Prepare Like a Starter: A Proactive Approach to Keeping Non-Starters Match-Ready

Jake Gillis and Jonathan Ward of Bristol Bears show how rugby union performance staff can use heart rate data to keep non-starters ready to play 80 minutes.

About this webinar

In this hour-long session, recorded on 6 February 2026, first-team sport scientist Jake Gillis, in his seventh season at Bristol Bears, and S&C coach Jonathan (Jonno) Ward, in his first season after six years in France, explain the club’s “prepare like a starter” approach. They show heart rate traces from matches, matchday-minus-two (MD-2) sessions and match-day top-ups, red zone minutes (85% of maximum heart rate and above), training impulse (TRIMP) and Firstbeat training effect scores. They cover match-day top-ups, off-feet conditioning, return to play (RTP) and how coaches and players buy in. The club is in its third season using the system.

What you will learn

• What a match-day top-up for a travelling reserve achieves: about 11.5 minutes in the red zone, against the 40–50 minutes a starter gets.
• The order Bristol Bears use to build cardiovascular load, from 15-on-15 rugby down to off-feet conditioning.
• How uneven teams, such as 6 on 3, raise the load for the players who need it most in a short conditioning game.
• Why a 60-second “back in green” pause now opens every half-time talk.
• How an 8×4-minute preseason session showed the same output for less internal load four weeks later.

Practical examples from the recording

1. Topping up the 24th man on match day. Travelling reserves who are not on the bench stay on the field when the team goes in, about eight minutes before kick-off, for a conditioning game if numbers allow. Once the match starts, Ward takes them behind the dead-ball line for running. In the example shown, that gave about 11.5 minutes in the red zone and another 5 minutes above 80%. A starter gets 40–50 minutes in the red zone, so the gap stays. Their conclusion: it is not perfect, but it is the best they can do for that player.

2. The second row who matched the numbers and still struggled. A second row on the edge of the squad for six to eight weeks hit the starters’ heart rate demands across the training week and on match days he didn’t play. In his first start, the trace showed far more high-intensity time than expected. Talking to him, the staff saw they had not respected the scrums, rucks and tackles of his position, which full-contact training on a Thursday before a Saturday match cannot safely replicate. They now add safe contact conditioning for that position when a player faces six weeks out of selection.

3. Uneven teams to load the players who need it. With nine reserves on match day, an even game becomes too easy for players chasing load. If three of them need a much higher demand, Gillis sets up 6 on 3 instead of 5 on 4, then flips it after two sets so the six are also taxed. Putting the three first means they barely recover between the short sets and build a far higher TRIMP even when they sit just below the red zone.

4. Back in green at half-time. Players were coming in at half-time out of breath. Gillis clipped the half-time period of a preseason match: players arrived at 96–97% of maximum heart rate and took about 1 minute 15 to 1 minute 20 on average to drop below 70%, which the club calls green. He showed this to the head coach, who agreed. Every half-time now starts with 60 seconds to breathe, drink and re-strap before the messages come.

Questions answered in the Q&A

How do you set heart rate zones without VO2max testing? From maximum heart rate. Players reach it in the Bronco test at the start of preseason, and resting heart rate and a 3-minute heart rate recovery test are taken once or twice a year with a fasted DEXA scan. The zones are Firstbeat’s standard bands; in hindsight Gillis would have set the top zone at 90%.

Do you watch heart rate live during match-day top-ups? No. There is not enough time or set-up at away grounds. Ward relies on drills with known work-to-rest ratios and metres per minute. When a conditioning game breaks down, he changes the rules or pitch size, or calls the game and switches to running.

Do top-ups for reserves risk a spike in acute:chronic workload? No, they are the reason there is no spike. Keeping reserves at a starter’s training load means a first start is not a shock; without it the ratio would jump. If a spike does appear, they revisit the programme.

Do players wear heart rate sensors in every session? Only in sessions that target cardiovascular load and where staff want to manage the cardiovascular response. That means not the gym, and in rehab only off-feet conditioning or running.

How do you get players to wear chest straps? By explaining why and sharing the data with them. There was some resistance at first, but three seasons on, Gillis says, no one bats an eyelid.

Who is this webinar for?

Sport scientists, S&C coaches and heads of performance in professional rugby union and other collision team sports who need to keep non-starters ready to play 80 minutes. Return-to-play coaches will also find the RTP approach useful.