Targeting the warm-up to train smarter, more efficiently and develop youth rugby players.

Targeting the warm-up to train smarter, more efficiently and develop youth rugby players.

One of the greatest challenges facing any coach is time (Jeffreys 2017). It is often seen as a waste of time by many players and coaches. The desire for extra time often means certain aspects of training are forgotten about or neglected; the element which is often overlooked is the warm-up.

However, a well-structured warm-up can provide an ideal opportunity to include various stimuli in training (Jeffreys 2007). The additional training can consist of exercises such as squats, press-ups and sprinting.

A warm-up is not a jog around the pitch, followed by static stretching. This will lead to a decrease in performance (Bishop 2003). The warm-up should be looked upon as extra training. The issue is coaches and players want to spend time playing rugby, not performing fitness training, so how can you train smarter, not harder?

“Neuromuscular Training is an efficient training option to incorporate into your training sessions”.

Neuromuscular Training (NT) is a training method that has been shown to work incredibly well when carried out as a warm-up is Neuromuscular Training (NT). NT is a training method which is designed to support sports training and, when carried out as warm-up, has revealed incredible results such as increase balance scores by 70% and a reduction in injuries by…