Brumbies get jump on rivals by lining up AIS joint venture
THE Brumbies have become scientific guinea pigs in a joint effort with the AIS to help the Super Rugby franchise return to its winning ways and prepare Australian athletes for the Olympics.
Under a new commercial and collaborative arrangement, the Brumbies will share information, facilities and resources with the AIS. The Brumbies players will also be available for AIS research purposes.
"The Brumbies are in a rebuilding phase," said Julian Jones, the AIS head strength and conditioning coach. "It's a matter of us helping them as they help us.
"We can trial a few things we have developed, which you would not want to do in an Olympic year with only six months to go.
"They (Olympians) are on track for London. You wouldn't make radical changes in the last six months. That's not going to happen.
"But this data will give us a heads up for the Rio de Janeiro cycle. It's good to validate stuff and back it up with scientific fact. Primarily it will benefit team sports."
The Brumbies have always had an informal relationship with the AIS but moved to make the arrangement binding.
Brumbies strength and conditioning coach Dean Benton pushed the idea and it was strongly supported by head coach Jake White and CEO Andrew Fagan, who is a former AIS employee.
"I spent 2 1/2 years coaching in both the AIS strength and conditioning and track and field departments and I appreciate the world class facilities, personnel, resources and services that the AIS provides elite Australian sport," Benton said.
"As soon as I became incumbent in the Brumbies role it was quite clear to me that the AIS could play a significant role in turning the Brumbies back to a winning team.
"There has always existed a healthy informal relationship between the staff of the two organisations.
"Rather than rely on favours and friendship, it made sense to ensure something formal and lasting was put in place."
One of the areas the Brumbies have been working on with the AIS is the players' jumping ability -- both in the lineout and under the high ball.
"Dean wanted to look at how effective their jumping was," Jones said.
"We've changed their jumping capabilities. There has been a reluctance to work on those areas in the past because of the fear of injuries.
"It's not just about your best vertical leap when jumping for the ball. It's the speed of your jump rather than the height.
"It's how quickly you get off the ground rather than how high."
The AIS coaches will complete their pre-season testing of the Brumbies today and then collate the data.
"We've got a good group of 20-plus guys and we'll get good data back from them," Jones said.
"Once we get that data we'll know what the last three months has been all about. Then we'll see how we can influence that over an extended season."
