How to get better at rugby - getting fit and pumped up.

Getting mentally and physically prepared.


There are numerous ways to improve your game: practicing and perfecting skills, getting a good knowledge of the game (either from watching high level players or from experience) and knowing exactly what to do in your position (reading my position guide's may help!).
The two aspects of your game i'm focusing on now are fitness and your mindset before going into a game.
These are things important to any competitive sport and so isn't always rugby specific.

Fitness:

Fitness is important for obvious reasons, having good fitness means you can keep up a high intensity through out the game so your constantly getting to those rucks or are in support and in the right place at the right time.
The type of fitness you need differs from forwards to backs, in the forwards you should be constantly running from each breakdown, so mostly its low intensity for long periods which is stamina.
With the backs (excluding the scrumhalf) its more high intensity, making runs, for short periods of time so speed endurance because even though you'll only be sprinting for short amounts of time you'll have to be able to do it  many time's and when your tired.


different methods of training you can use:

Its good to use a variety of different training methods, cross train, to improve fitness as no one training method will improve all components of your fitness equally well.

Fartlek:
Fartlek is a the Swedish word for speed play and its exactly that, you go at different passes for a set amount of time, for example you might sprint 50 meters, jog 50 meters, walk 50 meters and then run (75%) for 50 meters and repeat it again for a set amount of times, you could do this with cones in a square or could also instead of doing distances you could do timed sprints, jogs etc..
Fartlek is great for rugby and other sports alike because in an actual match you will be constantly changing speeds, its also great because its easy to change to suit your fitness by making it harder or easier, you could do this by extending the time you sprint and run to make it harder or vice versa to make it easier.

Continuous training:
This is simply exercises like running or cycling at a constant rate, go at a pace your reasonably comfortable at for as long as you can.

Circuit training:
Circuit training is where there are a number of stations which have different exercises at each one, it usually includes lots of different muscle groups, upper (arms), core (abs), lower (legs).
It also usually includes exercises such as jogs or sprints.
Circuit training is great because it works such a wide range of muscles, it may be hard to make your own circuit due to not enough equipment or space so its usually done at gyms with lots of people so check at your local gym to see if they do sessions.

Interval training:
This is where you use a fixed patterns of exercise, so you might alternate between exercises like a 100 meter sprint and then a 200m jog and then repeat, this is quite similar to Fartlek training and will improve your fitness loads because your doing aerobic exercise (the jog) while recovering from anaerobic exercise (the sprint) which is very beneficial but it is also very hard and exhausting.

Speed endurance:
Speed endurance training is done by running very far distances at a sprint, for example you might run a 300 or 400m sprint, you then rest till you are completely recovered which might take 20 minutes.
For more on speed endurance visit this guys website http://speedendurance.com/2007/02/12/what-is-speed-endurance-training/

Rugby mindset

Its essential to get in the right mindset before any game.
I know its easy to get distracted and talk to your friends and have a joke but for at least 10 minutes before you start your warm up for the match should be your time to start concentrating.

Ways of getting you pumped up for a game:
-Listen to music which pumps you up and which will also allow you to focus on the game, everyone has there own personal music taste so its up to you to find something which pumps you up.
-Imagine yourself playing well and start thinking about what you need to do, often i think about a big tackle i'm going to put in or a try i'm going to score.
- Watch rugby highlights! I think this is a great way of getting pumped up, here's a few to get you started, jonah lomu highlights, rugby big hits, more rugby big hits, kurtley beale highlights from when he was at school, shane williams highlights

Remember what your aiming for is to be pumped up and concentrated, not over the top excited though,  by your warm up you should be performing plays and skills as you would like to in a game, make sure you take the warm up seriously!
Some teams or players take 10-20 minutes to get in to the game but that can be disastrous if the other team have taken advantage of that.
So make sure you find your way to get in the zone, good luck!