Needs Analysis

Evaluation of the Sport

Movement Analysis

Rugby requires a variety of movement patterns, consisting of making and breaking tackles, passing and catching, rapid acceleration, deceleration and change in direction (Luger & Pook, 2004). The centre is required to have a leading shoulder (Eaton & George, 2006), agility, speed, strength and power (Duthie et al., 2003) as their key attribute. All of which recruit muscle groups within the trunk, upper and lower body (Taylor, 2006); essential components to ensure the athlete meets the demands of their environment (Luger & Pook, 2004).

Physiological Analysis

The athlete primarily requires hypertrophy, strength endurance, and has both Aerobic and Anaerobic components (Bompa & Carrera, 2005). The athlete is required to perform repeated high intensity exercise bouts, followed by recovery lasting between 28-52 seconds (Austin et al., 2011).

Injury Analysis 

The game of Rugby is played on a grass pitch, were the players wear studded rugby boots. As a result the ground can become uneven, resulting in a high incidence of lower limb injury (Fuller et al., 2008). Other injuries that are common within this sport are shoulder (Headey et al., 2007) and neck injuries (Gemmell & Dunford, 2007) due to this some players wear shoulder and torso padding, scrum caps, tape, and gum shields (Gerrard, 1998).  

Evaluation of the Athlete

The athlete is a 26 year old male advanced international rugby player (height: 118cm; mass: 95kg), whom is currently training during off season. The athlete has many years experience in lifting heavy weights, and of using free weights and resistance machines, demonstrating a good technique during use.  Moreover, basic strength and reaction tests, and agility drills were all performed well, whilst the athlete demonstrated accurate footwork and techniques. The training program must, therefore, allow these characteristics to be maintained.  

Despite the athlete being an advanced rugby player, it was noted that balance and transition on agility drills was an area the athlete tended to struggle with. This may be a reason behind the athlete recruitment ankle injuries (McKeon & Hertal, 2008).

Therefore, hypertrophy is the primary aim during off season whilst both stability and the transitional element of the agility drills, should be a secondary aim of the training programme.  These objectives allow the athlete to build muscle mass, enabling greater force to be generated whilst making and breaking tackles (Taylor, 2004).  Whereas the secondary aim will enable the athlete to develop a stable ankle through the use of proprioception and maintaining the postural control system (Palmieri et al., 2002; Lephart, 2000).