A 12 week pre-season fitness training programme for senior male high school rugby players: The effect of supervision on anthropometric, physiological and physical performance variables.

Abstract

The study comprises of two sections; i) a survey to determine the attitude

towards fitness training for rugby and the current fitness training habits of elite

high school rugby players in their penultimate year at school, ii) a training

study on a sample of the same population group, to measure the effect of a

12 week fitness training programme, based on scientific principles, on

anthropometric, physiological and performance variables. The training study

also measured the efficacy of training supervision compared no supervision

on these variables.

The survey was completed by 132 players (17.7 ± 1.1 years: mean± S.D.)

from 4 schools in the Western Cape and included players from all playing

positions. A large percentage of the population (77%) had represented the

school in another sport at the highest level and the majority of the players

(90%) intended to play rugby after school. The majority of the players (99%)

supported the concept of pre-season fitness training and the inclusion of

resistance weight (99%) during this training period, however, relatively fewer

players implemented either of these during the previous season. Only 65% of

the sample began any form of fitness training in the two week period up to

and including the start of the season, and 63% of the players included

resistance weight training during the pre-season. Fewer players performed

their own fitness training for each type of training during the previous playing

season (in-season), than for the preceding pre-season; running 62% vs. 86%

(in-season vs. pre-season) (p

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