Rugby speed training: how to get faster for rugby

To get faster for rugby, sprint short distances flat out, twice a week, when you’re fresh, and get stronger in the gym at the same time. That’s most of it. The detail is in the distances, the rest periods and fitting it around club training and games, which is what this guide covers for adult amateur players.

What “rugby speed” means

Rugby is a game of short bursts. Players rarely sprint more than 20–30 m in one go, often from a standing start, a ruck or the floor. So the most important quality is acceleration: how fast you get going over the first 10–20 m. Top speed matters too, especially for wingers and full backs on a break or a chase, and players reach it by about 30–40 m.

Acceleration and top speed are separate qualities and can be trained separately. Sprint momentum (mass × speed) also matters in contact. In international rugby players followed over two years, momentum was what separated senior from junior players, and it proved more trainable than raw speed, which seemed to peak in the early twenties Barr et al. 2014. For most amateur players, there’s plenty of speed left to gain from better technique and more strength.

Sprint distances by position

Train the distances you actually run. The Match Ready Coaching Rules use these as the longest regular sprint for each group:

Front-five players aren’t excused. Their speed and momentum in professional rugby have risen sharply since the late 1990s, so short sprints belong in every forward’s week too. See the guides for the front row and backs for position detail.

How to run a speed session

• Do it fresh. Speed work comes after the warm-up and before lifting or conditioning. A speed session is never turned into a fitness session.
• Warm up properly. General warm-up, then relaxed drills over about 30 m, 4–6 build-up runs that get a little faster each time, then 2–4 short starts.
• Full recovery. Under 7 seconds of sprinting needs a full recovery: walk back and take 1–2 minutes for short starts, several minutes for 30–50 m runs.
• Mostly 90–95%. Most technique runs are smooth at about 90–95% effort; flat-out runs are a smaller share. Keep at least one short near-maximal sprint every week.
• Stop at the right time. End a set when your form breaks down, or straight after a personal best. Beginners’ form usually fades after 5–8 good runs.
• One cue at a time. For acceleration: lean forward from the ankles, drive the arms, push the ground back. At top speed: run tall and relaxed. Trying harder at top speed only tightens you up.

A sensible amateur volume is the low end of a menu such as 6–8 × 20–30 m, or 4–6 × 40–60 m for back three players. Count the flat-out metres you run at club training as well.

Sample sessions

Acceleration (all positions)

• Falling starts 4 × 10 m
• Push-up starts 4 × 15 m
• Starts from a rugby position (getting up off the floor, after a hit on a tackle bag) 4 × 20 m
• Walk back plus about 60–90 s between reps; 3–4 minutes between sets

Top speed (backs, mainly back three)

• Build-ups 3 × 60 m
• “In-and-outs” 4–6 ×: 20 m smooth build-up, 20 m flat out, then ease off over 20 m
• 3–5 minutes between runs

The gym makes you faster too

Speed isn’t only built on the field. A meta-analysis found that increases in squat strength transferred to sprint performance, with a very strong link between the size of strength gains and sprint gains Seitz et al. 2014. The effect is biggest in weaker, less experienced players. So for most amateurs, getting stronger is one of the quickest routes to getting faster.

Alongside strength, add:

• Jumps and bounds. Short, maximal take-offs (4–6 reps) for acceleration; longer bounding for top speed. Plyometric training reliably improves jump height Markovic 2007.
• Hamstring strength. Nordic curls and hip-hinge lifts every week, because hamstring strains happen at high speed. See the hamstring training guide.
• Calves and feet. Calf raises and low ankle hops.

Lift after you sprint, not before, and keep the lifting volume down after a really good sprint session. If your lifts keep going up but your sprint times stall for a week or more, ease the weights for a week.

Sleds, hills and parachutes

Resisted sprints improve 5–10 m acceleration but aren’t clearly better than plain sprinting, and they don’t improve top speed Petrakos et al. 2016. Use them as an addition:

• Load a sled so your 20 m time is about 20% slower than a free run. Time a free sprint first, then adjust the weight.
• Try a contrast set: one resisted 10–20 m start, then a free 30 m sprint.
• Hills: short runs of 15–25 m on a gentle slope (3 degrees or less).
• No downhill or towing “overspeed” work.

Sprint training research outside rugby points the same way: elite sprinters use a wide range of distances and intensities, but most of the quality comes from sprinting itself, well rested Haugen et al. 2019.

Fitting speed into the rugby week

In the off-season and pre-season, sprint twice a week (three at most), on the same days as heavy lifting so your easy days stay easy, with 48 hours between. Move from 10–30 m accelerations to longer top-speed runs as pre-season goes on. The pre-season plan shows how this fits with conditioning.

In-season, club training and games count as high-speed days. For most amateurs, that means one short speed session of your own a week, at least 3 days before a game:

• No speed session the day before a game.
• No flat-out sprinting for 2–3 days after a game.
• Back-three players who got no near-top-speed running at training that week add 3–4 runs at 90–95% over 30–50 m.

Not sure which day? The gym week planner shows where the hard days fall around your club nights and fixture.

Speed for older players

Speed and power fade with age faster than strength does, so players over 35 should keep some fast work every single week rather than saving it for pre-season. Shorten the distances, lengthen the warm-up and rests, and keep calf and Achilles strength work going twice a week. Our guide for 35+ players covers the rest.

Test your speed properly

Time a 10 m sprint (acceleration) and a flying 10 m or a 30–40 m sprint (top speed). Use the same surface, shoes and timing method every time: hand-held stopwatch times differ unpredictably from timing gates and can’t be reliably corrected Hetzler et al. 2008. A phone slow-motion video gives better times than a stopwatch. Our rugby fitness tests guide explains how to run the test day.

Common mistakes

• Sprinting tired. Speed work at the end of a session trains fatigue, not speed.
• Short rests. Thirty seconds between 30 m sprints is conditioning.
• Only fast feet and ladders. They’re warm-up drills. Speed comes from sprinting and strength.
• Skipping top-speed exposure. Backs who never run near top speed outside games are the ones whose hamstrings complain on a Saturday.