Last night we took four colts from our Rugby Off-Season Training Camp somewhere a little different to go do their conditioning training…

…they went grappling with British Welterweight MMA Champion John McGuire =)

As we’re now in the final phase of our Rugby Off-Season Training Camp, we booked in a little surprise for a few of the guys – a trip over to Pro-Am Fight Centre to do their conditioning session in a different way; Instead of the usual wednesday circuits, speed/agility work and anaerobic shuttles, we thought we’d give them the opportunity to go mano-a-mano with some MMA grappling instead.

The guys had a whistlestop tour of the basics of wrestling positions and falls, moved onto a bunch of different takedowns and then ended up with a good old-fashioned game of ‘winner stays in’.

It was an awesome session. The absolutely destroyed look on the guys’ faces at the end was almost as good as the one they had when they first walked in – and were blasted with 130db of Pantera and Metallica and surrounded by a bunch of double-hard fighters :)

[Note - if there coincidentally just happens to be an RFU enquiry this season into dirty ruck tactics in the east of England, then I'd just like to say that are in no way liable...]

Once the session was over, you can imagine it took us all of about 30 seconds before we jumped all over the strongman kit to have a play – as the photo of Andy dominating a 305Kg Yoke Walk shows.

The young lady you see in these pictures is an U17 athlete who competes regularly at national level in a whole host of athletics events. She’s started work with us to help prepare for the English Schools AA Track & Field Finals in July.

Amongst other acheivements, Stephanie… (deep breath)

• finished last season as 12th in the country for 800m, 11th in the country for pentathlon and as 3rd in the country for 300m hurdles.
• took part in three English schools AA qualification events (cross country, 800m and Combined events).
• is Cambridgshire champion for 800m flat and 300m hurdles.
• is South Lincs Schools Champion for high jump (new pb 1.58m), 80m Hurdles and 300m flat.
• is Anglian school Champion over 800m and Lincolnshire School champion for the pentathlon.

Phew! *finally breathes in again* — I believe that the colloquial expression we’re looking for here is “you go girl” =)

Steph qualified for the English Schools Final with a time of 46.8s in the 300m hurdles, and we’re hoping that the sessions with us over the forthcoming weeks will help to keep her injury free during all of her training and will give her the strength that she will need to succeed.

Good luck Stephanie!

We’re delighted to announce that Cambridge United Football Club have agreed a contract with us to provide the Strength & Conditioning support for CUFC’s whole club structure (Scholars, Development squad and Seniors) throughout the offseason, pre-season and in-season of 2010-2011.

Whilst the headline fact is that Cambridge United have asked us to provide strength & conditioning coaching for the forthcoming season, we’re really excited because the reality goes somewhat further than that – the club have approached us with a really clear vision of how they want to build the club from the ground up over the next few years, with the focus of growing new talent via their youth academy structure.

To be approached in this manner is obviously music to a Strength & Conditioning coach’s ears because it gives us an opportunity to set up a multi-year academy designed to progressively develop a player’s “physical literacy” from junior athlete through to their ‘graduation’ as a senior player.

With this in mind we’ll be putting a system into place whereby the young athletes learn movement patterns and develop basic strength – and by the time they’re ready to play for the seniors, they have an outstanding strength and fitness base to build upon with their senior skills.

Another major bonus point is that Martin and his coaching team are looking to integrate a full-season S&C plan into their coaching structure. This methodical approach is what every fitness coach dreams of, and will soon lead to the reduction in injury and improvement in performance that the club are looking for.

“It’s brilliant to have Core Cambridge as part of the team going forwards.” said Jez George, Director of Football at Cambridge United, “They will be working with us to develop the performance of all of the players in our club – from the young scholars right the way through the development squad to the seniors.” “Core Cambridge have a massive role to play in helping us to develop the club from the ground up over the forthcoming years.”

Martin Ling, Cambridge United Manager, said “We’ve been hugely impressed with Core Cambridge’s professionalism and expertise when they’ve done pieces of work at the club in the past few years. This agreement gives us the opportunity to implement their methods for the whole of the club across the whole of a season.”

“We’re massively excited about this opportunity to implement a club-wide strength & conditioning plan from all the way from grassroots to professional,” said Ed Hallam, Director of Performance at Core Cambridge, “To excel in the modern game, it’s not enough just to be able to play football; you need to be a highly qualified athlete. Martin and his team have given us the remit to lay all of the foundations required for an outstanding academy system that should lead to profound improvements in performance and reduction in injury over the forthcoming seasons.”

Our work will start in just a couple of weeks, straight after the last game on 24th April, when we’ll be putting in place a plan for the players during the offseason. The next step after that will be working on the six-week pre-season plan with the rest of the coaching staff ready for when the players come back to training from the summer.

There’s currently a lot of misconceptions and misinformation surrounding the topic of coaching young athletes. The fact is that young athletes can actually start learning movement patterns and other strength & conditioning concepts an awful lot earlier than the general population expects.

These photographs of Aisha, a young athlete that we coach, graphically illustrate this point. Aisha is an aspiring professional tennis player who was runner-up in the county level under-9s tournament in 2009.

Last week saw the first session at our facility with Cambridge Rugby Club’s Under-17. The players will be training with us over the forthcoming weeks in order to improve their injury resiliance and increase their performance.

Tracey Baxter, Lead Coach for the CRUFC Under-17s, said “These sessions are great for our players – Core Cambridge provides an environment for them to raise their awareness and understanding of what is required to perform at their highest level as a modern day rugby player. It’s not just rugby skills anymore – flexibility, posture, core stability and conditioning are all vital skills in the modern game.”

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for any interesting developments over the forthcoming weeks, and will run out to snap pics of anything we think you’ll find interesting or amusing.