Martin's Rugby Coaching Forum

my son plays as a Junior. He isn't fast enough, he plays fly half and lacks pace over short distances, he doesn't make enough breaks and sometimes misses a nifty opposite number. I was on the phone to SAQ yesterday and have ordered a bag of bits and some DVDs but am not sure I'll get the best out of it. I wondered if you had any experience with the kit? I don't know when you start your pre-season training but if you're interested in the kit I could bring it along and maybe my son could join in with your training.

Well, looks like your son has got his father's full support! I did not get the club to buy all
the SAQ stuff....

Let me first explain what I do with SAQ and then talk about your son and his club.

SAQ has become an integral part of my trainingsprogram. As I describe on my site it
combines nicely with other things I already do like plyometrics and core stability training
exercises. We create an interesting mix of things spending the first 30 mins. of each
trainingsession working on these elements. The team performance has increased, apart
from a l lot of other things, if a team is fit, strong, mobile, can catch a ball and tackle you
have a lot of problems solved!!! (I want to use some of the photo's of my team to show
off on my SAQ pages)
We use SAQ ladder, use our regular flags for core stability exercises, tackle bags and
ruck pads for hurdles.

What you can do: with some of the stuff you bought and the video you can easily work
with your son, it will be fun. Try to built something around the regular club program.

You are more than welcome to come to Rotterdam to get a better understanding on how
to use the SAQ material once the season started. I will be involved this season but will
spend more time working for the NRB.

_________________
Martin, Rugbyhead

Hi

SAQ produce a book and run a day long course in thier methodology and related equipment. I started by buying a few bits and pieces for my son. I now run a half hour team session for the whole team as well as occasional sessions for his football team.

My suggestions? Get the warm ups, cool downs and technique right. The speed will come.

I found my boys enthusiam wore off after a while but is rekindled if he does it with a friend or the team.

And the same equipment can be bought more cheaply form other sites... try www.valentinedistribution.co.uk

If you can afford it, the SAQ course is good. The material is the same as the book but makes more sense as part of a day long practical!!

Good Luck!

Yes, I agree with you: doing the SAQwork with the team is a lot of fun because it brings some more competition to the workout. I try to do lots of work in a relay format and that seems to be okay. I am also using the short ladders in my other ball exercises.

Good to see you got involved with the team your son is playing, this is what we coaches need: parents participating.

We are working towards a P-Award course in the Netherlands, hope we can get enough participants.

On the look-a-like stuff: I use tackle bags and hitshields so lots of things are possible but I would use the SAQ material for quality and safety of it if my club had the money..... I also understand there are some copyright issues

_________________
Martin, Rugbyhead

Hi Again

By "look alike" I have bought hurdle and ladders, they are the same! THe SAQ logo seems to add 10-15% to the cost, I cannot see a safetly issue with kit I have bought.

I think we have to accept that SAQ is one of several commercial brands who sell a fitness product. Selling kit is one of their revenue streams (selling trainig being another) so when they disourage the use of other kit as less safe, well I reserve my judgement!

We also try to integrate shields and bags, but we do not use them "instead of" the SAQ we use them "as well as". For example a W backwards and forwards agility run ends with a tackle or a drive. Or we use the ladders to encourage deceleration before the final acceleration into a tackle. Or we drive along a ladder to encourage rapid short steps using the front of the foot rather than big strides.

We use the dynamic flex as the lower body warmup before matches, and now the boys have the hang of it, they look very profcessional and I am sure it gives them a psychological edge! (wishful thinking!)

My son's football coach asked me along to do a mini-SAQ session and it was interesting. The footballers were generally more athletic, (faster) , but they looked liked lumbering elephants when faced with the unfamiliar dynamic flex warmup. In the ladders they were fast going forwards (as i expected) but given a slightly more complex drill soon had to slow right down, again to be expected.

Most interesting of all, in the second half of the training session (regular football stuff) the football coaches all commented on how much better their movement was after just 30 mins of SAQ (dynamic flex, very basic mechanics (hurdle) and fast feet (ladder)) work.

Finally, I am wary of making it competitive or even encouraging them to go fast. Unless the technique is absolutely right, they can get very fast at using the wrong technique.

However the boys, and other coaches, like the competitive/speed element so I allow this at the end of the SAQ session where we sting the drills to gether and it becomes as much an endurance excercise as SAQ.


Regards

Andy