Warm-ups and cool-downs are two of the most important aspects of your training and match day routines.
It’s vital that your players warm-up and cool-down properly in order to maximise their performance and reduce the risk of injury. We tell you how and why warm-ups and cool-downs work and we suggest some warm-up drills that you might try with your team.
Even young players need to do warm ups. But don’t let them become boring. Instead, build themes for players to follow to allow them to access the benefits of a good preparation for training or matches. MORE
Use this low impact activity to prepare your players for tackling. It focuses on good footwork and grip.
Increases confidence and reminds players of the key points of tackling.
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A fun game to help work on defensive footwork as well as evasion skills from attackers.
Develops evasion skills, plus defensive footwork and communication. MORE
‘Escape the square’ is a quick game that can be used in warm ups to get players focused on moving the rugby ball in attack, scanning for space and communicating with team-mates. MORE
Evasion is a fundamental movement skill. Players use in pretty much all their activities, without necessarily focusing on the specific skills they need.
Without becoming too bogged down in the technical requirements, you want to improve your players starting and stopping, balance, change of direction and acceleration. With that comes an awareness of space, time, teammates, the opposition and the ball. MORE
It's exciting that in England at the very least, contact training is back.
However, with only 15 minutes allowed for contact training, you won't be wanting to waste any precious time. So, why not get the players warmed up for contact, without contact!
How does that work? MORE
