Image Of The Week

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.

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.

New Look Storm Begin Superleague Campaign

Surrey Storm Netball at last started their Superleague campaign at a sold out Surrey Sports Park on Saturday. There has been an extra long wait to start this season due to the Commonwealth Games and the Tri Series against the NZ Silverferns so it was a relief to get things under way.

We have a new look squad this season with 7 new signings, 2 from our talent squad which is a great achievement and shows what a healthy NTL program Surrey Storm has. The average age of the squad has fallen dramatically and although we have lost 2 well known names in Sonia Mkoloma and Geva Mentor the squad has a more balance and workman like feel to it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The girls have worked extremely hard over the last 10 weeks in preseason, doing a squad conditioning session with me every Monday as well as 2-3 weights sessions and 2 fitness sessions a week. They have had to combine this training with playing for  their Prem sides and full time work, a massive effort by all.

The Superleague is decided by Play-Offs each season, the team that comes 1st in the regular season does not win the league. This is exactly what happened to us last season and unfortunately we didn’t perform in the play-offs and ended up coming 3rd. It was a steep learning curve and this year I have completely changed the approach and goals of the Strength and Conditioning program at Storm. Instead of looking to peak physically for the start of the season like last year we are looking at timing our run for the end of the season and into the play-offs.

I have concentrated on Injury Prevention, Agility, Strength and Power. Leaving the girls to gain ‘fitness’ through netball training and match play. As the season develops I will look to work hard on conditioning in a mini preseason before the ‘business end’ of the season ensuring we are in the best place both physically and psychologically to take on the like of Mavericks and Team Bath, 2 experts in the art of the  play-off.

Saturday was a good fixture to begin with, a much improved Team Northumbria under the coaching of ex England player Tracey Neville,visited the Surrey Sports Park. We were 8-3 down in the 1st quarter at one stage but got it back to trail 9-10 by the end. Storm then pushed on, looking the sharper and fitter of the 2 sides, eventually winning the game 58-32 (match report). For me it was a pleasing day at the office no.1 No Injuries no.2 We were clearly the sharper team.

Lots of work to do going forward, it is important to learn from each game and get stronger. This week sees Storm travel to Manchester to take on the might of Northern Thunder who are always a very difficult team to play against. Unfortunately i cant make that game as I have to work with Esher Rugby against another northern team, Rotherham, thankfully it’s at home in London!!

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…

Hearts and Minds

Elko with Geva Mentor Surrey Storm and England Netball defender

What makes a good Strength and Conditioning Coach??? The letters behind their name and or experience or their ability to motivate?

In my opinion the ability to motivate combined with knowledge is the best blend. You have to get your athletes to buy into what you are delivering to be successful. You could have all the knowledge in the world and be delivering an outstanding S & C program but if you dont have the personality to put across your beliefs then your chances of success are limited.

Part of the role of a Conditioner is to motivate his/her athletes to push and be the best they can be. In my experience getting to know the athletes and finding out what makes them tick, what challanges they have in life , how they are feeling  and showing that you give a damn goes a long way towards the athletes doing their best for you.

Showing that you care  captures the hearts and minds of your athletes. Dont get me wrong, I am a hard task master, ask any of my athletes, but I get a buy in from them first and then push them to the limit of what is humanly possible.

As an old University pal told me:

” Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care…. ”