbye

Elko leaves Esher Rubgy Club

 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Simon Elkinson Head of Strength and Conditioning at Esher Rugby Club for the past 4 successful seasons has left the club for pastures new as he looks to push his career forward and develop in a challenging, professional environment.

For the past 4 years I have been working for Esher Rugby Club who play in The Championship-the 2nd tier of elite Rugby in England. My history with the club, however, goes back a lot further. In 1998 I played in the 1st team when the club was promoted into the 3rd tier and I played again for 2 years before injury forced me to retire.Thankfully the club took a chance on me and gave me the Head Strength and Conditioning role.

In my time at Esher Rugby I have made some incredible friends and had some amazing experiences. The players have been a pleasure to work with and I hope they have very successful careers in front of them.

A new challenge awaits me now, a challenge I need and want in an environment where I know i will develop and push myself to the limit to be successful-just like my athletes do. Its the right time and the right move.

I would like to say thank you for the good times, good luck in the future and see you soon…..

Elko

Equipment To Gain An Edge

Esher Rugby Club’s Head of Strength and Conditioning, Simon Elkinson, is always looking for way to give his athletes an edge in any way he can.

The ViPR is a great modality for Rugby players. It is just so robust, my athletes can throw it around indoors and outdoors. It can be manipulated into functional sporting movements, ideal for warming up my guys. It’s portable and easy to take to games. Below you can see the ViPR in action during a Championship game at Esher Rugby Club, flipping, lifting and pushing can be seen as the players ready themselves for the physical demands of high end Rugby.

ViPR Warm Up

Just a quick 3 min video showing one of my athletes using a ViPR to warm up-simple but effective!

JC On Road To Recovery

James Campbell is one of the athletes that I work with at Esher Rugby Club-since the end of last season he had been suffering from chronic back pain. The pain effected him in his personal life but in particular his training and rugby suffered. After finally getting in front of a surgeon, JC went under the knife. On the 12th of November he had a discectomy at Parkside Hospital in Wimbledon.

Since the surgery JC has been a different man, the effects were immediate-in fact apart from the scar on his back, JC was completely pain free. Since receiving an amber light to start back on the rehab I have been working with him 3-4 times a week, the aim being getting him back to playing for the play offs (12th March).

The early part of JC’s workout consisted of alot of floor work making sure his spine was strong and mobile and then getting him on his feet to facilitate his postural muscles to fire and support him in functional movement. The next phase has seen JC weight lifting again in the gym-high reps with low load ensuring good strong posture and correct patterns of movement.

In the last week JC’s surgeon has also given him the green light to start contact-this has to be a carefull process with constant monitoring of his reaction to each stimulis to ensure we dont over do it. It’s really a case of suck it and see, pushing the barrier daily untill he can go full contact.

In the video below JC uses a ViPR to do some conditioning before doing some controlled contact against stability balls. The idea behind this was to get him to brace for contact and for him to try and remain on the white line as best he could while being ‘bounced’. It must be noted that the athlete under went a thorough warm up before the session and had progressed up from controlled contact using a much more stable  target in previous sessions.

I’ll keep you up to date on JC’s fight to be fit!!!

Enjoy

Esher Rugby Train in the Cold

0 degrees and a mini blizzard but Esher Rugby are still out there working hard.

”We’ve got a big game next Tuesday evening against Nottingham so the boys completed skills and conditioning to top up for the game on Tuesday”.

”It shows great commitment from our players that they are out in this weather working hard and pushing themselves.”

Tip#001 Growth Hormone Release

If you are looking to get your athletes bigger through a Hypertrophy phase this will hopefully help you in your planning.



Rowly lifting under the instruction of Elko

Increased lactate concentrations are highly correlated to Growth Hormone (GH) release.  GH  causes hypertrophy.

How to create high lactate concentrations and manipulate the Endocrine System:

• 3 sets of 10 reps @ 10 Rep Max loads with 1 min rest Kraemer et al.
• 10 sets of 10 reps @ 70% of 1 Rep Max Hakkinen and Pakarinen
• 7 sets of 7 reps @ 80% of 1 Rep Max (squat) Vanhelder et al.
• 8-12 reps to failure Linnamo et al.
• Muscle group focus (body part splits) in order to accumulate and maintain localised concentrations of lactate Turner.
• Stay away from programmes that alternate between body parts (chest exercise superseted with a back exercise) as it allows the dissipation of lactate and therefore reduces GH response Turner.
• A slow tempo or slow continuous approach (4 secs concentric-4 sec eccentric) would increase time under tension  helping with the accumulation of lactate Turner

Highs and Lows and Highs

Saturday, 14th August- Esher 7’s took part in an invitational game against our London rivals, London Welsh, before the Middlesex 7’s final at Twickenham. Jonny Hylton’s men did the club proud smashing the Welsh with a powerful display at Rugby HQ. It was my first time working at Twickenham and what a place to be!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sunday, 15th August-Our first preseason friendly game saw us take on a fully loaded Saracens side, with only one change to the side that narrowly lost the Premiership Play Off Final last season. That change saw Scotland’s Kelly Brown start in the back row for them.

It was a heavy loss, 85-10, no complaints, Saracens will be in the Play Offs again this season and it will be a good side that stops them, my guys struggled with the pace and power of the game but at times showed grit and determination. It must be noted that we were over cooked going into the game, still recovering from the huge volume in Italy and the week after, plus a few of the boys would have been tired form the 7’s the day before. I am not saying we would have won by any stretch but we are looking at peaking for Moseley away on the 28th of August and that is  what we will do!!! Its a steep learning curve coming form demolishing all before us in National 1 to playing Saracens but a curve we will to climb together as a squad.

Saturday 21st saw us take in French side Lille in the last of our preseason friendlies.

I was delighted with our fitness and pace over the 80 mins. Some of the tries scored were top drawer. This squad has much more physicality then previous Esher squads, there were massive hits put in by Rowly, JC and Stitcher.  The 45 17 win sees us in a position to build momentum. Today sees the squad lift heavy before unloading for the rest of the week in preperation for Moseley away this Saturday.