• Acceleration - quick off the mark
• Agility - change direction quickly
• Stamina - endurance base to enable quick recovery
• Speed - maintain top speed
• Strength - effective movement
• Power - explosive movement
• Core stability - ability of trunk to support body movements
• Flexibility - range of movement
• Mental toughness - positive outlook on life

ical training only provides a stimulus for development. The recovery period is when the bodies' mechanisms for improvement start to work. Getting the appropriate balance between training and rest is very important because insufficient recovery leads to fatigue, poor performance and an increased likelihood of injury and will be likely to have adverse affects on your everyday life. If the recovery period is too long, training will lose some of its effectiveness. Your eating and sleeping habits are also central to maximising the effectiveness of your training and ensuring your body recovers sufficiently. Getting into a routine is a good way of helping your body adapt to training regimes.

Speed and agility

People might say there is no substitute for pace, but in rugby, the ability to accelerate, decelerate and change direction is more important than simply achieving high speed. Jason Robinson has great agility because he has developed good foot speed, balance and reactions. Speed ladders are good for practicing foot speed (making minimal contact time on the ground with your feet). Balancing on an 'air disc' is good for working the small stabilising muscles of the ankles and knees and working on your core stability helps to maintain good balance and posture. Resistance training exercises such as hill sprints, pulling a sled or running on wet sand are good ways of improving your speed strength, leg speed and stride length, provided your technique is not affected by the resistance used. Jonah Lomu is probably the epitome of speed strength.

Ed Williamson takes on James Hamer in a game of touch at Tynemouth beach

Strength and power

Rugby players need to be strong and powerful enough to break tackles, make tackles and be effective in contact situations. For younger players this is restricted to body weight exercises that help to build up your foundation strength. These include press ups, lunges and squat thrusts and should be performed at a slow to moderate pace initially and to a point of fatigue, not failure. For older and more physically/biologically mature players, weight training programmes can be used under the supervision of a qualified strength and conditioning coach. Some players might start to work on 'olympic lifts', which are multi-joint exercises that involve all major muscle groups and are particularly good for building power. These should only be performed with appropriate training and supervision.

Neck health

Rugby players should place a big emphasis on training the neck muscles. Clearly players involved in scrummaging have greater opportunity to develop their neck strength but specific exercises should be performed by everyone. Neutral alignment is the strongest and safest position for your neck (pull yourself upright from the crown of your head as if you were being lifted by a helium balloon). By applying this principle during resistance training your neck muscles will stabilise in the neutral position. You should aim to develop the muscles while fighting resistance from this position.

Fitness and conditioning

As a guideline, top level players run between 4000m and 6000m in a single game of rugby, much of it at high intensities. Each playing position has specific fitness requirements but all players must be able to maintain their skills at high speeds, during contact, in pressure situations and also when they are fatigued. Having a good aerobic fitness base is important to rugby players and can be achieved by performing continuous and rhythmical exercise at around 80% maximum effort for long durations (at least 12 minutes). Activities such as cycling, rowing and swimming are particularly good for building up your aerobic capacity. The most important aspect of fitness for a rugby player  is their anaerobic energy system. That is, the ability of the body to produce fast acting energy without oxygen (when the body is already tired). Tackling, rucking and mauling all expend lots of energy and a good way of training for this is to play wrestling-type games or to do interval training (short periods of high activity followed by rest, and repeated several times). You should only perform the exercises that are given to you by your conditioning coach for safety reasons and to ensure that your body develops at an appropriate rate.

Core stability

Core stability provides central body control and allows you to generate power by maximising the efficiency of your movements and can also help improve your agility, balance and co-ordination. A fundamental component of core stability is neutral posture which is the safest and most efficient way to maintain good form during any exercise. The key stabilising muscles for the lower body are your deep abdominals, lower back and buttocks. Exercises using a swiss ball or an air disc are particularly good for activating and training your core muscles. Similarly, try engaging your core (pull your stomach in below your belly button without tensing your abdominals) and standing on one leg with your eyes closed.

Flexibility and stretching

Dynamic flexibility involves actions that are specific to the game, such as jumping, diving and agility movements. It is often used when warming up to increase body temperature, heart rate and blood flow, prepare the body mentally for exercise and increase the elasticity of muscles. Static stretching a couple of hours after a training session can help to increase your mental and physical relaxation, reduce the risk of injury and soreness and promote the development of body awareness. Remember, you should perform static stretches to improve your flexibility not to warm up or cool down. As a tip, hold each stretch for at least 15 seconds and never bounce in a static stretch.

Basic principles of training

• The main purpose of training is to reduce the risk of injury and increase the efficiency of movement
• Control and technique should never be substituted for increased resistance/speed
• Each repetition should be performed through a full range of motion to maximise the effect of training
• Working on the same program for a long time will not help you improve but evolving your training so that you gradually increase the work load as you become fitter/stronger/more flexible will help you to improve
• Specificity is the key to any training programme. You should tailor your training to the specific demands of your playing position. A lock will not sprint as much as a full-back but will certainly be involved in more contact situations
• Breathing correctly during exercises is an important skill to master in terms of maximising blood flow. Remember to breathe out during the hard part of an exercise and breathe in when returning the the starting point
• As a rule, you should stop training when you have done enough, not when you have had enough

Always remember to consult your conditioning coach before starting any form of training programme, and never work without appropriate supervision.