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With the start of the 2009/10 IRB World Sevens Series only 64 days away UR7s continues to give you a unique insight into the preparation undertaken by National Sevens teams. Former USA Sevens guru Dallen Standford runs us through his introduction into the sport and the grueling regimes expected required for International Sevens.

When I lived in South Africa, Brent Russell was one of my roommates, and we both played rugby for the University of Cape Town (UCT). I will never forget going to practice with him one week, and the very next he was on TV playing in the IRB World Sevens Series for the South Africa! This was back in 2001/2002 in which the ‘Pocket Rocket’ burst onto the scene, capturing the coveted IRB 7s Player of the Year Award!

I have always followed Sevens because of my love for the abbreviated form of the game, and besides hearing Brent’s stories, I had no further insight into the Series.

That is until 2006 (after I married a beautiful girl from America), when Al Caravelli spoke to me after the USA National 7s competition. This was the first season Caravelli,head coach of the USA 7s team, could select his own team – with a training camp comprising of 60 players taking place at the West Point Military Base. Since then, I have been fortunate to attend about 20 of these selection camps.

The format for these is very similar. Caravelli is a coach with a very strong work ethic, striving to be as professional as possible in every aspect, both on and off the field. Here is what a typical training camp for the USA 7s consists of:

Ahead of the selection camp you will get an email from the USA 7s Manager (the Manager changes depending on availability), and often a phone call from Caravelli himself. In the email you will receive a document with: your flight information (paid for by USA Rugby), what to bring to the camp, the schedule of activities, as well as important contact information.

Through experience one learns how to pack as light as possible, bearing in mind that once you leave your home you could be away for 1 week or 3 weeks (if selected)!

On arrival of the destination airport a team van collects the players in different time waves. Most of the training camps take place in Chula Vista (San Diego) at the Olympic Training Center – which is a state of the art facility including a sport specific restaurant.

The first night is always very exciting as you get to catch up with all the other players from all over the country. You check in with Caravelli and the Manager of the tour, get assigned a rugby ball (which must be carried with you at all times!), as well as issued team kit. This is of course one of my favourite parts of any camp/tour!

For me, and probably every single other player, the next few hours before bedtime are filled with fear. The dreaded fitness test always occurs early morning on Day 1 of camp. This is an absolute nightmare – and even though you may have experienced it several times before – it is literally yourself against yourself till you can’t run anymore!

That special morning fitness session has a few components:

1. Speed Testing: Timed sprints on an athletic track covering a set of 40m, 10m and 10m with a rugby ball in hand. If you don’t run well on the first sprint on each set, you may get another chance to redo it, time permitting.
2. Fitness Testing: The infamous ‘Beep Test’. This also takes place on an athletic track with two sets of cones separated by about 20m. An iPod docking station shouts out the recorded test – with athletes getting a certain amount of time to get from cone A to cone B. The athlete then runs back from cone B to cone A, with the time between each sprint getting shorter and shorter. The minimum requirement set by Caravelli is Level 13, with many players going well above Level 14 and occasionally Level 15. The highest I have ever witnessed was Andrew McNaughton who ran around 16.4. The ‘Beep Test’ is a great indication of ‘mind over matter’ and one’s ability to ‘suffer for the team’ by emptying your ‘gas tank’
3. Endurance Testing: Caravelli will stand at the end of the rugby field (about 100m) with a whistle and a smile. After the whistle blows each player has 15 seconds to get to the other side. Once you complete that you turn around and jog straight back to the start as fast as you can, recovering in 45 seconds. The whistle sounds every minute, and you have to keep sprinting the full 100m in under 15 seconds. This happens 10 times in a row. Occasionally players (not up to the fitness standard) will pull out of the above session. They will have a very difficult road to making the team after that.
4. After a minute rest, this type of activity will take the form of 40m sprints, except after each completed sprint everyone will do 10 push-ups. This continues for another 10 minutes.

It’s now around 9.30am in the morning, and if Caravelli is happy with the testing, the dreaded part of camp is over! Ice baths and protein shakes greet the smiling players, as breakfast awaits.

The rest of the selection/training camp includes game like situations: One on one defense/offensive; team structure on offensive and defense; set pieces – kick-offs, lineout’s, scrums, penalty moves. The final component of camp sees trial matches against each other, with the squad of 12 being selected for that specific tour.

A similar training week like this happens at every assembly ahead of one of the IRB World Series tournaments. This will change tremendously if Rugby is included into the Olympics, and full time USA players are contracted by USA Rugby.

Dallen Stanford played 54 matches for the USA 7s team throughout his career spanning from 2006 to 2009, including 13 IRB 7s tournament appearances. He was part of the Belmont Shore side that recently won the USA National Sevens

www.pakiscorner.com

Read more from Dallen:

Inside the latest USA Sevens camp

Victorious with Belmont at Nationals!

USA finding their feet in Taipei