EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
11/5/2018 | Core skills
Practise attacking plays for wet weather so that your players are prepared for rainy match days. Use these two simple plans to attack space and pressurise the opposition in the middle to last third of the pitch. MORE
07/22/2018 |
Ensure your players have the right detail in the contact area to make sure, if they are tackled, they can win the contest and present the ball back cleanly and quickly. MORE
07/18/2018 | Attack
Create chaotic starts for the attack and defence so they have to play heads-up rugby, make decisions, connect and win the situation. MORE
11/13/2018 | Email Newsletters
Need to inject some new ideas in training. Sometimes the old games have run their course. Well, for the time being anyway. Here are some fun games which are quick to set-up and, with few rules, give the players new challenges. Though they are primarily aimed at mini-tag, you can easily adapt them for older players. I think you find the energy generated quite uplifting. MORE
08/28/2018 | Mini tag
Participation and fun are the core outcomes for under 7s. However, concentrate on: Evasive running to score tries - that is running forward but able to step to the side of a defender. Catching and passing - probably when the players are static. Don’t worry about defence. MORE
07/20/2018 | Mini tag
Use simple “house” rules in training and games to help reduce the chance of selfish players dominating your team’s possession and preventing you scoring more tries. MORE
10/18/2018 |
Pull the core skills of contact together with an age-old game with a twist. MORE
08/24/2018 | Scrums & Lineouts
A simple game that integrates the scrum within a competitive context and teaches the huge part scrums play in retaining or regaining possession. MORE
08/23/2018 | Small-sided games
Games that require all the players to participate develop all abilities. In drop-off touch, defenders have to fill in and attackers have to support, involving the whole group. MORE
11/13/2018 | Rugby drills
11/11/2018 | Rugby drills
11/10/2018 | Rugby drills
11/9/2018 | Rugby drills
11/8/2018 | Rugby drills
11/4/2018 | Warm Ups
11/12/2018 |
If you have control of the maul with the ball at the back, you can continue to attack close to the maul by “peeling off”. This keeps your forward momentum going and pressurises the fringes of the defence which may not be in position to stop the peel because they are engaged in stopping the maul. This is a good session for forwards. MORE
11/12/2018 |
We need to develop players’ ability to pass with their heads up to see what’s coming. This session helps them pass in corridors of traffic and limit the chance of collisions. It is a simple session to set up and has plenty of developments. MORE
11/5/2018 |
Your team needs a range of tactics to improve the presentation of the ball at the point of contact. One method, which should not be confused with squeeze ball, is posting the ball between the legs during the contact, with other players clearing out defenders. It should provide quick ball, with the defence on the back foot. MORE
11/3/2018 | Rugby drills
Use this simple warm-up as a way of getting players thinking, moving and interacting in short bursts of time. It comes from our Skills Conditioning and Fitness DVD. MORE
10/6/2018 | Warm Ups
Use this kneeling down passing exercise to work on good upper body style for passing, where the players use their shoulders and hip rotation to generate power in the pass, and elbows and wrist to create acceleration and accuracy. It's also good for working on catch and pass techniques in isolation. MORE
09/5/2018 | Warm Ups
Get ready for a contact or tackling session by using wrestling drills. They’re great for conditioning and bring a competitive edge to training – watch our video and then try it with your team. MORE
11/14/2018 | Blog
Has rugby really changed that much in the last five years? Has it become too soft or too dangerous? Has it stopped being a game for real men or started to become a game that parents don’t want their children to play? MORE
11/12/2018 | Team Management
Personal coaching can really grow a player – but only if you give them the right environment in which to learn and improve. Embrace these five top tips to help bring out the best in each player. MORE
11/7/2018 | Tactics
It’s not brave to try expansive rugby in foul conditions, just foolish. That’s why the most successful teams like to keep things simple when the rain comes down. What can we learn from them? MORE
11/6/2018 | Blog
I've not written a Touchline Tale for a while now. But thanks in particular to Chris Sweetapple's prompting, I'm going to revive my weekly blog on the world of rugby, learning and coaching. MORE
11/8/2018
When the weather changes, so must our tactics. Generally, whatever part of the world you are in, as the season progresses, the weather does get wetter and colder. Pitches become muddier and the ball more slippery. You and your players need to adjust tactics. MORE
11/6/2018
Rugby is both a collision and an evasive sport. Defenders want to collide into attackers. Attackers want to evade defenders. That's why footwork is a core skill for rugby. Skipping through a few ladders might add some agility, but it's best to deal with actual, moving bodies. Sometimes it's just straight-line speed you need. Other times it's lateral or sideways movement. Often it's a bit of both. MORE
11/1/2018
Most mauls start from a lineout. However, they can still be formed in open play, sometimes by design and sometimes by accident. The mauls laws have changed slightly over the last year, but the principles remain the same. A maul is a ball carrier and teammate being held by a defender. Note that it's not a maul until the attacking teammate binds on, no matter how many defenders are surrounding the ball carrier. 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
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