In-Season Training to Win

I am a 24-year old college senior about to start my last rugby season. I am almost 6’5", 242 lbs. and I do everything possible to stay fit, fast, big, strong, explosive, and durable. My skills are also developing nicely through experience and drills.

But I can’t help but think that there is more I could do to give myself and my team better chances for a championship season. Perhaps intensive stretching would increase my performance? Besides eating like a behemoth, this is what I do for fitness:

I have lifted 10 years now, having learned sound technique from BiggerFasterStronger instructors & NCAA strength coaches. Offseason, I lift 3-4 days/wk, mostly compound lifts with some isolation work, always in 6-12 rep range (I feel that higher reps of heavy weight is the only way to ever go, unless a few week switch up).

However, with cleans and snatches, I generally stay in 3-8 rep range.
Anyway, once the season starts should I shoot for 2 or 3 lifts/week, perhaps 1 upper-body day and 1 lower? There will be 3 practices, 1 game and 1 conditioning session each week. This schedule–along w/school itself–will be very demanding and I will prob eat 5,000 cal/day! I don’t want to diminish my recent strength and power gains, but it seems inevitable.

One friend suggested I increase my reps to 20-30 and perform very explosively (maybe jump squats instead of back squats??); another told me to switch to something resembling Waterbury’s method of 10x3. But would that even help me maintain/increase functional strength? Would I get slower? Any thoughts?

Beyond the weightroom, I run uphill and random-interval sprints, jump rope religiously, perform “DOTS” agility drills, try to swim when possible, train MMA such as boxing and wrestling, and at least one day/wk I try to do varying sets of pushups/trunk curls/jacknifes/calisthenics, etc.

Am I missing anything? Many thanks…

20-30 rep sets will build your General Physical Prepardness, but if your muscular endurence and such are fine for the pitch, you should focus on a program like Westside for Skinny Bastards. You can find it here.

Thanks squirr3l. That program seems like a great way to pack on mass and get strong in the off-season. Unfortunately, my offseason is pretty much over–I have a little over 4 weeks before my first game! I haven’t gotten too much bigger, but I have gotten far better and stronger than the beginning of the summer.

Where are the cleans and snatches in the Westside program (not seated “power clean”)? Maybe I can try the program for those 4 weeks and substitute the “Upper Body Repetition Day” with “explosive O-lift day”? In any case, thanx 4 turnin me on to the program–it is one I will certainly use at some point. Peace, JC

so are u basically asking how many weight training sessions you should do on top of:
“There will be 3 practices, 1 game and 1 conditioning session each week.”

i will assume that your games are on saturdays and that the 4 training sessions are during the week, one a day with one day off.

i would say a couple of weight’s sessions a week would suffice, couple them onto training days having one am and one pm session. concentrate on compound movements to maintain strength and body mass and dont waste energy on iso movements. if your training sessions are of a decent intensity i would keep the volume reasonably low.

on your two rest days i would do some active recovery, some very light cardio and stretching, i find this particuarly useful the day after a game to ease out stiffness.

ws4sb doesnt have any c and j’s/snatches cos defranco doesnt believe that oly lifts are useful enough to spend all the effort coaching them cos they are so technical

hope this helps

[quote]bigwinsta wrote:
so are u basically asking how many weight training sessions you should do on top of:
“There will be 3 practices, 1 game and 1 conditioning session each week.”

i will assume that your games are on saturdays and that the 4 training sessions are during the week, one a day with one day off.

i would say a couple of weight’s sessions a week would suffice, couple them onto training days having one am and one pm session. concentrate on compound movements to maintain strength and body mass and dont waste energy on iso movements. if your training sessions are of a decent intensity i would keep the volume reasonably low.

on your two rest days i would do some active recovery, some very light cardio and stretching, i find this particuarly useful the day after a game to ease out stiffness.

ws4sb doesnt have any c and j’s/snatches cos defranco doesnt believe that oly lifts are useful enough to spend all the effort coaching them cos they are so technical

hope this helps[/quote]

Go to DefrancosPage he has under the QUestion-section an inseason program, got to search for it!! It is for Football-players, but it should do it for you to

[quote]GermanPower wrote:
Go to DefrancosPage he has under the QUestion-section an inseason program, got to search for it!! It is for Football-players, but it should do it for you to[/quote]

www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_03-10-03.htm#question01

[quote]bigwinsta wrote:
GermanPower wrote:
Go to DefrancosPage he has under the QUestion-section an inseason program, got to search for it!! It is for Football-players, but it should do it for you to

www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/
ask_joe_03-10-03.htm#question01

[/quote]

Thanks a ton my Brit and German friends, very helpful. What I will do is two days of nothing but “core” compound lifts, and if I have time/energy, or if my recover-ability allows, I’ll do a 3rd lift. This day will involve more isolation-type movements…DeFranco knows his shit, thanx again.