The Role of a Strength and Conditioning coach changes depending on the club and sport. My experience covers a mixture of team sports, individual sports organised through a governing body and athletes who I work with on a private basis. For this blog I will focus on my experiences in Rugby League.
In Rugby, size is a big predictor of performance. Therefore there is a big focus on strength training in the gym. The amount of focus depends upon the culture and the coaching team at the club. For example at one club I worked at there was a 50/50 split, For every minute the players spent on the field they had a minute in the gym lifting heavy. In this setup my role was to plan and monitor the gym based training. Working with younger athletes the rate of physical development is high as they are naturally primed for growth. Where the science comes in is knowing when the players are ready to take the next step and when to hold back, this comes from monitoring growth and managing training during growth spurts.
In this setup speed training is completed as an add on to the end of a field warmup. Warmups both in gym and on field are the opportunity to incorporate conditioning exercises that target common injury sites to build a level of resilience. The S&C coach also works closely with the Physiotherapy team, in Rugby injuries are common therefore the S&C coach provides a link between injured and ready to compete on the field.
One of the best pieces of advice I could offer to S&C coaches who are early in their career would be to gain experience from as many clubs and sports as possible. As mentioned earlier each club and management team has its own philosophy about what physical characteristics are important.
In my current role players spend much more training time on the field. This significantly changes the role of the S&C coach. A big example is that I am involved in the planning of on field coaching sessions. By being involved in the planning at the early stage changes can be made to the training plan to ensure that the required intensity levels are achieved. Additionally if the session is more skill based I can request a short block in between drills to hit either a high speed running or cardiovascular fitness target. Working with the coaches we can then decide if it is better to have players fatigued for a training drill or if it would be better if players were fresh.
Another advantage for an S&C coach and Physiotherapist to be involved in the planning for a session is we can decide with players are able to participate. For example a player with a late stage shoulder injury may be able to complete a passing drill but not be ready for a full contact game. In this case the player can be removed from the drill to do either 1-2-1 or small group training with the physio or S&C coach.
Between the two roles I have held in Rugby there are large differences in the approach to training, despite this both clubs are in the same league with the players competing against each other regularly. The players have the same needs but the way we prepare the players are different. This shows the need to be adaptable and have multiple ways to achieve each training objective. For example hamstring strain frequency can be reduced through on field sprinting, or in gym weight training using exercises such as the RDL or hamstring curl bridges using a ball.
If you would like to know more about having your own S&C coach for your training please feel free to have a look at my packages or get in touch for more information. I work with a wide range of people from absolute beginners, people recovering from an injury or surgery through to professional athletes.
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