Pre-season training schedules

I’m interested to hear how the various clubs are doing their pre-season training this summer. The standard way of doing things is to give players 4 weeks off then beast them continuously (with the odd break) until the season starts. The advantage of this being that the players get a good rest at the end of the season, but it does mean they lose a lot of their conditioning and it is difficult to integrate the internationalists back in as they are taking their holiday weeks when the others players are doing their first training block.

Glasgow do things differently however, and it would be interesting to hear if other clubs are following suit.

Glasgow’s non-internationalists only had 1 week off at the end of the season then went straight into pre-season over the summer test period. They are then given 3-4 weeks off (starting now) and will return for the rest of the pre-season at the same time as the internationalists at the end of July. According to their head of S&C this means they can make use of the players already being in peak physical condition at the end of the season to make gains in strength and power. It also apparently means that they lose less of their conditioning when they do finally get a decent break. The other advantage is that the internationalists are already integrated in pre-season from day 1 and they don’t have to deal with some players being ahead of others in terms of conditioning.

It all sounds very reasonable and makes a lot of sense to me, noting that I’m no S&C expert!

PRL agreed with RPA and RFU that all players would have a minimum 5 week solid break between the two seasons. For any players who toured Australia or played in the U20 WC that will have just started, for Saxon's it will have started last week.

LondonTiger wrote:PRL agreed with RPA and RFU that all players would have a minimum 5 week solid break between the two seasons. For any players who toured Australia or played in the U20 WC that will have just started, for Saxon's it will have started last week.

That is a long break indeed! I'm assuming that will mean the internationalists will miss the first few games of the season? Surely they won't have such a short pre-season?

I like the Edinburgh way. Destroy the players in pre-season and keep the same XV on the pitch for 80 minutes of each any every game of the season. That way you can ensure we don't win a single game from February onwards.

Not sure what the falcons are doing...but I know they have been seen doing the dreaded sand dune sprint training up on the Northumberland coast....

That's a sick bucket standard of training!

funnyExiledScot wrote:I like the Edinburgh way. Destroy the players in pre-season and keep the same XV on the pitch for 80 minutes of each any every game of the season. That way you can ensure we don't win a single game from February onwards.

Don't give club secrets away, man.