Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Skills, Rugby Training | Tags: learning from other sports, netabll, rugby league
Yesterday Rugby League, today netball! Here is the second sport rugby can learn from…
2. Netball
Netball is an invasion game but with some interesting rules on movement. First, the ball carrier can only take one step, and second, players are restricted on the areas they are allowed to move into.
What are the benefits to rugby from watching and perhaps even playing netball.
Passing and handling. The top players pass the ball into spaces for their team mates to run onto. Though mainly through chest passes, the variety of passes still require quick handling decisions. Also, the ball carrier only has three seconds on the ball, meaning a fast paced game.
Footwork. Though the ball carrier cannot run, the man-to-man marking system requires deft foot work and balance to create opportunities to pass and shoot.
Lineout work. A lot of the game is played with the ball at head height or above. This aids the coordination of lineout jumpers who will practise normal rugby with the ball below shoulder height and little jumping. Leaning to catch and manipulating a ball with one hand are all skills required in netball.
Support play. Netball requires players to pass and move. They need to read their own players movements and the opposition movements to create space and receive a return pass.
Defence. Though there is no contact, defenders still need to maintain a good body shape to defend with, and read the attacking movements. It is a heads up game.
The next sport will be…Greco Roman wrestling.
Filed under: Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills | Tags: invasion games, learning, other sports, rugby league
Rugby is an “invasion game” where players gain ground in order to score points. There is a lot of high level thinking on the specific game to read, watch and listen to. However, similar forms of reserch has gone into other sports and coaches often benefit from a sideways glance or study of these games.
Here are my top five sports to learn from.
1. Rugby League
It is no coincidence that there is a good cross fertilization of ideas between the two codes. The more enlightened coaches have not become slaves to League theories on defence and kicking, but have used elements to enhance their coaching.
Rugby League is good for:
- Footwork
- Handling
- Tackling
- Tackle systems
- Kicking
- Fitness
- Communication
- Broken play patterns
Some good sites to visit are:
http://www.emufooty.com/index.html
Tomorrow I am going to look at the benefits of netball.
There is a debate in rugby at the moment about “skills” and “rugby” coaching. Too much spent on one means a deficit of the other. Some professional sides are spending so much time on skills they are forgetting how to play rugby. Too many amateur and youth sides are concentrating on rugby, and not building a base of skills.
I like to think that skills training is an investment in the future. Players will not grow in the long run unless they have a good understanding of the fundamentals. The full range of skills can also not be taught in a season. They have to be nutured over the player’s growth cycle, adding layers to a core.
But a player also needs to play at the weekend. The application of skills leads to playing experiences which shape decisions. It motivates the player, allowing him to justify the skills work and seek to learn more in the future.
Since the majority of us don’t coach full time teams, we tend to concentrate on the “rugby”, the plays and plans to win games. In fact, we should spend more time on the skills. And by this I mean: The detail.
Look again at this stunning action picture and pick out the detail of the contact skills by the ball carrier. As a skills coach I like to work from top to bottom, identifying the mechanical areas the player can control.
Think:
1. Head
2. Shoulders
3. Arms
4. Hands
5. Hips (core)
6. Knees
7. Feet
Then tie this into:
1. Balance
2. Force
3. Accuracy
Do the processes involved lead to the right or preferred outcome?
Of course there are other details to look for, but at least we have a good starting point.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby News | Tags: hard surfaces, ice, rugby pitches, rugby safety
With a raft of games cancelled in the UK over the weekend, it brings into question when a game can be called off and at what stage it is too dangerous to play.
South Africa readers especially will know that hard grounds are a fact of rugby life and the players adapt. Is that so different to icy conditions?
There are a number of factors involved in making the decision to not play. The first must be the confidence of the teams to play on the surface presented to them. Those teams used to playing on hard grounds won’t mind a solid, flat surface.
However a rutted, uneven surface will not be acceptable.
Another test, and one that I have mentioned before, is the “fist and head” technique: Imagine your fist is a player’s head. Punch the ground. If your fist recoils with a sting then think how that might affect a player’s head.
The potential thaw as the hours pass will be another factor. Night games rarely thaw out, but a day game is more difficult to call. May be another blog reader will be able to help with the meteorological methods of telling what might happen to the ground.
Overall, it is very frustrating. Add to that I have just heard that a couple of players collapsed in a local game with hypothermia and we wonder whether global warming has reached our shores.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management | Tags: coaching, Filo Tiatia
This week the Ospreys’ regional rugby team appointed a new coach. Not Scott Johnson, but Filo Tiatia. A New Zealander honed from Islander teak, he has been an inspirational figure in the last couple of years and now he is a player-coach focusing on the breakdown. He also coaches the Osprey Under 18s.
If you should meet the man, you will find a prescence born of physical prowess and a manner of authority and yet humility. He reminds me of Jim Love, one of our regular columnists in Rugby Coach and former Maori All Black coach.
Not all of us have played for the All Blacks and are built like a big brick outhouse. That gives Filo a certain advantage! But it is the way he conducts himself that give us a clue to why certain coaches have authority.
1. Ease of approach
There is no rush to the way he approaches the players or the task in hand. That leaves space for players to listen and communicate.
2. Less is more
He does not overburden his coaching with lots of thoughts in one session. Players can then develop the area he is concentrating on. He can adjust and adapt the players individually because he has more time to do so.
3. Well prepared
He thinks deeply about his coaching and prepares well for each session. Often he will use a whiteboard or a presentation on flip chart paper, with the players sitting around to listen.
4. Commitment to the best
He wants to the best for himself and by dint of association, the players as well. It comes from pride in his culture and background.
So where is the “voice”?
The voice of authority comes from the quality, feeling and attitude of the speaker. The belief in the nature of what is being said is paramount. Follow these four points to add authority to your voice.
The perfect outcome does not need perfect processes.
If you win a clean lineout, the throw and jump don’t need to be perfect, but something needs to adjust to make it clean. Perhaps the jumper should be prepared to reach forward or lean back, the lifters to hold the jumper up for a little longer than normal.
A backs move does not need the perfect delivery from 9 to 10 as long as 10 adjusts, as do the other runners.
The top coaching tip is: Prepare your players for adjustments. Coach the perfect and imperfect delivery of the ball.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management | Tags: Martin Johnson, Pieter de Villiers, Robbie Deans, RWC 2011, the Lions, Warren Gatland
The next couple of months will shape the coaching staffs for the major World Cup teams. The governing bodies know that two years about the minimum time a coach can make a real impact. Of course some have had immediate success: Warren Gatland for Wales and perhaps Robbie Deans for Australia. The jury is still out on Pieter De Villiers of South Africa, and Martin Johnson not really the coach for England.
The Six Nations will tell us something about the ambitions of the teams. The Lions tour will define some of the possible stars of the World Cup.
But for me, 2009 will show us how the shape of the game has changed at the top table. The ELVs and breakdown protocols have now filtered through. Referees are becoming more consistent in their interpretation. Players have adpated on field and coaches off field. I don’t see much new after the middle of 2009 and into the Tri Nations.
The competition will revert to the most skilful, best prepared side winning; a mix of the talent available and the coaching expertise to manage those resources. I cannot see the World Cup winning coach not in place at the end of this year. The big four, that is the only four winners of the World Cup, are still in the box seats today, but the hopefuls, that is Argentina, France and even perhaps Wales and Ireland, need to get 2009 right if they want to be in the final mix.
The coaching challenges remain the same, at all levels. This year will define the personnel.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills, Rugby Training | Tags: Danny Cipriani, kicking, Shaun Edwards
Danny Cipriani continues to make the headlines. Now kicking coaches have questioning his style of kicking because it has led to too many charge downs.
Our article back in November highlighted the key points he should consider:
1. Half a stride steps to kick rather than normal steps.
2. Kick at an angle and not straight downfield.
3. Drop the ball from a lower height.
4. Run sideways to step into the kick and not run upfield.
He, plus his colleagues at Wasps, are doing extra work on it this week.
Here is what the papers said:
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Cipriani’s punt leaves Edwards in a spiral
Independent, UK - 8 hours ago By David Llewellyn Danny Cipriani may be closer to agreeing a deal to stay on at Wasps, but if he continues to present opponents with soft tries by having … |
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Danny Cipriani can learn from NFL in bid to kick costly habit
Times Online, UK - 10 hours ago American football Danny Cipriani’s propensity for being charged down, giving tries to opponents, could be rectified by learning from American football. … |
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Cipriani’s kicking crisis
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 11 hours ago Wasps coaches set up special training to work on fly-half’s ‘nightmare’ over charge- downs. By Mick Cleary Danny Cipriani is to undergo a special training … |
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Cipriani kicking problem targeted
BBC Sport, UK - 13 hours ago England kicking coach Jon Callard says he can help Danny Cipriani eradicate the charge-downs which are increasingly blighting the fly-half’s game. … |
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Cipriani’s kicking called into question by worried Wasps coach Edwards
guardian.co.uk, UK - 15 hours ago Cipriani attempts a kick under pressure from Gonzalo Tiesi of Harlequins at the weekend. Photograph: Warren Little/Getty Images Further pressure was heaped … |
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby News | Tags: Austin Healey, ITV, The Big Tackle
Austin Healey, a former England player and lately a contestant on TV dancing contest (Strictly Come Dancing), is handing out advice to clubs in a new UK TV show called The Big Tackle.
It will be interesting to see his take on life “amongst the weeds”.
Here is the marketing blurb:
“Following his star turn in Strictly Come Dancing, former England, Leicester and British & Irish Lions star Austin Healey is kicking off his dancing shoes and getting the rugby boots back on in a new show for ITV in association with O2.
Austin will be parachuting into a range of different rugby clubs around the country, trouble-shooting where he sees problems, sharing his unique insights into the game, and perhaps turning the club’s nightmares into dreams along the way.
Capped 51 times by England, Austin won’t be afraid to speak his mind and ask the tough questions that could transform the clubs he visits into champions … and he could be bringing his undoubted talent for communication to a club near you!
The series will be shown in March 2009 .”
