Deteriorations in physical qualities during a 10-week unsupervised off-season period in academy rugby union players

Figures & data

Table 1. Outline of the 3-week unsupervised off-season training programme.

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Upper body resistance	Lower body resistance	Whole body resistance
Metabolic conditioning	Metabolic conditioning (off-feet intervals)	Metabolic conditioning

Resistance exercise comprised 6 exercises per session, 3–4 sets x 8–12 repetitions at ~65-75% of players self-estimated 1 RM (Supplementary file 1); Metabolic conditioning was conducted on grass and required the player to select 1 from 12 provided drills. Drills comprised short intervals (<60 s, work-to-rest 1:1–1:3, total distance 900–1800 m) or repeated sprints/sprint intervals (15–30 s efforts, work-to-rest 1:1–1:5, total distance 500–1200 m). Off-feet conditioning was performed on one of cycle, rowing or ski ergometer and comprised short intervals (30 s, work-rest 1:1, 1–3 sets × 8 repetitions).

Table 2. Changes in body mass for backs and forwards. Values are mean ± SD with ∆%.

Position	Body mass (kg)
	End of season	Preseason		∆ (%)
Backs (n = 29)	78.1 ± 7.0	79.4 ± 6.8		1.9 ± 1.4
Forwards (n = 35)	92.3 ± 10.5	93.7 ± 9.9		1.6 ± 1.8

Figure 1. Changes in (a) squat jump [SJ] and (b) countermovement jump [CMJ] before and after a 10-week off-season for backs (light grey bars) and forwards (dark grey bars). Bars show mean and line represents individual values. Relative changes in (c) squat jump [∆SJ] and d countermovement jump [∆CMJ] for backs (circles) and forwards (squares). Line represents mean % change alongside individual % change values. * main effect for time for both positional groups.

Figure 2. Changes in (a) 10 m sprint time, (b) 10 m momentum and (c) 40 m sprint time before and after a 10-week off-season for backs (light grey bars) and forwards (dark grey bars). Bars show mean and line represents individual values. Relative changes in (d) 10 m sprint time [∆time], (e) 10 m momentum [∆momentum] and (f) 40 m sprint time [∆time] for backs (circles) and forward (squares). Line represents mean % change alongside individual % change values. * main effect for time for both positional groups.

Figure 3. Changes in VIFT before and after a 10-week off-season for backs (light grey bars) and forwards (dark grey bars). Bars show mean and line represents individual values. Relative changes in VIFT for backs (circles) and forward (squares). Line represents mean % change alongside individual % change values. * main effect for time for both positional groups.