Written by Dave Liow and Jamie Tout
In this sports conditioning example we’re going to look practical programming for rugby union and netball - two of New Zealand’s biggest sports.If you’re working with athletes you need to know your sport and how best to prepare your athletes. Here is some of the information that you’ll need to understand to put together a conditioning plan for netball and rugby union athletes.
Distances
- A netball court is 30.5m x 15.25m. The goalpost is 3.05m high and each third is 10.17m.
- A rugby union field is 100m x 70m excluding the in goal area.
Player Positions and Performance Qualities
|
Sport |
Position |
Performance Qualities |
|
Netball |
Mid Court |
Speed endurance, repeated speed, shorter in height, longer distance covered, linear change at high speed, horizontal power, stopping and starting. |
|
Ends of Court |
Lateral movement, vertical jump, less distance covered, taller in height and thus first step quickness is often not as good, landing and stability. |
|
|
Rugby Union |
Tight Forwards |
Largely starting from standing position, horizontal power and for locks vertical power, shorter distances covered, linear acceleration, reactive power, repeated multi directional changes. 0-20m |
|
Loose Forwards and Hookers |
Combines a mixture of starting position, explosive 0-15m repeated sprints with change of direction and high speed changes 15-30m, shorter rests between sprints. |
|
|
Inside Backs |
Both linear and lateral speed combing both stationary and rolling starts, reactive speed and decision making skills, ballistic high speed changes to both sides, shorter sprints and shorter rests than outside backs. |
|
|
Outside Backs |
Both linear and lateral speed, reactive speed, high speed direction changes predominantly from moving. Longer rests between sprints over 0-40m. |
Injury Profiles
Injury risk should be assessed individually for each player. Understanding the common injury patterns for your players will give you an insight on the type of conditioning that you can do to reduce the risk of injury (prehabilitation).
The most common injuries in netball are lower limb injuries. Ankle and knee sprains from collisions and falls are most common in adult players. Young players are more susceptible to upper body sprains and strains involving the shoulders and thumbs.
Optimising hip abductor strength to reduce the risk of netball lower limb injuries is a key strategy for the sports conditioner. Hip abductor weakness appears to predispose athletes to injury and recurrent ankle sprains (Friel et al., 2006). Younger netball players would benefit from additional upper body conditioning to prepare them for falls and collisions. This is best achieved using closed-chain upper body conditioning exercises (Kibler and Sciascia, 2008)
Similar to the trend in netball, rugby players most commonly injure the lower limb. Injuries predominantly occur in the tackle, as the ball carrier, and tackler, and in the scrum (Fuller et al., 2007). Thigh hematomas, and ankle injuries are prevalent in forwards, as well non-impact related calf injuries. Backs were most susceptible to thigh hematomas and have a high incidence of hamstring tears (Brook et al. 2005)
The injury profile in schoolboy players is similar to the profile seen in senior players, but is characterized by a higher proportion of upper limb injuries. A high proportion of the non-impact related calf and hamstring injuries have been reported to occur during training, compared with matches. This highlights that care should be taken with the volume and quality of running drills during rugby training. Lumbar and pelvic stability and posterior chain conditioning of backs should also be prioritised.
The distances, player position characteristics and injury profiles have been covered. The last point that we’d like to make from a conditioning point of view is to keep training specific. This includes speed and aerobic training and strength and conditioning work. It is our opinion that the calf injuries and hamstring injuries in rugby players are caused by the over prescription of distance running for forwards and due to poor conditioning and pelvic imbalances in the backs respectively. In our experience, poor hip abductor strength is common in netballers, especially at the sub-elite level, and needs to be a prioritised in their strength and conditioning along with short multidirectional speed work. Specific strength and conditioning programmes and speed/aerobic conditioning programmes will be covered in depth at the Sports Conditioning Workshop.
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