Core Cambridge 2010 Rugby Off-Season Training Camp
We are very excited to announce our 2010 rugby offseason training camp!
Introduction
Every rugby player knows that the offseason is the time to make gains. In-season, you’re simply trying to stay on the pitch – if you can maintain your start-season performance throughout and not get injured then you’ve done your job.
The off-season is the time to raise the bar on your performance levels – you recover from last season, fix any niggles you had and then smash the training to build new found levels of speed, strength, size for the season ahead.
…and then you step back on the pitch for your first game of next season and absolutely dominate your opposite number.
We’ve used our extensive rugby coaching experience to design (what we believe is) the ultimate offseason programme for a rugby athlete. We’ve taken the techniques used by professional players and made them applicable for any rugby player from Colts through Seniors.
Everything is planned out for you – six training sessions a week, your food, your supplements, your mobility and core work, the lot. All you have to do is train, eat, sleep and repeat.
The camp focuses on the six key areas of strength, power, speed, fitness, injury prevention and health and uses a mixture of weight training, strongman metabolic sessions, pitch running, lactate tolerance work, killer contact, grappling training and ball-in-hand drills.
The skills you learn during the camp – the freeweights technique, how, what and when to eat, core stability and injury prevention – will stay with you for the rest of your rugby career.
Training Package Contents
By signing up for this camp you will receive:
- A 15 week training programme specifically designed to create the ultimate rugby athlete.
- 49 sessions at our high-performance facility consisting of three training sessions per week during the camp and four lifting technique sessions in the pre-camp – all in very small groups to ensure coaching quality.
- A fully periodised training plan detailing 3 additional sessions per week that you can perform at your own gym and training ground.
- A comprehensive food guide teaching you what you need to eat and when in order recover fast and maximise your gains – in a healthy way.
- A calorie requirement calculator to remove the guess work from knowing exactly how much you need to be eating to fuel your recovery without gaining fat.
- A food log to help you track progress and stay on target.
- A complete plan for pre-, post- and peri- workout supplements to help you to understand which supplements can help, and when they should be used to get the maximum effect.
- A pre-hab programme to increase your flexibility/ mobility, to speed recovery from the intense training, and to reduce injury during the camp and into the next season.
- A core stability programme that will ensure that you’re strong enough to resist contact and to apply force quickly into the ground.
- Full body composition tracking so that you can track your fat loss and muscle gain during the camp.
- A report of your physiological testing results so that the hard work and effort that you have put in is rewarded with a precise measurement of your newfound improvements in speed, strength and fitness.
Training Plan Structure
The 19 weeks are structured around three key phases, using a mixture of freeweights sessions and metabolic drills.
Wk 1-2 [Pre-Camp] Lifting Technique & Squad Selection
This phase develops optimal lifting technique and familiarity with the warm-up and pre-hab techniques required to cope with the higher-intensity phases to follow. [Two sessions per week at Core Cambridge]
Wk 3 Initial Testing
Your ‘start’ statistics are captured – strength, speed, fitness, body composition – so that you’ll see just how far you’ve developed. [One session at Core Cambridge]
Wk 4-8 Strength Endurance / Hypertrophy
This phase creates the base needed for the following phases, where strength training and metabolic conditioning become much more specific to rugby. Work capacity is increased, and any muscle lost during the latter stages of the competitive season will be regained. Metabolic conditioning methods include strongman training and running drills. [3 sessions per week at Core Cambridge and 3 sessions at your home gym/pitch]
Wk 9-13 Max Strength Development
Now that a sufficient base has been developed to tolerate more intense training, loading is increased to push strength levels as high as possible whilst inducing functional hypertrophy. The lifting becomes more specific to rugby. Metabolic conditioning becomes a mixture of strongman, killer contact, and ball-in-hand work. The intensity of this phase sets the platform for the following phase of explosive lifting where performance peaks in time to step on the pitch for pre-season. [3 sessions per week at Core Cambridge and 3 sessions at your home gym/pitch]
Wk14-18 Strength / Power
This phase is focused on developing an explosive athlete. Now that you can produce high levels of force, you will learn to unleash that force quickly. Rugby-specific lifting is introduced. The new levels of strength and power that you can develop is carried into explosive performance on the pitch during your club’s preseason training & games. [3 sessions per week at Core Cambridge and 3 sessions at your home gym/pitch]
Wk 19 Final Testing & Results
The final testing day quantifies the increased performance that you can feel. Your scores are ranked with your fellow athletes, and the final results of your efforts are revealed. [One session at Core Cambridge]
FAQs
I’ve never really done free weights before – is that a problem?
It really shouldn’t be. The first two weeks are a pre-camp which fulfills two purposes: one, everyone gets the opportunity to learn the correct lifting technique in a non-competitive environment and two, we get a chance to assess every athlete and to group them into similar levels of ability.
We spend our lives teaching people who’ve never lifted before, so it shouldn’t be a problem to instill correct technique quickly, and each session will be actively coached in very small groups so that you’re never putting yourself at unecessary risk.
That said, if there was an athlete that we felt simply wasn’t ready, then we’d take relevent steps with the athlete concerned to consider withdrawal or extra education.
Your schedule runs into August & September – what about my club’s pre-season training?
No problem. We’ve designed the whole programme with that in mind. We know exactly the type of training your club will be doing for pre-season, and our plan is structured to make sure that it all fits together and complements one another.
I’m going on holiday – what if I can’t commit to the full 19 weeks?
Then you’re going to have to work around it (and lay off the Mr. Whippys =).
Our reputation lives and dies by the results we get for our athletes, and if we’re going to put our name to the programme, then you’re going to have to commit to completing it – 100% from start to finish. No excuses.
The best practical suggestion is to find a gym where you’re staying on holiday, and/or talk to us and we’ll absolutely help design you a programme to be doing whilst you’re away.
Aww man, this looks sweet – but I live miles away. What if I can only make one session a week?
Cool! – then e-mail us and let us know that.
We’re considering a one session a week camp if there’s enough people interested. It’d be a similar format but with more stuff planned for you to go away and do in your own time.
So who’s it for? Can anyone do it?
Yes – absolutely anyone from Colts upwards through Seniors (so from 16+ realistically) who wants to improve their performance for next season. You don’t have to be affiliated to a club, development group or squad – but most will be.
My son is only 16 – is it really safe for him to be doing weights?
If he’s in the hands of a competent team of experts then – Yes, absolutely. He’ll be learning fundamental movement patterns that’ll reduce his risk of injury by giving him the strength to maintain his posture.
(If he’s gurning out weights in his garage unsupervised then possibly not =)
What are the exact session dates so I can plan?
Pre-camp starts 03 May. Testing starts 17 May, The main programme runs from the week of 24 May to the week of 30 August.
How much does it cost?
£22 per week per player – paid in two installments of £187 or one (discounted) installment of £335.
This looks awesome!! How do I sign up?
Just let us know you’re up for it! – send an email to info@core-cambridge.com with your name and contact phone number. We’ll collate all of the e-mails together and will send you everything else you need to know.
If you want to find out more information about the programme, meet the coaches as well as the other guys who’ve signed up for the programme, we’re holding an opening evening at our centre on the 28th April – when you send us the e-mail we’ll send you the details in an invite!
Go write the e-mail now!
