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, ELVs, Rugby Coaching | Tags: All Blacks, Harlequins, IRB, Robbie Deans, Rugby Coaching, Warren Gatland
Yesterday I read a piece about all the great New Zealand coaches who are not coaching in New Zealand. Robbie Deans and Warren Gatland would be the two highest profile names on that list.
The same could be said of former All Black players in the rest of the world. Hundreds of top class players leave New Zealand every year.
Nick Evans, former All Black half back, playing for English club, the Harlequins
Though the All Blacks nearly lost to Munster last night, their reign as THE number one rugby nation continues. These leakages are not terminal nor in the long run, the end of international rugby.
The key to all this is nothing to do with national teams. It is about playing rugby. Top class rugby bears little resemblence to rugby in the parks, on the sides of hills or in the dusty flats just out of town.
However, despite all the training and pressure, the majority of international players are no different to the guys and girls who run out on a Saturday afternoon in all weathers. They have a laugh and a joke like the rest of us, and want to win for themselves as much as for their team.
What makes things more interesting is the mix of cultures from around the world. No longer are we entrenched in a narrow ways of thinking. Different strokes bring different thoughts. It is fresh, it is vibrant and rugby will grow because of it.
Having access to this wealth of differences makes my job of writing about rugby a constant joy. The interpretations and changes fashion cause debate and provoke new ideas.
I welcome this “smaller” world of rugby, and hope that the IRB does not split us into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres with the rule changes.
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 | Tags: abusive parents, dealing with bad behaviour, RFU, Rugby Coaching, sideline swearing
The RFU have recently reissued their charter for parents. Worried by reports of abuse from the sideline, the English rugby authorities want to clamp down on aggressive and rude parents who might bring the game into disrepute.
Most of us would agree that rugby has a strong culture of mutual respect, where players will knock seven bells out of each other on the pitch and yet happily share a pint in the bar afterwards.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: Rugby Coaching, Rugby Training, rugby tips, being a film star
I have just spent the last three days filming a DVD on rugby coaching. It was hard work but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
I am certainly no film star, I had no personal caravan or seat with my name on the back. But the experience taught me that we, as coaches, have got some similarities to film stars (and one or two complete differences).
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching | Tags: coaching development, Ospreys, Rugby Coaching, Winston Churchill, WRU
Let me start with some good news in rugby coaching.
With all the appointments for the new season flying around, internationally and domestically, perhaps one great appointment has gone under the radar.
One of Better Rugby Coaching’s editorial advisory board, John Schropfer, has been made the new national coach development manager for the Welsh Rugby Union. The role means searching out and nurturing the best coaching talent in Wales, so the next Welsh coach is indeed Welsh.
John is one of the prime movers in the UK coaching development circles and a key part of the coaching courses produced for Welsh, English and Scottish coaches. His energy and vision will invigorate the development process in the Principality.
Coaching development has been ignored for too long
Coach development has long been overlooked by the most important people in rugby.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, coaches in action pictures | Tags: Rugby Coaching, rugby team talks, talking to the team
Rugby coach, originally uploaded by Charl Durand.
A novel way of holding the ball whilst expressing yourself to the audience.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training | Tags: Rugby Coaching, rugby management, rugby sessions
I am tired. But I am also excited. It has been a busy few days pulling together some thrilling projects at Better Rugby Coaching. Lots of travelling, meetings and sorting. It is my eldest son’s 12th birthday today as well, so an early rise this morning.
As I yawn, it reminded me that, like many coaches, I will sometimes arrive at training sessions tired from all the other things I have to do. I would not want to take any shortcuts in my rugby coaching. It would pain me not to put in 100% effort into the rugby training exercises I have pulled together for that evening’s session.
Yet this effort, the huff and puff, the energy expended on behalf of others can be misplaced.
Look at this quote:
“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things”
Robert A. Heinlein American science-fiction Writer, 1907-1988
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, coaches in action pictures | Tags: Rugby Coaching, Rugby Training, tabard rfc, all weather training
Rugby training in the snow, originally uploaded by bowbrick.
Rugby coaching goes on, no matter what the weather.
