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Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 17/02/2010 22:05:39
Posts: 1,
Visits: 5
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| Hi, The Under 14's team that I coach have real raw ability, however they don't ever want to train which means there talents are being squandered. I have tried many different coaching methods and have even tried bringing in outside people and other people from within the club to try and get them to take to training. However this has been to no avail and because of this we are not able to compete against many of the local teams. I wanted to know if anyone else had struggled like this and if so how they had overcome it. I look forward to hearing people responses.
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Supreme Being
Group: Moderators
Last Login: 12/08/2010 15:25:53
Posts: 250,
Visits: 1,631
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| First, I would say that most teams don't seem to want to train. I was driving my 10 year old son to training last night and he said "please just let us have a game, and not do drills". We started with some small sided games, did three rotations and then played a game. He was happy! Second, there is no magic bullet especially for Under 14 teams, but here are some ideas that might work: 1. Don't train, play games. Just use lots of small sided games to work on different skills with conditions for those games (plug for 48 Rugby Skills Games!) 2. Ask the players for their feedback on what they might expect from training. Also ask them where their weaknesses are and how they might be addressed. 3. Make train 20% shorter, but 30% more intense. 4. U14 boys are becoming more aware of their bodies. Promote "looking good" training.
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Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 26/02/2010 11:56:19
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| Hi we have recently improved our U14's results by intensifying their training. We get reasonable support to our training sessions averaging around 15 for a current squad of 19 players. We mainly play small sided games but they have been a bit lame and they were difficult to step up to the next level. The floodlit, wet and cold evening sessions are a challenge but they work! Most of our lads only play rugby at their comprehensive schools from Jan to March! What worked for us: I had a chat with two young and smaller players and their Dads. At the moment they are just not up to the physical level that we now play. Now they train down a group. We needed to handle this carefully but this helped both groups alot and particularly the two smaller but keen players. We next invited two parent/ex-players who showed they were keen to help following a recent defeat. Rather than not use them, I decided to test them, and pulled them into the coaching team. At U14's the players say what they think and so it would be a good test on the new prospective coaches. This has worked really well, so far. We changed our outside center, who has played wing, back row and lock, for our 10, who had lost confidence in contact and was dropping behind the forwards, for some protection, thus holding the defending line back on lost ball!! With more coaches we could then split backs and forwards for specific drills, and with two coaches with each of these groups we could increase intensity in training. Before this, if we worked a backs or forwards drill one 'set' seemed to loose concentration quickly and destroy what we were trying to achieve by messing about. I began to plan more meticulously, as we now have 4 coaches, and 2 new ones, to organise first. We do play plenty of matches, both league U14's Hants Division 3 games and 'friendlies'. We match freindlies with good clubs too, that also want to experiment with player positions and moves. Traditionally we have been seen as a pushover club in recent history. That is now changing slowly and all age groups are coming on nicely. Guess what this weekend our old 10, now playing at 12, was our man of the match as we turned around a 5 - 30 loss before Christmas, to a 25 - 12 win, yesterday! It is working. Les Jones Fawley RFC, U14's Head Coach.
Les Jones
Fawley RFC
Aiming for L2 and coaching a Junior Club U14's Squad.
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Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 22/02/2010 13:08:32
Posts: 1,
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| An U14 team that lacks the motivation to train might point to an imbalanced ratio of participants to competitors. Without knowing the squad, as individuals, it's hard to suggest a way forward other than, as suggested by Dan, you get them to play games rather than train. It's in the perception. A squad of players can be analagous to a train where the better, more competitive players are the engine pulling along the less talented in the trucks, where just being part of the squad is enough, perhaps for social rather than rugby reasons. A lack of willingness to train sounds like a lack of motivation to improve ... question their motivation in a friendly and open style. Are they happy just to play, could they care less whether they win or not? The coaches' aspirations and ambitions must be aligned with the squad's.
Dai Bugler: Club secretary, L2 coach and occasional Society Ref, Head Coach Alton RFC U14s
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Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 22/02/2010 19:21:23
Posts: 1,
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| hi i coach a team of under 12s in cornwall i have found that in the last three years that i have been coaching them they seem to enjoy training i have started to give them intense sessions on a friday night ,and some of them have even asked for extra time but i have found it increasingly harder each week after training to tell them that they dont have a game because the teams that we are due to play pull out because they dont have the numbers to make up a team i have found out that they play tag at primary school,and when they go up to senior school they drop of from training because they are not used to the contact they duck out of training but seem to make the games when there on
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