AngrySeahorse
Peter Sullivan (51)
Another thread generated some sprinting discussion so I decided to put up this sprint thread.
IS quote
"So do you build them first and then do the sprint specific training or do you do both at the same time?
Also having read the link you (seahorse) posted I am intrigued as to acceleration: you may have guessed I have a familial interest in this.
One of my offspring is fast enough over anything from 20 to 100 that no one catches him - but he seems slow off the mark: so in a 100m sprint when he comes 2nd or 3rd he does so by the margin established in the frist 20 metres. Can you train this - cos I think the first 10m is the most important in rugby.
BTW he's not the same kid mentioned in my earlier post - who is one the few who can catch him from 20-100 but who is not much interested in rugby."
From my experience IS I reckon train for the build up & do sprint work in the same week. I do speed work all year round (but have slightly more focus on endurance in the off-season), my hypertrophy weights are done in the off-season too which is the build up phase but I never stop doing speed work.
I agree re: acceleration, its a huge part of Rugby for mine I rate both acceleration & cutting (or agility or "change of direction") as two of the big elements in the game plus quickness, reaction time, as well as top-end speed. I mean look at Diggers, he's not really that fast but he does have excellent acceleration & cutting. I personally like to look at areas where I am weak & work on them a bit more but I never stop maintaining & trying to improve my strengths. Top-end speed is an awesome trait to have & if you can add cutting, acceleration, reaction time, & quickness to the mix you'd be pretty darn formidable.
Your offspring sounds like me when I started in little A's. 100m was where I felt most natural. I was ok out of the blocks but others were faster with their acceleration. I'd mow them down over the course of the 100m's but the one sprinter I kept coming 2nd to had both good top-end speed & acceleration - she was always just a meter or so faster.
You can definitely train for acceleration. One the sessions I do is simply a series of short sprints. I line up markers at 5m, 10m, 15m, 20m. I explode out to 5m, very slowly walk back, then 10m, etc. Sometimes I do them starting "on my guts" & other times from the MOYE position. Reps & sets are basically down to the individual, as soon as you feel you are starting to slow down you STOP. If you keep doing it as you keep getting slower then all you'll do is teach the body to go slow. I'd watch out for plantar fascias injury with any really short sprint training in Rugby boots as a few players (including myself in the past) can strain that area due to the strain on the arch of the foot (I'd do sprinting sometimes in joggers instead).
XLR8 does a lot on Rugby, in particular sprinting, they have a really short but good youtube video on Resisted Sprinting which is really good for developing acceleration & power. These would be good to do also. Our Rugby club does these as well but we don't have the resistor harness we just grab our partners rugger shorts & that works fine.
IS quote
"So do you build them first and then do the sprint specific training or do you do both at the same time?
Also having read the link you (seahorse) posted I am intrigued as to acceleration: you may have guessed I have a familial interest in this.
One of my offspring is fast enough over anything from 20 to 100 that no one catches him - but he seems slow off the mark: so in a 100m sprint when he comes 2nd or 3rd he does so by the margin established in the frist 20 metres. Can you train this - cos I think the first 10m is the most important in rugby.
BTW he's not the same kid mentioned in my earlier post - who is one the few who can catch him from 20-100 but who is not much interested in rugby."
From my experience IS I reckon train for the build up & do sprint work in the same week. I do speed work all year round (but have slightly more focus on endurance in the off-season), my hypertrophy weights are done in the off-season too which is the build up phase but I never stop doing speed work.
I agree re: acceleration, its a huge part of Rugby for mine I rate both acceleration & cutting (or agility or "change of direction") as two of the big elements in the game plus quickness, reaction time, as well as top-end speed. I mean look at Diggers, he's not really that fast but he does have excellent acceleration & cutting. I personally like to look at areas where I am weak & work on them a bit more but I never stop maintaining & trying to improve my strengths. Top-end speed is an awesome trait to have & if you can add cutting, acceleration, reaction time, & quickness to the mix you'd be pretty darn formidable.
Your offspring sounds like me when I started in little A's. 100m was where I felt most natural. I was ok out of the blocks but others were faster with their acceleration. I'd mow them down over the course of the 100m's but the one sprinter I kept coming 2nd to had both good top-end speed & acceleration - she was always just a meter or so faster.
You can definitely train for acceleration. One the sessions I do is simply a series of short sprints. I line up markers at 5m, 10m, 15m, 20m. I explode out to 5m, very slowly walk back, then 10m, etc. Sometimes I do them starting "on my guts" & other times from the MOYE position. Reps & sets are basically down to the individual, as soon as you feel you are starting to slow down you STOP. If you keep doing it as you keep getting slower then all you'll do is teach the body to go slow. I'd watch out for plantar fascias injury with any really short sprint training in Rugby boots as a few players (including myself in the past) can strain that area due to the strain on the arch of the foot (I'd do sprinting sometimes in joggers instead).
XLR8 does a lot on Rugby, in particular sprinting, they have a really short but good youtube video on Resisted Sprinting which is really good for developing acceleration & power. These would be good to do also. Our Rugby club does these as well but we don't have the resistor harness we just grab our partners rugger shorts & that works fine.