Training is about preparing for the game. It's a simple concept, but we often lose sight of that when we dive too deep into tactics, strength training, or other facets of training. English Rugby coach Eddie Jones tries to bring this concept to the forefront in his training. Everything they do comes back to the game. The structure of practice, the mental preparation, and fitness training all are designed with the game demands as the central focus. He joins this week's GAINcast to walk us through is approach to preparing athletes.

For more information on this topic, read the complete show notes at: http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2020/12/gaincast-episode-204-prepare-for-the-game-with-eddie-jones/

The following links were referenced in the podcast or provide some additional reading material on the topic:

• The GAIN Master Class Series continues in December with our next speaker this week: Angus Ross on rethinking sprint training based on lessons from other sports. The monthly interactive series features speakers from all aspects of performance. Sign up now to subscribe to hear these events and others in the series.
• The GAINcast is also sponsored by HMMR Media. Join HMMR Media to get access to a vast library of online training resources, video, articles, podcasts, and more.
• Learn a bit more about the structure of England Rugby's training in this article we published after a visit to their 2018 summer training camp.
• Our friends John Pryor and Dean Benton have both work under Jones. They've frequently been guests on this show. Pryor was a guest with Frans Bosch on GAINcast 135 and GAINcast 136. You can find all of our interviews and articles with him in the motor learning section, including our interview where he broke down his successful tenure with Jones in Japan. Benton was a guest on GAINcast 186. We've also done interviews with him on tactical periodization, technology, and recovery.
• Also referenced on this episode was Gonzaga University basketball and their head strength coach Travis Knight, who was a guest on HMMR Podcast 223. German soccer coach Ralf Rangnick was also recently profiled in the New York Times. We also discussed contact conditioning, a topic covered before on this site in our wrestling video with Andy Stone, as well as by James de Lacey and Nick Hill.