News
Rugby coaches urged to “let the game be the teacher”
A new manual that uses games to coach rugby skills is published today. 48 Rugby Skills Games follows a theme becoming increasingly widely accepted in sports coaching that “the game is the best teacher.”
The games in 48 Rugby Skills Games are suitable for coaching players of all ages and aim to improve attacking and defending skills, including tackling, passing & handling, support play, rucking, mauling, and kick & recovery.
The manual is published by specialist sports coaching publisher Green Star Media.
Each game is competitive, with clearly defined objectives and scoring systems. They are organized into the three categories of small-sided games, conditioned games, and game situations.
Coaching experts point to the benefits from game-based training, rather than drills, due to the following benefits of games:
- Players are more active, not queuing for the next drill, and are involved in both attack and defence.
- More flexibility. Players take responsibility and are free to experiment, make mistakes and learn through experience.
- Outcome focused. Games concentrate on the ultimate result, winning more matches, not on creating a team of “robots”.
- Energetic. The games combine fitness and footwork into a coaching regime.
In the foreword to the manual, coaching expert Lyn Kidman, author of “Athlete-Centred Coaching”, says: “The “Games Sense” coaching model enhances learning by providing realistic, decision making opportunities, as they might occur in the actual competition.”
She added: “Coaches will enjoy using these rugby games as much as the players. This book provides a great start to give coaches ideas for games that can be used as they are or which can be easily adapted to suit the needs of the players.”
Layout and format
Every game in 48 Rugby Skills Games is contained on a single A4 page and has been designed for clarity and ease of use, comprising the following elements:
Introduction – An explanation of the game, and the skills and techniques it focuses on.
Set up – Showing everything you’ll need to run the game, from the suggested number of players, to the size of the area, and the number of balls and cones.
Game notes – The simple game rules, like “allow rucks”, “don't allow kicking”, “swap the teams after each tackle”, “give the attack five goes to score”.
Scoring – Key to meeting the game’s objectives and keeping it competitive. In many cases, scoring is simply “1 point for a try”, but sometimes it's more sophisticated, to reward good play. For instance, “2 points for stopping the attack getting over the gain line”.
What to call out – Coaches will never be lost for words with these concise phrases to address the key factors of each game.
Coaching notes – Ways to adapt and develop the game to suit your players, or to introduce the game into a session.
Skill area – The key skill to be practised, covering: tackling, handling, support play, rucking, mauling, kick & recover, attack, and defence. All the games address footwork, team work and decision making too.
Category – Indicating the type of game: small-sided game, conditioned game, or game situation.
Key – Making sure you can differentiate between runs and passes, and pitch markings and try lines in the illustrations.
Illustrations – Three pictures clearly showing you how the game is set up and developed, and highlighting the key techniques involved.
Captions – Explaining the key points of the game.
Editor Dan Cottrell, an Academy Skills Coach with the Swansea Ospreys and Backs Coach for Wales Women, compiled the games from his extensive archive of training plans and sessions collected over more than 20 years of coaching.
48 Rugby Skills Games is available online for £27 (PDF version), £33 (Hard copy) or £39 (Both versions). To order visit www.rugby-coach.com/48rugbyskillsgames
Media Only: To request a sample copy for review or for further information, please contact Toby Curthoys, Publisher, on 01483 891077, email toby.curthoys@greenstarmedia.net or Andrew Griffiths, Managing Director on 01483 891070, email andrew.griffiths@greenstarmedia.net
About Green Star Media
Green Star Media, based in Surrey, England, aims to improve grassroots rugby and soccer by publishing easy to use, instructional advice to benefit coaches, players and the game. Through free content newsletters
Better Rugby Coaching and Better Soccer Coaching, the company reaches an audience of 135,000 sports coaches worldwide every week.