The Importance of a conditioning Foundation At all age groups, it is essential that the fundamentals of hard work and application are laid down leading into the season. This does not mean, however, that sessions have to be overly structured and long. Particularly at a young age, it is essential to stress skill and physical development through fun and challenging games and drills without becoming overly complicated - keep things fun and simple. Young players (14 years of age or younger) are essentially aerobic animals and, as such, do not need to perform a large amount of structured conditioning. It is important to address speed, agility and movement development alongside their individual maturation. This can be tracked simply by measuring and recording heights - I'm sure every coach will be able to pick this up visually. Remember, as an individual grows, their coordination will be a step behind - the gangly teenager. At these stages, it is vital that the basic fundamentals are addressed to 're-train' the neural system to allow for the execution of simple skills - this may be simply running well or catch and pass. I believe it is also important for all players at this age to experience a variety of sports and stimuli - too often do players 'specialise' at an early age and lose the experiences and skills developed through other sports - challenge these young athletes with a variety of balls, bats and games.

"Tough Love" is a new initiative in Rugby League to stamp out violence in our game, particularly from U/13-17's. It involves the following: Automatic send offs for punching Zero tolerance for fighting Abandoning games for melee's Minimum suspensions for violence Stamping out abuse of match officials Read more for the details of this policy - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.