EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
I recently polled coaches on Twitter on how long they spent planning.
While over half suggested they spent up to 25 minutes on the process, two in every five coaches spent longer.
Planning a session isn’t easy and we all know the horrors of a poorly planned session.
Here are two coaching ideas to make it easier.
Read or listen to the best learning gurus and they will tell you that everyone needs to be reminded of what they have just learned and about to forget. Doug Lemov, in his recent book, A Coach’s Guide to Teaching, highlights this time and again.
Listen our podcast on the book here.
That means, your training session should include elements of the previous sessions. If at least half the session was purely the same as before, but with small changes, then you would be creating some excellent outcomes.
For example, a tackling exercise could have different starting points, more options for the attackers or a smaller space to work in. A new “play” might be tested out at random moments during the session.
A training template is a simple way to plan your session. And if your players know what is coming, you don’t need to spend much time explaining or selling what’s happening next.
From a planning point of view that makes things easier. For example, you might follow a pattern of a warm-up game, a skills block, a unit block and then a game to finish.
Having a couple of different templates helps retain some variety, where you might have mixed up the elements, or have breakouts inside games.
From a planning point of view, your “rollout” of a session is the part that needs the most time. Rollout means introducing a new idea, skill or rule into a session. It will be something that the majority if not all the players, and perhaps even you own coaches, won’t have seen before.
To make that easier, follow these three steps:
Both these ideas should make the planning process easier, because you can be confident of good outcomes.
Here are some planning ideas to help build your sessions:
in Attack, Rugby drills
Help players understand when and how to run onto the pass to create pace into your game and crucially, better go-forward. MORE
in Attack, Rugby drills
The second receiver from a ruck or set piece needs to act as a ball carrying option or a support player for a close contact in the 10 channel. Often it’s the 12, but all players need to practise these skills. MORE
in Kicking, Kicking & Catching, Rugby drills
With the new 50 – 22 Laws, this skill practice aims to aid a kicker with an opportunity to identify where an opposition is weakest. MORE
in Defence, Rugby drills
Most tackles from behind are from an angle. Use this session to develop the skills to make realistic tackles as players “scramble” back and chase a ball carrier. A rear tackle is a recovery tackle by a player who’s chasing. MORE
in Attack, Rugby drills
Sometimes your players will receive the ball standing still. It’s not ideal, but it happens and perhaps for a good reason too. Prepare your players to come up with ways to create go forward from a standing start when faced with an organised defence. MORE
in Defence, Rugby drills
Use this scenario to create decision-making opportunities around attacking the edge of a defence. The edge is where the end of the line of defenders finishes. MORE
