As in all other sports, the conditional abilities of the players - in addition to technique and tactics - are a crucial component of athletic performance. This is no different in rugby. Therefore, it is only logical that in this book the area of ​​athletic training for the sport of rugby is treated separately.
The uniqueness of this book makes the collaboration of the three authors, combining many years of experience in international competitive sports, the expertise and day-to-day experience of a full-time athletic coach and the rugby-specific application of a rugby coach. As a frame training concept, this book shows the training path in the athletics field for rugby players from youth and junior training to high-performance training.
With this book, the authors allow the reader an ideal introduction to the sport Rugby - both in the Olympic 7s Rugby and in the classic code with 15 players per team. They describe the physical requirements for both codes of the game. In the individual sections, the authors discuss in detail the frame training concept from youth to high performance.
   Nach meiner Erfahrung als professioneller Trainer sind rugbyspezifische und Kraft und Konditionierungskomponenten im heutigen Rugby untrennbar geworden. Wir müssen nicht nur die Rugbyfähigkeiten eines Spielers entwickeln, sondern auch seine körperlichen und geistigen Fähigkeiten, um uns auf die Anforderungen des heutigen Spiels vorzubereiten. Es ist großartig, wenn sich deutsche Literatur auf die Entwicklung dieser Aspekte konzentriert. Das Wissen und die Erfahrung von Mark, Ralf und Jan auf diesem Gebiet wurde in diesem Standardwerk für Trainer und Vereine zusammengefasst. Ich glaube, es ist ein Muss für jeden Trainer.
KOBUS POTGIETER, Academy Coach at Stade Français Paris, ehemaliger DRV-Nationaltrainer
Bild
​Since the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, rugby is experiencing a huge boom worldwide. In particular, the Olympic 7-rugby is on the rise worldwide and more than twelve million people of all ages and sex in more than 120 countries play the game with the "egg". The very physical, dynamic and spectacular sport conveys values ​​such as team spirit, fairness, respect and discipline. But not only the number of players is increasing worldwide. The media and spectator interest in the Rugby World Cup, the Sevens Rugby World Cup and the World Series tournaments has been steadily increasing over the past few years and the Rugby World Cup is now the third largest sporting event in the world after the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup . Even in Germany, where the sport is a fringe sport, the interest in rugby is steadily increasing and the membership numbers of the clubs have consistently double-digit growth rates. No team sport has recorded such an increase in recent years. And according to a survey by World Rugby, which was conducted by the renowned sports agency Nielsen in 2018, the sport should continue to grow. According to Nielsen Sport, the sport has almost 800 million fans worldwide, while more than 338 million consider themselves as real fans. This means that every ninth person on the planet sees himself as a rugby fan. The book gives an introduction to the sport, decribes the major rugby countries, events and some of the people behind the success of the sport like managers, coaches and players. 
Dass die Rugby-WM das drittpopulärste Sportturnier weltweit hinter den Olympischen Spielen und der Fußball-WM ist, oder die Six Nations sportartenübergreifend das Turnier mit dem höchsten Zuschauerschnitt weltweit sind, sagt einiges über die Faszination von Rugby aus. Es wäre nur wünschenswert, dass in Deutschland auch mehr Menschen mit diesem wundervollen Sport in Berührung kommen – egal, ob aktiv oder als Zuschauer. Ich hoffe, dass dieses Buch von Ralf Iwan vielen Interessierten Rugby näherbringen kann. Für den Besuch eines ersten Spiels empfehle ich übrigens einen grauen Herbsttag. Es gibt nichts Schöneres, als ein Rugbyspiel bei Schmuddelwetter.
​JAN LÜDEKE (als „Stimme des deutschen Rugbys“ bekannt von TV-Übertragungen bei Eurosport, DAZN und Pro7 Maxx sowie als Stadionsprecherder Oktoberfest 7s)
The success of 17 year-old Mahamad AIMannai (QAT), who won the silver medal in the octathlon with a score of 6,232points at the 6th IAAF World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy, in July 2009, may have come as a surprise to some observers. But for the author, it was the product of a systematic programme of talent identification and development at the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence in Doha, Oatar. Six ASPIRE athletes competed in Bressanone and all achieved new personal bests in their events. In a follow-up to an article, published in NSA in 2008, that described the talent identification procedures used at ASPIRE, the author shows how the academy's talent development programme works with special reference to the sport of athletics. He gives an overview of each of the programme'ssix pillars: Introduction Phase, Long-Term Athlete DevelopmentEt Career Plan, Monitoring Performance, Sport Education, Training Camps and Competition Camps with additional information on AI-Mannai's experience. He concludes with thepoints that AI-Mannai, who has trained on a regular basis over aperiod of four years, has an excellent basis for further performance improvement and will face a critical stage, when he graduates from ASPIRE in 2011.