Whilst Blues, Ospreys and Scarlets faced play-off fixtures or knockout rugby towards the end of last season, many of the Dragons players not selected for international duty completed last season with the Judgement Day clash at Principality Stadium on 28 April. This means they were able to come back into start their preparations afresh earlier this month.
“We gave the guys five weeks off so that they got a decent rest up of mind and body,” said Harris.
“We finished a little bit earlier than some other teams, so we have come back in to get four weeks of decent gym work. What we try to do is short and sharp, technical rugby sessions with more clarity. It is no more than 35 to 40 minutes on feet, ironing out some terminology.
“We will do a lot of static-based skills and things to up the engine, but not stupid running volumes because we will ramp it up progressively as we go through pre-season.
“We’ve got two gym sessions a day – eight a week – and have brought in some different stuff like wresting and grappling to bring us a little closer to the game.
“It’s a really, really slow ramp-up and there are a lot of new faces, so there is a lot of team building stuff as well to break it down and have a bit of fun to get a cohesive group together.”
Bernard Jackman has signed 14 new players for next season, and a number of new coaches have started, including two in Ryan’s team with the arrival of Jack Phelan and Michael Symes as S&C coaches, so there’s plenty of new faces at the Dragons’ Ystrad Mynach base.
“We have a lot of things to cover off physically as well as tactically and technically,” said Harris.
“Time is always an issue and they have had a decent break of five weeks, so we can break it down into three blocks.
“We have a four-week block, another week off, then three weeks and then we start our pre-season games in the third one. We have got 10 weeks of contact but it’s ramped accordingly and there is nothing stupid.”
Harris’ sees the coaches role as facilitating the players development by creating the right environment and systems to give the players preparation they need.
“We are here to assist them. A player’s prized possessions is their body, that is their money-earner and we have to make sure we are covering everything that we can.
“It’s not a situation where we are pushing sessions just to make people sick or work hard. Yes, there will be sessions that test them physically and mentally, but it’s the other bits and bobs that give them more clarity as rugby players and physical specimens.”
Typical day in training example:
There's two gym sessions and two field sessions a day for Dragons players typically at this stage of pre-season as Harris explains,
"The first session is to get the players up and on their feet, with mainly static skills and linear speed work as a warm up with S&C coaches, then it's 40 minutes with other coaches in their morning on field slot.
"The boys then have one hour gym session, before a break for an hour where the meet up with coaches, plus take on breakfast and shakes.
"After that there's a mobility session and monitoring with physiotherapists who are also helping a second group return to full fitness."The second session on field is slightly more intense, not as static as first, but we have some fun games and additions to that.
"The last session is upper body gym based session, stretching and yoga then they are on their way home."
The Dragons currently train 2 days on, 1 day off, then three days on, 1 day off through this first block of pre-season.
