Rugby League World magazine UK (Published Dec /08)















Improving Fitness For Rugby League

What is Fitness and How do you improve your fitness levels to enhance the Rugby League Athlete.

Improving Fitness Levels, & Sport Specific Conditioning, is THE major key to improving sport performance.  All great Athletes, all great teams, in all sports, have great levels of fitness. It is measured in their ability to sustain pressure on their opponent, concentrate for the whole duration of their sporting event, maintain high skill levels without errors, and ultimately enables them to come up with the winning play, knockout punch, or sprint finish.

There will always be someone Stronger, Faster, or more skilful than you. But this doesn’t mean that you cannot work hard on being the best you can be, and improved fitness and conditioning levels may be the thing which will give you the edge over your opponents.

Improving fitness & conditioning levels revolves around the same (Overload Principal) which is used to develop other physical abilities. An athlete needs to place his or her body under physical stress which in time increase their physical capabilities.

Fitness should never be looked upon as a singular aspect of physical ability, Fitness is a term which relates to the body’s overall effectiveness, and comes in many different forms.

There are four main components of Fitness & Conditioning which are Stamina, Speed, Strength, and Flexibility. But the development of Cardiovascular Endurance is the most important aspect of any physical fitness program, as it supports all these various components of fitness.

But after saying all this it is extremely important to understand that different sports require different forms of fitness & conditioning. It would be inefficient and ineffective to complete a Tri-athletes endurance program, if your sport was boxing, just as it would be ineffective to perform a soccer endurance program if you are a Rugby league player. Specificity is the key to developing a successful Fitness program. You have to understand the energy requirements of the sport you participate in, and build a Fitness & Conditioning program around it. If you fail to do this you will never get the best out of your potential for your chosen sport.


“Training hard is important, but not as important as training smart”.


Studying what are the most important Fitness & Conditioning components in your sport, and designing a specific endurance program, which will enhance the correct Energy Systems is obviously important. Understanding how the varied energy systems work within your body while participating in varied activities can be complicated but I will explain how I unravel this puzzle. 

As I have written, developing the correct Energy Systems within the body for Rugby league is the essential aspect of developing an elite fitness training program. The human Body’s three energy systems are;

1.The Alactic system- An anaerobic energy system providing the predominant  
          energy for efforts up  to 10-15 seconds in duration.

2.The Lactic acid system- An anaerobic energy system providing the 
          predominant energy for efforts  for up to 40-50seconds in duration.

3.The Aerobic system- An aerobic or oxidative energy system providing the  
          predominant energy contributions for efforts that last longer than 1 minute, or              for repeated efforts of shorter durations.

As I wrote in last month’s article of speed training for Rugby league;

“During a game of Rugby League players are required to perform multiple speed efforts that in most cases only last for 6 seconds or less, making the body rely on its Anaerobic (without Oxygen) Alactic (without lactate) energy systems. Therefore this required energy system must be trained to make the athletes sport specific speed, more efficient. It is also important to build a good Aerobic base to support the Anaerobic and Alactic system”.

This statement obviously links in with the development of Fitness & Conditioning for the Rugby league player. Along with short duration sprints, the Rugby league player also has to perform numerous short duration strength activities, utilizing the same energy systems, mixed in with numerous low intensity aerobic activities such as jogging. By using the Overload training principal, utilizing the correct energy systems within the training program you will enhance the Rugby league players Fitness & Conditioning.

There are three forms of energy system training, and I use all of them at some stage in my yearly training plan, these being, Continuous, Fartlek, and interval training.

Continuous Energy System Training
There are a number of different forms of continuous energy system training. I predominantly utilize continuous training in the form of controlled cardiovascular activities such as, running or utilizing cardiovascular machines, Bikes, Treadmills, Rowers, ensuring that the athlete works at 60 to 70% of max heart rate, for a duration of 30 to 40 minutes. This level of intensity and duration helps to improve the cardiovascular system, and glycogen burning. Continuous training is best suited during the pre season period, although it can be used during the in season program. Knowing your athletes maximum heart rates is very important, it enables you to train effectively when prescribing Energy system training.

Fartlek Training
Fartlek training was developed in the 1930’s, and is named after the Swedish phrase for ‘Speed play’. It combines Continuous and Interval training. Fartlek training for Rugby league should include runs of varied speeds, distances and changes of direction; the best format for this type of training is to develop small sided games or skill games activities. The Athletes should reach sub maximal heart rates of 70 -85%, this mixed intensity format exposes athletes to their anaerobic threshold, which is an essential aspect of Rugby league sport specific fitness.

This form of training not only enhances the correct energy systems, it also develops skill in the athlete especially under fatigue, building an athlete’s tolerance to fatigue is a massive factor with skill acquisition. A great example of this ability in a word class player is with Darren Lockyer who I’m sure is under fatigue especially during the modern game, when opposition coaches produce game plans to send traffic at him while he defends. But Lockyer always seems composed even though he will most definitely be fatigued, he finds a calm place amongst all the chaos and often comes up with the great play to win games. This form of Fartlek training can  definitely help develop skill under fatigue, as well as reducing errors in a game. Although I must add there is only one Darren Lockyer.

Interval Training
Interval training enables the athlete to improve their Sport Specific Fitness by performing high intensity bouts of work, running, or cardiovascular equipment, with recovery periods of less intense activity or complete rest. During the intense anaerobic activity, lactic acid is produced and if the athlete is working hard enough oxygen debt is reached. During the recovery period, the heart and lungs will still be stimulated, trying to pay back the debt by supplying oxygen to break down blood lactate. The stress (Overload) in time causes an adaptation of strengthening of the heart muscles, improved oxygen uptake  and improves lactate buffering. I utilize interval training predominantly during the in season training program, as these type of short routines can be planned into the weeks training helping enhance fitness and conditioning without impacting on the available energy for the weekends game. 

Example of one of my cardiovascular continuous routines
17 Km  Cardiovascular Triathlon
Stationary Bike  Mid Level 10 Km
Treadmill 5Km
Concept 2 Rower2Km
No recovery between activities, complete the 17km as fast as you can.Record your time

Example of one of my Fartlek Field Routines
Small sided skills games
Team split up into 4 teams of 6
2 teams play a Skills game   6min
30sec recovery on the run
2 teams perform a Field
Conditioning Drill 6min
Repeat 3times = 40min WorkoutTo record improvements monitor errors, as the team becomes fitter skill errors should reduce.

Example of one of my Interval Cardiovascular Routines
Cardio Intervals 1:1 Ratio
Equipment needed;
Concept 2 Rowers – Cardio Equipment.
10 X 1min efforts on the Concept  2 Rower 1min Recovery
1min to change stations
5 X 1min efforts on the Electric Stationary Bike 1min Recovery
1min to change stations
5 x 1min efforts on the Cross training 1 min RecoveryAerobic
Interval
Training

40min workout


Cardio Intervals 1:3 Ratio
Equipment needed;
Concept 2 Rowers – Cardio Equipment.
5 X 20 second  efforts on the Concept  2 Rower 1minute Recovery
1min to change stations
5 X 20 second efforts on the Electric Bike 1minute Recovery
1min to change stations
5 x 20 sec efforts on the Cross training 1 minute RecoveryAnaerobic
Interval
Training
20min workout


To finish I would like to write about one of the fittest players I have worked with during my time as a Head Strength & Conditioning Coach, and someone I admire immensely. This person being  Alan Tongue the current Captain of the Canberra Raiders, and current NRL Dally M Lock and Captain of the year. I worked with Tonguey between 2001 and 2006 he was a great student and unparalleled trainer, he wanted to know everything he needed to do to pack size and strength onto his small frame, many people thought he was too small to play in the back row in the NRL but Tonguey worked extremely hard with his training, diet, and recovery and built his solid body armour over time. Alan’s greatest tool though was his attitude to training, no one would beat him in training he would die rather than get beaten at any session, he was always sportsmanlike but his drive was and still is awe-inspiring. One story stands out amongst many regarding Tonguey. In 2006 he had a massive personal defensive year breaking the world record for tackles made in a regular NRL season, 1087. Before the final game against the Cronulla Sharks, Tonguey turned up on game day with a bad bout of flue, he looked awful. I remember thinking to myself he shouldn’t be playing he looked that ill, For him to break the world record he needed to make 30+ tackles in the game, I personally didn’t think he could make one the way he looked coughing and spluttering in the warm up. In the end he made over 50 tackles in the game, scored a try and was involved in about everything, I sat next to him in the changing room after the game and had my photo taken with him. I said to him ‘Tonguey you don’t have to come to the team swim rehab tomorrow morning at 8am, have the day off you look ill,’ He turned to me and said. “There’s no short cuts jenno ill be there”, and in the morning he was the first to arrive. You see Alan Tongue is the best example I have regarding an athlete who fulfilled his potential by not only “TRAINING SMART BUT TRAINING HARD!.”  
             
It was with Tonguey that I developed one of my most successful routines “the Jennings Phosphate Shuttle”.  I believe it is the ultimate Rugby Sport Specific fitness routine, essential for any Rugby League team or player. This field based routine is easy to set up and implement. It is a standardized time, distance, based routine, that not only develops ultimate fitness, but also gives the athlete, and coach a performance score, allowing the athlete to measure improvement.