Flexible Like a Cat but Slow as a Snail (And the #1 Reason Why)
"How do you get your team faster? Simple, recruit faster players"
- Unknown
Rugby players generally aim to run quickly more often than not. Think of all the sprinting you've ever done as a rugby player: sprinting hard to get around the field faster than your opposition or when you tried to outrun that opponent down the touchline or maybe it's the full-field sprinting drills you've been made to do at Tuesday night's practice. Year after year after year. Not only that but you probably twist and turn like a Yoga instructor and can reach past your toes like some circus act. So just how fast are you now? I mean all that effort and training must have improved something...right?
Wrong. Chances are you're just as slow if not slower than when you started. I mean, consider that if you were to lift weights in the gym as frequently, would you be stronger as a result? Most probably.
Then why is this generally not the case with fast running on the field (or off it) and why are you slower or just as slow after the amount of effort and repetition?
Ignore the above statement at your peril. The majority of athletes, let alone rugby players are never coached on the finer specifics of speed and when left to hearsay training methods are exposed to incorrect coordination and deliberate repetition of bad running mechanics consistently.
Moving your feet fast on the dance floor doesn't translate to fast pace on the rugby field. Every step you've taken without being taught the skill of running fast is ingrained deeper and deeper into your neurological system. Unfortunately, this also means it needs to be trained out.
You Have To Crawl Before You Walk
So, where do you start? The obvious place - acceleration. If you can't accelerate you can never hope to reach your top speed. In rugby, you may say that it's rare for you to ever need to run the length of the pitch, so why worry about hitting top end speed?
That's like saying a new born baby is never going to crawl as an adult so why not just force them to stand upright on two legs from the beginning?
It's all about training cues and correct mechanics for improved efficiency down the line. When learning acceleration, specific cues such as the following, are all important:
Knowing how to execute these efficiently and repeatedly is key to improving your motor patterns. When you find yourself improving your technique you can start applying it in combination with agility in your rugby training and on the playing field.
Need to get away from a scrum quickly? Improve your acceleration.
Need to close the space in the midfield on defence? Improve your acceleration.
I think you get the idea.
Speed Training IS the Workout
If you're aim is to be a faster player (or you may be a winger/fullback where speed is your bread and butter) then you need to programme your training (season dependant) so that speed and power are the proponents being trained. Sub-maximal (lower intensity) training should be tailored to allow for a higher volume of speed work, not the other way round as is so often the case (eg. repeat 100m/150m/200m runs dominate a season with only a negligible amount of actual high-intensity speed work).
Keep these in mind as part of your speed training foundation. The other part to this equation is the "short-to-long" aspect which I've mentioned previously and will tackle independently in a future post.
Why Flexibility Doesn't Always Equal Speed
"A completely stretched muscle, is a weakened muscle"
- Stephen Francis (Jamaican Track & Field Coach)
There is a school of thought which assumes: increased flexibility = increased range of motion = increased speed. This isn't completely untrue, but to explain someone's lack of speed via flexibility, or worse, programme a players speed improvement based solely around flexibility and sub-maximal work is the wrong approach and will likely yield disappointing results. It doesn't mean there is no place for static or dynamic stretching, there surely is, but it needs to be used correctly, ie. dynamic (pre-game/workout) and static (post-workout and recovery sessions).
Things happen both actively and passively, statically and dynamically when you run. So using static tests to measure dynamic range of movement is probably a waste of time. If your mechanics are altered and you start affecting your passive movement (i.e. using muscles you don't need to) this increases energy costs and will create inefficiencies in your technique to ultimately slow you down.
Programme speed training into the appropriate season and focus on the high intensity work. Speed needs to be trained when not fatigued so any sub-maximal work must augment, not overshadow, this focus if you are to maximise your speed improvements.
Be informed. If you film yourself training or have snapshots taken, what matters is you understand why and how things are happening and what you can do to analyse and correct things.
Think, think, think and train well.
