Coaches - Rugby Drills Coaching Library

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Learning to squat

Squats are regarded as a key fundamental to improving a players strength & flexibility for many of the movements involved in playing rugby. Any exercise that can involve adding weight needs to be done safely and using the correct techniques

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So the squat for me is probably the most important exercise that we use. It's taking the joints through all the movements that we need and if we think about how our body moves around the pitch and how we need it for scrummage in tackling rucking them all in the squat takes us through all those movement patterns before she runs back. There we go. The really good flexibility for the whole range. Great stuff now, we're going to go to the back squat. So we're going to start with 15 reps on an empty bar just to get the full movement pattern going and as a continuation of our warm up. Okay, so we're looking for a full depth squat. So hips to knees thighs parallel really good hinge at the hips there. So this is a progression. Once we've done the warm-up now, we just really get in to activate the specific muscles that would need to go into the full squat for our strength session. So we just doing it with an empty bar now. Just to Toby can get into the groove. There's going to be some slight variations in the individuals. As they do it. Well, they're more comfortable with. where they got restrictions in their flexibility But we've got to make sure it's a nice safe exercise. So I have in the guy's face forward when we start to put a little bit of load on there. We can come behind and spot them in a nice safe manner. So we're going to carry on progressing the weight up now. So for Toby, we just concentrate on the tempo. So 1/2 of the dissent holding it for a second and then driving up. the start position cases for your backside a little bit more So just a little bit around in there of his hips. Okay on the fifth of six rep there. So just forces back side a little bit just you know forces those hips back. Scooby chest up good exercise what I'm so both the guy's a competent with this white. So I'm quite happy just to observe them from the side just to see how their technique is for the squat before I move around behind when we start to pull a bit more load on there in a spotting position. Now we shall get into a load. It's important that we spot behind them. Okay for their own safety. With the rack that we've got here before quite fortunate. We've got the additional bars. Okay, so the weight can drop onto it, but we will also assist if they're just starting to fail can rep seven eight nine. Then we can just get behind them and give them that extra assistance just to complete the set. Okay, Mitch. Okay. Good. But I would just go for two more. I don't. Really nice Tempo driving that were done right the bar up. Okay. So the squat you should never do on your own always have a partner with you the sort of loads you can put on your back when you get very competent at it. It can become very dangerous as we think about the muscles that we use in the Tower of Power. They they're all there for the squat in terms of different, you know ways we can use it, you know, we could obviously use it heavy to develop our strength but then more explosively to help us develop that jump and also we think about the movements of the joints so that sort of triple extension of extending the ankles knees and hips or the same time. They're all movements that we use in the Rugby field.