As I have attended coaching events over the years there always emerges new ways of doing things as well as revisions of what we currently do.

Below is a summary of some of these for you to ponder over.

 

The repeated skill in rugby takes a bit of figuring out because an individual skill is seldom repeated a number of times in succession by an individual player.

Because circumstances are continually changing it is the role of the coach to expand the menu of skills the player can chose from assuming the greater the range the more accurate and successful will be the choice.

So the repeated skill is not a physical skill but the mental/ tactical skill of choosing the best action.

We know that myelin coats the pathways from the brain to the muscles and the more we practice a skill the thicker will be the coating leading to faster transmission and fewer leaks. But, as I said above, we don’t perform a technical skill repeatedly in rugby.

But what we do, do is link skills together and it is here that we can improve the myelin coating.

The key to this is for coaches to develop a skill progression starting with the most basic skill and adding greater complexity to the preceding steps towards a successful conclusion.

Here is an example:

1. Start with a low tackle.
2. Now add ball recovery.
3. Now carry the ball forward.
4. Now pass to a teammate.
5. Now support the teammate from behind to get an offload.
6. Go back to the ball recovery and add the ball carrier’s teammates counter rucking.
7. Allow the attack to re-cycle the ball. The defenders involved in the post tackle now join the defence line.
8. Players shuffle side ways to allow them to align close to the post tackle.
9. Each defender identifies their ball carrier.

10. Once the ball sees the light of day quickly move forward at pace from inside the player to reduce time and space.

11. When the player is near the ball carrier steady up to offer only the outside break.

12. If the ball is not passed accelerate into a low tackle.

13. Get to the feet and contest the ball.

14. If the ball is passed pull back into the defence line so that the defender can drive into a ball carrier cutting back.

Each of these stages can be used to develop an activity for this part of the sequence.

Finally go from skill repetition to a game/ mini -game situation.

 

Other Points To Consider:

In rugby you can be successful but seldom perfect. It is adapting to the situation results in success.

There is danger in having unopposed practices as the players will not know the timing that they will have in the game and will not be forced to adapt to the situation.

The degree of opposition can be modified and progressed to suit the situation.

One thing to always remember when practicing attack and defence is to use the gain line as the initial measure of the time and space available.

 

Progressions:

By varying the following you will be able to create a progression of growing intensity. This means reducing recovery time to create oxygen debt and reducing time and space to make the “best” decision by providing varying degrees of opposition. To do this:

1. Reduce the number of players per group.
2. Opposition – from predictable (brief the opposition, whether it be attack or defence, to simulate what you want the defence or attack to practice) to randomn (the opposition can do as they please within the laws and the formations of the game.
3. Move to a game situation of which, when play is continuing from the post tackle, are just two – defence >attack: attack>defence. Develop plays for each situation.
4. Overload. Here you increase the intensity so that it is greater than it would be in a game. It is anaerobically taxing and the activities are designed for the situation that emerges in a game when the body says “no” but the mind must say “yes”. Being anaerobic these activities are short in duration with an equally short recovery period before continuing.
5. Add further options to the one you start with. This can be done by telling the attack what you want to test a defence or what you want the defence to do to test an attack. Bear in mind that these both need a lot of practice, as games alone do not create enough opportunities to get them correct.

 

Momentum and Coaching Interruptions:

It is unwise to interfere in an activity once it has been demonstrated as this takes away from the challenge the players have to solve any difficulties themselves.

Constant interruptions get in the way and may also take away the ability of the players to solve their own problems.

It is better to take a player who is having a problem to one side and have the rest of the team continue. Once the player has received one-on-one coaching he rejoins the activity.

After the activity has been taking place for some time you will be in a position to see if there are recurring problems that will result in you stopping the activity and correcting the fault.

If there are two coaches they can divide responsibilities between conducting the activity and observing the players’ skills. These roles can be rotated between the coaches.

 

You are aiming to move the player from:

èUnconscious/ incompetent to

èConscious/ incompetent to

èConscious/ competent to

èUnconscious/ competent.

The unconscious/ incompetent is poor but doesn’t know it.

The conscious/ incompetent is poor and he knows it and is keen to do something about it.

The conscious/ competent is able but has to make a decision on most issues, not many come naturally.

Finally the unconscious/ competent is the player for whom most things come naturally and, as a result, the player is able to make broader tactical issues.

This is the player who, within the context of the team’s patterns of play and game plan is able to play what is in front of him by reacting to decision-making cues.

By reacting to opponents rather than playing prescriptively no matter what the opposition is doing you are basing your options on their behaviour. This reduces the ability of the opposition to analyse your mode of play.

Make sure each practice has achievable aims that are shared with the players. Make sure you can achieve the aims in the time allocated.

Do any talking before going to practice so that the practice is all action and flows from one activity to the next.

Make the practices game intensity by being organised and showing the players you are organised by showing them the practice plan before they go to practice.

Make the length of practice as long as the players focus, the length of time that they can concentrate for. In time this should be the length of a game. Practicing for a longer time is not better as the players will just drop their intensity to make sure they last.

By sharing the aim and the practice content the players know how long they will train for and the expectation the coaches have of them.

Other Things to Think About continued:

In activities divide the players into a number of groups to give the players less recovery time.

If there are 12 players in a group they will have a turn once every 12 times.

By splitting up into 2 groups they will have one turn in 6.

Numbers can be further reduced to increase the intensity and reduce the recovery time.

There will be some activities in which they will have no recovery periods.

Develop your practice plan by answering the following questions:

• What are your areas of concern? Use the game plan and patterns of play to identify these. There may be few that you can spend some time on. If there are many there will be a need to identify the most important as it is better to practice a few of the most important concerns well rather than many superficially. Concerns can be building on strengths or working to reduce errors.
• Based on the concerns what would be the aims for each practice?
• What are the coaching points for each aim?
• What are the activities that would be used to practice the coaching points?
• What is the total practice time available for practice and how would this practice time be divided? How many practice sessions would you conduct before the next game?
• What equipment would you need?
• You may like to use Tactical Performance Goals based on the game plan and patterns of play, and KPI’s, which are a measure of the players’ success in performing the activity. Use these as benchmarks to measure performances as the season progresses.

Practice Plan Headings:

All need not be used and new headings can be included.

1. Administration.
2. Warm-up – include skills.
3. Individual skills.
4. Mini-unit skills.
5. Unit skills.
6. Team Run.
7. Warm down.
8. Administration.

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