28/07/2020- Plymouth Albion RFC- Training night- 3hrs

1st hour:

During the first hour of the session, we began ensuring all players, coaching staff, therapists, and anyone in attendance at the training session got checked for symptoms of Covid-19 as per our normal operating protocols. This consisted of checking Blood pressure, oxygen stats, temperature if the person had had any recent symptoms or any symptoms since the last time they were checked at the training session and then asked to sign next to their results.

2nd hour:

As we are unable to play any form of rugby at the moment due to the RFU and the Government guidelines regarding the current climate, the session had to be adjusted to allow the players to feel as they are part of a team rather than just individuals training a the outdoor gym or participating in fitness sessions. For this reason, the second hour of the session was adapted to 5-a-side football, something that is currently allowed by the government guidelines. All the players were split into teams of five and played on different pitches around the facility to ensure they kept to government guidelines and that they managed to keep their “pods”.

3rd hour:

In the third and final hour of the session, the players were brought back to the outdoor gym to participate in a team circuit tournament. The players were kept in the football pods and had to work together to cover the largest amount of distance. Outside there were 3 different activities that at least one person from each team had to be on at all times. The first activity was assault bikes which were spread 2m apart in the car park. The second activity was a rowing machine again spread out at least 2 meters apart in the car park and the final activity was a lap of the pitch with 2 kettlebells. Each lap of the pitch completed added 5km to the team’s score. The team with the highest total Km at the end of the hour from the bike, rowing machine, and pitch run combined was the winner. This again added some competitiveness and teamwork into the training session while sticking to protocol and keeping COVID safe. All equipment was wiped down before changing between the players and each team had their own set of equipment.

I feel as though this type of session was needed, due to players having been apart for months during the lockdown and the only sessions they had been doing are individual fitness and gym session. The team was lacking cohesion and with new players attending training, they need to engage in team bonding to find their place in the team. Not only did this session help the players physically with a session that challenged their fitness, but it also challenged them psychologically and having to use skills such as teamwork, cohesion, leadership, and communication things that haven’t been used in a while was an excellent way to get back into training.

This session was very well planned out and everyone enjoyed themselves it was necessary for many different reasons that the team engaged in a session like this and it could not have come at a better time. All the players turned up today and their moods were instantly lifted when hearing the types of activities they would be participating which was amazing to see. All players spoke highly of how the session was run, enjoyed themselves throughout, and left happier. However, there was no sufficient warm-up conducted before the football games or the outdoor gym and therefore players could have got injured. With the current restrictions that are in place, we therapists are unable to do any hands-on treatment unless it is during an emergency or life-saving event. Therefore we are there to build relationships with the team, become a friendly, familiar face that they can trust when they’re injured, and intervene when an emergency arises. I did, however, get myself involved with the event from a coach’s perspective encouraging players to push themselves, work hard, cheered them on, and motivated them. I was also able to get involved with tracking the Km covered by the teams which I enjoyed.

I have learned during this session just how much of an effect the lockdown has had on all individuals participating in this session today and even thought hey need to be doing fitness for preseason and getting them game ready, it is extremely important to include sessions that are fun and social for psychological purposes. Some players may not have had communication, social interactions, or even a support network during the lockdown and those connections are important now we can incorporate them again.

In conclusion, warm-up and cool-down should have been performed. I could have expressed my concerns about this during the session however, I didn’t which could have lead to injury without suitable treatment. I am happy with my engagement in the session other than those areas and have taken positives from the session. For example, by getting involved I was able to start forming relationships with players and gaining confidence which will help me when treating individuals in the future.

If I had the opportunity to redo this session, I would ensure that a sufficient warm-up and cool down was in place for the players to help reduce the risk of injury during a training session. If this was not possible I would have expressed my concerns to the head therapist in the hopes that they agreed and put something in place.