Some Thoughts on the Training Process

Since the game turned professional in 1995, there is certainly experiencing a paradigm change in the preparation of elite rugby players. The endomorph and the ectomorph have been replaced by the mesomorph and they have become a dominant feature of the game. Some of the important cerebral and physiological features of the modern rugby players are bravery, strength, power, speed, reaction and interaction. Endurance capacity and resistance to fatigue are speed specific. So too, much moderate-pace running in training gets one fit for exactly that, and often leaves players well off a suddenly increased game pace. There is now substantial scientific evidence that would suggest that with reference to the preparation of the player, high-intensity interval training is as effective, and certainly more efficient in terms of time, than the more continuous traditional type of endurance training. It is clear that aerobic capacity is not the most important physiological variable that can be used to predict endurance performance in athletes.