All right, if you're an amateur rugby player and you want to know some secrets of the professional game that you might not know about, this video is for you. Let's hope we all learn something. What's going on everyone? It's TJ here from Rugby Muscle. Welcome back to the podcast or the YouTube channel, however you're watching or listening. It's great to have you here today. I wanted to touch on something a little bit different rather than talk about the specifics of the training that you guys should be doing. I want to talk about some things with regards to professionals and things that. Amateurs way, way too often miss about professionals about what makes them professionals and what makes them such elite players. And I think once you understand this stuff, it helps you decipher and understand exactly what you need as a player and, and really lean into that. And, and often I see a lot of amateur players missing the forest through the trees because of. Like analyzing what pro rugby players do wrong and missing some vital stuff So let's just get right into this because otherwise i'm just going to talk Forever and this could end up being a little bit of word soup. So first and foremost, let's get straight into the Five things. Firstly, early development, right? Pro rugby players, more often than not, will have developed from an early age. If you think about it, why are tier one nations tier one nations? It's because they have rugby playing schools. It's because they have kids that are playing rugby from a young age. This isn't necessarily just because it helps them, you know, Play lots and lots of years of rugby and develop them like that, but it also helps them because it allows Like professional teams to identify them from a young age and help them with their physical development, you know So if you've got a player that maybe naturally isn't very fit You've got a lot more time to make him fit or naturally quite skinny You've got a lot more time to develop them physically to be able to cope with the demands of the game It also helps, like, because you've got kids that are playing from a young age, it helps the professional system identify what aspects they're looking for from these players. And so when you see professional teams look for talent identification, they know specifically what they're looking for with players. It could be part of their decision making. It could be their quote unquote grit. It could be just the way they pass. It could be something that is untrainable or things that they see that they have potential to be trained in. For example, if they're already six foot seven at 15, they have potentially the potential to be a very good lock. But likewise, if they're not, Very good in the physical confrontation Not because of their size, but just because of their mentality maybe and they're not well, maybe that's a trainable thing It differs depending on how you wish to view the game but more importantly from a young age These players have an environment and particularly the ones that make it to the professional More often than not have the environment to make fantastic foundational progress. So they get to improve all the things that are important for a rugby player to improve in. And they get to do that for, you know, five plus years before they're even like stepping on the field as a professional at the top level. And this is something that a lot of people miss. That's like. a lot of time and it's a lot of time spent at really basic stuff that helps them become the best players now I can't finish this point or this secret of early development without mentioning Malcolm Gladwell's book outliers because People that have read that book will know that luck has a really important part of this role because It's whether you're at the right school or whether you're in the right squad Whether you're in the right team like if you're playing for a local team that happens to be really good You've just got more chance of being picked and there's nothing really that you can do about that Whereas if you're a really talented player, but you're from an area where there aren't any other talent talented players There's a good chance that you're gonna get overlooked or there's just a good chance that you don't get to develop a young age And therefore have the, you know, the years in that environment that you can make the most progress. And this is just, this just is what it is, is one of these things that you need to accept. And again, this is a big factor in professionals. It's not the only factor. It's definitely not, but it's a really, really important pathway and important reason as to why a lot of professional rugby players have become professional rugby players because they've been able to develop at such a young age. If you're an older player watching this you have to understand that this is something that you can't change anymore And this is just is what it is. So comparing yourselves to players that have Been playing from such a young age is kind of fruitless kind of completely pointless for you to do You just have to keep grinding away at your own Process in order to get better for yourself as a player. Likewise, if you're a young player that's watching this This doesn't mean that you have to put all the pressure on yourself and say, Oh, this, these are the really important years for me to develop. No, if you are just developing, just being in an environment, just making progress, that is, that is like, that's enough, right? As long as you're trying to improve yourself you know, week on week or even month on month and year on year at this age. That's enough. You don't necessarily have to be in the best sports academy to make progress and to give yourself the best chance. You don't necessarily have to be in the best team at a young age to give yourself the best chance. There's not a real big specific on exactly how this is done apart from Just moving well getting fit and getting strong enough and playing the game and staying in the game Those are going to be the most important factors Yes, if you're around better players, you can make slightly better progress, but as long as you're applying yourself That's what matters and again, you know if you're in a tier one nation, you're more likely to have discovered the game and been given more resources to improve yourself and And that's just going to give you more of a chance or it's what has given current professionals more of a chance. And that is why those guys more often than not have developed early. But a lot of them, that's not even the main thing that's made them best. What's actually made them the best is their genetics. Again, asked the question why tier one nations tier one. Yes. Part of it is because they've got rugby in schools, but part of rugby being in schools isn't just about early development. It's about talent identification, right? If you look here Don't look at the giant. Actually, let's look at him for a second. To a Lange from France here. That guy is 18 I want to say his name is Mossimo. Let me check that For solo to a laggy that guy is a John he's 18 years old. Look how big he is. That is ridiculous 18 years old and again genetics I think that's probably the most important factor as to why he's a professional. Look at the size of him. Like, he, that guy is a wrecking ball on the rugby pitch at 18 years old. Like there's, there's no training or anything that you can do to, to be that big. Likewise, when you look at, we're not just looking at genetics of being huge, we're looking at genetics like if you look at Chessling Colby, if Chessling Colby is in another country, such as Italy or the US or many other countries, he's probably going to play soccer or he's going to play another sport and he would never have found out his talents for rugby, particularly because of the size, you know, like rugby is a sport in other countries where it's not. The the most popular sport So outside of what south africa and new zealand and maybe georgia like it's not a sport that Attracts smaller people you most people come to rugby because they're already or not most but a lot of people come to rugby Because they're big little people. Yes. They they make their way in rugby and and it's it's great to have them and it's It's just a reality that Rugby is seen as a big physical game that attracts big physical people, particularly when it's like a fringe sport. But, in South Africa, you get guys like Chess and Colby and all of their, like a lot of their wingers. You even think about Faf de Klerk. You look at a lot of the smaller players in tier 1 nations. That like they're going to play another sport in many other countries. And again, this is something important because they've got the genetics that would have never been found out, right? How many amazing rugby players are playing other sports in England? They're playing football in the US. They're probably playing American football. They're even playing basketball. They're playing countless other sports, maybe even doing CrossFit, you know, but they're so fit. And they could have, they have the genetics to have been an amazing rugby player. But. They, you know, they got lost in another sport, but this is all to say these people that have these amazing genetics are just gifted and there's not much you can do as you know, someone that isn't as gifted as these people to learn from them that you just have to accept that freaks are going to freak and these people are going to have this amount of talent. And that's, that's just is what it is. And you can give yourself the inspiring quote of, you know, those. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but sometimes talent can just work enough and it's gonna take over. Some people, freaks, are just gonna freak. It's kinda like, I like to pose the question philosophically for you, right? If it was all about training and how well you trained and getting reps and reps and reps, why do time and time and time again... Injured players come back and they, they come right back to the top level or come back to the higher level that they're at. It's because they have the talent, right? They've taken, sometimes, years away from the game and that should give someone else the opportunity to take their spot and keep their spot if they're playing in the game and they're thriving and they're playing well and they're training properly, you know, without being injured. Yet, some people just have the talent, you know, and even though they get injured and they take time off, They come back and because they've got the talent they're able to stay And play the game again at that higher level because they're predisposed because they've got the talent. That's just that's just what it is and And you know, people think about you know, like for some reason with physical abilities that you can train, yes, you can train, you can always improve yourself. And this is, this is something that you, you must understand is, is important. You can always improve yourself, but there is always going to be, you're going to be somewhat limited by your floor. So some people that don't do any training can already perform great. You're also going to be limited by your ceiling. So some people who train really hard. just aren't going to get the most amazing results. Whereas some people who maybe they have a low floor, maybe they, you know, due to their epigenetics, not their genetics, maybe they don't look like they're any good. They could perform any well at all until they start training. And then all of a sudden they find out that their ceiling is really, really high. You get this with a lot of athletes that come into sports quite late. Hunter McIntyre, who is the Hyrox world champion. A pretty niche reference to be honest, is one of these people that found this out, right? He didn't do any sports, I don't think, or he did random sports, but didn't do anything like properly organized until he was like in his 20s. And now he's basically, he had the Murph world champ, he had the Murph world record should I say, and he's a consistent Hirox world champion because he's got the epigenetics. And he didn't find this out until he started training. Now the guy is unreal. Maybe you can name some, some rugby players that are like the same. They come into a sport late, they don't look like they could be any good as an athlete, and then all of a sudden they start training, and all of a sudden you're like, oh my god, where did this guy come from? That's epigenetics, that's the ceiling, right? That's the ceiling of talent that a lot of people have that are unaware that they're hitting their ceiling because they, and that's not a lot of people actually, but, they do exist where they're doing everything right, but, They're just not able to make the top level. Maybe it's because of they weren't they didn't develop when they were younger or they weren't around the right team when they were younger, but it could also just be that's that's just their level and physically that's all they can push themselves to be and it's not quite enough to reach the top level. One last thing I want to touch on when it comes to genetics. This is where you've got to be careful when you're trying to learn from these people is that the training and the Things that these people do to their bodies can be absolutely terrible, but because they've got the genetics, it just works. Some, a lot of people have terrible sleep, a lot of people eat crap. There was a good story from Kia, the rugby strength coach on the podcast a while back where Santiago Cordeiro used to have bread with sugar on top for his breakfast. Like, no one would market that as a good thing to do, but it worked. It didn't even work for him. He worked well as a rugby player in spite of a terrible diet. A lot of the French players I know, heavy cigarette smokers. Because they, because they're just that genetically predisposed to play rugby well, they play rugby really well. So, those first two secrets are not necessarily secrets, they're just things that people don't want to pay attention to, which are incredibly important. Particularly, if you want to make yourself better. It's, it's under, it's, it's, it's useful to understand your limits because then you can like appreciate the, the gains and the improvements that you make within the context of improving yourself and not comparing yourself to freaks like Tua Lange and Chessling Colby here. So something that you can take away is going to be these next three points on field work is really, really important. I think this is something that people don't quite consider. Yeah. within the understanding that I'm going to give you here. But the fact that these guys are on the field multiple times per day, isn't necessarily like they're not beasting themselves in on the pitch every single session, but they are putting in work, which means they're continually topping up their skills. They're constantly throwing passes or getting in position to tackle or reading defenses or being able to adjust their own defense and getting in positions to. Play the game of rugby and because they're constantly topping those up. Those skills are constantly being refined and improved upon Say exact same thing applies here for your aerobic system Like if you're constantly running around for an hour twice a day for Three to four days a week That's going to top up your aerobic system That's going to improve your aerobic system, even though you're not pushing yourself The point is that you're not pushing yourself. The point is that you're just moving around. That's just You know, steps and, and That's just steps and training under your belt that, you know, you're getting through and you're able to do that. People that are working, that are doing their 9 to 5, aren't getting through. They're sitting at a desk like me right now. If I was a professional, I might be out there I might be out on the pitch for 2 hours this morning. Whereas actually, I was just sat here at the desk doing work. That's, that's aerobic work that I've got. Go out of my way to top up if I'm not doing this for a living. Same thing for skills like agility and movement skills as well. How well people move around the field. Not just reading the game but actually the physical act of doing it. You're constantly topping up these things that are going to get better. And I've left in freaks are gonna freak from the last one. I mean, they are going to freak. They're still going to be able to express themselves. They're going to learn how to express themselves by doing so much on field work. Whereas if you're, if you're an amateur and you're only training to isolate, you've just got less opportunity to do so. You've also got less opportunity to work on your skills, your aerobic ability, and your agility. Within the context of rugby training, you can do those things, but you're going to now have to put in more work to go outside of your... To go out of your way to improve your aerobics, to improve your skills, improve your agility and be more deliberate about it. And you can still do that, but you're just not going to get these fringe benefits from doing the constant rugby work that professionals do. This also means for the gym sessions. And I see this quite a lot when you, when a professional teams and national teams post their gym sessions, they don't look like they're that intense. They don't look like they're that full on. And that's because. They've put on so much work in the field that they're doing so much work on the pitch. That's their priority So that means that they have to focus like On pulling their intensity pulling their volume away from the gym Because they're just not going to grind themselves to the ground on the in the gym Because they need to prioritize all of that stuff that they're doing on the field Which leads me perfectly on if this camera follows me around to gym work. Yeah, so Like I think Learning specific movements. I've seen this time and time again. I remember my first men's fitness article that I saw, I think it was Paul Sackey in the gym. And you can overly read into the movements that these people do and think, Oh, this is, this is the movement that's going to make me a professional. It's going to make me a much better player. But none of this stuff is actually that important. And in fact, when you look at the rugby professional players gym work, Like, it's, it's, it's somewhat, sometimes impressive. But not really because it's, they're not in the gym to be good in the gym. They're in the gym to be good rugby players. And so because of that, most of their work is always going to be submaximal. And actually that's something that you should learn. You should understand that like, that's actually how you build. You don't, I rarely see rugby players yelling at each other and really pushing themselves to lift them up, especially when it comes to weight, they might do that for like the real high, high, high intensity conditioning. But even that's fairly sure most of that high intensity condition, most of the tough work is done on the field. So they don't do the tough work in the gym because it's not necessary. They've already got the base. As we've said before, they don't have to build out their strength. They're already good enough to be a professional player. So they've already met the demands and they've already pushed themselves enough or they've already built out the base to physically perform quite well. So now most often it's just a case of topping themselves up and actually. That can be the most effective way to build strength is to not constantly push yourself It's not constantly test yourself and and not only risk injury but risk over training risk Pushing yourself to be way too fatigued in order to improve Rather than leaving one or two reps in the tank to come back another day, rather than focus on, like, really pushing the bar, and moving as well as possible, and moving as fast as possible, those things are actually more important than the weight on the bar. But, for the most part, outside of a few freak rugby players I know one that comes in mind, and you'll see him a little bit later cough cough Most rugby players aren't really worried about the numbers on the bar. It's not as important for them. Those that do worry about the numbers on the bar, that's just kind of a fringe benefit, right? They already enjoy the gym, and even though it does kind of help them be a good rugby player, it's just an expression of their strength, and it's not as important as... Showing their strength on the rugby pitch. And so mostly when you're looking at what professionals do in the gym, it's going to be submaximal work. They're going to stay a few reps shy of failure always because the worst thing a rugby player can do is get injured. And if they're doing it, you know, it'd be one thing if they're getting injured on the pitch and costing themselves by pushing themselves on the pitch. But if they're doing it in the gym, like. What's the point? You know, like, no, you're in the gym to avoid injuries. So that the most important thing is moving well and moving fast because that's what's going to help you on the field. They're not too worried about the numbers. You can see like if you look at the All Blacks training, they're not. They're not really G'ing themselves up. They're not pushing it. They're just getting through what they need to get through. And that's it. And then they're going outside and that, that outside on the field is where they really are able to push themselves because they're using the gym to support them. And if anything, I think what you can see when you see the highlights of, of, of especially when you're looking at the international teams that are going on right now that are posting a lot of stuff. The stuff that they're doing in the gym, particularly when it comes to strength and power, it just seems like it's enjoyable for them and they're able to just consistently keep working at that and rather than overanalyze and say, I've got to improve by five kilos this week, they're just getting the work done and over time because they're staying consistent, because they're getting that work done in the gym, that's going to help them move better, that's going to help them grow muscle, it's going to help them stave off injuries. And because they're in the gym, because they're continually attacking the weights, Like not to failure, but they're consistently putting in the work. They're going to get stronger. And yes, there are some people that lift ridiculous weights But that again, if we go back to the genetics Most of the time it's gonna be because they are freaks which leads me on to Andrew Porter and his ridiculous squats that we've been seeing like if he specialized in power lifting He would be able to lift a significantly Bigger amount of weight than what he currently does now All he's doing in the gym now with his squat, he's probably peaked at the age of like 18 and, and, and now all he's trying to do is just hold that strength. Particularly as it pertains to squatting, he wants to get stronger in the scrum where it's important for him. That's where he gets his money. That's where he that's what his day job is, is to scrum and to get around the field well. And that's, that's all he needs to do. And I put him here because I think... A lot of people and a lot of rugby players tend to overthink this stuff. If he overthought, how can I improve, how can I get more and more out of my squat? Like, he could do that, but it's not going to make him any better on the pitch. And if anything, like, I think this is something that, especially if you're someone that's found rugby muscle, you can be guilty of doing. You can overthink, like, not just, like, what should you be doing in the gym, but your overall approach to rugby. How can I be better? How can I constantly be better? A lot of rugby players, they don't even care about rugby at all. And again, it goes back to potentially their genetics, but potentially like being found at a young age, they're in that environment already. They don't have to stress about it, but I think it's something that you, you, it's important to understand and accept is that some professionals just are professionals because they're good at the game and they're not that quote unquote dedicated as far as like pushing themselves and being lovers of the game. There are quite a few like really famous examples of rugby players that Just aren't really students of the game. They just enjoy playing it themselves. Maybe there are even some that don't even enjoy playing it themselves, but it's their day job, so they just crack on. And this is something that I think, where you're going to take away from this as a player, is that they're not, like, it doesn't matter the type of player you are, it doesn't matter the you know, the, the role that you're within your team. The most important thing... It's doing the thing for you as a rugby player. It's, it's how it's doing the things that improve you as a player, doing them, not finding out what's the best, not continually question yourself as to how you can do better. It's doing the thing. It's putting in the aerobic work. It's getting into the gym and doing something. Those things are more important. Obviously for professionals, they've got the support around them. They've got the coaching staff, they've got the experts around them. So that they can focus on doing the thing because they can they don't have to worry about what those things are you as an amateur potentially can Do that by hiring coaches outside or finding mentors outside of that, but it's it's going to be more difficult because They have the luxury. Professionals have the luxury of just focusing on doing the thing and they don't have to stress about it. Some people, like, you know, some of the leaders, like, you know, you look at your Owen Farrells or your Johnny Sextons, they will study a lot and they will do extras outside because they are leaders and because that's their role for the team. You don't necessarily have to do that, particularly as an amateur. So what you just have to focus on doing is whatever you can do to improve. And it's not finding more things to do. It's doing the things. It's a, it's a real subtle difference, but a real important difference for you to, to really take in and understand. So. However, whatever you can do to not overthink, to not have to stress about what you've got to do, and just focus on doing it, is going to be a real big priority and importance for you as a player, and something that the professionals have the luxury of doing that amateurs definitely need to understand, and potentially could learn from and take away. And so in summary, what else can you take away? It's to not do what this guy did. This, this clown, I think it was like Wales Online, did an article, definitely sponsored by Supplements, where he trained like a rugby player for six weeks. All he did was the S& C. He went from nothing to doing all of the work that he thought rugby players did, and pushed himself to the brink, and he gave himself a hernia, I think within three weeks, and he couldn't even finish the six weeks. Just a fucking joke. Just not what you should be doing. What you should be doing is focus on your aerobics, focus on the skills, focus on the real basic stuff and actually doing those things and not having to push yourself to be the best player you can do in six weeks, but be the best player you can be forever. Continually follow the process of doing the work, doing the basics and progressing year on year on year on year on year, which comes from, you know, month on month on month. And just like. Each time you have a stab at training each to each session, each block of training that you do, you learn from it. You then focus on what you're going to implement for the next one, how you're going from your learnings, how you're going to improve. And then you're going to focus on doing those things, not worrying about what can I do? What do I need to do? What's next? What's next? What's next? And instead focusing on just the doing. Focus on actually getting in the gym two to four times a week and doing the work that's necessary. Focus on getting your aerobic work done. Not focusing on, I've got to grind before preseason or I've got to do this now. I've got to be the best player I can be in four weeks. Not focusing on finding new things to do focus on the work. The best way to do that of course is to offload that thinking so that you don't have to do any of the thinking. Hey, I'm here. Rugby muscle is here to support you. If that's what you wish to do, all the links team rugby muscle or rugby muscle elite will be found in the description below. You can join us. You can offload that thinking you can not necessarily treat yourself like a professional, but you can do the basics and you can continually improve yourself. Without compromising the other areas of your life, without giving yourself a bloody hernia like this prat. And you can actually get better and continually improve and enjoy the process of being a rugby player and take pride in that. That'll wrap this video up. Thank you guys so much for watching or listening. Five star reviews on the podcast. Thumbs up if you've made it all the way to the end and you found this useful. Let me know any thoughts you have of how this video has helped you in the comments below. Comments really do help out. If you want to just drop a comment for the algorithm that's also very much appreciated. Thanks for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one.