Emma Uren: ‘You push your body so hard you are either going to faint or throw up’

Emma Uren is days away from stepping out into Dubai’s Sevens Stadium for Great Britain’s HSBC SVNS 2025 Series opener against USA. The fact she will do so alongside teammates she has recently seen, “fight through their darkest places,” gives the winger all the confidence she needs. 

“On the field, with pre-season you really get to see people at another level,” Uren said. 

“Coming to the tournament knowing that you’ve done the work, you’ve done the time, you’ve got that under your belt – but you’ve also done it with the people that you’re going into the tournament with and into battle with, I think that is a really amazing thing.” 

‘Let your body do what it wants to do’

All productive pre-seasons start with an off-season. That is a message Uren not only likes to live, but also preaches through her work as a freelance strength and conditioning coach. 

And it was never truer than ahead of this SVNS season. After, “emptying the tank emotionally and physically, to more extreme levels than you ever thought possible”, Uren and many other Paris 2024 Olympians needed most or all of August to “switch off”. 

“The biggest one is to just let your body do what it wants to do,” said Uren, who headed to Sweden to see family and to a music festival with friends. 

“It's nice to actually do something completely normal that you would never, ever do mid-season,” she said.  

Laying the fitness foundations

While Uren revealed that she had “a bit of alcohol” while in Sweden, keeping her body healthy never really leaves her mind. Part of that is she knows what is coming once the ‘off’ turns into the ‘pre’-season. 

The Great Britain women’s sevens team setup is a little different to other nations, and indeed to many men’s national teams. This year, due to funding issues and the concertinaed post-Paris timescale, Uren and her international teammates did most of their pre-Dubai SVNS work with their 15-a-side clubs. But pre-season is still pre-season.

“It’s time to lay your foundations for your fitness and your aerobic levels,” Uren said. 

“It looks a little different depending on what type of S&C coach you’ve got. I’ve had ones where I’ve built up to a 40-minute full intensity run non-stop, or a 40-minute conditioning session non-stop. Or, this season, where I did a lot of short bursts because I was building up my (injured) ankle. Short, intense stuff, replicating a game without putting too much load on my ankle.” 

Entering the ‘death zone’

Whatever the initial demands, there is always the same, somewhat frightening evaluation looming – the timed 1,200m run, in 100m shuttles. 

“No matter where you are, what time you are getting, everyone is dreading it,” Uren said, the pain clear through the slight smile. “Even if you are good at it, there is that expectation you have to be good at it again.” 

This constant comparison is a key part of sevens pre-season. No matter where you start – and Uren led the way at 4 minutes 29 seconds – you’ve got to get better. 

But it’s not just that, it is the fact that in sevens you need to be able to produce your best when you are physically in bits. That’s why the 1,200m test is often started when players’ bodies are already screaming. 

“We do death zone areas, where you really push and try and get into that state where your brain’s not properly working. And then we’ll do the 1,200 after that,” the 27-year-old explained. 

“We have a few of those sessions where you know you are probably going to die halfway through. You know that you’ll be pushed physically to the edge, and you know that it’s going to be painful. 

“But they’re good. You get so much out of them.” 

‘You probably have to be a bit mental to play sevens’

This is what makes sevens players different. They thrive on reaching and then thriving inside an almost unimaginable level of exhaustion. 

“You do end up falling in love with it,” Uren smiled. “You probably have to be a bit mental to play sevens.” 

The target throughout pre-season is not to feel more comfortable. As Uren states, “a 30-second sprint is always hard, no matter how fit you are”. Instead, it’s about, “being able to push harder and then work at another level”. 

Ready to shine

Now, after “never feeling fresh” during pre-season, Uren feels primed and energised. Training has tapered off, with recent pre-season games sharpening skills and embedding new shapes and plays. 

Early Dubai acclimatisation has helped, with GB players happily escaping the wind, rain and, yes, snow, back home. Although, there was one early training session under the UAE sun that gave Uren and friends one final taste of pre-season. 

“We had one where everyone was seeing double at one point,” Uren laughed. “Some people nearly fainted. You push your body so hard you are either going to faint or throw up.”