1. Central and South Somerset Club Coaching Co-ordinators
Tor RFC
29th November 2017

2. AGENDA
Using GMS – allocating ‘coach’ role, allocating coaches to teams, producing & using Club Training Report to identify club need etc. – Mark Davidge
Rugby Aware/Activate.  
Playing Up/Down / Combining Age Groups / 17 year olds playing Senior Rugby
Codes of Practice
ERCA Course / CPD Opportunities

3. Rugby Aware What’s happening in your local rugby community
RugbySafe & HEADCASE
Activate: Injury Prevention Exercise Programme
Touchline behaviour
: Signposting
Introduction
The purpose of Rugby Aware is to:
Inform clubs and it’s wider audience about the game etc. and some of the key player welfare/safety issues – and what the RFU are doing to address these challenges.
Engage with the game with other key areas of work the RFU are doing and why.
Provide details on where people can go for more information, how they get more involved.
The session will include:
An overview of what the local RFU staff and volunteers are doing in your local rugby community
An update on the RugbySafe scheme and the HEADCASE programme
An introduction of the findings of the injury prevention study and the Activate Programme that is being launched following the publication of the research.
Touchline behaviour
Signposting and previewing of what's in store for season

4. ivate
Activate
Rugby-specific exercise programme targeting most common injuries
Built-in progressions (phases of 6-8 weeks or per half term)
Designed as a “pre-activation” programme for rugby union
Use as part of preparation before EVERY training session and match*
Following the success of the study the RFU is now launching Activate an injury prevention exercise programme which will be made available to rugby playing schools and clubs.
There are specific versions of the programme to use in each age group.
Youth Programmes = U15, U16, U17/18 - we recommend each phase is carried out for 6-8 weeks. We believe it has a benefit wider reaching than just rugby and so ideally even in one term rugby schools we’d recommend carrying this on throughout the school year.
In process of developing a “Maintain Phase” which can be used into 3rd term / until end of season if appropriate.
Adult programme similar format to youth except 7 phases over season and we recommend each phase is carried out 4-6 weeks
The exercises start out simple, and progress every few weeks to keep the programme challenging – the base exercises are the same, but variations are added to make them more difficult, it also takes into account the increases in strength and skill with increasing age, the overall programme is staggered. This means that, with each year of using the programme, there are exercises that overlap (so they will be familiar), but the programme grows with the players.
Use the programme before training AND matches. The programme should be used IN FULL at training sessions, but we recommend leaving certain exercises out before matches to prevent fatiguing players before they compete.
The programme is designed to either be a standalone warmup, or you can use it before your usual warmup. The important part is that the programme should be done FIRST to pre-activate the muscles for rugby.
The rugby-specific exercise programme has been developed to specifically reduce the risk of the most common types of injury (head, lower limb, and shoulder) – although we believe it may have a positive effect for participation in other sports (based on improving overall general movement skills, functional strength and pre-activation)
Youth programme has been designed to be simple, easy to use, and quick (20 minutes to do)
Each phase has 12 different exercises split into 4 parts designed to have different effects:
Part A is for getting the heart rate up and the legs moving
Part B is for targeting the lower limb (training muscles to react quickly when a player is off balance)
Part C is for strengthening “high risk” parts of the body
Part D is for working on good technique and posture during quick changes in direction and landing (when players are particularly vulnerable to injury)
Adult is slightly different – 16 exercises spilt into 4 parts and includes small small-sided games
In the youth programme study the exercises were performed as stand alone exercises before carrying out the rest of a warm up and/or in place of a warm up. The injury reduction rates where based on this high compliance approach however the exercises can also be incorporated into a more game based apporach however the quality on the exercises should remain the focus…more to follow in the practical.
So what resources are available:
Face to face – Thank you for attending! – we believe this is the most effective way of ensuring coaches feel confident and competent in delivering the programme.
Online resource – Coaches (and players) can sign up to access the resources online – these include downloadable cue cards and videos of every exercise, having attended the face to face coaches need to access this to see the programme in it’s entirety.
All resources are to access.
Play example of A Skip video to give an idea of the types of exercises involved in the programme.

5. Mixing age groups / playing out of age group and 17 yr olds playing adult rugby Codes of Practise

6. Training Requirements
Award Courses
CPD courses including Rugby Smart, Play it safe etc.

7. Thank you