Jamie Taylor, former head of academy at Leicester Tigers and now working with English Institute of Sport, challenges us to be better as coaches.
In this podcast, we discuss the following areas:
How to manage the complexity of coaching
Your coaching approach must suit the developmental needs of the players
How former players can make great coaches
Different language and outcomes for different players
What are the best ways we can intervene into coaching situations
The importance of using delayed feedback
Why “drills” (not his word!) can play an important role in skill development
How a tackle pad is still valid for contact work, but in the right context
He challenges himself, says we need to challenge ourselves and always make coaching interventions for a specific reason, not just because we’ve seen someone else do it.
In the third part of a session, after a warm-up game and then a skill drill, introduce a skill game. The game is still focused on the objective. It gives the players a chance to explore the skill in the context of the game and see why it is relevant. MORE
How often have you heard: "No, yes, good, great," and then lots of sighing. Does this sound like a coach you know? And does this really seem helpful? Let's consider how we enhance our language to engage players and most importantly understand them. MORE
Bird and LJ welcome Katie Sadleir, general manager Women's Rugby with World Rugby since 2016 and was recognised as one of the top 10 rugby influencers (Rugby World Magazine 2020). MORE
received these two emails within a few hours of each other, so this isn’t an isolated situation. However, I will hasten to add, it’s not a problem either. Up to the age of 17/18, boys grow at very different speeds. This is both physically and mentally. It’s likely that the more “aggressive” teams you face have a number of boys are ahead of the curve in this sense. They are more mature than their peers. MORE
Whether you were hooked or not, Game of Thrones was a phenomenal TV hit. Over 32 million viewers watched season eight. There were lots of reasons why but one which has perhaps a lot to do with the way we should be coaching rugby. MORE
Demanding games tend to be toughest on your best players because they put themselves in the action the most. Help them manage themselves to play for longer. In a tough period of games there will be many players beginning to wane after successive demanding outings. The extent of this waning will depend on their strength... MORE