Rugby isn’t just about having strength; it’s about how quickly you can use it. Every explosive moment on the pitch comes down to power. Whether you’re making a dominant carry, driving through a tackle, accelerating into space, or battling for possession at the breakdown, it’s your ability to produce force at speed that determines whether you hold your ground… or completely own it.
At SW7, every session is programmed with intent and intensity, ensuring athletes develop the exact qualities the sport demands.
Using Remaker’s cutting-edge VBT technology, we track the metrics that matter: bar speed to assess explosiveness, jump height to monitor neuromuscular readiness, and force output to measure real-time power development.
Keep reading to discover why peak power is the real engine behind dominant rugby performance, and how we train, track, and develop it at SW7.
But first things first…
What is Peak Power?
It’s the maximum amount of force you can produce in the shortest amount of time. In rugby terms this means
- Winning a contact
- Accelerating off the line
- Making that line break
- Exploding out of a tackle
How We Train Peak Power
- Heavy + Fast Lifts (70–85% 1RM) – This zone is the sweet spot for developing power. Loads are heavy enough to demand force, but light enough to move explosively.
- Olympic Lift Variations (Power Cleans, Trap Bar Jumps) – Olympic lift derivatives are some of the best tools for teaching athletes to express power vertically and horizontally. Power cleans build rapid hip extension – the same movement pattern behind dominant tackles and explosive carries. Trap bar jumps allow athletes to generate maximal intent without the complexity of full lifts, giving us clean, measurable outputs at high velocities.
- Plyometrics & Contrast Training – Plyos develop elasticity, stiffness, and the ability to absorb and reproduce force at speed – key for stepping, breaking tackles, and accelerating. Contrast training pairs a heavy lift with a fast, unloaded movement (like a trap bar deadlift followed by a box jump), which taps into post-activation potentiation, priming the nervous system to fire harder and faster, and amplifying power output within the same session.
- Sprint & Acceleration Drills – Power means nothing if you can’t apply it in motion. Sprint work builds horizontal force production – the engine of acceleration and line-breaking speed. Short-distance accelerations, resisted sprints, and technique drills teach athletes to project force effectively with every stride.
How We Measure Peak Power
So, you might be thinking ‘but how do you measure peak power?’. Well, at SW7, we use Remaker to measure…
1. Bar Speed on Squats, Cleans, and Presses
Using Remaker’s VBT technology, we track the velocity of every rep to understand how an athlete is producing force – not just how much weight they’re lifting. Bar speed tells us whether they’re moving explosively, fatiguing too quickly, or hitting the exact training stimulus we want.
- If the bar slows down, we adjust load.
- If the bar moves faster than the target zone, we push the intensity.
2. Jump Height and Power Using Loaded/Unloaded Jumps
Jumps give us a direct window into an athlete’s neuromuscular readiness. By comparing unloaded jumps (pure explosiveness) with loaded jumps (strength–speed capability), we can see how well the athlete produces force under different conditions.
Tracking jump height, peak power, and rate of force development helps us:
- Monitor fatigue
- Detect performance drops
- Identify power plateaus
- Adjust training week-to-week
3. Force Profiles Across Movement Patterns
Remaker also allows us to build force–velocity profiles across key lifts and movements. This helps us understand where an athlete sits on the strength–speed spectrum. For example:
- Are they strong but slow?
- Fast but lacking force?
- Balanced, but needing a higher ceiling?
Why? Because power isn’t just about effort, it’s about efficiency. When we can see the data, we can fine-tune everything: load, tempo, rest periods, and more.
Final Takeaway
If you want to play faster, hit harder, and stay explosive into the final minutes, peak power has to be on your radar. And if you’re not measuring it, you’re guessing.
Our online fitness memberships and personalised training programmes are tailored to your needs, utilising Remaker to test and fix your muscle imbalances. Join our Rugby Performance programme today and start developing the peak power you need to dominate every collision, every carry, and every moment on the pitch.
For more advice to help you improve your rugby performance, check out our Knowledge Hub to read articles such as ‘Strength and Conditioning for Rugby: The 4 Key Elements‘, ‘Why Is Power Important in Rugby?‘ and ‘Left vs Right: Rugby Performance Testing to Fix Imbalance‘.