Dan Ward-Smith (DWS) is the Academy Manager at the Inside Running Academy, he is also a qualified Strength and Conditioning coach and has started a weekly blog that will look to give advice to aspiring players and coaches.

DWS has an extensive list of achievements in rugby both as a player and now as a coach. He played professional rugby for 12 years playing for Bristol and London Wasps in the Premiership, he also was part of the English National squad from 2006-11.

Below is an excerpt from his latest post on how Olympic Lifting is vital for long term player development and that many clubs neglect long term success for short term gains due to the competitive pressures of professional sport.

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Olympic Weight Lifting – Dan Ward-Smith

For the record I am a huge fan of Olympic Weight Lifting and I have our academy athletes using Olympic Lifting on up to three days out of the five days available to them in a training week. Olympic Weightlifting is widely documented to help athletes become stronger and more explosive yet not all Strength and Conditioning Coaches within rugby union teach or programme Olympic Lifts.

If the benefits include jumping higher and increased flexibility then why do some coaches not incorporate Olympic Lifting into their athletes programmes? The answer lies in time constraints. During my time as a Professional Rugby Player the longest contract I ever signed was four years, this is unusually long, typically a Rugby player will have a two year contract. So the rugby club does not have a vested interest in the long term development of the player, short term gains are more important, the weekends game or the next few months are as far as most coaches are thinking.

On top of this players cannot dedicate a huge amount of time to their S & C programme as they have to split their week between team training, video analysis, lineouts, skill development, recovery, physio, a long list of boxes must be ticked. You probably end up with just……

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