Coaches' Corner

Take a Journey from 'Good to Great' with Leeds Carnegie Rugby

 Preparation for the Premiership

Neil Back

The first 6 weeks (the first of which is in their own time due to achieving performance goals) are very much ‘Performance’ driven but still with an element of non intrusive skill development - a program designed to develop the player’s individual needs based on assessments of power, strength, body composition, aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Heart rate monitoring is utilised during conditioning sessions to monitor effort levels and the specificity of sessions which have been carefully planned to run over a 6 day week, the seventh an active recovery day. The program takes into account fatigue, recovery and nutrition in order to optimise adaptation to training.

To add variety & change of stimulus we are utilising alternative training venues other than our well equipped facility at Kirstall.  Included in the training week are world class coaching of judo & boxing aligned to rugby skill development & conditioning, school visits (for rugby skill development/coaching/connecting with the community) together with a team building/recovery activity such as golf, paintballing, 20/20 cricket, functions with partners, a visit to the National Coal Mining Museum & visits to several local hospitals.

We believe training has to be both physically & mentally challenging but also enjoyable to get that ‘edge’ which ultimately separates a good from a great athlete.

The next 8 weeks, include 3 pre-season games & lead us into our first Premiership game take on a greater ‘Rugby’ focus.  The training week is now over 5 days with 2 active recovery days.   Included at the front end of this phase is a regeneration week earned for continual improvement where players are given a  week off coinciding with school summer holidays to enable them to spend some quality time with their families.

Our first 2 pre-season games are away in a competitive tournament over 5 days in France 4 weeks out from our first game in the Premiership.  We are drawn against Division 2, Stade Aurillac on Tuesday & French 14 team, Mountauban on Friday.  Our final preparation game is TBC at home 2 weeks prior to game 1.

The French trip will obviously provide us with our first competitive hit outs.  Opportunities to blood new recruits & build/renew combinations but will be used for further team building, various presentations and to establish our standards & team values for our assault on the Premiership.

The home game is an opportunity to show case our new signings, the squad that have a mountain to climb but will not fail through the lack of effort.

We now await the release of our 2009/10 fixtures, the draw all important for us to move to the next stage of effective planning.  Please follow our journey (www.leedscarnegie.com); your support is very welcome.