When you hear any Rugby coach speak after games they talk about “small margins”, and these margins can make a huge difference between winning and losing matches
The following report has been kindly supplied by Scott Lawson
At RGC 1404 every aspect of preparation is being looked at with the players to make sure they are ready for the next round of competitive friendlies coming up. One of the key aspects of this is Strength and Conditioning coach Nick Jones who puts the boys through their paces at training every week.
A graduate of Glyndwr University, Nick has been involved with North Wales rugby for a number of years and with his role at DNA Sports Performance has worked to improve the success of Olympic athletes, netball, cricket teams and even the England Rugby women’s team. From the moment you walk into the training barn at Eirias you know that the facilities are top class, and Nick worked alongside the WRU RGC Academy Staff in the design of the gym the players use “It is world class and very few places are comparable to the facilities we have, including professional football clubs”.
As Strength and Conditioning Coach it is important to see the boys and get a feel for the group at the start, see how they move and discuss what aims and objectives we will be working on. The 3 things they have been working to is “Get Lean, Get Big, and Get Mean” and the training programmes are built around this. The programmes we create involve maximising performance and then maintaining strength and fitness so that when it comes to game time all the players perform to their best ability”.
Nick knows that although he can provide the training and knowledge the players have to commit to it, “without the players wanting it and buying in to the goals we set then results won’t come. The boy’s commitment is vital to RGC 1404 being successful”. It’s clear to see the squad has bought into the training, from the weight training to the sprint tests every player is pushing themselves to be better. During the sprint training the players are looking to see where they can improve, can they be quicker at the start, do they tail off in the last sector?
It’s not just the player’s goals that Nick sets he has his own target, “I want to go into the league next season with RGC 1404 being the best team physically from the start. I want to win”
With the games coming up brings another stage of RGC 1404 development, the game data Nick receives is vital as he will look at every aspect of each players performance and see what needs to be worked on “a lot of what I do is evidence based and over the past couple of years the data we get is a lot richer. I will look at what is stopping a player from breaking the gain line or getting pushed back at a scrum and work to improving them”
The talk about small margins and efficiency are thrown around with sports science these days, but one thing that hasn’t changed with sport over the past 40 years is hard work, and that is one thing the WRU RGC 1404 staff and players are giving at every training session.
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