FITNESS

1. FITNESS A guide to what is required for match officiating

2. What is fitness? The ability to meet the demands of the environment.

3. What is your environment? A rugby pitch What are the demands? Changing speed and direction Anticipation Crowd Decision making Players Perceptual Awareness Positioning

4. Perceptual Awareness What do you see? Young girl? A donkey? A seal? Old woman? We do not all see things in the same way!

5. A Dalmatian dog sniffing the ground? The world upside down When we know what we are looking for it makes things a lot easier

6. What do you see? There is nothing to see as all the squares are equal but we try to “see” things For a, b and c write down what you see If a = brush or centipede – male response If a = comb or teeth - female response If b = target – male response If b = dinner plate it is a female response If c = head - male response If c = cup - female response

7. To meet the demands of our environment we have to be fit and so a training regime needs to become part of your life as a match official You have to be fit to officiate effectively. Once fatigue sets in, you become less accurate and slower in your decision-making. Mistakes are made and your positioning can become erratic. The longer you can delay fatigue the more successful you will be. The information collected from a Test Match shows what is required of officials during a game

11. It shows that over 25% of the time officials are working at 80 second a lap (400m) pace Officials cover between 4-6 miles in a game For touch judges this will have increased as the movement requirements have changed since this data was collected So training to pass the 12 minute run should not just be the emphasis of your training

12. A safe and effective way to see how hard you are working in to use a heart rate monitor 220 – age gives your maximum heart rate >80% of max HR 60 – 80% of max HR

13. To see an improvement in fitness the F.I.T.T Principle should be applied How often do I train? At least 3 times a week to have an effect F Frequency Once you start training the 10 minute run will become easier so you then need to run for longer or faster I Intensity How hard do I train? There are different types of training to improve different areas of fitness – circuits, weights, sprints, agility work, intervals What kind of training should I do? T Type This will increase as you get fitter but also depends on what type of training you are doing T Time How long do I train?

14. What should a training programme consist of? Aerobic work

15. Aerobic work needs to be over 20 minutes in duration. By going to the gym and working on a number of different exercises for 5 – 10 minutes you can very soon be working for up to 60 minutes

16. If you feel your fitness levels are not particularly good then you need to start with low intensity aerobic work to get a good solid foundation before you try any more intense type of activity Circuit training is an excellent activity to improve muscular endurance Press Ups

17. Sit Ups

18. Leg Work

19. Cooper’s 12 minute run By looking at the statistics from the test match and from matches you have officiated in you realise that you never run continuously for 12 minutes So why, you might ask, do you have a set target to reach in 12 minutes as part of the fitness test? Whilst aerobic work is essential to obtain a general fitness level, you must include anaerobic training as part of your training programme to improve fitness levels to higher level. Interval trainingincludes any type of exercise with bursts of hard activity interspersed with a period of rest. By breaking up a training session into smaller chunks you can do a greater total amount of work

20. For example: to complete Academy touch judge distance of 2400m you have to run 6 laps in 2 minutes per lap Interval session 6 x 400m @ 1 minute 50 seconds pace with a 2 minute rest between runs will overload the body At first not all 6 will be done in the set time, but if the training is regular this will eventually be achieved You then either run at 1 minute 45 second pace or reduce the recovery time to 1 minute

21. Other long interval sessions aiming to run equal to or faster than lap pace Track sessions 3 x 800m – 2/3 min rest 3 x 1200m – 3 min rest 2 x 1500m 5 min rest 1 x 4 laps, 2 x 3 laps, 3 x 2 laps, 4 x 1 lap – 4,3,2,1 min rest (a killer!!) Grass sessions 6 x 1 min – 1 min rest 4/5 x 1½ min – 2 min rest 3 x 3 min – 3 min rest 5,4,3,2,1 min run 4,3,2,1 min rest 12 minutes of run 20 seconds walk 10 seconds Using a rugby pitch run the diagonals, jog behind the try line – 3 x 4 laps 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 laps Shuttle Runs – put markers 10m apart up to 60m. Work in 2 groups Run 60m & back –(2nd group does the same) Run 60m & back then 50m & back (2nd group does the same) Run 60-50-40 Run 60-50-40-30 Run 60-50-40-30-20 Run 60-50-40-30-20-10 Complete session by running 60-50-40-30-20, 60-50-40-30, 60-50-40, 60-50, 60

22. Agility Another vital component of match officiating is agility and a lot of time is spent on this area in training. The definition of agility is: The ability to change body position and direction quickly and with precision It is a combination of speed and coordination Any activity that uses short, quick movements forwards, sideways/crossover and backwards will improve limb speed

24. Footwork Drill      Place cones no more than 1 metre apart Person A shouts the colours out in random for 30 -60 seconds Person B moves to the called colour either forward, backwards or sideways