Planning for pre-season training

It’s tempting to build a pre-season plan that "fixes everything" — but this almost always backfires. Pre-season overlaps with holiday periods, so attendance will be inconsistent. New players will be arriving and finding their feet, and it’s too early to know exactly where everyone fits.

Rather than treating this as a problem to be solved, treat it as the reality to plan around. Every other team is facing the same issue, so the coaches who get ahead focus on easy wins rather than trying to overhaul everything at once.

This doesn’t mean lowering standards on fitness — players expect and need to be pushed physically. But it does mean being selective about which technical and tactical elements you try to bed in before the first game.

The first sessions of pre-season set the tone for the rest of the year. A few principles worth establishing from session one — and note this is about standards of effort and attitude, not polished technical execution:

• High standards from day one. Allow some rustiness, but make clear what "good" looks like.
• Make "sorry" unacceptable. Focus on putting mistakes right immediately — this builds accountability.
• Establish your team philosophy. Decide how you want the team to play and communicate it clearly.

A common trap is thinking everything must be "covered" before the first match. This leaves teams thinly prepared across the board rather than strong in a few key areas.

• Only cover the major elements in your first few sessions.
• Change only a few things at a time — pre-season is about starting a process, not completing it.
• Make sure a handful of areas are very strongly covered. The team can "make do" elsewhere in the short term.
• Build new elements in gradually, week by week, as the season progresses.

Don’t expect pre-season alone to get players match-fit for the whole season. What pre-season can do well is build an aerobic fitness base — the foundation for everything else. This is different from full match fitness, which is a season-long target. The key is combining fitness with skills through games rather than running separate blocks.

Building tolerance to fatigue

Players need to build a tolerance to intense effort. Games-based conditioning — like the aerobic square, or touch games with periodic shuttle runs — achieves this far more effectively, and enjoyably, than isolated fitness drills.

Periodisation means spreading the different elements of your programme across sessions over time, rather than trying to cover everything in every session. This adds variety (reducing boredom) and helps prevent overuse injuries. A simple five-week plan might designate certain weeks as key focus periods, while introducing new elements gradually alongside them.

None of the open-play decision-making matters if your team can’t win the ball. Set piece needs to be a feature of pre-season, even without full numbers.

• Lean-to scrums: After a 15-second blowout exercise, players get into correct body position and the scrum goes on the feed — no full contest.
• 5 v 5 half-push scrums: A reduced scrum with only a half-metre of push, managed carefully for safety.

Repeat core set-piece elements every couple of sessions — this helps players who missed earlier sessions catch up, and reinforces connections for those who attended.

From week one, every session should include something on: handling, support, evasion, tackling and contact.

• Handling should always be done under pressure — players arrive with technique in place.
• Tackling and ruck technique can be worked at a slower pace. Pick two focus points for each and revisit every week until they become habits. For example: tackle — tight grip and active feet; ruck — chin over the ball and stay square.
• Evasion and support are best developed through games, not isolated coaching.

• Identify your core lineout, scrum and back-line moves — just two or three of each — and drill these until they’re sharp.
• In attacking phase play, repeat the same plays every session, gradually adding defensive pressure.
• For defence, focus on good line speed and marking up threats — not a complex blitz system.
• Don’t forget a basic counter-attack and kick-return policy — often overlooked but vital from game one.
• Once core plays are close to perfect, add variations. A small number of reliable moves beats a large playbook nobody can execute.

Rugby is played in phases, and training should reflect that. If you practise a scrum, play on through the next phase rather than stopping dead. This keeps training realistic and helps players link set piece, phase play and decision-making into a continuous picture rather than isolated boxes.

Every player arrives at pre-season with different motivations. Challenge each player individually to be better by the end of the period, and help them identify what they personally want to work on. If a player struggles to come up with their own goals, offer them a menu of options to choose from.

Players turn out for pre-season largely because they want to enjoy themselves. Make sure every session ends with a game, even a small-sided non-rugby game. This keeps players motivated and gives you valuable insight into who your competitive players are — and who your team players are (the two aren’t mutually exclusive).

Watch for the signs of enjoyment — sweat, smiles, players chatting after the session, genuine "thank yous". An end-of-session huddle, where a couple of players share what they improved on, often helps players recognise the value of the session themselves — and reinforces their motivation to return.

• ✓Fitness is a season-long focus — don’t burn all your training time on individual conditioning.
• ✓Set high standards of effort and attitude from the very first session.
• ✓Build your moves and patterns slowly — quality over quantity.
• ✓Regularly check in with players on whether they feel they’re benefiting and enjoying sessions.
• ✓Make sure every session includes a game.