Court ‘TOP UPS’

Spending time on the bench sucks but we need to make sure that we are doing all we can to make sure we are court ready when we do finally get the call up. 

If you’ve been spending time on the bench lately, it’s important that you make up for the game play you have missed in order to match the fitness of the 7 players on the court. 

‘Top Ups’ are used by elite players to help them to push their fitness and to not lose advantage to those playing on the court. They usually take place immediately after a game and will involve speed, agility, ball work and skill training in an interval training style sessions

What an example?

We spoke to Training Partner and Leeds Rhinos Shooter, Sienna Rushton, to find out what ‘Top Ups’ her squad have been completing this season!

“If at the end of the game you’ve played 1 quarter or less, we always do ‘top ups’. Maybe because you are sitting on the bench for your squad or playing up a level or age group, it’s really important that you get your physical training in so that you stay at the same fitness levels as the rest of your teammates.

“At the end of our games we do TABATA training which is a set of 20 seconds on and 20 seconds off for 8 reps. We do a maximal sprint to the top of the shooting circle and back to the baseline, and then to the first transverse line and back and repeat this until the end of the 20 seconds; then take your 20s seconds rest and repeat 8 times. 

“We then take 2 minutes rest where shooters will go to post and our next set, we will go into pairs. This time, instead of being with a timer, it has a nice teamwork aspect. You work while your teammate rests and vice versa. For this we run a figure of 8 – running out to the top of the shooting circle, then take steps backward at an angle to the baseline and then forwards again 5 metres and angle back again in the opposite direction to make the ‘8’ shape or ‘Bow Tie’. We then run to the first transverse line and back before swapping over with our partner. We do 6 reps of this and then we are FINISHED!

“I then like to finish that off the next day with a conditioning session on the rower or the bike to make sure I get the same cardio hit I might have got with matchplay!”