Introduction to conditioning – Children (pre-level 1)

This course is designed to provide coaches with a basic knowledge and understanding and a foundation of practical skills with regards to conditioning practices for rugby playing children.

This should in turn enable coaches to develop child players as they grow and prepare players more thoroughly for the demands of the game they play now and in the future.

In the course, we include six Multiple Choice Questionnaires (MCQs). The MCQ consists of six questions that all relate to the content described within each module. We have one MCQ placed at the end of each module. The MCQs are intended to help you assess how well you understood the module. When you have answered all the questions, you will be given feedback as to your knowledge of the preceding content. 

Good luck and enjoy the challenge.

The course consists of 5 modules:

  • Long term athlete development
  • The child screen
  • Developing fundamental movements for rugby
  • Warm-up, cool-down, and flexibility
  • Rugby conditioning for the child.

The modules in this course aim to enhance the coaches understanding of challenges when training children and to provide best-practice examples of what and how to coach. The long term athlete development module examines the basic theory behind how best to coach and progress the player as they grow and mature. The child screen module will provide a simple five-exercise movement screen that can be used to assess the movement capabilities of a child and provide possible training direction. The next module will look at developing fundamental movement patterns in the child player as this will provide the foundation for all future fundamental and athletic movement skills. The warm-up, cool-down and flexibility module will examine the best practice in these areas and how best to coach and plan these parts of the training session for the child. Finally, rugby conditioning for the child will look at the physiological challenges of training children and how to develop some key physical components of the game such as speed, endurance, and agility.