Jamie Polk.
Last week, scrum-half Jo Yapp was announced as captain of the England women's rugby union team for this year's Six Nations tournament. The 25-year-old made her club debut for Worcester Ladies in 1996 and joined England's elite squad in 1998, playing her first international, against Ireland, in the same year. She lives in Worcester and teaches physical education at Bewdley High School.
How professional is the women's game?
In terms of attitude and training it's as professional as the men's game. Finance is the main difference. We are Lottery funded, but only one or two girls are full-time. Most of us have to juggle training and playing with our jobs. The structure at club level is well developed; the Premiership has eight teams and the usual names are there, like Wasps and Saracens.
Describe your training regime
I train two nights a week with my club. During the 90-minute sessions we do ball-handling drills before going through team plays - line-outs, rucks, mauls. On top of that I have a fitness programme set by the English Institute of Sport that fits around my club-and-country training. It's pretty scientific, and the programme changes depending on the time of year. Pre-season is all about building strength - a lot of high-repetition weights, squats and bench presses. Explosive strength helps in the tackle. Once the season starts, the emphasis switches to maintaining body condition.
Have advances in technology improved match preparation?
Every international we play is videoed, as are those of the opposition. The coaches spend hours analysing strengths and weaknesses, and pinpointing who we should target. Once a week, one of the England coaches comes to Worcester and does a skills session with me. We go through my passing technique and work on improvements. Men's rugby is all about bulking up. Do you follow a similar nutritional plan?
Our diets are tailored to individual needs, whether it's reducing body fat or increasing muscle bulk. We get our body-fat levels monitored three or four times a season, along with our fitness levels through beep tests.
Which parts of the body take the biggest hammering?
It depends on what position you play, but the neck and shoulders are always vulnerable. Our training focuses on overall body conditioning and core stability. We are encouraged to use alternative therapies on top of general fitness work, and some of the girls have taken to yoga.
How important is recovery time?
Its significance is being increasingly emphasised. The problem is that when you mix training and work there is almost no time to rest. During tournaments we need to train to maintain fitness, but really it's about being ready to go on match day. We need to make sure we get enough rest and recovery between matches. After heavy training sessions and matches we are encouraged to take an ice bath. It's a great way to rid the body of toxins, especially lactic acid.
Interview by Jamie Polk. Jo Yapp will captain England against France on Sunday 13 February at Imber Court, Surrey. More information: www.rfu.com
The Independent on Sunday (London, England) (Feb 6, 2005): p11.
Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 February 2005
Tuesday, 15 June 2004
I toughed it out with women's rugby team -and lived.
Stefanie Marsh
"CARNAGE" is how it was described. Last weekend, injuries resulting from the women's National Festival of Rugby earned the tournament the sobriquet the Battle of Lichfield.
Ankles were sprained and muscles were ruptured. A hip was dislocated and bones were broken. So numerous were the casualties from the two-day tournament that emergency services classified it as a "major incident".
At one stage ambulance teams had to mobilise helicopters because they had run out of vehicles.
In the words of one Staffordshire ambulance spokesman, Bob Lee: "The girls came from all over the country for the tournament, which was a knockout. And knockout was an appropriate choice of word."
There are now a record 8,000 women and girls playing rugby in 500 teams across Britain, with growth boosted by the England men winning the Rugby World Cup in Sydney.
Inevitably, a journalist had to get to the bottom of this success story. More inevitably still, only the weediest, most cowardly journalist would do. To paraphrase my thoughts as I made my way to meet some of the hardest women Britain: "You? You will be flattened."
And so it was that I found myself face to cauliflower ear with some of the nation's top women rugby players on Thursday evening.
Wasps, the favourites to win the women's Rugby world National Cup next Sunday, had agreed to interrupt their training to show this sports-shy ingenue in oversized shorts the ropes. Their mantra: "Rugby is a contact sport, not a violent sport."
I must admit to not really believing that last bit, having read about Susie Appleby's incredible bravery during a trial match in Loughborough.
In the course of the game, the scrum half with the England women's rugby union received a nasty gash on her face.
She was given two options: either have the stitches across her cheek under anaesthetic and quit the game or have the doctor sew her face together without a painkiller. She went for the "live embroidery" option.
Despite my expectations, this gathering of the country's finest women's team did not resemble the inside of an accident and emergency department.
Talk of the "dangers of the sport" were dismissed with a snort or a wave of the hand -no broken fingers in evidence. Though it is claimed by its practitioners that women's rugby is Britain's fastest-growing sport, coverage of the game is often unfairly confined to hand-wringing pieces about its violence, many of the Wasps complained. A case in point is Norman Wells, the director of Family and Youth Concern, who said this week that "girls just aren't made for playing rugby".
"That kind of attitude is 20 years old and utter rubbish," said Paula George, the former England captain, a statuesque woman of 35 who has broken her collarbone in the course of her career but looks like a swimsuit model.
George, like many of the women who reach this level, is a purist in the mould of Roy Keane, if Keane were a charismatic black woman from Wales without a temper.
She has ruthlessly cut dairy products, red meat and bread from her diet and drinks alcohol -a "poison" -only on special occasions. That translates as four times over the past 12 months.
But George knew that beyond sticking to an impossibly strict diet or winning the semi-finals this Saturday, there lies a bigger challenge ahead today: the prospect of initiating me to the game.
Rosie Williams, the team's managing director and keen rugby player, and Zuri Toppin, the team's volunteer co- ordinator and a former Canadian international, were assigned the task and cheerfully lied to me about my prospects.
Apparently, neither my low pain threshold nor my natural aversion to sport is a barrier to my becoming an international rugby star. "First rule of tackling," said Williams pointing to her bottom, "cheek to arse-cheek. Yours to mine."
I obliged and experienced the dull pang of humiliation associated with not being very good at sport while Williams feigned collapse.
Rugby play-offs, page 40
THIRTY YEARS OF GIVING IT A TRY
Women's Rugby was first played seriously in Britain in the late 1970s
The game was initially played mainly by student teams such as Keele University, University College London, Marjons and St Mary's Hospital
The rules of the game are the same for men and women
Shelley Rae, who plays outside half for Wasps and England, is known to fans of the game as "the Female Jonny Wilkinson"
The Women's Rugby Football Union (WRFU) was formed in 1983 and was responsible for rugby in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
In 1994, the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in England, with each of the Home Counties overseeing their own counties
The RFUW is affiliated to, but independent of, the RFU. It organises its women's leagues and competitions separately and has to find its own sponsorship
The RFUW has more than 350 clubs, from under-16s to seniors
Top men's clubs, such as Wasps, Saracens, Worcester, Rosslyn Park, London Welsh, Blackheath and Harlequins now have women's teams
The first women's International in Britain took place in April 1986 at Richmond Athletic Ground in London. Great Britain played France but were beaten 14-8
Cardiff hosted the first Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991
Twelve countries participated in the the first Women's Rugby World Cup, a week-long tournament England reached the final but lost to the USA 19-6
England got its revenge at the second World Cup in Scotland in 1994, beating the USA 38-23
The third World Cup in 1998 was the first to be officially recognised by the International Rugby Board
New Zealand defeated England, the defending champions, in the semi-finals of the third World Cup by 44 points to 11 and went on to win the competition
A record 16 nations, including Japan and Samoa, took part in the most recent World Cup in Barcelona in 2002. In the final England lost to New Zealand by 19-9
The Times (London, England) (May 15, 2004): p8
"CARNAGE" is how it was described. Last weekend, injuries resulting from the women's National Festival of Rugby earned the tournament the sobriquet the Battle of Lichfield.
Ankles were sprained and muscles were ruptured. A hip was dislocated and bones were broken. So numerous were the casualties from the two-day tournament that emergency services classified it as a "major incident".
At one stage ambulance teams had to mobilise helicopters because they had run out of vehicles.
In the words of one Staffordshire ambulance spokesman, Bob Lee: "The girls came from all over the country for the tournament, which was a knockout. And knockout was an appropriate choice of word."
There are now a record 8,000 women and girls playing rugby in 500 teams across Britain, with growth boosted by the England men winning the Rugby World Cup in Sydney.
Inevitably, a journalist had to get to the bottom of this success story. More inevitably still, only the weediest, most cowardly journalist would do. To paraphrase my thoughts as I made my way to meet some of the hardest women Britain: "You? You will be flattened."
And so it was that I found myself face to cauliflower ear with some of the nation's top women rugby players on Thursday evening.
Wasps, the favourites to win the women's Rugby world National Cup next Sunday, had agreed to interrupt their training to show this sports-shy ingenue in oversized shorts the ropes. Their mantra: "Rugby is a contact sport, not a violent sport."
I must admit to not really believing that last bit, having read about Susie Appleby's incredible bravery during a trial match in Loughborough.
In the course of the game, the scrum half with the England women's rugby union received a nasty gash on her face.
She was given two options: either have the stitches across her cheek under anaesthetic and quit the game or have the doctor sew her face together without a painkiller. She went for the "live embroidery" option.
Despite my expectations, this gathering of the country's finest women's team did not resemble the inside of an accident and emergency department.
Talk of the "dangers of the sport" were dismissed with a snort or a wave of the hand -no broken fingers in evidence. Though it is claimed by its practitioners that women's rugby is Britain's fastest-growing sport, coverage of the game is often unfairly confined to hand-wringing pieces about its violence, many of the Wasps complained. A case in point is Norman Wells, the director of Family and Youth Concern, who said this week that "girls just aren't made for playing rugby".
"That kind of attitude is 20 years old and utter rubbish," said Paula George, the former England captain, a statuesque woman of 35 who has broken her collarbone in the course of her career but looks like a swimsuit model.
George, like many of the women who reach this level, is a purist in the mould of Roy Keane, if Keane were a charismatic black woman from Wales without a temper.
She has ruthlessly cut dairy products, red meat and bread from her diet and drinks alcohol -a "poison" -only on special occasions. That translates as four times over the past 12 months.
But George knew that beyond sticking to an impossibly strict diet or winning the semi-finals this Saturday, there lies a bigger challenge ahead today: the prospect of initiating me to the game.
Rosie Williams, the team's managing director and keen rugby player, and Zuri Toppin, the team's volunteer co- ordinator and a former Canadian international, were assigned the task and cheerfully lied to me about my prospects.
Apparently, neither my low pain threshold nor my natural aversion to sport is a barrier to my becoming an international rugby star. "First rule of tackling," said Williams pointing to her bottom, "cheek to arse-cheek. Yours to mine."
I obliged and experienced the dull pang of humiliation associated with not being very good at sport while Williams feigned collapse.
Rugby play-offs, page 40
THIRTY YEARS OF GIVING IT A TRY
Women's Rugby was first played seriously in Britain in the late 1970s
The game was initially played mainly by student teams such as Keele University, University College London, Marjons and St Mary's Hospital
The rules of the game are the same for men and women
Shelley Rae, who plays outside half for Wasps and England, is known to fans of the game as "the Female Jonny Wilkinson"
The Women's Rugby Football Union (WRFU) was formed in 1983 and was responsible for rugby in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
In 1994, the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in England, with each of the Home Counties overseeing their own counties
The RFUW is affiliated to, but independent of, the RFU. It organises its women's leagues and competitions separately and has to find its own sponsorship
The RFUW has more than 350 clubs, from under-16s to seniors
Top men's clubs, such as Wasps, Saracens, Worcester, Rosslyn Park, London Welsh, Blackheath and Harlequins now have women's teams
The first women's International in Britain took place in April 1986 at Richmond Athletic Ground in London. Great Britain played France but were beaten 14-8
Cardiff hosted the first Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991
Twelve countries participated in the the first Women's Rugby World Cup, a week-long tournament England reached the final but lost to the USA 19-6
England got its revenge at the second World Cup in Scotland in 1994, beating the USA 38-23
The third World Cup in 1998 was the first to be officially recognised by the International Rugby Board
New Zealand defeated England, the defending champions, in the semi-finals of the third World Cup by 44 points to 11 and went on to win the competition
A record 16 nations, including Japan and Samoa, took part in the most recent World Cup in Barcelona in 2002. In the final England lost to New Zealand by 19-9
The Times (London, England) (May 15, 2004): p8
Sunday, 8 February 2004
In training with Mary Pat Tierney; Your fitness.
Mary Pat Tierney
Mary Pat Tierney is fly-half for the Scotland women's rugby team that plays Wales in the Six Nations championship
For the past two years I have been following a strict training regime to improve my fitness for the national squad. The Scottish Rugby Union has asked the women's team to commit to this training programme for the next two years, until after the next World Cup.
My immediate priority is Saturday's Six Nations match. We meet up on Wednesday and fly down to Bristol before travelling on to Cardiff. On Thursday we will have two training sessions, with a lighter one on Friday, before a team meeting in the evening. This is Scotland's first competitive match of the year and we will spend the time doing a series of rugby drills and playing a number of practice matches.
Combining work and rugby
From Monday to Friday, I work full-time as a solicitor in Edinburgh. Although I start a new job in March, my current employers have been extremely flexible with my training. But, to maintain my fitness, I train every day during my 90 minute lunch break
Monday: after playing on Sunday, I have a recovery session at my local swimming pool
Tuesday: I usually spend 30 minutes on a rowing machine; I row for 90 seconds, rest for a minute, and so on. After work, I head straight for training with Watsonians rugby club between 6.30pm and 8pm. Training incorporates drills such as dynamic stretching, tackling or hitting bags, handling drills, touch rugby or six-on-six matches
Wednesday: probably my hardest session of the week, with an hour of weights. My programme is similar to how weightlifters train -power clenches, press-ups and leg pulls -the theory being that I should be able to replicate the same explosive power in a match
Thursday: at lunchtime I visit a local park and sprint. In the evening I have another session with Watsonians
Friday: depending on how the week has gone, I usually fit in another weights session
Saturday: myself and a few of the team hire a squash court in the morning to perform non-weight-bearing drills and routines, aimed at strengthening our legs and abdominal muscles.
Sunday: normally a club match, although the league is suspended during the Six Nations
Sunday Times (London, England) (Feb 8, 2004): p29.
Mary Pat Tierney is fly-half for the Scotland women's rugby team that plays Wales in the Six Nations championship
For the past two years I have been following a strict training regime to improve my fitness for the national squad. The Scottish Rugby Union has asked the women's team to commit to this training programme for the next two years, until after the next World Cup.
My immediate priority is Saturday's Six Nations match. We meet up on Wednesday and fly down to Bristol before travelling on to Cardiff. On Thursday we will have two training sessions, with a lighter one on Friday, before a team meeting in the evening. This is Scotland's first competitive match of the year and we will spend the time doing a series of rugby drills and playing a number of practice matches.
Combining work and rugby
From Monday to Friday, I work full-time as a solicitor in Edinburgh. Although I start a new job in March, my current employers have been extremely flexible with my training. But, to maintain my fitness, I train every day during my 90 minute lunch break
Monday: after playing on Sunday, I have a recovery session at my local swimming pool
Tuesday: I usually spend 30 minutes on a rowing machine; I row for 90 seconds, rest for a minute, and so on. After work, I head straight for training with Watsonians rugby club between 6.30pm and 8pm. Training incorporates drills such as dynamic stretching, tackling or hitting bags, handling drills, touch rugby or six-on-six matches
Wednesday: probably my hardest session of the week, with an hour of weights. My programme is similar to how weightlifters train -power clenches, press-ups and leg pulls -the theory being that I should be able to replicate the same explosive power in a match
Thursday: at lunchtime I visit a local park and sprint. In the evening I have another session with Watsonians
Friday: depending on how the week has gone, I usually fit in another weights session
Saturday: myself and a few of the team hire a squash court in the morning to perform non-weight-bearing drills and routines, aimed at strengthening our legs and abdominal muscles.
Sunday: normally a club match, although the league is suspended during the Six Nations
Sunday Times (London, England) (Feb 8, 2004): p29.
Sunday, 30 March 2003
In training with Susie Appleby; Your fitness
Susie Appleby is scrum-half with the England women's rugby union team Before taking a career break from the police force, I worked full-time and played rugby. Training was difficult to fit in, because I was juggling so many things at once. The national lottery now pays my salary, and I am one of the few professional women rugby players.
In the past five years, my training has become more rugby-specific and more focused on improving my game. Sport England supplies the England team with personal trainers. I see mine for an hour each week, but he guides me through the rest of my training regime.
Rugby is a contact sport, but even though I am a woman, it does not cross my mind when I get on the pitch that I could get hurt. I do what comes naturally. If you are scared of going into challenges, that is when you will be injured.
Training is essential to prepare yourself before a match; if you are not physically fit, you are more likely to be injured. If you train hard, you can play hard and take all the knocks.
There are a few women in the England team who have had babies, but it has not stopped them from getting back into the sport. Preconceptions about women's rugby still exist, but things have improved over the years Weekly routine Monday: the day after a game, we have a recovery session in the morning, which includes swimming, running and a massage Tuesday: with my personal trainer we focus on speed endurance, speed agility, my reaction to the ball and sprinting. In the evening I have a two-hour rugby session at Clifton Ladies rugby club which ends at 9pm Wednesday: weight training in the gym, focusing on the legs and upper body.
Playing at scrum-half and occasionally fly-half, I need quick speed off the mark.
In the evening I have another session with my club Thursday: speed endurance session in the morning, followed by a swim in the afternoon Friday: back in the gym, but will begin to ease off, with a game so close. In the afternoon I focus on individual skills, such as passing and ball control with a partner Saturday: rest day Sunday: match day. Just have a light snack before a club game at 2pm Diet: My intake consists mainly of carbohydrates and protein - pasta, chicken, tuna, for example End of the season: the season runs from September to May. When it ends, we play a lot of touch rugby. In the gym we use heavier weights and work for longer hours, to maintain strength and stamina, because we are not playing.
The England team travels to Canada in June to play in the Churchill Cup. It will be the first time that the men's and women's teams have toured together
Sunday Times (London, England) (March 30, 2003): p31
In the past five years, my training has become more rugby-specific and more focused on improving my game. Sport England supplies the England team with personal trainers. I see mine for an hour each week, but he guides me through the rest of my training regime.
Rugby is a contact sport, but even though I am a woman, it does not cross my mind when I get on the pitch that I could get hurt. I do what comes naturally. If you are scared of going into challenges, that is when you will be injured.
Training is essential to prepare yourself before a match; if you are not physically fit, you are more likely to be injured. If you train hard, you can play hard and take all the knocks.
There are a few women in the England team who have had babies, but it has not stopped them from getting back into the sport. Preconceptions about women's rugby still exist, but things have improved over the years Weekly routine Monday: the day after a game, we have a recovery session in the morning, which includes swimming, running and a massage Tuesday: with my personal trainer we focus on speed endurance, speed agility, my reaction to the ball and sprinting. In the evening I have a two-hour rugby session at Clifton Ladies rugby club which ends at 9pm Wednesday: weight training in the gym, focusing on the legs and upper body.
Playing at scrum-half and occasionally fly-half, I need quick speed off the mark.
In the evening I have another session with my club Thursday: speed endurance session in the morning, followed by a swim in the afternoon Friday: back in the gym, but will begin to ease off, with a game so close. In the afternoon I focus on individual skills, such as passing and ball control with a partner Saturday: rest day Sunday: match day. Just have a light snack before a club game at 2pm Diet: My intake consists mainly of carbohydrates and protein - pasta, chicken, tuna, for example End of the season: the season runs from September to May. When it ends, we play a lot of touch rugby. In the gym we use heavier weights and work for longer hours, to maintain strength and stamina, because we are not playing.
The England team travels to Canada in June to play in the Churchill Cup. It will be the first time that the men's and women's teams have toured together
Sunday Times (London, England) (March 30, 2003): p31
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