Periodisation

Periodisation involves dividing up your conditioning programme into distinct phases according to

• Your season
• Level of fitness
• Goals

Optimised conditioning for rugby is challenging because there are so many different aspects of physique, condition, technique and mental preparation that affect rugby athletes.  There is also the balance between adaptation and match preparation.  It’s hard to be fresh and ready for competitive rugby when you’re bang in the middle of a heavy weights programme to build explosive leg strength.

Coaches recommend developing different aspects of conditioning at different points in the year, whilst ensuring the maintenance of other elements.  So the off season is a great time to develop strength, but endurance should not be completely neglected in order to ‘maintain’ it.  

Furthermore, monitoring conditioning so that players and coaches are aware of specific and individual training needs is very important.  Conditioning should adhere to a basic pattern of progressing from stability, through general fitness, then power, speed, agility, and game-specific endurance.  In keeping with general principles of periodisation, athletes should divide the training year into off-season, pre-season, playing season, and rest.  

The rest phase is the ideal time to address injuries and also to take a few weeks away from RugbyMax.  Periodising a programme is a specialist activity so talk to your coach about developing the perfect programme for your rugby year.