Coaching the Winscombe Way

This document is a brief set of guidelines for coaches on how to organise their age groups and structure their sessions.  It does not include guidance on child protection, the provision of courses, or even specific drills, as all this information is easily available elsewhere (if you're looking for drills follow "Coaching Links" on the left).  Instead, it’s intended to be an introduction to the role of the coach in the club and a source of useful hints and tips.

Above all, it captures the underlying principles of coaching the Winscombe way.  The most important things are:

• Fun – never forget that kids come to have fun, not to win matches.  Competitive psychology doesn’t emerge in children until near the end of their time in the Mini & Junior section, and coaches and parents must not be allowed to impose it on the players.

• Inclusion – every kid has an equal role to play.  Not only is developing the apparently less able children more rewarding to a coach, rugby is a late-development sport, with even top internationals often not emerging as good players until their late teens.  Even the least talented player should still learn that rugby can be played and enjoyed by all.

Finally, everyone should remember that the coaches and helpers are volunteers who surrender their own time not only to coach, but to attend the various courses that enable them to do it properly.  Co-operation and mutual support are vital.

Fig 1. Trainee coaches.

Coaching Team Responsibilities

Coaching squad sizes vary between age groups and so each must be organised accordingly.  Here’s some outline guidance:

• Head Coach/Manager – The club will ask for one coach to be identified as the team manager, to act as the focal point for communication.  This person is usually also identified as the Head Coach, who will co-ordinate the style, objectives, and training session structure of the age group.  The role is consultative, as everyone is a volunteer, and the Head Coach’s aim is to achieve consensus rather than impose it.

• Admin Assistant – Some age groups are able to identify a non-coaching parent to handle admin.  This will include monitoring registrations (club and RFU), attendance, locations of away fixtures, and communications to parents.  This is a highly valuable role and can be a major asset to the squad.

• Coaches – It’s not unusual for an age group to have a large number of coaches.  Try to share the workload by selecting particular topics as focus areas – not just forwards and backs, but also tackling, defence, handling, kicking – even fitness.  If you have many coaches, alternate the leadership between weeks, so that the defining and leading the session content is taken in turn.

• Senior Players – Members of the senior sides can often make themselves available to help (remember they must be CRB checked first).  A different voice can often get a message through, especially if the person giving that message isn’t “someone’s dad”.  Older players have useful experience to impart; younger players can empathise and enthuse in a “big brother” manner.

• Parents – A helpful and supportive parent group will reinforce your decisions and the direction of your coaching.  Encourage an open and inclusive approach by frequently briefing parents on coaching policy and plans.  If they understand what you’re trying to achieve, they are more likely to support you.

Coaches also have a responsibility to improve their skills by training and research.  The club guidance is that all coaches should aim for Level 2 qualification, and the club will refund any course fees.

Finally, remember that the coach must set an example.  If the coach refrains from swearing at underperforming players, never criticises the referee, and is friendly to opponents, then players are likely to do the same.  Good habits learnt now will last a lifetime.

Objectives and Style

It is useful to set objectives at the start of each season, and these objectives should work towards establishing a style of play agreed upon within the coaching squad.  The objectives will then in turn determine the structure of the training sessions.

For example, a squad that has a large proportion of backs may decide that an open, flowing style would bring the best from the players.  Subsequent objectives would be to ensure that the ball is released before rather than in the tackle, that every player could pass at least five yards off each hand, and that forwards focus on becoming a mobile support force.  The choice of training drills can then be made.

Fig 2. Coaches in action.  Some coaches also have hair. 

Session Structure

Every session, whether or not it includes a match, should have a plan.  The various coaching courses that every coach should attend contain plenty of good guidance on this topic – and here’s some more.

The Warm-up

A session must start with a warm-up.  Above the age of about 10, muscle structure changes and the chances of damage become much greater, so the warm-up is an essential safety element.  Below that age, it still serves two functions:

• Getting the players into the habit of warming up, as preconditioning for when they are older.
• Bringing the group together, imposing order, and formally starting the session.

Before a match, the warm-up has an important psychological component at all ages.  It cements the team together, identifies roles, and should be used by the coach as the point where all distracting thoughts are banished from the players’ minds.

Dynamic stretching is increasingly seen as more effective than traditional static stretches - ask around for the latest guidance.  A contact element to the warm-up is also useful before a match.

Session Content

Every session should attempt to include an element of the following topics:

·        Conditioning and fitness;

·        Set plays;

·        Passing and handling;

·        Kicking, where appropriate;

·        Tactics in attack and defence;

·        Tackling.

This may seem like a lot to cram into a two-hour session, but remember that a drill that focuses on one aspect can still reinforce others.

Research your drills to ensure variety.  The Winscombe website consciously has no drills on it, because there is such an enormous range freely available.  See the “Links” section for some starting points.

Pearls of Dubious Wisdom...

Here are some other tips, in no particular order.

Children – especially smaller ones – need to be repeatedly trained in a topic for it to stick.  The thing they do best in a match will invariably be the last thing they were trained to do, and if you skip a topic for a week, they’ll have forgotten everything the week after.  However, you can’t keep repeating the same drill on, say, rucking, without incurring rebellion, so training plans must look ahead and ensure that drills provide progression. 

When determining the balance of a training session, use the seasons’ objectives and style to decide where to place emphasis.  Avoid getting lost in an obsession in one particular aspect of the game.

Try and make a game out of any drill, or a drill out of any practice game.  To achieve the former, divide the players into teams and award points for successful completion.  To achieve the latter, mutilate the rules of a training game to encourage a particular objective.  For example, to encourage passing introduce the Lacrosse rule, in which the referee counts out-loud to three, and if a pass isn’t made in that time, the ball is turned over.

Use your coaches to divide the squad into groups, either doing the same thing in smaller units, or rotating around different drills.  Have different coaches lead successive drills, sharing the load but also providing variety for the kids.  Try to keep drills under twenty minutes, and if they’re getting bored and mucking about, the drill is failing so try something else.

Avoid over-specialising kids at any mini and junior age group, by not forming distinct groups of backs and forwards unless absolutely necessary.  The size of a child is no guide to the size of the eventual adult, and Jonah Lomu would have made a rubbish forward (well, maybe not…)  As far as possible, make the whole squad do the same drills, whether they’re for forwards or backs.

Moving up Age Groups

A common complaint is that we lose the wisdom accumulated from the previous coaches of our new age group.  Part of the coaches’ job, when moving up, is to speak to their predecessors and learn what they can.  However, this doesn’t have to be a verbal tradition and some hints are given below – other contributions are sought and will be added!

U8	At U7 the ball can only be turned over when the player goes into touch, drops the ball, or passes forward.  In other words, the defending side can only obtain the ball when the attacking side makes a mistake.  However, at U8 they can get the ball by making six successive tackles, placing an even greater premium on defensive organisation.  Ask the kids if they want the ball; they’ll say “YES!”; then tell them they have to tackle for it. Also, at this age, things like switch passes can be successfully coached and used in matches.
U9	First contact age! Lots of work on tackling, but actually the most important thing bar none is teaching rucking.  If you let them maul the game will degrade into a mass of players bound onto the ball and swaying back-and-forth around the pitch.  Rucking is key.
U10	A relatively small step from U9, but time to concentrate on distribution.  The scrum-half becomes the most important player on the pitch – put quick players wide and work on fast hands.  Also, keep the pressure on contact zone skills and especially rucking – if they can generate good phases of play they’ll be well set for U11.
U11	Another big step, with five-player scrums and the introduction of kicking.  During this year the team must make the transition from Big Mini Team to Little Rugby Team, and there’s lots to learn: scrummaging, line-out, kicking, defensive organisation, phasing and distribution.  The fly-half suddenly becomes important, and the full-back and wings need to learn where to stand and when.  A year that needs careful planning.
U12	Number 8 comes in now.  A period of a few years starts in which growth rates can vary wildly, with some kids becoming giants overnight and others taking a little longer.  With many of the basics now a routine part of the curriculum, and the kids old enough to listen, more depth and challenge can be introduced to training.
U13	The final big change, to the 15-man game and almost adult rules.  The big thing going in to this season is FITNESS!  After playing for years on small and progressively more crowded pitches, suddenly there are acres of space and a much longer game.  Backs are suddenly liberated, but the mobility of the new back row is also very important.

Any other additions from coaches to the notes above are very welcome – please send them through.

And Finally…

The author and contributors to this work are the same weekend volunteers as the readers, and have tried to collect what they’ve learnt into this short and possibly inaccurate document.  Coaching is probably the most rewarding thing that this author has ever done, passing on my love of the game and the principles of sportsmanship and friendship that go with it to a whole new generation of players.  If we succeed in transmitting that, even if we teach nothing else, then our job is done.

Law Changes

There has been a law change for all age groups and seniors.  If during a tackle the arm slides up the body to a position above the high tackle line, then a high tackle penalty should be given.  Previously this was only the case if the initial point of contact was high.

Also, a reminder for refs.  When the seniors adopted "Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage" last year there was a subtle change for minis and juniors.  Previously, at the "touch", the M&J front rows had remained in contact until the engage.  They must now adopt the new senior routine, of dropping the touch arm when "Pause" is called.  This prevents one prop pushing with the touch arm and holding his opponent back during the engage.

The ELVs

The Mini Continuum is unchanged by the ELVs.  Junior law changes are not yet finalised, but the RFU have confirmed that deliberately collapsing the maul WILL REMAIN A PENALTY OFFENCE IN JUNIOR RUGBY.