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Author Topic: Telegraph Article  (Read 565 times)

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Fearless Fred

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Telegraph Article
« on: Saturday 28-Mar-2020, 08:57* »
on how the club are looking after the players during lockdown

How Harlequins are helping their players' physical, social and mental health during lockdown
"We all want to give the players the best and the most provision of resources that we possibly can," said head coach Paul Gustard

By
Gavin Mairs,
 CHIEF RUGBY UNION CORRESPONDENT
27 March 2020 • 2:28pm
Premium

For the professional rugby player, the most critical shortage of goods caused by the coronavirus lockdown is not toilet paper but gym equipment.

As if fitting out makeshift gyms at home with the kinds of weights required to allow the players to maintain the intensity of training they would normally do at their club was not challenging enough, the soaring demand for exercise equipment from the general public has made it near impossible task. 

“One of the biggest challenges we face is access to gym equipment,” said Paul Gustard, the Harlequins head coach.

“You can’t buy gym equipment online now, it is like new-age gold. You can’t buy things that the players need – exercise bikes, heavy weights to create a gym at home.

“Some of the tight five boys can lift some serious weight and how can they ever have enough weight in their house? So we are trying to be creative behind the scenes to make sure that the players can train as best they can at home.”

It is just one of a number of mental, social and physical challenges that Gustard, like his Premiership counterparts, is coming to terms with as he attempts to manage his squad through these testing, uncertain times.

Harlequins and Sale were the first Premiership clubs to be directly affected by the coronavirus outbreak when their Premiership Cup final which had been scheduled for March 15 was postponed when a Quins member of staff went into self-isolation.

“While most other teams were already on a break, we had been preparing for the game but our Thursday session turned out to be the last time we have trained as a squad,” Gustard told Telegraph Sport.

"We had been training on the Thursday, preparing to play the game but it turned out to be the last time that we have been together as a squad. By Friday at 6pm we were told that the game was cancelled."

Gustard’s immediate contingency plan was to work-out a training schedule for the five-week break announced by Premiership Rugby, based on a rota of players coming to training in smaller groups, based on their locality and playing position in order to keep up “some form of conditioning”.

Then the goalposts changed again. When the government guidelines on social distancing and on staying at home made the prospect of training together as a group impossible, the emphasis changed from meeting the demands of the collective to the individual.

“The day after we found out we weren’t playing, we had a deep clean of the gym and our buildings,” added Gustard. “All kit and boots that were left behind were thrown away. There was also a big office clean-out. The primary concern was the safety and wellbeing of our staff and players.

“Next was about trying to give the players as much provision as possible for them to do some functional training at home, in their garden or in the park.

“We organised a ‘drive-through’ for the players to pick up kit packages, including dumbbells, barbells with some plates and resistant bands.

“We believe that through high repetition and multi-fatigue or muscle isolation and then repetition we can maintain muscle mass and body weight.

“We also set up a help desk with our doctor and physio so that players could log in if anyone has any symptoms and pass information to them and their families.”

The players have also received nutritional information. No longer afforded the luxury of the cooking by what Gustard describes as the “best chef in the league”, it is now up to the players, some of whom have gone straight from a school environment to an equally prescriptive professional set-up to look after themselves.

“It is discipline,” said Gustard.  “We all want to give the players the best and the most provision of resources that we possibly can – coaching, education, physical hardware or nutrition supplements.

“But sometimes you have got to let them fail to let them grow. This situation we can’t do much about. They are buying their own food and must help fuel the body the way it needs to do.”

Gustard and his team have put together a series of 'webinars' for players and staff to help them use the period for reflection and self-betterment.

“It is an opportunity to revalue our professional goals, our best working practice and have a professional working clear-out – the routine and habits that you know deep down don’t work but you have got stuck in a rut doing,” he added.

Players currently going through rehabilitation programmes for injuries are also guided by video calls by physios. The coaches too are remaining in contact.


“The most important thing is that you lose that face-to-face contact so we are encouraging people to do things that are video based so you have that level of communication,” said Gustard.

“All the coaches have different goals, development plans for the next six months.

“Each department of staff have chosen a book to read and will report back on and present on it. We have each got to build something in the house to keep everyone engaged and are still effectively at work, we are just not in work.”

The extraordinary measures have also included the use of Houseparty, a social networking site that enables group video conversations, to help coaching staff to maintain their tradition of sharing a pint together at the end of a working week.

“The idea is we all bring our own drink and catch up about wives, kids, what we have been up to, away from rugby like we would normally do and have a laugh,” Gustard added.

At least in these uncertain times, some things don’t change.
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Quinky

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Re: Telegraph Article
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 29-Mar-2020, 12:00* »
I saw a video clip of Semi training, Fijian style. He'd rigged up a weights bar with what looked like a scaffold pole with a few breeze blocks on each end.

 

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