After some awesome displays of forward rugby speed and rugby power over the weekend, here’s my top 3 demonstrations of power and pace from forwards in the Guinness Premiership Playoffs.
In reverse order,
At No. 3….Roger Wilson’s bullocking run from a snaffled line-out take against Saracens. He showed both power and pace to get away from the scrabbling hands of the Sarries back row.
At No. 2….Luke Watson of Bath, his dancing feet and then acceleration and power that left the Leicester defenders on the back foot for most of the match was wondrous.
Finally….At No 1…Tonga’huia’s 40 yard dash for the line (plus the irony of the situation, regarding his change of heart over moving to Sarries) could be the all time best try from a prop forward.
It really did have it all: Acceleration, to beat the covering defence; specific rugby agility and speed to weave and fix the last defender; a dummy and then a powerful hand-off to leave Alex Goode clutching at thin air.
Just awesome…watched it 3 times!
All three examples, whilst slightly different, demanded high levels of power.
I’ll be posting a new section with some Power programs soon, so make sure you come back to see how you can become a power player…the game is headed more and more that way…how much further can the elite game go…who knows!
I was just wondering how big players are able to run as fast as they do.
I understand that speed and power training play a part in this but how come so men can be very big and very quick.
if you look at the likes of stephen ferris who is 6foot3/4, 17stone4 yet can still accelerate and has a good top speed despite his size.
my brother has said that it can be down to a person being 17 stone but if a good proportion of that is muscle, then its muscle thats helping to make other muscles move faster? whats your thoughts on this?
he’s also suggested that if 7/8 stone of that 17 stone for example is down low in his legs then it will help the rest of him move faster because a good portion of his weight is down low where his legs are.
it would be very much appreciated to hear someone elses views on this.
Hi Sam
Good question. To be honest the answer is very complicated and can include a number of factors.
Yes to a degree your brother is correct but it also has to do with multiple other aspects a few of which include:
Muscle fibre type a distribution (Slow v fast fibres, and the type of fast fibres…there are many!)
Genetic potential and development level within that genetic potential.
Injury status (some athletes never return to pre injury levels of speed) v peak condition.
Ranges of motion, synergistic control and firing patterns.
It amazes me how fast some of these large 17st plus athletes are these days, but it doesn’t surprise me given the amount of time given to athletic development since the advent of professionalism.
If you look at other sports where speed and power are abundant, such as the NFL, their athletes are equally large (or larger) and speedy and have been so for many years. The key is the amount of time dedicated to athletic conditioning.
In the old days training was only really skill based with a bit of aerobic type fitness thrown in, it has only been in the last decade that so much of training has been able to be dedicated to speed and power development.
Hope that helps.
Alex