EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
in Blog
I’ve been watching how coaches and other “people managers” engage their charges. By engage, I mean attract and occupy people’s attention. If someone is engaged, they’re going to respond quickly to instruction. I started doing it in earnest when watching my brother talk to his three-year-old daughter. Now, as a typical brother, I used to... MORE
in 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
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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
in Blog, Team Management
The other week I was running some 4v2s. Initially, the attack was always successful. I suppose that is what you would expect but they were not succeeding as I wanted. Sloppy passing and drifting angles meant that although they were scoring, it was not improving their skill levels. It was time to make the defenders work harder. MORE
The other week I was watching another coach set up what I can safely say was a drill: 10 cones evenly spaced in front of two lines of players, no decision-making and off they went. The players ran out with the ball, put it down, ran to another cone, ran back and picked it up. They passed it to a team mate who repeated the exercise. MORE
in Blog, Team Management
Gavin Mortimer says that rugby is as bad as soccer these days and that's despite the recent ridiculous antics in the soccer World Cup. With a heavy heart, I agree. MORE
in Blog, Team Management
After I read 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell and mentioned this to one of our writers, Nick Bishop, he said that seemed a large number of Laws to remember. And they are irrefutable as well. That’s quite a high standard. MORE
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Ian Hall says that China is a vibrant and growing rugby community that might be a brilliant stop-off for any coach who wants to broaden their coaching CV. MORE
in Blog, Girls/Womens
Eleanor Wilkinson has been recognised by her county for the enormous contribution she’s made to girls’ rugby. Rugby Coach Weekly caught up with the busy college student who’s a player, coach and referee, and still only 16. Eleanor Wilkinson is a RFU level 2 coach, referee and a player. She’s also just won Leicestershire Young... MORE
in Blog
Selection for the summer international touring teams causes plenty of debate on who deserves to go. It’s not necessarily based on their current form, but also their potential. Though the coaches want to win the games in front of them, there’s more than a whiff of development. So, while we can argue to the relative merits of one player over another, it’s interesting to focus on what we mean by the term “deserves”. This is because it’s something we consider ourselves as we pick our own teams. Do we select based on form or effort? MORE
