Get your rugby players to understand you
One of the best ways to check you are challenging your players' understanding is by using "open questions", that is a question which requires more than a "yes" or "no" answer.
Benefits of open questions
- The answer needs some thought from the respondent, allowing the questioner to effectively gauge their level of understanding.
- Asking a player an open question helps to reinforce their learning and the learning of the other players around them.
- Answers to open questions give you an immediate feedback on the players' understanding of a technique, skill or situation.
Open questioning in practice
Asking open questions is a coaching skill, which can be improved by practice and experience of different situations.
Before training think through the situations you are going to put your players in. Consider what might happen and think in advance of the sort of questions you might ask.
Examples of open questions
- What did you do as an individual (or group) to successfully penetrate the defence?
- What did you do as an individual (or group) to stop the attack? What could you do as an individual (or group) to put more pressure on the attack?
- In this situation what are we trying to achieve? What are you doing to ensure you succeed in this situation? What are your specific roles?
- What would happen if we changed our starting alignment at the set piece? What might the opposition do? What advantages would this give us?
- What are our options in this area of the pitch? What factors influence our choice of action? How can we make sure we are successful?
The answers your players give you will provide you with opportunities to further explore their understanding by asking supplementary questions.
Listen to the answers and use their words as a focus for different questions.
Responding to the wrong answer
If a player comes up with a "wrong answer", try saying:
- "I like your thinking. Can you think of an alternative?"
- "That might be a good idea if we are facing a spread defence. So if we are facing a bunched defence, how would you change your answer?"
This article is taken from the Better Rugby Coaching e-newsletter. Click here to sign up and get free rugby drills and skills twice a week.
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