Rugby World Cup Semi Final Analysis

The Quarter Finals presented four great games with France redeeming their poor showing against Tonga to beat England, Wales peaking right when it counts to beat Ireland, Australia just managing to outlast South Africa and Argentina proving that they would be able to foot it with the All Blacks if they could only sustain their passion for 80 minutes.

So how will the Four Remaining Teams Fare in the Semi's?

It really is so tight that i'm going to base my picks purely on Match Fitness

Wales were fantastic against Ireland and showed better execution, equal passion and good match fitness when compared to France's win. Wales also had a slightly easier game than France and to me that'll decide it.

France showed that they do deserve to be in the playoffs by beating England but both teams were poor and I'm picking that game to have taken enough out of them to have em struggling against Wales.

The effects of a previous fixture on match performance will also be the undoing of Australia. While I believe their freshness following the pool stages helped them against South Africa, this game hurt, requiring their 'go to players' stay on the field and give 100% for the full 80minutes.

A Spanner in the Works
Though I don't want to believe it; history could have a say in this World Cup.

Apparently, every team who beats the previous World Cup Winner goes on to win the title...but we don't take history that seriously right?

The All Blacks had a hard 50minute encounter against Argentina and that hit out will have given them a better sense of the big match familiarity they require to get up for the semi final. It won't have had the same physically taxing effect as the Australia v South Africa game so I'm expecting our boys to run the Aussie to a stand still.

The only way the AB's can loose is if Craig Joubert has a shocker and allows Aussie to slow the game down.

So who will be in the Rugby World Cup Final?


The Mighty All Blacks vs The Perfectly Timed Peakers (is that a word?): Wales

Other points to consider:

• Eden Park-The AB's do not loose to Aussie at Eden Park!
• Injuries Gallore-I've intentionally disregarded the raft of injuries as they effectively cancel one another out...Has Piri really "got this"?
• Is Quade Cooper due a match winning performance? He'll be reeling after his poor Quarter Final 
• World Cup Ch@#ers: Four years of success means nothing if our boys choke against Australia

Can Wales make their first ever World Cup Final?

What do you think?

Speed Training Methods: Speed Interval Training

STS Speed Interval Training involves repeated medium to high intensity runs to a cone which is set at a particular distance from the start line.

Each athlete has their own cone and each cone is set at a distance depending on each individual's personal fitness level. This means that fitter athletes run further in the same amount of time as the less fit.

180 degree turns, 'Get up and Go', 'Jump and Go's' and other pre-sprint activities add variation and specificity to the set.

In Early Pre-season you'll find there are lower intensity runs with less recovery time than in Late Pre-season.  This means athletes are able to perform more high intensity activities when we switch to Late Pre-season in January.

See photos of Speed Interval Training in Action

See a video from You Tube

My Rugby World Cup Playoffs Analysis

This Rugby World Cup will be won by the team who performs with the best Tactical Execution, applies the right amount of Passion when it counts and has the best Match Fitness to convert the previous attributes into vital wins.

Tactical Execution
From what we've seen I think it's fair to say that the All Blacks and South Africans lead in this department but every team in the quarter finals has shown their ability to get up against good opposition, if only for brief moments, over the last six months.

There's no doubt that once again, the All Blacks have the best running game but previous World Cups have proven that you can't always rely on tries and that earning penalties and drop goal attempts in the last quarter do pay off. I just hope they've worked on this 'Plan B' option.


The Element of Surprise
If any team have been holding on to a secret strategy which they can execute well then it could lead to a major upset. We know the South Africans are going to turn to the drop goal in the big games and that Australia can play very smart when it counts. I'm just glad they're playing each other before the All Blacks.

Passion
The amount of heart each team puts into their play-offs campaign will be unquestioned. From the 'Backs to the Wall' circumstances of the underdogs in the Northern Hemisphere to the 'Defending Champions' status of South Africa and the well documented 'Favourites', 'Chokers', 'Home Nation Pressure' labels which are cast on the All Blacks. I doubt we'll see one team out passion another unless a radical tactical strategy is employed, effectively psyching out it's opposition.

Passion could enable a less skillful team to outperform a favourite but only if match fitness allows it.

Match Fitness
This comes down to pre-tournament fitness, rotation policy, depth on the bench and the toll of previous performances. Though it was prevalent in the bottom 12 teams, I don't recall seeing any of the top 8 fading in the final 15mins so far this tournament.

Looking at the quarter finals, on the other hand, the only team which does not have a hard road into the semi finals is the All Blacks. This could have added to thier undoing in previous World Cups where players were kept relatively fresh at the expense of competition familiarity which is required to perform at the highest level in sudden death sport.

Still, fatigue does carry from week to week and for those who have been asked to play big games three weekends in a row, maintaining Passion for 80minutes could become too big an ask.

South Africa, England and France have had very hard final pool games where as the All Blacks, Australia, Ireland and Wales got their hardest pool matches out of the way earlier in the tournament. I'm expecting this to give Australia the edge over South Africa on Sunday.

Player Injuries
There have been major injuries in all the top teams so depth has become a major factor in this tournament. If someone told me Dan Carter would not survive the group stages three months ago I'd say we've got no chance but because there are so many injuries in other teams and the rest of the squad is so strong, I'm still backing Black...

My Picks for the Quarter Finals

• Wales to beat Ireland based on Tactical Execution and a very subtle difference in Match Fitness.
• France to beat England based on Passion, helped by their loss to Tonga.
• Australia to beat South Africa based on Match Fitness.
• NZ to beat Argentina based on Match Fitness and Tactical Execution. I'm hoping Eden Park and the home support will nullify the Argentinian Passion...Please do not mention the word 'Complacency'!!

Go the All Blacks!!!

Fitness Variation vs Progress

They say "Variation is the Spice of Life", but how should we apply variation to our fitness?

With the invention of new methods and fitness products many Personal Trainers are ensuring their clients get a completely new workout every time they train together.

The positives are obvious to the Trainer:

• Show off your expertise and physical ability by demonstrating and teaching new exercises regularly.
• Offer clients the sense of achievement from learning new exercises.
• No need to plan anything because you have a wider range of exercises in your head than the client.
• No need to record anything because you're not going to use the same exercise variables next session.

Each of these points can be justified to an extent as it's important for trainers to demonstrate their expertise and few can spare time to plan or record and store training data.

The negatives exist only for the client:

• If you're learning a new exercise you're not progressing on a more familiar exercise.
• If you're not progressing then you're stuck doing beginner weights and progressions.
• If you're not actually progressing in any particular exercises then you're using less energy.
• If you're using less energy then you're not burning as much fat, let alone asking your body to consolidate any muscular adaptations it's made from previous sessions.
• Doing new movements causes more muscle damage and while you may think more pain equals more gain excessive muscle soreness slows you down and can even bring you down emotionally.

Muscle Confusion Theory
Trainers will often point to the idea that every newly performed workout is more effective than a regularly performed one because the body never gets a chance to make the adaptations which lead to plateaus, hence the muscle confusion theory. 

The problem is that the whole point of fitness training is to stimulate the body to adapt. It's only by adapting to a workout that we can then perform the same movements with higher intensities, weights and volumes.

How to Avoid Plateaus
Fitness plateaus are inevitable if we don't vary our training at all, but so long as we change the reps and weights every 2-3 sessions then it's going to take at least 8 sessions before we hit a plateau. The fastest way people hit a fitness plateau is to either :

1. Keep the Programme Light - This is most common in those who are not interested in exercise and simply expect that by showing up and doing anything they should see improvements.
2. Keep the Programme Heavy - This is most common in those who have the best intentions but lack guidance. 

In order to avoid plateaus and keep our training varied we need a programme which encourages Progressive Variation.


Progressive Fitness Variation
Making non-stop improvements in our fitness really is easy:

1. Whatever exercises you use, start easy. Enjoy the first few workouts of your new programme by completing the prescribed reps and sets at weights and progressions which you can do at 65-70%. The better conditioned you are the harder you should start but the first session should be no higher than a 7/10. 
2. Gradually increase the intensity and volumes, session by session, increasing the reps of each exercise but maintaining the same weight or progression level. This will still feel relatively easy (and fun) but by the end of each session you should notice that you've done more than in previous sessions. 
3. Continue to increase reps every 2-3 sessions for 3 weeks, by which time you're finding the workouts quite tough and unsure whether you'd be able to increase the reps again the following session. 
4. This is when you can drop the reps and increase the weight or progression level. Decrease the reps enough that you get a few easyish sessions with your new weights. This "back off week" is when your body get's a chance to recover from the incrementally hard training it's been doing over the previous weeks. 
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with the new weights and you'll find yourself working up to higher reps with heavier weights and progressions. 

As you can see, the progression and variation lie in the reps and weights, not just the exercises. There are no reasons why you couldn't use this process with 3 workout routines, each with a different range of exercises, which are each performed once or twice a week, on non consecutive days. Using split routines like this add further variation and allow a wider range of movements to be truly mastered, not just learned and forgotten.

How Often should I Train?
If you only perform any particular exercise once a week then you're not going to improve as fast as if you do it 2-3 times a week. If you're only training 2-3 times a week then doing 2 or 3 workout routines is going to mean slower progress at each exercise.

The equivalent could be running once a week, swimming once a week and cycling once a week. You're going to get fitter at each but not as fast as focusing on any one of them.

The same principles work for non gym based exercise, with weights interchanging with speed and reps relating to distances. Increase distance first, then drop it and increase speed. 

How Progressive Variation Works

It's easy to think that light exercise isn't going to get us anywhere and if it's all we do, it won't. But starting light does lead to neural adaptations which prepare the body to perform the same movements under heavy loads down the track. 

Progressing slowly means we get less muscle damage, which enables us to train more frequently without getting injured or having to reduce intensity for fear of causing more pain. Muscle soreness is normal with many forms of training but by minimising it we actually enable more consistent progression.

Isn't Consistent Progress what we want in our Results?

Finding a programme which starts at the right level for you can be frustrating because few fitness professionals have the time or technology to estimate the best weights to lift or speeds to train at. If you'd like affordable programmes which help you progress visit any of these pages on the STS Website:

• Gym Programmes
• Running Programmes
• Speed Programmes
• Back to Fitness Programmes

Rugby World Cup Fitness

After just one round of the Rugby World Cup many are talking about how far the "minnow" nations have come.

But what would have happened if they were able to maintain their first half performances into the final quarter of play?

Argentina scared the English, Romania scared the Scottish, Japan performed well against France, Italy had a good first half against Australia and USA had great moments against the Irish, but in every match the favoured team finished the strongest and won.

Fitter and More Skillful
The only game where a favoured team dominated from the start of the match, showing a completely different level of skill, was the All Blacks vs Tonga, but even that didn't go the way New Zealand fans were expecting. Tonga came out of the sheds looking fresh in the second half and managed to hold their own, scoring a good forwards push over try, only to fade away in the last quarter.

Backing up Against Fresh Opposition
Canada, playing their first game of the tournament beat Tonga who were playing their second game, in a match they would usually be expected to lose. Scotland have had another tough second game against Georgia who were playing their first, winning by just 9 points and unable to dot down over the Georgian line when they were also favoured to win by a big margin.

The Effects of Fatigue
If any of the minnows mentioned above were able to maintain the performance they displayed when fresh, the Rugby World Cup would be a much tighter competition. In each of the games there was a stage in the second half when the under dog nation's players started to slow down. Whether expressed with mass outnumbering on defense or guys stopping to stretch out cramps.

Players stretching their calf and hamstring muscles is a tell tail sign that they're struggling to keep up with the fitness demands being placed on their legs. The more players from minnow nations get into high level proffesional rugby the better prepared their teams will be for the physical demands of International rugby and the more upsets we'll see in future world cups.

Back to Status Quo
As for this Rugby World Cup, you can expect to see less convincing performances from the underdogs in their second and third games against the top tear. Russia, playing their first game, will push the USA but results will start to go back to what was originally expected as the minnows incur more injuries and are forced to play their top team game after game to avoid embarrassment.

STS Online Fitness Coaching
Ever thought about what you could do for your fitness if you just had a plan to follow?

Online Fitness Coaching is not new but it has come a very long way in the last few years. Online Fitness Applications such as Map My Run, Garmin Connect and GymCalc have made it easier than ever for coaches to provide quality programmes and feedback.

Features Include:

• Value for Money
• A Training Plan you can see and use
• Goals and Methods of Achievement Kept on Record
• Your Training Calendar
• Fitness Testing
• GymCalc Client Log-In Included
• Print or access your Programme on Smart Phone, Tablet, Laptop or Desktop
• Easily Record your Training
• Analyse your Results
• Other Online Tools such as Map My Run
• Discuss you Training with your Coach

Programmes can be written for:

• Marathon, Half Marathon and 10km Running
• Football Fitness
• Rugby Fitness
• Other Team Sports Fitness
• Gym, Weights, Flexibility and Stability Programmes
• Strength Training, Plyometrics, Power Training

STS Online Fitness Coaching fosters your motivation by providing results you can see in numbers and feel in yourself.

Running for Speed: Part 3

Know How Fast You're Running

There are a range of ways to estimate how fast you're actually running, while you do it:

Knowing the distance and time regularly such as on a 400m track, 500m or 1km marks on a flat footpath. All you'll then need is a stopwatch and a good mathmatics brain/calculator.

Pedometer based systems which calculate speeds based on a pre-entered stride length multiplied by stride frequency which is recorded each time your foot lands.

A GPS training system which calculates your speed depending on how far you travel every second or so. 

Treadmills turn the conveyor belt at the speed you input, meaning you just need to keep up.

Each system has it's advantages and disadvantages which I'll discuss in this post. I'll also discuss my preferred methods and where i see the future of speed analysis going.

Distance Track with Stop Watch

Using a track can be boring if you're not used to running in such an environment. Even a 1km track can get monotinous if you're running more than 6km. If you're a numbers person and can keep your focus on pace and running technique then the time can fly by but that also depends whether you're doing even paced or interval training. 

Using a basic stopwatch and a track as described above is by far the cheapest option as the most tracking devices rarely come for less than $300NZ.

It is harder to know whether you're going at the right speed until you're approaching the next marker/lap as you can only see how much time you have to get to the next marker. This can often leave you speeding up or slowing down to a walk in order to stick to the correct average speeds. 

If you're using the most basic stopwatch you'll need to print out your split times or record them on your hand every workout. If you have a lap timer then you only need to know how much time you're allowed on each fast and slow lap which means no comparing pen to watch. If you don't keep an eye on the overall time it's easy to get away from the overall average speed of the workout, even if you're only missing the prescrided time by a few seconds each lap.

GPS Training Devices

GPS is the most accurate distance running speed analysis tool i have used next to a cycle speedometer. The ones i have used fluctuate a lot at slower instantaneous running speeds but level off at average speeds over 100m+. As a result i set the display to average lap speed so i know i just need to keep the speed as close to that prescribed as possible until the next marker/split. 

If you can set an auto lap then you can run anywhere flat and with relatively little wind. Having used the Garmin Forerunner series of devices i struggle to go for a run without one now as i just can't stand not knowing my average speeds and heart rates. When you can download your speeds, heart rates, elevation and distances into a graph and chart it doesn't take long to figure out why you got that stitch, muscle cramp or simply started feeling empty. It will also become obvious why you had such a good run that you just wanted to pick up the pace over the final 2km to use what was left in the tank! This is the best feeling you can get in traininer and part of the reasons we runners run. 

GPS Application on your Smartphone
There are now hundreds of Applications such as RunKeeper and Map My Run which are gaining popularity and I suspect it won't be long before the wireless watch and heart rate monitor are made available to make it easier to monitor speed and heart rate while you run.

RunKeeper allows your iphone's built in GPS system to display your current speed, distance and time. I am yet to use one as i don't have an iphone, but i've had a few NZ friends report that the GPS keeps loosing signal so i'd be interested to hear from anyone who has tried this app overseas. I've read good things on the website so i'm sure the GPS signal will improve as will the application. As technology advances, i doubt the training aids will be able to keep up with the cell phones although i haven't run with an iphone strapped to my upper arm yet. 

Foot Pods/Pedometers

My experiences with top of the line polar pedometers are not great when compared to cycle speedo and gps in the same session. Due to this i do not use them but if you've paid out for one and do not want to switch to a gps device then try to recalibrate it to match the speed of a cycle speedo over 1km at around 80% max. Even if it's not spot on it will at least give you an idea of when you're slowing down or going too fast relative to what you were at the start of the session. You can still compare how long it took you to run the total distance to the prescribed time to determine whether you went too fast or slow.

Treadmills

Treadmills are very good at keeping us at the correct speeds but how much they help our outdoor running is up for discussion. I suggest using a 1-2degree incline to make up for the fact you're not actually propelling yourself forward so much as you are propelling yourself vertically. I'll use a treadmill if it's no good outside but you need to find out how much easier you find the same workout on a flat treadmill so you can figure out the amount of incline to use. 

In Summary

• It's not good enough to be prescribed workouts based on time running at perceived intensities 
• You can get a program which sets the speeds for you to run at 
• You can run at those speeds, knowing that you're doing the best to make optimal improvements to your running.

This article is derived from the STS Fitness and Nutrition Website