Where to from here
IT will be back to basics for Gareth Baber’s Fiji Airways sevens team as far as building up strength and conditioning goes.
This is after the decision to postpone the Tokyo Olympics was announced by the International Olympic Committee.
Fiji Rugby Union CEO John O’Connor has welcomed the decision to the postponement. He said the health and safety of the players and officials was paramount to them.
O’Connor said the team would get more time to prepare and would meet soon with the 7s management to map the way forward for the team.
While we are there, it is also an ideal time to rebuild the foundation of our fitness regime,
The mixed results so far in the HSBC sevens series could be related to what training does to the body from tournament to tournament.
Players cannot maintain peak fitness all through the season and coaches are tasked to keep the top performance.
They use periodisation to try and keep the players in sharp shape, but injuries and changing team selection are some of the challenges they face.
When key players get injured the job of the coaches is to get them back in top form while keeping a winning combination by using replacements.
Sometimes we get lucky by discovering new talent but like in the last leg we lost winger Aminiasi Tuimaba and nobody was there to spark off the attack in the loss to
New Zealand in the Canada sevens.
Baber will have to develop a standby winger to fit in w hen Tuimaba is injured. To add salt to the wound rover Vilimoni Botitu was not hitting top form as he carried injuries. Botitu had developed a winning combination with Tuimaba over the past seasons and when he is in form he does all the hard work and is unstoppable. Tuimaba is a speedy winger but has that vital element of aggressiveness.
He has the deceptive footwork to slice through gaps or smash through them.
He has the explosiveness to break free for runaway tries and timing to knock out ball carriers with bone shattering tackles.
He would be battling in his mind whether putting in more muscles will slow him down so he has maintained his lean medium muscled form.
But in the long run it would be advisable for him to use this long break to add on bulk with rest of the team.
Proper training will see him muscle up without losing speed or the many other talents he already has.
In fact it will make him last long on the pitch against bigger tacklers and co me out on top in physical confrontation.
Extra muscles with Alusio Naduva will make the two wingers also marketable in the full code with overseas clubs.
The fitness pyramid has endurance or stamina as the base. Fitness experts compare endurance training to a bank reserve. In the off-season distance running builds up the reserves. Then follows strength and power, speed, agility and skills.
The biggest test that we may have come short on endurance in the past couple of tournaments was our failure to maintain our leads in the second half.
Stamina is lost and when we try to withdraw from the bank reserve it was depleted.
Our successful campaign in the previous season and injuries were reasons for our slow start this season.
But now we have the greatest opportunity to reset the training timetable and begin the long road runs, given the current coronavirus situation.
Players can organise their fitness tests depending on the part of the country they are in the case of lockdowns.
Muscles also help maintain strength endurance in the case of physical battles with teams like Canada, who beat us in pool play.
Our impact players need a lot of strength to turn over rucks and maintain possession in the breakdowns.
That is where the concentration should be for the FRU CEO and Baber’s team when they map out the strategy for the Olympics.
They have the strength and conditioning coach to consult.
And in regards to the principle of good people make good players, there are always exceptions.
We have to accept players with character flaws but good rugby talents.
The team culture and quality of spiritual mentors we believe is strong enough to deal with anything. Make ruggers better and send them to heaven.
We are a rugby team not a theological college but all physical problems have a spiritual solution, including this pandemic. A gospel song over the radio would be an apt inspiration in these days — “You can only win all your wars on your knees.”