There are many reasons the John Pryor strength and conditioning principles for rugby training have generated such an impressive degree of success for the Japanese national team, with many pointing to the deciding scrum occurring during injury time against the heavily favored South African squad in World Cup play as evidence of the incredible impact of what could accurately be described as the John Pryor rugby training approach. While Pryor would be very likely to point out the many factors that go into any athletic team’s success, he has outlined some of the key principles used in the team’s training program that very likely played a significant role in the Japan Rugby Football Union’s surprising ascent.
Given the inherent complexity of the sport of rugby, Pryor utilized two very simple and straightforward proprioceptive cues to guide the athletes in their overall approach to training. These cues are based on what Pryor identified as the necessary preconditions for specific actions during rugby play, with the two cues being “chest up,” and “foot from above.” Each of these cues was applied to the team’s training program through the development of drills that could be varied to generate the specifically desired training outcome.