Artificial aids? Let’s keep it real
in Blog, Rugby coaching, Team Management
Why you might need to reconsider how you use, and if you should use, artificial aids to build skills. MORE
“10,000 hours” theory threatens us all
in Blog
Too many youth coaches are teetering on the edge of the “10,000 hours’ training” trap – and it risks killing our game. We’re in danger of spending too much time “practising” rugby and not enough time playing. MORE
Happy Christmas to the Xbox
in Blog
If you coach youth rugby, you’re depriving children of valuable Xbox and PlayStation time. I know this as sometimes I have had to drag my own son off the machine to go to training. I wish I had a quick solution to this situation. I’ve tried various tactics. First is the five-minute warning, so he... MORE
If practice makes perfect and nobody’s perfect, why practise?
in Blog
Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of rock band Nirvana, played hard and died young. He said: “If practice makes perfect and nobody’s perfect, why practise?” MORE
An engaging experience
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
Soft rugby is not child’s play – the adults...
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
Touchline tales returns while others are leaving the game
in 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
When to put REAL defenders into a drill
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
This drill was dull until…
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
Rugby doesn’t hold the moral high ground in sport
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
