3 months in

I started my blog with great intentions, but unfortunately as often is the case I’ve not got round to updating it, I had initially planned to write a review halfway through pre season, and I had made some notes at this point as I felt self reflection was an important part of the coaching process.

So going back a month and a half to the middle of preseason and my self reflection resulted in panic and far more questions then answers!

How do I know if we as a team/individuals are progressing?
Just because I like my style of coaching does that mean the players do?
Are players enjoying themselves and do they feel like training is a constructive use of their time?
Are we going to be ready for the start of the season?

I had asked a number of players what they thought of the sessions and the feedback had been positive. However, I did appreciate that they are unlikely to say anything to the contrary to a new coach. After much reflection, I decided some of the above questions where unanswerable and it would be far more useful to look at what was working well.

1, Numbers for training were improving week on week and I felt players were approaching the sessions with enthusiasm.
2, I was building a good rapport with the players.
3, Players were starting to feel a lot more comfortable contributing to question and answer sessions.

Moving on another month and a half, we are top of the league having scored over 100 points and conceded less then 20 points but I am still being, if not even more self reflective. Every session I try to analyse progress not just on a skill development but also on a personal level, my current favourite question is ‘who and how have I improved on a personal level?’.

To summarise, I think coaches need just as much reassurance as players, and this is about looking and identifying ‘markers’ to indicate success. It’s also about asking questions that you can answer and not unanswerable questions. Personally I have learnt that I am more of a control freak then I knew I was. And by sharing some of the work load with the more senior players has actually allowed me to coach individuals and not just give general feedback.

I’ve decided my next blog will be when we inevitable have our first match when things don’t go to plan! Coaching is a much easier job when you are winning!

My Coaching Philosophy

With my first session as a player coach under my belt I felt compelled to write another blog. Tuesday heralded the dawn of a new era (in my mind anyway), following an off season of reading and planning my first session arrived. Despite a few hick ups I was relatively pleased with my first attempt and most importantly, I did things the way I wanted to do things. By this I mean I did things that some coaches/players may consider ‘outside the box’.

Through both my playing days and my day job as a PE teacher I have spent the last few years developing a rough vision of how I think amateur rugby players should train. Whilst I wouldn’t consider my ideas as revolutionary, I do believe my approach is one of a minority of coaches rather then the majority. As the season has approached and I have given my coaching more and more thought, and thanks to much reassurance by many enlightened coaches on twitter (@nlevett @uppy01 @RossRugby), a number of TED talks on youtube (John Wooden and Itay Talgam) and of course a few role models both past and present in the coaching world I now believe I have a firm picture of how I want to coach.

My Coaching Philosophy

One of the big questions I keep asking myself is how would I sum up my coaching philosophy? I’ve recently read 2 great blogs exploring football and coaching philosophies the first looks at the reasons why a coaching philosophy is important (http://riseofthecoach.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/coaching-philosophy/) and the second (http://www.sirc.ca/newsletters/mid-sept11/documents/free/philosophy.pdf) gives examples of high profile football coaches and their philosophies. The fact that both articles relate to football is in my opinion irrelevant and I think sports should not be afraid to share ideas, particular on something as generic as philosophy. Unfortunately my philosophy is quite as poetic as Trapattoni or Parreira’s, in fact I wouldn’t even say my philosophy is the finished article however I do think it’s a starting point and I’m sure (and I hope) it will evolve as develop and learn as a coach.

Coaching for me is about creating an environment where players aren’t scared of failing, to truly learn we must understand and one of the best ways to develop understanding is by making mistakes and learning how to rectify them. Coaching is about not just giving players the answers but igniting them to have a passion to find the answers. I firmly believe you coach the player not the game.

I can’t overstate the importance in my opinion of having a coaching philosophy. I firmly believe that purely through the process of thinking about my own coaching philosophy, I now have a lot clearer base from which to plan. I also hope by having a clear philosophy the players will have a level of consistency and through sharing my values, they will hopefully buy in and more importantly understand what I am trying to do.

So what was my revolutionary session?

Warm up – rugby netball, first as a big group whilst rules were learnt and then as the numbers grew two games of 7 vs 7.

Some dynamic stretching (no static stretching)

Offside rugby big pitch (lots of running) game limited to 7 minutes.

Defensive practice – mini completions in lines focusing on players discovering how fast slow they can go, who needs to line up where etc. lots of Q&A. I interspersed this with some fun wrestling tournaments.

Back into offside touch, smaller pitch with scoring team always keeping the ball (max 8 minutes). It took a long time for the teams to realise that 30 seconds of cohesive hard work in defence could possible lead to attacking (always seems easier!).

I then went back to the defensive games and asked what the offside touch had taught us about defence(work hard and together and reap the rewards)

Finally conditioned touch rugby, 2 games 7 vs 7. We started with if the defender can catch the attack behind the gain line it was a turnover, this became too easy so we introduced the 2 defenders had to lay down next to the breakdown area to create more space for the attack and to work defence harder. The final evolution (after the players had recognised that too much line speed can lead to players being to easy to step) saw any tries through the middle meant a forfeit for the defence. I must add I’m not a great advocate of punishing mistakes, but in this instance I felt it was a good deterrent and wouldn’t create an ethos of being afraid to try things.

The session did involve whole group coaching, but this was all done by guided discovery (that’s the teacher in me coming out) and through Q&A. I also focused on pulling players out of games for a minute or so and discussing their weaknesses/ focus for improvements.

Is sevens a stepping stone or a separate entity?

Following a weekend of doing little else other then watching rugby (the london 7s interspersed with the premiership semi finals, the championship final and a sprinkling of super 15s) I found my self reflecting on the nature of the two games and the relationship they have with each other.

I’ve always found that I was an anomaly amongst my rugby playing friends with regards to my attitude to sevens. Come the end of the season, I used to relish the opportunity to play the reduced version of the game as it was a chance to throw off the shackles and express myself. For those of you who haven’t read my previous blog, I always had an issue in 15s with going into my ‘shell’, yet due to the lack of seriousness associated with sevens I never felt the pressure or exceptions of negative coaches and team mates.

Not only did I find I was somewhat of an anomaly when it came to playing the game, I also found that many of my rugby playing friends not only didn’t like participating but also had a very ‘take or leave it’ attitude to watching the game. This was something I really couldn’t understand and as much as I appreciate the finer points of the game and intricacies of the forward battle, surely rugby is about scoring tries? Something which 7s has in abundance! In fact thinking back, my earliest sevens memory goes back to 1993 and having two years earlier witnessed England going close in the 15 aside World Cup I remember vividly England winning the 7 aside version in Murryfield. I remember being captivated by the pace of Andrew Harrimen, and the footwork of a young Serevi, whilst not all players for England that day were household names (although some went on to be) the Australians had sent a star studded team containing the likes of Lynagh, Campese and Ofahengaue. Contrast that the current England and Australia teams and there is not a 15s cap amongst them. In fact looking back at the England 7s squads of previous years there have been very low percentage of players who have gone between the two with Wade, Tait and Strettle been some of the few which spring to mind.

So back to me original question. Sevens has definitely become more prevalent in the past few years, and the addition of the game to the Olympics has brought the game to the attention of a whole host of new countries. In my opinion this can only be good for Rugby Union. I also think as a coach who works with both adults and children it is a great way to get your more athletic kids (often from other sports) hooked on the game. The natural progression of a new player with any sort of pace/agility is to start them on the wing and as they develop find a position/positions that suit them. Unfortunately as a winger it’s probably the place were you will get least touches, sevens on the other hand, allows players to experience getting their hands on the ball. I’ve seen players getting more touches of the ball in 7s tournament then they do in a whole season of 15s! I would much rather see 7s being used by the RFU as hook, with players then having an outlet to the 15 aside game (if they choose). I would also like to see a few of the more experienced players going back to 7s. Surely someone like Quade Cooper would be a real asset to the Australian team, and having been snubbed by the wallabies it could surely be a viable option.

So as they say ‘watch this space’. I think 7s could grow and grow with its introduction to the Olympics, but I really hope the two versions of the game don’t drift any further apart and they work together to assist the quality and popularity of our ‘beautiful’ game.

The Next Step

“if you think you can or can’t you’ll probably be right” Henry Ford

After 12 years of thinking “I can’t” I’ve decided to tread a new path and think “I can”.

I promise the rest of this blog won’t be quite as philosophical as the above. Firstly an introduction, after 10 plus years of getting paid in some form or another for playing the game I love, I’ve decided to move into the world of coaching. As a player I probably slightly underachieved (the reasons for which I will discuss later) and I’m not sure I am ready to give up my playing days altogether, and it is with this in mind that I have decided to offer my services to a local club as a player coach.

As previously mentioned I would say that reflecting on my playing career, I look back with slight disappointment at the level I achieved. Following a lot of deep thinking, I believe a large part of this was a lack of progress and development from the age of 17. Hindsight is a wonderful thing however I am not in a position to be able to blame hindsight and ironically I must blame foresight.  In my opinion the major sticking point was not my skill level, natural ability or athleticism but my psychological approach to the game. To elaborate on this further, as a young player I was always commended for my ‘reflective approach’ and my ‘insight and understanding’ of the game, and it was often commented on how ‘coach-able’ I was. As a junior learning the game this stood me in good stead however as I arrived in the senior game, this lead to me approaching my performances with a negative outlook and all of a sudden rather then coaches telling me how good I was or how well I’d done I began receiving criticism for things which as a reflective player I knew I’d done wrong.

It is hard to say why my approach changed, maybe it was down to the care free nature of youth, or the fact that rugby as a senior player become a lot more result orientated then performance orientated. What ever it was, I believe that the change in my thinking that occurred has had a massive impact on the way in which I played the game.  In fact my self diagnosed  “fear of failure” has probably worsened over the last couple of years and I have found the negative questions in my mind increasing.  I can think of a number of times this season when I should have gone for the line but shipped on responsibility, or not calling for the ball when supporting a team mate for fear of making the wrong option, or even not taking responsibility for a high ball (a particular strength of mine) when other teammates are around.

I’m probably painting quite a negative picture of myself here and on a positive note, I can honestly say I have never ‘shirked’ responsibility. In fact on the odd occasion I have (under the right coach) reveled in it, but unfortunately there have been far too many times when I have been reluctant to take the ‘limelight’ which in my opinion has held me back.

So if your still reading this, you may be wondering what this has to do with my foray into caching? Well, following a lot of deep thinking (maybe that has been the problem with my rugby career TOO MUCH THINKING!!). I’ve decided that through my own experiences I can hopefully unlock some of the hidden potential in players.

I have had the fortune in my rugby career to be coached by some excellent coaches and some not so good coaches, and I’d like to think I’ve learnt a lot from both. A wise man (cheers dad) once told me ‘always try and learn something from people, even if its how not to do something’ and it is this mantra which has got me through many a fruitless training session. I also feel as I’ve become more aware of sports psychology, that often coaching the mind is equally if not more important then the body. Far too often, I’ve witnessed players/teams underachieving due to poor management rather then due to lack of skill/fitness.

Through this blog and my twitter feed I aim to keep anyone interested up to date with my journey into coaching. I hope to reflect on both my own practice and that of others, and share good practice I come across. Having sat down and written this maybe I should have done this a long time ago as its been quite a cathartic process. So time to stop thinking ‘I can’t’ and start getting myself and others thinking ‘I can’ and more importantly inspiring others to think ‘they can’