Lifting from today:
Squat
195x5
225x5
255x5
RDLs
155x3x10
3 sets of situps and shrugs
It felt good to squat again for the first time in a couple weeks, but of course it was pretty hard since it’s been a while. Assistance work went well.
Practice from last night:
warm up/stretching
Conditioning
Forwards vs forwards scrimmaging
Practice was very enjoyable last night. We spent a ton of time actually playing rugby, the scrimmaging was for about an hour and a half. I think this was immensely valuable for the new guys. It seems to me that drills don’t help that much for the new guys, they need to get a feel for how to actual game is played. For the first 15-20 mins, play was absolutely horrible, but it really cleaned up by the end of practice. A lot of noticeable improvement.
If it was up to me, we would do a lot more of this in practice. It would look like this:
warm up/stretching
condtioning
1 or 2 drills
forwards scrimmage for an hour (backs would scrimmage each other too)
That would be a whole lot more productive than doing conditioning or drills for an hour and a half and then quickly scrimmaging at the end. Especially since everytime we do a full team scrimmage, it just turns into the backs running all over the place.
Anyway, most of our backs are going to a 7s tournament this weekend (ACC invitational), so we have a “C side” game this weekend against an instate opponent. They aren’t a good team, so this will be a good opportunity for the new guys to get more experience. Plus we have basically have a half A/half B side pack, so this weekend will be fun.
Lifting from today:
Bench (dead hang chins bt each set)
155x5
185x5
205x5
Press
65x3x10
DB rows
55x15,10
I had to cut today’s session short. I was trying out a new template I thought up, and long story short, it isn’t going to work. It’s just too much volume. I was grinding and shaking on the presses, and it was only half my training max. Elitefts posted an old article from Jim Wendler laying out a triumverate template, and I’m going to go with that. It made a lot of sense to me, and I don’t like a lot of volume.
I also might need to reset my maxes, the weights are feeling heavy as hell. This is most likely due to being inseason. I thought I might need this, but I decided to play it by ear before I reset. Now I know for the future.
Game recap:
We put 2 teams into a 7s tournament this weekend, so we only had 1 game. The team we played isn’t very good, we waxed them last year (which was their first year as a team), but they got a coach now and are playing a lot better (they actually understand the game now).
We had primarily new guys in for the first half, and they played like shit. I try not to be mean because these guys usually don’t know what they’re doing, but they did pretty much the opposite of everything we did in practice. At half time we were losing 5-7.
For the second half, we played mostly the more experienced guys, and it was like night and day. We outscored them 27-0 in a shortened half (it was only like 20 mins, probably bc a guy broke his leg and they had to get an ambulence, and we only have the field until a certain time). I scored by picking up a lose ball off a lineout and taking it in, and I also had 2 other runs of 30 meters.
Overall, we won 32-7, but obviously our new guys have to get a lot better. They aren’t gonna have the A and B guys to bail them out anymore. Hopefully they’ll get it together.
A side: 1-1
B side: 1-1
C side: 1-0
overall: 3-2
Lifting:
Squat
185x5
205x5
230x5
Chins (dead hang)
4x 6,4,3,3
Lateral/rear raises
4x10-12
Practice from last night:
stretching/warm up
conditioning
Lineouts
Scrums
Forwards vs Forwards scrimmage
Just another general practice. We have 3 games this weekend, with C side traveling on friday, and A and B playing at home on sunday. Hopefully we will have our numbers up so a bunch of guys won’t have to play twice. The C side guys have got to play better this weekend or they will get killed. The team they’re playing is MUCH MUCH better than last weekend. If they play like they did before, they will get blown out. They have the potential, but they can’t get the deer in the headlights look when the game starts and forget everything they’ve learned.
For A and B side, it’s the same as normal. If we execute, we will win. If we don’t, they can beat us. The team we’re playing isn’t a powerhouse, but they aren’t pushovers either. We have to play better than last week.
Lifting:
Press
worked up to 125x3 with a rep in the tank
Good mornings
115x2x10
95x2x10
Leg raises
couple sets
Practice from last night:
warmup/stretch
conditioning
3 on 2 drill with the forwards, tight channel (5 or 6 meters wide)
Pick and Drive defensive drill (when a guy takes the ball right out of the ruck to run it up the middle)
Full team scrimmage for probably 45 mins
Last night’s practice was hard and heavy. A ton of contact and everything was live. I’m feeling it a little bit today. The coaches said this is how it’s going to be from now on, and it will keep getting more and more intense as we go through the season. As long as we keep our numbers up (people don’t quit because it’s hard) and people actually come to practice consistently, we will be one tough ass team.
Game recap:
The A side played a pretty good team today. We were pretty evenly matched, so it was one of those situations where if we execute, we will win, and if not, we will lose. Well, we didn’t execute. It seemed like the other team had the ball in our half of the field the whole game. Our tackling wasn’t good, and we just generally had almost no offense the entire game. We lost 8-28.
There was supposed to be a B side game as well, but the other team brought like 18 players total. I absolutely hate when teams do this. If they would just say from the get go they don’t have enough players for 2 games we could schedule another team. So, we ended up playing a 10 vs 10 scrimmage against ourselved with 2 of their players involved. I played wing, just because we didn’t have one and I felt like running with the ball.
Before we knew they didn’t have enough players, I was scheduled to play second row on the B side. For some reasons, the head coach still thinks I shouldn’t be at flanker, even though I scored last week and ran 2 runs of 30 meters, all in 20 mins of play. Well, in the scrimmage today, they kicked the ball off to me (away from the fowards, so they thought they could steal the kickoff). I ran a few yards, passed the ball, that guy ran a couple yards and passed it back to me, and I took it 50 yards in for the score. I was outrunning the backs on our team, despite the fact that I was the second heaviest player on the field. The coaches saw this so I hope they took note.
There was a C side game on Friday night. We took 5 experienced guys along with about 15 brand new guys. We lost 0-10, which was surprising considering how the new guys did last week.
On another note, we have got to turn this season around. The losses keep pilling up, and the team is headed in the wrong direction. We need a hard week of practice, and a lot more focus.
A-side: 1-2
B-side: 1-1
C-side: 1-1
Overall: 3-4
Lifting:
Squat
warmup 115,115,135 x5
155x10
185x8
205x6
Lat pulldowns
4x12,12,10,8
lateral raises and curls
3x10-15 each
Practice from last night:
The captains called a player only practice, and we spent about 45 mins discussing how we need to change as a team going foward. Basically addressing the issue of people not coming to practice and such, and also a few changes to how practice will be from now on. We will be doing more live drills and tackling and more scrimmaging, among other things.
After all the talking, we live scrimmaged for an hour and 15 mins.
Lifting:
Bench
115x10
135x8
155x6
Good mornings
95x4x10
Ab wheel
2x15,10
Practice from thursday:
Warm up/stretching
Tackling drills
Forwards vs forwards scrimmage
another forwards vs forwards scrimmage
A lot of tackling and hitting, this left me feeling like total crap on friday. I hit up the hot tub/pool at the gym and foam rolled and stretched a good bit and it helped a lot.
“Practice” yesterday
Since we didn’t have a match this weekend (we were scheduled to play the same team we played 2 weeks ago, but they got a couple guys hurt, especially that guy who broke his leg, and so now they don’t have the numbers to play) and the backs are at the 7s tournament, we had an extra practice yesterday.
It was explained to everyone that if you were not traveling to the 7s tournament, this was a mandatory practice. 30 guys should have been there, about half actually were. We will see if the captains/coaches keep their word and punish the no shows.
We just played touch for an hour and a half and then watched the women’s team play. They looked about 5 trillion times better than last year.
Lifting
Squat
165x5
195x5
225x5
Good mornings
95x3x10
Side bends
3x10,15,15
Practice last night:
warm up/stretching
relay races
fowards vs forwards
lineouts
full team running unopposed
We spent some time learning how to set a quick maul off of a ruck (as opposed to a pick and drive), learned some new lineouts, and ran unopposed to work on a new way to run our offense. Now the coaches are wanting the forwards to be split up all over the field, which makes no sense because we had just practiced playing tight together.
Also, all of our lineouts are fakes/trick plays and complicated. I don’t know what happened since last tuesday, because our captain made it very clear that we were going to simplify everything (and specifically lineouts) and just practice the hell out of it until we can run it flawlessly. I thought this was a great idea and exactly what we needed, since most of the good teams we play do the same thing, execute a simple game plan well.
Well, since then, our coaches have completely changed the way we play, and our lineouts are complicated as hell. I don’t know what the hell they are thinking, because they are just constantly changing everything we do. I wish they would keep their word, keep it simple, and practice it so we can perfect it.
We also had 26 people at practice, out of about 50. The coaches and captain said they are going to be punished, we’ll see.
Lifting
Bench
145x3
165x3
190x3
Chins
Bodyweightx5
Assisted 3x5 (on level 5)
Plate raise (like a front raise, put all the way over the head)
3x10
Training:
Cleans
135x5
155x5
175x5
Squat
165x5
195x5
225x5
275x1
3 sets of planks (front, side, side)
Jogged @5mph for 8 mins, walked another 12
We didn’t have practice yesterday due to it being fall break, so I went and trained on my own instead. I’ve decided I’m going to work on my running endurance, as it is pretty bad. I feel like I can make good gains in this area though because most of the time I have to stop because my lower legs are killing me, not so much that I’m out of breath.
Other than that, squats felt really good today, so I tried 275 for the hell of it, and it wasn’t bad at all.
Training
Squat
165x5
185x5
210x10
DB stiff legs 3x10
Decline situps 2x15
Conditioning
1.26 miles in 18:55
Good job on the 275 squat. How much more do you think you could’ve done?