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

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.

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!

Elko Looking Forward to Sky Sports Visit

With Surrey Storm having a televised Fiat Netball Superleague game coming up the Sky Sports cameras are coming to visit the Surrey Sports Park tomorrow(Monday 31st January) to see what training the players do.

The squad are training hard and in the middle of a Strength to Power phase. I’ll be doing alot of change of direction and reacton work as well as jump and med ball training . We suffered a big defeat on Saturday against a very good Northern Thunder team so its important that training is fun and up beat as well as hard work! I’ll keep you posted as to when the footage will be aired.Here’s a warm up from last season to give you a little taster. STORM VIDEOS

 

ViPR Warm Up

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

A Storm is Coming….

With the trials out of the way and new players on board, Surrey Storm are set to start their Preseason preparations under the guidance of Strength and Conditioning coach Simon Elkinson next Monday.

”Having finished top of The Superleague but coming up short in the play offs last season there is a massive sense of unfinished business. I am very determined to prepare the squad in the best possible manner to compete and win the Superleague this season. I had a meeting with Mary Beardwood last week and she shares the drive and belief that we can do it this season.”

Storm in their second season as a Superleague franchise will benefit with the return of their England players from winning Commonwealth Bronze in Deli:

” Tamazin Greenway had an incredible games, in my opinion she was the stand out performer in India and she is back to her best after a challenging season last season. Rachel Dunn will be looking to prove the selectors wrong on her return. She is a class act and I was surprised that England did not use her experience and coolness under pressure, especially in the game against Australia! I back her to be back to her best for Storm in the Superleague this year. ”

Monday will see the girls start their first ever Preseaon at the Surrey Sports Park:

”As a Strength and Conditioning I couldn’t ask for a better facility to train in, the Surrey Storm girls are fantastic athletes and deserve a facility like this. It’s perfect as we have access to the Olympic Lifting facility as well as the courts, I am really excited about what can be achieved. It’s a lot easier this year as we have covered most of the injury prevention stuff so can get into the harder stuff earlier. The girls also know me now and have bought into what I do so it is more about directing them rather than pushing them although there will be a bit of that!!”

Check out this warm up for Surrey Storm

http://www.surreystormnetball.co.uk/video/watch-storm-warm-up