EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
05/4/2021 | Rugby drills
A simple session to start with, but very intense, “pressure contact” works on reacting quickly to different contact situations and making good contacts. The players need to be secure in their body positions in contact, so it works well after a technical session on body profiling in contact. MORE
04/11/2021 | Rugby drills
Introduce players of mixed ability to contact by building up the skills through games and questioning. I’ve found that using this progression of activity, the players develop contact skills together. You can adjust the pitch sizes and timings to suit your players. MORE
04/10/2021 | Attack
This session will help players highlight their core skills under pressure. It works especially on short passes when the ball carrier is running “offline”. Offline means the passer is either running towards the intended receiver or away. MORE
07/28/2020 | Mini tag
Get your ball carriers used to running forward to score tries. This session can be run as a warm-up or as a proper tackling session as well. Often players fail to run forwards even when they know the try line is that way. This session should encourage them to attack a space in front them and go for it. MORE
12/7/2019 | Rugby coaching
Your side will have its fair share of stars, good players and not-so-good. Keep all the players involved and happy, and make each one feel they are a world-beater. MORE
11/24/2019 | Rugby drills
"There’s not much incentive to be a third receiver. The Law of the Jungle suggests that if you want to touch the ball, you get close to it." MORE
04/19/2021 | Small-sided games
I've been fortunate enough to have Eddie Jones deliver some sessions. This is the game he started with and it is excellent for reinforcing key messages around core skills or principles of play. MORE
03/1/2021 | Small-sided games
Use this unusual pitch set up to pose problems for your players to solve. As they work out ways to score they will begin to use handling and support to create width on their game. MORE
02/25/2021 | Footwork and evasion
Encourage your ball carriers to run at pace, looking to avoid contact by anticipating where the spaces are. This is a scanning exercise for just the ball carrier. They will make mistakes, yet start to become attuned to looking for gaps. MORE
05/8/2021 | Passing & Handling
05/7/2021 | Rugby drills
05/3/2021 | Rugby drills
04/30/2021 | Rugby drills
04/29/2021 | Rugby drills
04/26/2021 | Tackling
This session concentrates on players kicking a ball ahead on the ground. They have to control it, gather it and score, as they might when pouncing on a loose pass from the defence for instance. They might have to dribble the ball, or pick up and pass it. Any player may be in this situation and it will be a good source of tries over the season. MORE
The use of pods, that is small pre-defined groups of players, used to be the preserve of the top teams. However you can utilise these groups to help your players gain more structure and, crucially, know where they have to run and who they have to support. MORE
The fend is controversially illegal up to certain age groups. It is an important attacking weapon though, which can be utilised to beat a player one-on-one or to offload to break through a defensive line. It needs practising, especially so players can use it in games once they’re of age. MORE
04/17/2021 | Warm Ups
‘Escape the square’ is a quick game that can be used in warm ups to get players focused on moving the rugby ball in attack, scanning for space and communicating with team-mates. MORE
09/22/2020 | Email Newsletters
Evasion is a fundamental movement skill. Players use in pretty much all their activities, without necessarily focusing on the specific skills they need. Without becoming too bogged down in the technical requirements, you want to improve your players starting and stopping, balance, change of direction and acceleration. With that comes an awareness of space, time, teammates, the opposition and the ball. MORE
09/3/2020 | Email Newsletters
It's exciting that in England at the very least, contact training is back. However, with only 15 minutes allowed for contact training, you won't be wanting to waste any precious time. So, why not get the players warmed up for contact, without contact! How does that work? MORE
05/5/2021 | Rugby Coach Weekly with Dan Cottrell
Dan chats to Lisa Lane Brown about how we can practically improve mental toughness with our athletes and players. Drawing on her experience, first as a world-class ice hockey player and then as a mental skills coaches, she gives us recognisable steps for flipping the switch from nerves into confidence. MORE
05/2/2021 |
Host Phil Llewellyn with guests review some of the many great podcasts, books, articles and webinars from the last week. This week's guests: Andrew Wilesmith, Chair of Rugby Development with England Schools RFU, John Fletcher, Magic Academy founder, coach and mentor and Russell Earnshaw, Magic Academy founder, coach and mentor. MORE
05/1/2021 | Rugby coaching
Building better coaching connections away from training can make your on-field training more effective and your overall outcomes more impactful. MORE
04/28/2021 | Podcast
The remarkable and untold story of the 2014 Rugby World Cup winning England side from the view of their coaches, Gary Street and Graham Smith. In this episode, winning a World Cup twice, watching the same game every week, abandoning a bus on a traffic island, ‘Paul McGinley didn’t coach them did he?’, Alex Payne, Johnny Hammond, Nick Heath’s 'Never Forget' and ‘It wasn’t our choice'. MORE
05/6/2021
Did Warren Gatland pick the right players for the British and Irish Lions summer tour to South Africa? His team of selectors will have been looking at balance and the style that they want to play. They might not pick the best players but more likely combinations that will complement each other. MORE
04/20/2021
Against an organised defence, you can use closely packed groups of forwards to dent the line and then attack the recovering, disorganised defence. Often known as pods, this requires organisation, especially around the roles of the players in terms of carrying the ball and supporting that ball carrier. In its simplest format, after a set-piece like a scrum or lineout, the forwards who were not involved in winning the ball back after the first tackle, realign to take the next pass. This is in the expectation that the backline doesn't penetrate the line the first time. MORE
04/8/2021
I recently polled coaches on Twitter on how long they spent planning. While over half suggested they spent up to 25 minutes on the process, two in every five coaches spent longer. Planning a session isn't easy and we all know the horrors of a poorly planned session. Here are two coaching ideas to make it easier. MORE
“The boys have really enjoyed the drills from Rugby Coach Weekly. It's been great having them at my fingertips and every training session this season we tried new things, which I believe helped keep the boys interested and enthusiastic.”
Phil Hopkins, Perigueux, France
72 of the Game's Tactical Concepts in Simple, Plain Language MORE
With so much to cover when coaching young players, it can be a daunting task to know the basics... now there's help MORE
