Welcome to Young Guns Rugby Academy

The Young Guns Performance Academy has been set-up to fill a gap, which exists in the current Rugby training market with the aim of delivering a completely holistic approach to the sport by exploring all facets of the game, both physical and theoretical, to proved players with a fully rounded understanding of exactly what it takes to become an elite player, which is why we deliver both in the classroom as well as on the pitch.

Psychology, nutrition, conditioning, core stability, an understanding of the laws of the game, all take equal precedence with the tuition of core rugby skills and innovative coaching methodology.

We recognise that the modern game requires players to be more than simply enthusiastic, whilst rugby will and should be there for those that play purely for the pleasure, there is now a performance aspect to the game that requires far more.

We want to give youngsters the opportunity to learn and develop more than simply their skills: we want to enable them to understand the game, understand their bodies and understand the demands on time. We want to show them how to assess their own abilities, recognise their own potential and most importantly for them to set and manage their own goals.

If we can do this in a way which is both challenging and fun it will be a huge benefit to all those whom participate.

Our focus is to encourage young players to be safe, be healthy, to achieve and to fall in love with the game of rugby.

The Academy has five over-arching goals, which drive and govern the way the Academy and its Development Courses and Clinics are run.

•	To develop their individual rugby skills, running, handling, contact and kicking
•	Ensure they gain an understanding of the broader physical aspects of the game; being healthy, understanding core strength and SAQ
•	To introduce them to the benefits and value of Nutrition, Conditioning and Psychology
•	To gain a greater understanding of the game from an assessor, spectator and refereeing perspective
•	To provide a challenging, thought-provoking yet highly enjoyable rugby experience.

The Young'uns

Young'uns is a pre-Academy programme, aimed at 7 to 10 year olds. It is centred around establishing a grounding in rugby, an understanding of the basics of the game and a fundamental introduction to the core disciplines of the main Academy, which include amongst others the development and understanding of SAQ [speed, agility and quickness], core stability, nutrition, and conditioning.

The Young'uns introductory and refresher development course will run alongside the main development programme for an hour and a half each afternoon, for all four days, focussing on the four main skill sets of running, handling, kicking and contact.

What is the Structure of the Development Course?

A Young Guns Academy course can either be one, two or four days. These are held at a qualifying rugby club or school with each Course comprising some 100 to 120 boys and girls dependant on the size and catchment area of the host location.

The players will be divided into groups of no more than 20 to ensure a very personal level of attention and tuition with each group having a lead and support coach. This structure is supplemented by specialist and guest coaches and on one of the Course days, a Young Gun Player.

The Age range for the Academy is for 11 to 17 years olds [1^st September birthdays] although there is the opportunity for private coaching sessions with older players.

For players under the age of 11, the Young Guns Academy has set up a "Young’uns” pre-academy programme designed for 7 to 10 year olds. Young'Uns has been specifically developed as a pre-cursor for players to help them integrate much faster into the main Academy when eligible. It is focused on establishing a grounding in rugby, an understanding of the basics of the game and a fundamental introduction to the core disciplines of the main Academy, which includes SAQ (speed, agility and quickness), core stability, nutrition and conditioning.

What happens after the Development Course?

Where the Young Guns Academy differs totally from any other coaching camps and courses is that following the advent of one of our Development Courses, the Academy’s goal is to set-up a weekly skills Clinic in the area, so that it can service a number of clubs and schools, for up to 45 players of mixed ages.

These clinics will be run, managed and operated by the Young Guns Academy to an exacting standard, thereby ensuring the continuity and effectiveness of the coaching. Each player will be given an individual work plan scoped for their position, which they will work through over the period with the coaches.

A national performance database will be set-up, accessed by password only via the Young Guns Site, which will enable players to not only monitor their own progress by age group, but compare it with other players within their club, county as well as nationally. Their national rankings will be displayed by league table both individually as well as by their position. This ensures the start of specific focus on developing the skill sets and physique applicable to their chosen playing position.

Once a Clinic has been established for a period of time, selected players will be invited to join an advanced clinic which will offer more positional focussed approach as well as more advanced coaching and skills development.

Finally once a number of basic and advanced clinics have been operating within a designated zone and the national database proactive, the best performing and achieving players will be invited to join the Young Guns Elite Academy .

Members of this Elite Academy will have unbridled access to the very best and latest coaching ideas delivered by the Young Guns with real focus on positional development and all the other attributes required by the Premiership.

The ultimate aim is to create a feeder mechanism from the Young Guns Elite Academy into the top Premiership, Division One and Magners Celtic League Clubs.

What is different about Young Guns?

Young Guns is more than just another Rugby camp or course. Everything we do is about the pursuit and delivery of excellence in both coaching techniques as well as other areas of the sport.

An integral part of every 2 and 4 day Development Course revolves around classroom sessions on Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Conditioning, Core Stability and other associated facets of the sport.

Outside on the pitch video analysis plays a key role in helping coaches drill down in their training and coaching routines. Using the latest technology and software Young Guns coaches offer frame by frame advice and guidanceto players, who as a result of the technology, can see in precise detail exactly how they have executed and performed the exercise. Then straight out of the bespoke video tent and back into the drill to put in place what they have just seen and learnt. The immediacy and expediency of this process ensures all players get maximum benefit from these sessions.

A qualified experienced Physiotherapist is in attendance at all two and four day Courses to not only immediately treat and work through knocks and bumps, thereby greatly diminishing the risk of protracted injury or layoff through delayed treatment but they also take the morning warm-up and evening cool down sessions to ensure all players are as prepared as they can be for the Course. In addition they will also take a classroom session explaining the importance of warming up and cooling down, why one should do and talking through the major muscle groups to ensure the players gain a comprehensive understanding about the importance of approaching sport and exercise in the correct manner.

This duty of care extends into food as unlike other Rugby camps who ask for the Children to bring in packed lunches, the fees for our Development Courses include the provision of a properly balanced meal at lunchtime for all the days of the Course. We don’t just preach the values and benefits of nutrition; we deliver our creed as well, ensuring that Children understand that eating healthily doesn’t mean having to eat unpalatable food. It demonstrates to them they can still eat most of the food they like, but in the correct proportions and with the right approach and balance.

Attending a Young Guns Academy Development Course is the beginning of a great adventure and experience. Every Academy member receives an engraved Dog Tag with their unique Young Guns membership number, which they will carry with them throughout their time with the Academy.

This membership number combined with their password enables them too enter the “membership only” section of the site where they can enjoy a great number of benefits such as;

•	Monitor and track - ability for members to track their personal development through the National Performance Database matrix
•	Ask The Coach - interactive email forum where a member can ask one of our expert coaching panel any rugby related question
•	Image Library – ability for members to view and purchase images from Development Course and Clinics attended.
•	Young Gun’s news - enables members to keep fully abreast about what is happening to their favourite Young Gun Player
•	Chat Room – allows members to keep in touch with new friends made on the Development Course as well as chat with other members
•	Special Offers – Allows members to take full and early advantage of all special events, trips and merchandise offers as they become available

The Young Guns Matrix Challenge and supporting National Performance Database

The sole focus of the Young Guns Academy is about delivering real improvement across the board to a player. To ensure they have a comprehensive understanding of where they currently sit and what they have to do to progress to the next level.

As an integral part of this process, the Academy has devised a series of measured tests, exercises and disciplines to aid improvement and to act as benchmarks.

Theses standardised tests are both skill and conditioning based and are designed to measure the performance level of players and allow them to compare their results against their peers. The disciplines have been especially created to test all aspects and facets of a player’s game taking in power, endurance, conditioning as well as skill levels to ensure their overall ability is measured and annotated in the widest and most comprehensive manner thereby ensuring as level and accurate a set of results as can be achieved within this sphere.

The results of all tests are collated, stored and displayed in the National Performance Database, which is only available to Academy members and can only be accessed by unique password through the Young Guns Site.

For the majority of disciplines within the Challenge Matrix there are five scoring zones, reflecting from level 1 through to the highest level, 5, what the player achieved during the particular challenge. For example in the case of pull-ups and press-ups the number successfully executed within the allotted time frame determines the level and hence number of points awarded for the test. Level 1 being 15 press-ups and level 5 being over 60. The definition of a press-up being:

Press-up: Training Cone positioned under chest. Straight arm start – chest down to touch cone and back to straight arm. This constitutes one press-up

One Minute Run: a 40 metre grid is measured out. All Players start together, with the number of completed circuits within the designated time being counted.

The Young Guns matrix also extends down to our Pre-Academy Young’Uns section, where the testing programme involves two handling, two kicking, one agility and one contact drill. By way of example of what is required:

The Grubber Kick: four grubbers measured by where they stop within the designated zone

Big Hits: 4 tackles being made whilst completing a short footwork course

The 8 Pass: 8 passes off each hand measured by the number that hit the designated target.

The same series of tests are undertaken at every Course and the results entered in The Young Guns National Performance Database, the results of which are only available to existing members of the Academy.

Programme Roll Out

The programme roll-out focuses on a number of rugby clubs, the standard of whose facilities match the quality criteria laid down by Young Guns, being identified as suitable venues across a geographical area. Starting initially in the south of the Country; ranging from Chelmsford, Essex in the east across to Gloucester in the west, running down to Taunton in the south-west.

The plan being to hold Development Courses at as many qualifying clubs as possible within the region and then once Development Courses have taken place and the ensuing Clinics firmly established, the goal is to then repeat the process moving first into the Midlands, then the North and finally into Wales, Scotland and Ireland. We are also in advanced negotiations to launch an Academy in Dubai.