George Ford to follow Andy Goodes training regime

http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2012-13/rugby/story/167279.html

A new-look George Ford is set to feature for Leicester during the forthcoming campaign with the Tigers hoping he will put on one-and-a-half stone in pre-season.

So can we all write him off a a gym monkey now then?

Being that young with a metabolism going at a thousand miles an hour he's going to have to be packing in a LOT of the right kind of calories.

He's right though if he can do it. He's not afraid for rock solid defense and has a great awareness of whats going on in the field around him, but he lacks clout and 20+lbs on him will stand him in better stead.

He's very skinny at the moment, just needs a little meat on the bones so he doesn't snap in half.

Needs to look more like Shane Williams/Aaron Cruden.

Ford has just got all of the skills to be an international play maker. The vision and decision making in one so young is unbelievable, his passing is up their with the best and his tactical kicking is very nice. There's no doubt he needs to bulk up but I hope he's careful as he as great acceleration at the moment and particularly against rush defences he can dig himself out of a whole with a step and go. That pace needs to be maintained.

It can be and in some cases it actually makes the player quicker (Shane Williams)

I would love to see a slightly quicker George Ford as the timing of those little bursts of his are excellent and can cause quite a bit of damage (set up the deciding try vs Sarries in the AP Playoff). I'm hoping his legs get as much muscle added as his arms, shoulders etc as he makes heavy contact with the ball when kicking which effects his aim so a little more power in the legs will hopefully see him relax on his points kicking when aiming from further out.

Could be a great season for the lad. Hope he doesn't lose his step, as you say Sam.

gowales; wasn't there a time when Shane bulked up too much, and actually lost a heck of a lot of his speed? About the same time he was left out of Wales' squads, early 2000s....?

bluestonevedder wrote:Could be a great season for the lad. Hope he doesn't lose his step, as you say Sam.

gowales; wasn't there a time when Shane bulked up too much, and actually lost a heck of a lot of his speed? About the same time he was left out of Wales' squads, early 2000s....?

Yea he bulked up the wrong way then though, just trying to get massive. Around 2005 when he started shining again and from then on he was doing the right things and he was noticeably bigger, but quicker and more powerful in the contact.

Ah, I got the wrong time! I think he benefited greatly from the change in training techniques. More explosive weight workouts which transfered more effectively onto the field, not just endless shoulder presses and squats. Was a shame to see him go that way and think that he needed to bulk up so much to make a name for himself, but it was equally great to see him turn it around like he did.

Hopefully Ford will just go straight for the explosive bulk, he could do with being a bit bigger because at Tigers they won't shift him out to the wing in defence (it's not the Tigers way). At the same time he is 5 foot 9 and built small so is never going to be massive, he is small for a scrum half let alone a midfield back so I hope he doesn't try and become a gym monkey. England and Tigers need him to be what he is now but more powerful, he doesn't need to emulate Wilko's tackling to be a great 10.

You're right Sam, he doesn't need to emulate Wilko's tackling to be great, like most modrn 10s seem to think. I don't think Ford's min danger of becoming a gym monkey though, he doesn't seem to have that mentality. I think he seems to prefer honing the kicking, passing and nuance skills rather than the physicality. Saying that. he's not bad in defence for his size. I remember being quite impressed by his tenacity when he's played.

He's exceptionally brave when it comes to contact but in terms of sheer size he tends to get knocked back and is an easy target. That's not really a suprise with move forwards running down his channel being 16 stone plus and him only weighing in a 12 and a half stone, that's an awful lot of weight to be giving away in contact.

He seems to be a bit of a perfectionist so hopefully he'll just keep developing nicely. He was featured in the photo shoots for the new kits so that should be a good indication of where the management see him in terms of the team (the others involved were Croft, Youngs, Flood, Castro, Cole, Geordan and Manu).

Yeah theres a difference between doing body builders workouts...and doing functional workouts...

He'll be doing plenty of Olympic lifts...compounds etc....

He shouldnt lose any pace if done right...in fact he may gain.

Look at sprinters...built like tanks but aint slow...

Its all about how they do it...and im sure Leicester know what they're doing...