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End to End Extreme Day 6&7 – Steve Prescott Foundation

ianharmon — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:41:30 +0000

Day 6 Update – Penrith to Dumbarton- End to End eXtreme Challenge

140 mile total mileage, 110 mile of that was into a massive headwind. 6 Days in the mental and physical strain is starting to show in the team, “this was the toughest day yet”, said Neil. Even some of the guys who were experienced cyclist ‘hit the wall’ on this leg.

Neil also realised just how important protective head gear is when riding a bike. He said ” I clipped Precky’s back wheel and it was either take both of them out or just bail out, so I bailed out. I thought it would be better going backwards as opposed to sideways and doing my elbow and arm in, so I bailed of the bike backwards and my helmet smashed against the tarmac. Only for the helmet, I would of been a goner!” Luckily though, Neil wasn’t hurt too badly at all. Got back on his bike and carried on with the rest of the team.

Neil’s team mate Nigel wasn’t so lucky though, he was another casualty of this gruelling 140 miles stage. Nigel came off at a roundabout and smashed his elbow into the road. Unbelievably Nigel then rode for about 50 miles and finished the stage riding WITH ONE HAND!

I think that just shows the sheer guts and determination of these guys. What an monumental effort!!

They started cycling at around 5:30am and finally made it to Dumbarton for 9:40pm! This challenge is just off the scale.

Day 7 Update – Dumbarton to Fort William – End to End eXtreme Challenge

Neil told me today was going to be reasonably easy as they only had to cycle 74 miles! “I never thought I’d hear myself say that” he said.

I spoke to him around 5:45pm today as he was sat looking out over Loch Lomond. He said all the team where at the hotel, showered and ready to eat. “This was the most enjoyable stage of the challenge so far. Some beautiful scenery and not as many massive hills. This will be the first night we’ll get some decent sleep and give our bodies chance to recuperate.”

I think they’re going to need it though as tomorrow (Saturday) they’ve got a 100 mile ride with Ben Nevis to climb after the first 15 miles or so.

To show your support and help Neil reach his target of £1,000 for the Steve Precott Foundation please click the link below

—> http://bit.ly/NeilHEndtoEndX

You can see all the videos, pictures and Steve Prescott’s blog at the following link:

http://www.engagesl.com/steveprescottfoundation

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End to End Extreme – Steve Prescott Foundation

ianharmon — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:06:31 +0000

Hi, it’s Ian here, Neil’s brother. I thought i’d give a quick update on how Neil’s getting on in his latest challenge raising money for the Steve Prescott Foundation, the End to End Extreme Challenge.

Last Saturday morning (2nd June 2011), all the guys set off from Lands End on a 1024 mile cycle ride to John O’Groats. On route they planned to climb Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis.

I don’t think any of them realised exactly what it was they’d took on. This is a MASSIVE challenge to even the most keenest of cycling enthusiast and they had to complete the challenge in 9 days!

To sponsor Neil in this monumental challenge, and help him hit his £1,000 target please click the following link….

—> http://bit.ly/NeilHEndtoEndX

As of writing this Neil’s 54% of target, let’s see if we can give a big push towards that magical £1,000

I spoke to Neil last night (8th June) after they’d just rode 40 miles from Lancaster to Scafell Pike in the Lake District, climbed Scafell Pike, which took them around 6 hours 40mins and then rode another 25 miles in terrential rain to Penrith where they stayed the night.

This took them to around 590 miles so far PLUS Snowdon and Scafell Pike in the bag.

You can catch up with all the latest developments here…

http://www.engagesl.com/steveprescottfoundation/

This morning they had another 140 miles to ride to Dumbarton before they ride up to Fort William tomorrow to take on Ben Nevis.

This has been a huge effort so far by all the guys involved and they’ve raised thousands of pounds so far for the Steve Prescott Foundation.

Steve himself is one amazing guy! 4 years ago he was given only months to live, but Steve wasn’t having that and proceeded to take on bigger and bigger challenges each year to raise money for The Christie in Manchester and Try Assist. Last year in 2010 Steve and his pals ran 4 marathons in 4 days and was also rightfully awarded an MBE for his services to charity.

Steve is a real inspiration and a true warrior. And that goes for all the guys who’ve taken part in the challenges with Steve, as I’m sure they’d of been 10 times more difficult without them.

I’ll hopefully be speaking to Neil tonight for another update so I’ll post here and let you know how they’re getting on.

Don’t forget, if you can spare a couple of pounds and help Neil reach his target of £1,000 I’m sure it would help numb the pain of them last few hundred miles, oh and Ben Nevis

—> http://bit.ly/NeilHEndtoEndX

Cheers,

Ian

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Fitness For Rugby

Neil — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:15:23 +0000

Here’s a simple video that anyone who’s interested in fitness for rugby can implement into one of your fitness conditioning sessions. One thing I would have added to this drill, is get the players to do the drill carrying a ball. Especially if you’re a coach who only has an hour or two with your team and time is of the essence.

This can be incorporated into any offensive ball session and is quick to set up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy your rugby

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

P.S. as always let me know your comments:-)

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Multidirectional Rugby Training

Neil — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:58:30 +0000

Back in July I talked about training the core and showed a video of Mike Ferrandino, the Leeds University fitness conditioner performing a few core exercises ideal for rugby training. I received some really positive feedback from amateur coaches on adding this to their training sessions and how it’s now a major part of there sessions.

This type of training is ESSENTIAL in the modern game and coaches not implementing this into their sessions will slowly be left behind the pack not to mention have a squad of players who cannot adapt to the faster dynamics of modern rugby training.

Here’s a great, simple video by Danny McAllister that will;

significantly reduce injury risk
help increase confidence
help players performance
build variety and enthusiasm into your sessions

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy your rugby

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

Great Free Rugby Training Resource (0)

Coast 2 Coast Bike Ride

admin — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:24:41 +0000

Just to show that once you hang your boots up you still can’t resist a challenge. On Sat 25th Sept 2010 yours truly and half a dozen others set off from Whitehaven to begin the 140 mile bike ride across to Newcastle to partake in the C2C (coast 2 coast) bike ride that thousands of cyclists do every year.

The ride was organised by my ex Warrington team mate Nigel Geary (the ugly one on the right!) and us three along with another half a dozen reprebates from Wigan took up the challenge.

I must admit that I hadn’t done as much training as I’d hoped to do but with the help of our carbohydrate/electrolyte supplements we set off with pain free legs.

I must say a big thank you to Predator Nutrition for supplying the team with our carb/electrolyte supplements as I for one would have struggled without them.

Here’s a shot with the team just about to set off on our second day after loading up on our carb drinks along with several full english breakfasts:-)

A few of us just after sampling the delights of the highest cafe on the route:-)

Finally after 140 mile and some very tired limbs the first three made it to the Newcastle coastline. I’ve got to say it was a tough but enjoyable ride and thank God for supplements and Guiness:-)

Massive thank you to Predator Nutrition for their help on supplying the Sports Nutrition and to Nige for organising the challenge.

Let me know if you’ve taken part in a challenge recently or if you know of any that are worth a shot at.

Be Well

Neil:-)

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Rugby League Training – The Core

Neil — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:58:15 +0000

So Why Do We Need To Train Our Core?

I have to say that I spent several years rugby league training as a professional before I was taught the importance of training my core.

Core stability is the coordinated effort of the deep muscles of the trunk, pelvis, hips, abdominal muscles and small muscles along the spinal column. These muscles contract together to create force used to hold the spinal column in alignment.

The reason we need to exercise these muscles is to build core strength which supports the spine and provides stability.

Core stability is essential for proper form and mechanics while performing rugby skills.

It is even more important for injury prevention, especially during an intense 80 min rugby match.

I recently spoke to Mike Ferrandino who’s the fitness conditioner for Leeds University Gryphon’s which includes both the rugby league and rugby union teams, about the importance of core exercises.

Here’s a short video with Mike showing some core exercises for the modern rugby player.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are more core and rugby league training exercises in the download section at www.1RugbyCoach.com

Until next time

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

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Coaching the Offload

Neil — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:12:03 +0000

One of the students at Leeds University Rugby League recently asked me how he could improve his offload and was there any exercises he could practice…

For you as a coach, the easiest and one of the most effective ways to teach your players ‘Offloading’ is the Hit & Spin Technique, which is actually poorly named because you actually Spin and then Hit. To teach this technique:

a. Have a player with a shield standing 5 metres in away from the play the ball, in the ‘A’ defenders position (one off the ruck);

b. Have a runner come through and take a pass off the dummy half and run straight at the ‘A’ defender;

- Just before the runner gets to the defender he starts to spin, and here is the critical part:
- If he is on the LEFT side of the ruck he will carry the ball in two hands and lead (or hit) with his LEFT shoulder;
- If on the RIGHT side he will lead with his RIGHT shoulder;
- This will ensure that he is able to deliver the pass correctly to his support.
- The dummy half scoots out from the play the ball and while running behind the ball runner, he takes the offload.
- The dummy half then becomes the next ball runner and the drill continues;

c. When coaching offloads, you should also teach the correct ball carry:

- Many players these days are carrying the ball for the spin pass. Get them out of this habit
and get them back to holding the ball in the middle, with fingers spread underneath and
thumbs on top.
- To demonstrate the effectiveness of this ball carry, have a player turn his back to you and
you bear hug him, but holding his arms ‘above’ the elbow, he can now flick his wrists and pass the ball 5 metres with a wrist flick.

There are plenty of other ways of offloading, passing under the arm pits, passing around a defender, the one handed back flick, but most of these are high skill sets. The hit and spin is relatively simple and can easily be taught, you can then build it into a pattern or a play such as the dummy half scooting and dummying to an inside runner, then passing to a straight runner who hits and spins and picks up the dummy half on the loop who fires the pass out to his backline.

Enjoy Your Rugby

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

Rugby Coaching Defence Fitness Drill

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:14:31 +0000

Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting quite a few questions about defence and more specifically fitness defence drills, so I thought I’d share with you a short video that I shot while I was over in Australia on a rugby coaching course with one of the top fitness conditioners in the business – Paul Hamson.

Paul is one of the worlds top rugby fitness conditioners who also happens to be a level 3 Rugby League coach.

He is the senior presenter for the Australian Rugby League & NSWRL level 1,2 & 3 courses and has worked with some of the best Rugby League and Rugby Union clubs in the world and I’m privileged to share some of his coaching tips with you today.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy Your Rugby

Neil Harmon

Great Free Rugby Training Resource

Neil — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:18:59 +0000

Things are beggining to settle down a bit now after the launch of http://www.1RugbyCoach.com and I just wanted to give you a quick heads up with what’s new in the world of rugby training.

I’ve recently come across a great free rugby resource called http://www.fast4football.com/ and think it’s an excellent site with some of the top professional Australian rugby league players sharing training tips.

Andrew Johns, arguably Rugby league’s greatest halfback of all time and named half back of the century and currently a coaching consultant to the games elite, gives his time and services to fast4football. His video content has had thousands of viewers on fast4football.com viewing his interviews and training drills for free.

Other players sharing tips on the site include; Andrew Ryan Nathan Hindmarsh and Brett Hodgson.

Anyway I hope your coaching is going to plan and enjoy this free resource.

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

Free 1 Year Membership Winners

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:51:25 +0000

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who left a comment on the previous post and to everyone who emailed me separately explaining why they should have a free club membership. There was over 60 people from all over the world who entered even though 30+ emailed instead of leaving a blog post! Anyway seeing as I’m in the Christmas spirit I’m not going to penalise them and everyones comments were taken into consideration:-)

I think the one massive plus point to come out of this blog post was the huge number of amateur coaches across the globe that care for the future of both rugby league and rugby union through their selfless coaching efforts.

With that said, due to the number of coaches from different countries, I’ve decided to award one club the full years membership for all their coaches PLUS give one club per country a membership for 5 coaches and give everyone else a free month just because it’s Christmas:-)

The winner for a full years membership for all their coaches is Quintin Abrie from South Africa who’s part of a non-profit coaching agency that coaches rugby players, advantage or disadvantage, young or old, amateur or professional. Quote “If they want to play rugby we’ll coach them. We like to go and present coaching clinics @ Child Care Centers, and in the rural communities.”

So congratulations to Quintin and I’ll be in touch with the lucky winners from all the other countries and to everyone that either left a comment or emailed me regarding the free membership.

Enjoy your rugby

Neil Harmon

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