Improve your players’ speed of thought
This is "switch touch", an excellent game for improving your players' speed of thought, as well as their alignment whether in attack or defence. MORE
Three steps to becoming a better youth coach
As a youth coach, are you tired of being perceived wrongly as a parent who wants their son or daughter to be in the team? The gullible one who volunteered five years ago and is still there every Sunday morning? The person who wants to live their rugby again? MORE
Match-related games develop good habits
Ask players what they enjoy most about training and more than likely they will say they love games so long as they are competitive. MORE
Match day motivation
Peter Tann, who specialises in the mental approach to the game, looks at some of the problems of preparing your team psychologically for a match. MORE
Have the final word in selection meetings
There must be a selection chair to run the meeting. He sets out the criteria clearly before the meeting starts and keeps the meeting on message. This requires a tough line with the power to stop someone talking if they move away from the point. MORE
Visualisation – believing is seeing
How often do your players get themselves in the wrong places at the wrong times? Or make a mistake through lack of concentration? Visualisation can prevent these concentration lapses and dramatically improve the quality of your set piece moves.
MOREBorrowing from basketball
Basketball can benefit rugby players, both from an athletic point of view and from a better understanding of playing games. MORE
Coaching your own child
Lots of parents return to rugby when their child gets involved at the younger levels. This can kick start a massive learning curve as many parents’ boots were probably hung up several years before. MORE
The modern head coach
Using his experience heading-up the elite coach development programme at the RFU in England, Kevin Bowring tells us how you can be a more effective head coach. MORE
Be a better youth coach
Children have a huge capacity to learn, they soak up enormous amounts of information, assimilate it and then promptly forget it next week. MORE
