Coaching & Management
These articles look at some of the methods you as a rugby coach can adopt to improve your performance and that of the team. Whether to add value to your training sessions, refresh your rugby management strategies or reinvigorate your coaching, the aim is to enhance your all-round effectiveness.
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Wise Words from the Experts
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Three acknowledged rugby coaching experts provide tips on their coaching strategies.
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Make a Difference on Match Days
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How you can control the game from the dug out.
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The Half Time Huddle
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This is a vital time for the coach. It must be carefully thought out to leave the players revitalised and prepared for the second half.
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11 Great Ways to Use Tackle Bags
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This man-sized tube provides you with a chance to improve your players' tackling skills. Are you getting the most out of your tackle bags?
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Why Your Management Style Matters
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How you manage the players and the team, and who and how you make decisions has a huge impact on results.
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Touch Rugby to Make Your Players Shine
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This simple game concentrates on running, support play and passing ability, ensuring a great skills and fitness workout for the entire team.
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Pep Up Your Training Runs
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Hill running is a great way to add some variety to routine running fitness workouts.
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What Not to Say!
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"You've got to get your first tackle in early, even if it's late." Ray Gravell, Welsh centre of the 1970s.
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Dynamic Stretching Routines
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You don't need to be a physio expert to introduce these stretches into your team's warm up routines.
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9 Ways to Train with Tyres
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A fun alternative to the usual drill equipment, to boost core skills and fitness.
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6 Super Sub Strategies
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Tactical substitutions are a common feature of modern rugby. Peter Tann explains how we can make the best use of these players.
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Stats Games & Videotape
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Top sides have analysts to break down every phase of the game. Here's how you can adapt some of their techniques for your team.
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6 Ways to Get to Grip with Grids
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Grids are sometimes used as an end in themselves, rather than as the means to an end. Here's how you can enhance your use of grids.
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Playing Against a Side that Cheats
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The fine line between playing the referee and knowing the referee.
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5 Easy Steps to Devising a Team Strategy
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How to focus your planning and coaching to make the best use of your time, resources and players.
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Making Core Skills Fun
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Core skills training can be a chore. Here's how to add some variety to make the process more fun and develop the skills quicker.
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Training with Tennis Balls
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Tennis balls make a welcome alternative from the usual rugby ball work and also teach good technique.
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5 Alternative Ways to Train with Cones
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Better Rugby Coaching experimented with using cones to add a different dimension to training, breaking up the normal routines.
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8 Ways to Start Next Season Before the End of this One
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The final weeks of the rugby season are not just a good time to reflect and review. They are also a great time to start planning.
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Improvised Training
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Sessions to pull out of the coaching toolkit when your plans have gone awry.
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Make Your Side Better Tacklers
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Concentrate on getting the right mindset to get your players to tackle more effectively.
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Overspeed Training
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Assisted running techniques to get your players faster.
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Passing Along the Floor
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A lucky break, or a potent attacking weapon?
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8 Steps to Become a Better Youth Coach
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Better Rugby Coaching gives you some short steps, not massive changes, to improve your youth coaching this week.
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A Great Scrummaging Session (Part 1)
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How to run an effective scrummaging session in 30 minutes.
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A Great Scrummaging Session (Part 2)
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How to run an effective scrummaging session in 30 minutes.
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5 Ways to Make New Players Part of Your Team
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A successful team is an apparently stable one. Peter Tann offers a five step guide to reducing the unsettling nature of introducing new players.
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Winning Quicker Ruck Ball in 6 Easy Steps
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Quick ball means a chance to run at a less organised defence. But if your team simply can't produce the sort of ball your scrum half needs, here are some cures.
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6 Attributes to Look for in Your Captain
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The captain's job is to ensure that each player is in the right frame of mind to give all they have to the team. Peter Tann offers his advice.
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Training the Back Row
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Ways to help improve this unit's performance.
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Is Your Team Getting Enough Fuel?
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What we eat and drink provides the fuel for us to train, play and recover. We as coaches are in a position to influence our players to become healthier.
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Am I Still a Good Coach?
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All coaches have moments of reflection or even doubt. Here are some tried and tested methods to reinvigorate your coaching.
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Thinking Outside the Box - Circle Grids
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Training a large group can be difficult. Try circle grids for a different approach.
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Making Communication the Key (Part 1)
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The best rugby players at any level are never quiet in attack or defence. A two part article by Paul Tyler.
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Making Communication the Key (Part 2)
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The best rugby players at any level are never quiet in attack or defence. A two part article by Paul Tyler.
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Blind Passing – Silent Support
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Are you brave enough to try these things?
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Touch Rugby – Friend or Foe?
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Playing touch rugby can pay dividends when it comes to full contact matches.
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Using Touch Rugby to Improve the Basics
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How touch rugby can allow your players to experiment and extend their core skills.
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Rugby in Union?
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What rugby union can learn from rugby league.
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Pre-Season Do's and Don'ts
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In all the excitement of pre-season training, it is possible to forget some of the principles of preparing your team for the first game, or indeed the whole season.
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Laws Reminders - Knees - Lineouts and Crossing
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Can't you remember all the Laws?
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Did You Watch a Different Match?
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A guideline to help you evaluate your team during and after the match.
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7 Ways to Improve Passing with Footwork
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Which of your players concentrates on getting their feet right before they pass the ball?
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The Rugby Black Book
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How the black book led to England winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
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Pre-Match Warm-Ups
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Your pre-match routine should be about both mental and physical preparation.
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Fundamentals of a Great Lineout Session
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Repeat, perfect. Oppose, compete.
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Concentrate on the Five
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Colin Ireland sets out exercises to test the five core skills.
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The Innovative Coach
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John Schropfer challenges the way you think about the game.
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The One Session Workout
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Ken MacEwen shows you how to build your team's fitness and improve your players' skills at the same time.
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Tramlines Rugby Practice
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For Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach, practising the basics is an important part of training.
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7 Key Factors to an Intense Defence
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Getting your team organised and working together in defence can pay big dividends over the course of the season.
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Overload Attack Game
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Challenge your players' individual and unit defensive abilities.
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Periodization Uncovered
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What it is and how it can work for your team.
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Concentrate on the Five
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The core areas of the game that even the top players practise every week.
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5 Ways to Create a Controlled – Aggressive Team
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Following the example of the All Blacks.
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The Art of Falling Over
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How you fall makes a big difference to how well your side keeps the ball.
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Hold Your Breath – Here Comes Kabaddi
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An exciting all action invasion game, that can easily be applied to rugby.
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Touch Rugby to Make Your Players Shine
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Simple games with big skills and fitness gains.
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Taking the Fear Out of Refereeing
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My simple guide to the steps you can take to make it more enjoyable.
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Pop Cycles
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A full session to boost your team's short passing skills.
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Leadership Lessons from Attila the Hun
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If you need to bond your team to beat a well-organised and resourced opponent, who better than Attila to teach us a few things?