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 setting the right team environment/culture goes a long way to making improvements on and off the field.

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Setting the Mood – Dan Ward Smith

At The Inside Running Academy we have a saying “Creating an Environment for Excellence”. This basically means an environment in which the players can be the best they can be, where they are pushed to work hard and motivated to get better in all aspects of their game.

I have never found motivation to improve difficult as I love training and mastering new skills but I also understand that not everyone is wired the same way and that it actually may be me that is strange. I don’t want to go too far into it but here’s my input into creating a good vibe in the gym or out on the training pitch.

Caffeine…. It’s now fairly established that the health benefits of caffeine are many. But for a long time people viewed caffeine as a negative contributor on performance, I never, ever bought into this as for me simply by drinking a Ninja strong coffee I would feel a better version of myself so the performance enhancing qualities were obvious. A pre-workout dose of 3mg/kg of bodyweight can improve power output. We use a pre workout drink that includes copious amounts of caffeine, this is clearly even more important early in the morning when your body is still not quite up to speed. I personally wouldn’t choose to train before 9am but for some people I understand it’s a necessity, caffeine can help you here.

Music… Now everyone’s tastes in music are different and I can find something that I enjoy in most music but I definitely enjoy tracks with….

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