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.

Elko Signs For London Scottish

This week saw the official announcement by London Scottish of the signing of Strength and Conditioning Coach Simon Elkinson. Simon arrives the short distance from London rivals Esher Rugby Club where he spent 4 successful years as Head of Strength and Conditioning.

Its a great move for me…..although it’s sideways in terms of league position in reality its a major step up into a club with massive heritage, a professional outlook and huge ambition.

London Scottish indeed have great history-they were in the top flight before being absorbed along with neighbors Richmond into London Irish due to a financial situation and some strange decisions at the RFU. The fact that they have battled back up the leagues since being disbanded is a testament to the people behind the club and the supporters.

Elko joins a Coaching staff that is young and ambitious. Simon Amor is Head Coach and knows Elko very well having studied together at St Marys College and played together at London Irish.

Simon and I have been good friends for nearly 15 years. He is possibly the most driven guy I know and he runs a tight ship. With regular 121’s and a clear development plan for me. the players and the club every body knows what they are responsible for and are accountable.

Also on the coaching staff is Alex Codling who joins form Barking. Alex is a great forwards coach, his attention to detail matches his incredible passion for the game. He will have the Scottish forwards operating at a very aggressive and accurate level.

Alex is a great guy, he wears his heart on his sleeve and has one of the best rugby brains i have ever worked with.

One of the first things Elko has done is to offer Keir Wenham-Flatt the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coaching position.

Keir is a young and up and coming practitioner, he works with London Wasps too and is already well respected. I believe the 2 of us will get the best out of each other and push the players to the levels they need. It was massively important to get someone in to compliment an already excellent coaching set up.

What are Elko’s goals for the upcoming season…

Firstly to improve the conditioning of the players, their capacity is not where I want it right now, but if they keep working as hard as they have done for the first 3 weeks then there will be no problems.

Secondly to catch up on some important self development. My time at Esher was very enjoyable, the players were outstanding to work with. But I lost sight of me and my personal goals as I was absorbed in trying to do too much at a club with a smaller set up and narrow chain of command. London Scottish have a clear goal in looking to develop their staff into industry leaders and that is something I am very interested in.

And thirdly…. Top 8 finish!

Simon will look to blog on Scottish matters at least once a month, with an inside look at Strength and Conditioning at a Championship Club.

Preparing for the Pacific Nation Cup

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I was lucky enough to be asked to help out Samoan International scrum half Garrick Cowley last week as he prepares to play in the Pacific Nation Cup. I worked with Gazza at Esher 2 seasons ago, he a top guy and a monster of a 9.

His session consisted of a thorough warm up concentrating on correct execution of primal movement-squat, lunge, push, pull, twist and throw.

We then moved into some power work (clean grip shrug) agility and some rugby specific conditioning.

Check out the videos!!

Prowler Pulls    Box Agility Drills  Scrum Half Conditioning

I’d like to wish Gazza the best of luck in the upcoming Pacific Nations Cup and World Cup.

Thank you to Churchy for letting me use his amazing facility at Locker 

 

 

See Elko Tonight on Sky Sports

Surrey Storm played Mavericks on Monday night  in Round 3 of the Fiat Netball Superleague. The game will be shown tonight as well as some behind the scenes film of the girls training and team building.

Coverage starts at 5.30pm on Sky Sports!

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

Zach Krych-An Inspiration

Injuries happen- that’s sport. As a coach we see it and it hurts to see our athletes in pain and in a bad mental state when they are injured and cannot train. It is part of our role to get them back to fitness even when the chips our down.

Check out this great video of Zach Krych who suffered a horrific injury while training for his sport, Olympic Weight Lifting. He is proof that the heart and fight inside an athlete can be a powerful force.

I find the video not only inspiring but very humbling-I will show this to all my athletes to motivate them to do great things.

Enjoy…