Here is a collection of great ideas for planning, fitness, skills and games for your pre-season preparation, whatever age and level of player you coach.
Get the detail right when coaching skills and everything will fall into place. Let's look at what players should do just before tackling a ball carrier. MORE
Got the lungs burning? Now it’s time to get those brains whirring! Put the players in lots of different scenarios which match possible situations they might face in a match to help them think about their options. Decision-making exercises mean that your team will have to connect with each other, communicate and discover what works best. MORE
We can all remember an inspirational figure in our sporting lives, someone who has made a difference. Now you are a coach yourself, you have the chance to be that figure for someone else. What a privilege. Also, what a responsibility. That means that good coaching and management comes from hard work and choosing the... MORE
Every team wants to start the season well. Use these sessions to build your players’ form and fitness so that they are ready to go on that first whistle. MORE
A session ideal for pre-season or in-season if you need to reconnect your players with their handling and pace onto the ball. Accurate passing is essential to maintain a flowing attacking move capable of exploiting mismatches and space. Look at the detail as well as the outcomes. MORE
Whether it’s in pre-season or you need a boost during the season, use this series of three sessions to ensure you have a strong scrum base. Here are the first two weeks.
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Here is a circuit that allows you to train the core running skills – changing direction, changing pace, turning, accelerating and running backwards or sideways. It is good for a pre-season or in season
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Here's an example of a mind-map preparing for a season. It's the starting point for a discussion of what needs to be covered and who's going to cover it. MORE
Make this 90-minute session part of your pre-season preparations. It develops your players’ phase play in four clear and easy steps – warm-up, technical skills, unit skills and tactics. MORE
Using two lines of attack can create chaos as the opposition struggles to cope with deep-lying attackers running late into gaps. Work on these “hidden threats” with this punchy exercise. Second-line players can choose when and where to enter the front line as it reaches the defensive line. That leaves defenders caught between covering different spaces. MORE
Use these activities on rotation, spending around 5 minutes on each station, then swapping twice (20 minutes in all). The first works on support roles at the ruck, the second on handling and getting into position to run onto the ball. MORE
There’s a powerful school of thought that tells us we should be coaching more through games than drills. Let’s for a moment see why that makes sense. MORE
We know that parents are the biggest influence on their children’s lives and character, but coaches have such a key role to play in the creation of effective sporting environments and setting the tone to allow parental engagement to flourish. What do we mean by setting the tone? Well this can range from anything as to how coaches behave at training or on match day or the dialogue and messaging that we give both our parents and our players. MORE
Use this exercise after learning some tackle techniques to improve the defender's awareness and resilience in making tackles. There will be misses, nearly tackles and good tackles. Low impact and fun, it's aimed at younger players, but you can certainly use it with all ages. MORE
