Winning Collisions with Power

Advancing is the primary principle of attack with football and rugby codes. Playing through, as opposed to around defences, is largely achieved with momentum. Mass of course is a factor, but for primary ball carriers it is their capability to accelerate their mass and others’ mass. Collisions are either won, lost or neutral. We need to look closer as to how positive outcomes can be achieved reliably.

The time frame that decides whether collisions are won or lost ranges typically between 300-500ms. As such, it is mechanical power that is the defining athletic quality. Olympic lifting and related mechanical power training and profiling provides an excellent basis for the development of power. The research of renowned strength and power coach, Dan Baker illuminates that an athlete’s power training load should be around 50% of an athlete’s max strength levels. Therefore, as a prerequisite to being able to move an opponent of comparable body mass at 1 m/s (or more) within 300-500ms, players need to be able to squat 1.8 to 2 x body mass. Therefore, as a guide, it is a matter of how fast an athlete can move their own body mass as an external mass. This standard can be held over a number of Olympic lifts and their derivatives.

Physics plays a huge role, but perceptual and locomotor skills are the other side of the coin. I remember the sharp feedback from then England Head Coach, Eddie Jones, when I cited the strength and power levels of one of the prominent forwards in 2017, “he’s not powerful on the field!”. He was right. It’s not the weight you can move in the gym, but how much power is manifested on the field. This can be assessed quantitatively with match statistics:

• An individual player’s metres gained in attack

• Post contact metres gained from a team perspective

• Speed and acceleration into contact with GPS

From a qualitative perspective, the open skills of perception and locomotion play a huge role. How players interact with the ground at the moment of impact can define the outcomes of collisions. If not well timed and coordinated, this will see a player driven backwards and/or rotated irrespective of power qualities. In short, you cannot accelerate another opponent if you are in the air. The same can be said of world-class sprinters, who spend 80% of the time on the ground with the initial 3 steps out of the blocks.

The holistic profiling of primary ball carriers typically requires the integration of two fields of knowledge and skill sets. Namely, the tactical/technical and the physical. The right combination of open and closed skills. As such, the working relationship between the positional coach and athletic performance coach is vital.

Not to dismiss the value of traditional strength and power training, we should be mindful that these modalities are largely single plane and non-locomotive in nature. As an extension, horizontal mechanical power training involves all the coordination and reflexes associated with running. As such, it offers much greater dynamic correspondence.

JB Morin’s research into horizontal force-velocity profiling offers an interesting comparison to traditional power profiling by Baker et al. In that, the sled load that typically elicits maximum horizontal power results in a 50% loss in speed over short distances in comparison to an athlete accelerating without any resistance. Interestingly, elite standards with horizontal power modalities are again, their own body mass at a given speed.

Horizontal power profiling provides clearer information as to a player’s force-velocity profiles and as to what underlying physical or technical feature(s) mainly limit each individual player’s capability to win collisions.

The DynaSled, by Swift Performance, offers a unique capability to synonymously train and profile horizontal mechanical power. The technology allows players to be directed into 3 groups:

• Force development – effective acceleration mechanics, but lacking power

• Force orientation – good power, but ineffective acceleration mechanics

• Both force development and orientation – address both mechanics and force development

Winning collisions commences with a player’s capability to initially accelerate their own mass. This is a skill and athletic quality that must be generated effectively over quite short distances in order to develop momentum. Then in order to effectively accelerate an opponent’s mass, it requires mass specific power that is rapidly adjusted and skilfully applied through the ground.

Traditional strength and power training is a prerequisite foundation. Possessing excellent strength qualities demonstrates a player’s capabilities and potential. However, the transfer to winning collisions cannot be assumed. The DynaSled allows us as coaches to train, test and even teach the application of power horizontally.

Dean Benton