Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Training | Tags: funding, facilities, training. rugby coahcing resources
The UK papers are full of the news of the shortfall in funding for the top athletes. The credit crunch is squeezing the government’s coffers and the Olympic hopefuls are going to struggle.
There is only a finite pot of money out there. It has to be spread wisely. The argument goes that the top sports people inspire others to go out to play sport. Hence we should fund them.
Grassroots sport is not so sure. Loads of players turn up and for what? Poor facilities and a lack of coaching and refereeing resources.
I watch and hear about valiant parents coping with loads of kids. Many they struggle.
Streuth, I coach a mini’s team with two other teachers a group of 20 delightful kids and that is hard enough. We have hired an astroturf, but we can’t do proper contact.
Resources must be invested in our facilities and coaches. Better prepared coaches create a sporting legacy that will endure for generations. That is where some of this valuable spending should go.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Training | Tags: delivery, learning environment, Rugby Coaching, voice control
This week at the Rugby Coach office we received a call from a new coach: How do I go about delivering a rugby coaching session? He had never coached before but had played a number of years ago.
Most of you will have some sympathy with his question. We all had to coach our first session once upon a time. I expect you had two experiences. First, you suddenly had to look after a session when the main coach didn’t turn up. Second, you knew well in advance that you were coaching a session and spent every waking moment thinking about what to do.
If you were lucky, you faced the second situation and had the benefit of going on Level 1 course.
But it pays to think about the basics of delivery, the “How to” skills because we can easily get lost in the detail of the techniques and skills. Players are still having to learn and we can accelerate this learning through better “How to” methods.
I am actually not formally coaching anything until next Monday (though watching plenty of rugby in the meantime), so I am to concentrate on my delivery for the next session. I know some of the players read this blog but I am not afraid to say I am going to make sure I work on these two aspects:
1. The quality of language emphasised using different levels of volume.
2. The pace of the session, to maintain a balance between consolidation and advancement.
I will report back on Tuesday.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Skills, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: All Blacks, Peter Bills, tries
Here is an excellent article by Peter Bills from International Rugby News about why the All Blacks are the best team the world, even if they haven’t won the World Cup in the professional era.
There are 25 rugby coaching points in here as well.
1) They’re smarter and have far more street-cred on the rugby field than any other nation.
2) They’re like sharks sniffing blood in the water. Show any weakness and they’ll pounce on it.
3) Other teams look for options on what to do during play. New Zealanders don’t need to look and think – they just act instinctively.
4) Just when you think they might be predictable, they’ll do the unexpected.
5) When an opponent gets isolated even for a moment, they’ll strike.
6) When they strike, they do so with lethal speed and commitment.
7) They scavenge ferociously for the loose ball.
8 ) They’re physically intense and fearsome. If you don’t match them in this respect, you have little chance.
9) The levels of expectation within New Zealand rugby circles are absolutely frightening, the highest in the world. When I asked coach Graham Henry, after he had led his team to another Tri-Nations triumph in September, (their fourth in a row) whether that meant the knives were now out of his back, he replied ‘No, but they might have been blunted for a while.’
10) Youngsters growing up in New Zealand dream of playing for the All Blacks. That remains the case today.
11) Their powers of concentration are much greater than most opponents.
12) Their support for the ball carrier is phenomenal, consistently the best.
13) They’re utterly ruthless in winning the ball, especially loose phase possession. Because they do it with such ferocity and intent, they secure it faster which means better quality possession for their backs.
14) They do the basics better than anyone else. These are inculcated from an early age.
15) There is an altogether greater physicality and intensity about the game in New Zealand. Their rugby men define them as a nation.
16) Their speed of recovery when they are in trouble is lightning fast.
17) To beat them, a side has to kick its goals and convert pressure and try scoring positions into points. Fail to do that, as Scotland were guilty of last weekend, and you have no chance.
18) They do what they have to do to stop any danger. That includes illegal play where needed.
19) The speed at which they do things on the field is usually so much greater than northern hemisphere teams manage.
20) There is a precision about their play which is the envy of most others.
21) They’re the best in the world at playing referees cleverly.
22) They push laws to the limit and never stop testing match officials. If they’re not picked up on them, they cheerfully transgress with regularity, a la their collapsed scrums against Scotland at Murrayfield last Saturday.
23) In Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith they have a highly experienced, smart coaching team. It is a trinity of talent.
24) A fear of failure is forever with them. It drives them on relentlessly.
25) The allure and value of the New Zealand jersey is priceless as a motivational tool. As former All Blacks hooker Anton Oliver says “If they ever sold part of that jersey to a commercial organisation and thereby diluted the uniqueness of the shirt, it would be the beginning of the end for the All Black legend, in my view.”
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, ELVs, Rugby Training | Tags: Add new tag, Autumn series, coaching rugby, international rugby
Can we translate what we see on the TV in international games into meaningful outcomes for our own teams? The simple answer could be no. Especially if you are running an under 8s tag team on a Sunday.
However there are some pros and cons.
Pros of using international games for your coaching
Innovation
Sometimes international teams will use a move you have not seen before. With small modifications you can this same move for your team.
Inspiration
We all aspire to play for our country or even coach them, and though the moment may have passed many of us by, we can gain much from listening to how the international coaches talk about their teams.
Points of reference
Using international games as examples is an easy way of helping our players visualise what we mean. A particular tackle or defensive alignment means more if the players have seen it performed at the top level.
Cons of using international games for your coaching
Time
The international teams have so much more time to practise the moves you might see on the TV. You can never have this luxury, so you need to be careful what elements you want to reproduce.
Refereeing differences
The quality of referees at the top level is different. Techniques that work in an international game may not be acceptable at lower levels because the referees are looking at other priorities.
Quality
A brilliant move may only work because the teams have the strength, speed and skill to perform them. This also goes for some of the close quarter techniques in rucks. I would especially highlight “sealing” manoeuvres, because the top level players are enormously strong across the shoulders and neck. They can take up very low positions and be far safer from injury that less experienced players.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills, Rugby Training | Tags: coaching mini rugby, coaching u9, leanring by doing, rugby games, rugby sessions, youth rugby
Just play the game. “Joue” as the French would say.
Too many times players come to rugby training to “play rugby” and yet go away from a session with a five minute game at the end as a “reward”.
I gauge a good “junior” session by the amount of times the youngsters say to me: “When can we play a game?” The less the better!
With my Under 9s team, we start our sessions with a game, then another, do some skills and then play another game. The games at the start have some conditions, such as the types of pass used, or the size of the pitch. The skills might be extremely modified games and the game at the end is as close to the real game as we can with the numbers we have.
The challenges are:
1. Covering the full range of techniques correctly. Actually the games tend to use most of the skills, so modifying the game allows us to isolate some of the skills and yet keep them in some context.
2. Keeping all the players involved. Certainly at younger age groups one or two players can dominate. We have moved players around the teams, played smaller sided games or just removed the players if they become too greedy.
3. Personal feedback. In a game situation, with so much going on, specific feedback can be lost as the ball moves on. We are lucky to have three coaches, one who referees, one on the pitch as the game is played and the other stands back to look at the wider picture. From these positions, we observe different angles, say things from different persepctives and the coach who is standing back can offer something to the player the two coaches too close to the action cannot see.
I wonder whether this model can be used for more senior teams…
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Training | Tags: Better Rugby Coaching, BRC, Rugby Coaching, rugby sessions, Rugby Tactics, rugby techinques, Welsh Women
I am working with the Welsh Women’s squad this weekend in Cardiff. I have been allocated a number of sessions to work on rugby skills, techniques and tactics, based on their game plan.
Of course I am not going to tell what the tactics are, but it has led me to check the Better Rugby Coaching archive for the words “rugby tactics”. I put in rugby tactics, but then thought, this is a rugby site anyway, so I changed it to just “tactics” and I got over 40 articles.
Here are the results.
What is my new tactic for the weekend
When receiving a kick off deep in the 22m area, there are normally two options. Secure and kick for touch or long down the side of the pitch, OR secure, run open and either kick long or go for the break.
Struth! That’s four tactics already.
So here is the next one. It is a variation on one of themes.
Secure the ball. Take the ball towards the touchline, but not over the 5m line. From the breakdown, pass the ball behind the forwards waiting to take a short ball to the fly half, who passes it to the inside centre (12). That should give enough space for this player to take the ball forward, kick over the defence and for the outside centre, winger and blindside winger to follow up. The defence will be expecting the kick, will be spread further across the pitch. Risk and reward…what do you think?
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: coaching U11s, coaching young rugby players, elite rugby, lack of attention, Rugby Coaching
Last week I posted a blog about getting children to listen.
In my further research and then observations over the weekend I reflected on our expectations as coaches.
Over one hour of training should the players be fully concentrating on rugby the whole time?
On the one hand we would expect this because it is only an hour and they have to concentrate for longer in a match. But I think we need to be more realistic.
Elite players in a warm, comfortable environment like an indoor training faciltity will be on task most of the time. 11 year olds, on a windy pitch under lights after a full day at school, then “do the math”!
These extremes will count across all age groups, senior and junior. Our challenge as coaches is to understand these constraints and work within them. If we get frustrated by the lack of attention, then often is a whole host of uncontrollables.
I will be writing more in the next issue of Rugby Coach.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Skills, Rugby Training | Tags: rugby body angles, Rugby Drills, rugby session planning, rugby tackling, tackling session
I have written over nine seasons worth of different sessions I worked out today.
Here is a sketch of a session that I made two weeks ago, which I expanded upon to make up part of three different sessions.
If anyone else wants to send in their sketches, it would be great to build up a gallery…
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: coaching rucking, coaching rugby defence, coaching rugby to young players, coaching tackling, persistence, pride in your team, Thornbury RFC, youth rugby
About this time last year, Bill Pratt begged me to come down to Thornbury RFC to do a session with his Under 14s.
His second email was worse!
”Dan, I will not keep writing to you. Bust a gut and train my boy’s on Thursday. We are away to Dursley and we need some work on defence. One session is all i ask. Go on you know you can!! Bill.”
Well, what could I say. Though it took some time to find a suitable slot, I “bust a gut” and trained them last night.
I arrived on crisp autumn evening at the grounds on the outskirts of Bristol (where I brought up). Bill was there to greet me and my first impressions where that it was a well organised junior club.
I split my session into two themes, body shapes in the tackle and body shapes into contact. It was a “kitchen sink” session, so I covered four times as much as I would in normal session, with the idea that Bill could build on any or all of the points over the next month or so.
There were 22 boys (now under 15s) in all. They were polite, chatty but attentive and obviously enjoyed their rugby. They were responsive to questioning and gave some good feedback. They worked hard and with purpose in the exercises.
It is sometimes easy to come in to do a one off session and hold the players attention because you are a fresh face and new voice. However it is easier if there is good environment for the players to work in. Bill and his co-coaches are rightly proud of their boys. This pride manifests itself in pride and desire in the boys.
My initial reflections are:
1. Got to keep asking, what is the worst they can say?
2. Be proud of your team, they will return your trust.
There was some video of the session, so with any luck I might be able to post some next week. Then you can see whether I taught them anything!
