Screening, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

Screening

Upon return to the club in the first week of the season, the player will be screened to establish their state of readiness for the new campaign. This screening will be undertaken in two stages:

Stage 1 takes the form of a Functional Movement Screen (FMS), first described by Cook (2001). The FMS involves seven movements, all of which assess both mobility and stability (Cook, 2001). The tests are designed to highlight any weaknesses and imbalances by requiring the player to move through ranges where mobility, stability or both are crucial (Cook, 2001). It is common for many high level players and athletes to struggle or fail when performing these movements, adopting inefficient compensatory movements to disguise their weaknesses (Cook, 2006). The seven movements are as follows:

1. Deep Squat.
2. Hurdle Step.
3. In-Line Lunge.
4. Shoulder Mobility.
5. Active SLR.
6. Trunk Stability.
7. Rotary Stability.

Each movement is scored on a scale of 0 - 3. The player scores 0 if they feel any pain at any point whilst performing the movement. Inability to perform the movement, with no pain scores 1. Completing the movement with the aid of a compensatory movement scores 2. Performing the movement without any compensation scores 3.

Stage 2 of the the screening is a rugby-specific fitness test, known as the England Anaerobic Endurance Test (RFU, 2012). There are two separate tests covering the two rugby units; one test for the Forwards, and one for the Backs (RFU, 2012). For the player in question, the test to be undertaken is the Backs Test (RFU, 2012). The total time taken for the player to complete the test is then recorded, and their performance classified as being in one of three performance categories determined by the Rugby Football Union (RFU, 2012). These classifications are shown below in Table 3.

Table 3. Performance classification scores for Backs (RFU, 2012).










From these results, the club can establish what condition the player is in, and can adjust the training frequency, intensity and volume accordingly.

Evaluating + Monitoring

Table 4. Evaluation exercises + method of testing.

The Player will be evaluated upon return to the club at the start of pre-season. The player will also be monitored at monthly intervals throughout the season.


The player will also be monitored using a Reactive Agility Test (RAT), as described by Sheppard, Young, Doyle, Sheppard and Newton (2006). The player is stood facing the tester, who in turn is standing on a timing pad (Sheppard et al., 2006). When the tester steps off of the pad, an audible beep signals to the player that timing has started (Sheppard et al., 2006). The tester will run foward, before making a sudden direction change either left or right (Sheppard et al., 2006). The player has to mirror and react to the tester and run through the relevant timing gate placed 5 metres away to the appropriate side, stopping the timer (Sheppard et al., 2006). The player reacts to 12 movements in total (6 left and 6 right) of varying delay time and direction, mimicking the variability to be found in a fixture (Sheppard et al., 2006). The average time is taken across all 12 trials and recorded (Sheppard et al., 2006).


Progress Report

Over the past three months, some noticeable gains have been recorded in response to the player’s training programme. Both the player’s upper arm and thigh circumferences have increased, by 2 centimetres and 5 centimetres, respectively. These gains are facilitated by increases in the cross-sectional area of the individual muscle fibres (Ahtiainen, Pakarinen, Alen, Kraemer & Hakkinen, 2003). The Player has also increased his 1 repetition maximum in various exercises. His Bench Press has increased by 30 kilograms, and his Bench Pull has increased by 20 kilograms. Gains of 30 kilograms have been seen for his Squat and a 10 kilogram rise in his Deadlift. Sumide, Sakuraba, Sawaki, Ohmura and Tamura (2009) suggest that these increases are the result of enhanced motor-unit recruitment caused by resistance training. The player has also made vast improvements in Reactive Agility testing, and this has been due to a combination of improved, sharper reactions, and increased lower limb power attributed to his strength gains.