Dan talks to Abingdon School’s director of rugby Matt Gold.
We discuss his own experiences of speaking to a stellar cast of coaches in his own lockdown podcast series, Goldy’s Rugby Podcast. We reflect on the lessons he learned from speaking to coaches like Ben Ryan and Sir Gordon Tietjens, especially on resilience and dealing with pressure.
We then explore how he developed an all-embracing season plan at Abingdon. Matt tells how he and his team of staff introduced the plan, the importance of a team approach and how he sold it to the players and the rest of the staff.
We delve into the detail of a session. I challenge Matt on how his team of coaches allow for a differentiated environment and what a typical session might look like.
One of the main lessons from the podcast must be that while the sessions might look rigid on paper, the coaching group is actually adjusting it all the time to suit the players.
We also discuss when and how you empower your players. His story about a particular crucial half time team talk brings into shark relief the power of this approach.
Matt is always delighted to chat with other coaches. Catch him on @gold_matthew or email him at matthew.gold@abingdon.org.uk.
Dan speaks to Jess Bunyard, the editor of the world's first Women's Rugby Coaching magazine. Jess tells us why it's the right time to launch, what's different about it, and why it's all about growing the women's rugby community. MORE
Dan Cottrell chats with Nick Hart. Nick is head of Courthouse Junior School in Berkshire, a CPD provider and an educational writer on his blog Thisismyclassroom. He has a sports science degree and played semi-pro soccer as a goalkeeper. Our main discussion is around scaffolding in coaching. It is probably something most of us do in some format but we might not always know why it works. Plus, it would be good to explore some other great ways to scaffold our players’ learning. MORE
Dan talks to Barry Frost of Pass Analysis about how you can get more all the analysis that might be available for your team. This is a very practical insight into getting more from the data, at all levels. MORE
Dan Cottrell invites Dave Sharkey, Ged Hall and Edd Conway to say how they would use Doug Lemov's latest book, The Coach's Guide to Teaching in their own environments. Bestselling author and teaching guru Doug has drawn on his vast practical classroom experience to see he can help coaches produce better players. The panel discusses their main takeaways from the book in the context of their own coaching. MORE
Dan Cottrell caught up with Jonny McMurtry of coachingthecoaches.net to talk about his current research. Having been involved in high-performance age-grade rugby programs across Australia for nearly 10 years, he is currently completing research in conjunction with the University of Queensland and Rugby Australia, looking at age-grade player's engagement and understanding what motivates, engages and drives players' participation. MORE
Dan Cottrell invites Nick Wilkinson, Nathan Gosling and Ian Hollingworth to discuss their latest thinking around coaching in the current climate. They bounce ideas off each other, share what works and what needs to be adjusted. It's all about practical ways to improve your team, at all levels of the game. Be ready for some coaching gold and innovative nuggets to take onto the training field today. MORE