Thought I would add a piece about the setup of the under 10's.  There is myself the lead coach. Why, I have been coaching this group of lads since some of them were 4, not a bad coach I feel, level 1 qualified and played my rugby throughout 22yrs in the navy, on ships and US Portsmouth. My forte is pulling things together having endless enthusiasm also I have the time to commit.  Me and my bag have become trusted by the parents a big plus, I am always there very important for the continuity.  The mums particularly as they talk to other mums at the school gates and with a good name comes more recruits.  We have another level 1 coach who played his rugby in the area he is good with the detail, two keen dads who still play. One has a softer approach which is good for bringing players along on a one to one basis and one keen grandad.  There is a manager I always like the manager to have a strong character not afraid to pass comments on to myself or to give me a quick scud around the head should I get to headstrong!!!  He has the weekly check list and kids playing time well off pat so that no child is missed, keeps the parents well informed of whats happening and emails a good match report to all.  The match report goes to the local rag and gets published about twice in a season .  We have a dad who referee's, important as it allows us to coach.  Also a Mum for the other mum's to talk to should us horrilble males be a little too intimidating.  This setup seems to work as we are picking up new players each year.  I always chat to the kids and the parents and if I chat to a child about how they are playing it is always in front of the parent, I hope in doing this bad feeling can be avoided. 

A lot to fit in this morning in 35 mins.  Started with a warm up by me.  They were stood on the halfway line me on the 10m line.  Jog out to me then punching to the front, right, left, in the air and dpwn to the ground, jog back.  High knees out to me front crawl, backstroke, butterfly, butterfly backwards, breaststroke, high knees back. Feet up to the bottoms, twist, side bends and forward bends legs slightly bent feetup back.  face one one side steps out, 5 pressups sidesteps back.  Face one way swivel hips out, 5 situps hands on the thighs slide the hands up or grab the shorts to help yourself up, swivel hips back.  High knees out, 5 star jumps, high knees back.  Jog to the 10m sprint to the 22m jog to the 5m, turn round sprint to 22m, jog to 10m sprint to halfway, jog to 10m sprint to 22m get a drink.

Need to achieve passing, tackling, mauling, check scrum positions in 25mins.  How we see the order of priorities of their game.

Straight across to the passing circle, one of the other coaches keeps the tempo up on this so the kids realise they are back. (described in an earlier post)

Straight across to one on one tackling, again another two coaches ready for this. (described in an earlier post)

Across to mauling myself and another, two tackle pads 4 pods, first pod drive into the pad secure the ball, get it back to the scrum half who passes across to the next pod to attack the other tackle pad, lots of voice encouragement here as the kids minds were not really ready for this, by the end though we could see realisation of what was required.

Checked scrum positions of the front rows

Both teams could manage two teams this morning which was superb so first game.  We came out of the blocks very quickly, I am a firm believer in the last thing you do at under 9's and 10's before a game involves contact.  We went two tries up by half time.  The second half was two tries apiece.  In the first half the our tighthead and their loosehead had problems coming together in the scrums, so rather than leave it to the referee to struggle on myself and one of their coaches ran on and made sure the engagement went correctly for a couple of scrums and then all was well. 

Second game. This game we won quite easily, we have one lad who is big and mobile, (unfortunately his main sport is the round ball, the dark side, but he didn't leave early this week so maybe he is seeing the light) anyway all our players tackled well in both games and part of it is i'm sure, is that they have to tackle him on a weekly basis so size is less of an issue for us. We also have some players that advance to tackle this then puts pressure on the opposition well there were a few more doing this, this week.  Maybe one day I will reach the holy grail of a defence that adances and holds the line!!!?? In both games our support was constant no matter who had the ball and their awarenes of the ball on the ground had improved no end.  No rucks yet but at least someone claimed the ball. 

The player of the week went to a lad that chased back and dive tackled on two occassions certainly preventing tries.

Pass of the week went to a hooker that does not pass the ball, very mobile and fast (why a hooker, uncle is) so he doesnt really feel he needs to, but he did and we scored, maybe the chocolate bar is working.

Well a good busy start to the new year, but the lads came away bouyant.

Gained 3 new players so after the warm up. the coach that has the milder disposition took them away to start and progress tackilng.

Another coach took them for the warmup.  His background is rugby and martial arts, so lots of movement and stretching. Then get a drink whilst having the drink tried to explain that this half of the season we needed to move forward with more technical areas as well as skills.  if we dont then we will fall behind.

To that effect we then moved onto trying to give the team more structure, placed a ball and had forwards gather around it with backs lined up deep if attacking and flat if defending.  The attacking backs ensuring that the foot furtherest from the ball was the forward foot, to straighten them up, to point down the pitch, and hands were up ready to recieve.  Defending backs now to identify the attacker that was theirs to advance on. This will need a little more work, but is was chilly so we moved onto:

Small sided games 5 aside small pitch tackle only, dropped ball turn over ball, pass after 3 secs of being held all restarts a free throw.  Operating a league system so there would be a winning team.  Hoped it would be fun, keep them warm, improve passing and tackling and develop a competitive spirit. Did it work, well there was lots of running required so it kept them warm.  Support was there and on the whole passing was good the children that like to try and break the line suffered as they could not get the ball away so well. (pass before being tackled, commit then pass was the advice) The biggest surprise was the children that stepped up and became competitive it was not the usual suspects, but others you would not had guessed to come to the fore.  The 3 new children joined in on teams and they managed to contribute, ensured they got the ball from free throws, so they got included. So would I run it again, yes they enjoyed it and other children came out of their shell in a small team an unexpected bonus.

spike

spike

Warmup, I carried out the warmup the one where there is a ball between two.  Just two things to add as part of the warm since the kids have been 7 i have added this while they jog.  Jog forward hop on the left foot slight to the left and break right, jog on, hop on the right foot slightly right break left.  We now have one child that side steps every game and others that every so often sidestep, they have never been formally taught to sidestep, or have they?!  With that in mind, i introduced a sprint position into 5m sprints, taken from the rugby defence manual - get your defence up quicker.

Feet - Research says that the most effective sprint start is where the front foot is in line with the back knee, for example the right foot is in line with the left knee. This optimises the elastic nature of the leg muscles meaning the best boost off the mark. It is also the easiest position for a player to correctly align in the heat of a game. Practise getting the feet into the right place by having the players go down on one knee and putting the foot on the other leg in line with the knee. Rise into a crouch position, sprint and then reset. The more this can be repeated, the more likely a good habit will be formed.

I am not looking for a quick fix here just a steady reminder and then see if in 18 months time if they naturally adopt this position.

Now the games today we lost and it was not hard to fathom out why.  Quite a few were not committed to training and were laughing and joking around, and on more than one occasion i heard the phrase 'we beat them last time'.  I tried and tried to get the message across that, that was last time and this time would be different.  However they continued to be cocky, and in the first game were well beaten, i did managed to turn the second team to play around slightly so they only lost.  In some ways I am not worried they were beaten, as long as they have all learnt a lesson. A lesson we all learn.

Two other topics now, the first one pitches.  Our pitch, i layout across a full rugby pitch using the 5m lines as the try line and the sideline as the dead ball line.  This gives me the correct lenght for the age group, the width I then measure out 38 paces for the width, the distance should be 35m, so we play on near as dammit full size pitch.  Other teams play down the full size pitch where they can achieve the correct length, however the width is measured into one of the goal posts so the width is about 5m narrower.  Now when a team does this they are saying they are going to play contact rugby, fair enough, the area if it is too narrow it can be disputed by the visiting team, however I do not consider this type of pitch too narrow so it is not worth causing bad feeling.  Just if you know of a team that adopts this configuaration then you can understand what type of rugby to expect. 

The other topic is coming to the defence of the much maligned line-out.  Many coaches of all standards dismiss the lineout all the way up to under 16's as a mess.  Is it any wonder we have yet to play a team that actually calls the ball in, it is for wont of a better word tossed in. We have two line out calls, a '2' ball and a '5' ball the hooker calls the line he's throwing it.  What is happening here, The hooker has to show LEADERSHIP in making sure the two jumpers and the scrum half register the call.  The hooker has the RESPONSIBILITY to deliver the correct throw-in and the scrum half has the RESPONSIBILITY to stand in the correct place to receive the ball.  All have to know what is going on this can only be achieved through COMMUNICATION. For the line-out to work it will take TEAMWORK.  Does it work in the second game today we won all line-out ball, so what you may say, well international teams if they do-not win their line out ball, they struggle to attack are we so very different?  I have asked the hookers to achieve a '8' ball by the end of the season, one ran up to me to demonstrate a perfect '8' ball, I just had a problem with his 20m run up to achieve it, but it shows he has been thinking and trying.  I shall now get off my orange box on behalf of  the lineout.

The player of the week went to one of the props who is gaining confidence and put in some good close range tackles and scrummed superbly.

I agree with your comments on the line-out.  Teach communication early.  Catch and run toward the tryline (not sideways), don't tap back because then you just put the SH under pressure.  Keep it simple, but don't just toss the ball in - observe basic process and technique.

And focus on the throwers capability.  My experience in the U10s was that my hooker was hopeless at throwing, he could not throw the ball higher than shoulder height, and didn't have the wit to understand why throwing straight at the player at the front of the line-out was not good.  Another lad in the team who occasionally played at prop and at #8 came to me and said that he had been practicing throwing in his backyard.  So I gave him the ball, and behold he could throw the ball straight for nearly 10m (to the back of the line-out).  With that capability the boys easily won 80% of line-outs, which was a huge advantage.

We had a hooker at U10 who could throw to the tail of a line out easily, he also practised at home, or whenever he had the opportunity. Now he is in a youth age group the number of lineouts they shorten and then he throws to a runner passed the 15 which result in tries are increasing weekly.

I agree that the fundametals of the line out need to be taught in the same way as the scrum is taught. It is also a great way to win ball and set up a driving maul.

spike

We stood a tackle bag on its end I think it must have been a 5' 6'' one, this turned out to be about the correct height for under 9 & 10's.  We then placed two of these bags about 2m from the sideline and lined the kids up in two lines facing them.  Then we got all the kids to try using a lineout throw-in to plop the ball onto the top of the tackle bag.  The each had several goes at 2m then moved the bags back and they each had several goes at 3m.  I wanted them all to have a go so that when in future the hooker gets it wrong they can remember how hard it is.  Next we took those that wanted to be hookers and those that wanted to jump away. We set the bag up 2m from the line got the hookers to again plop the ball on top of the tackle bag, this time though a jumper was alongside the bag. They jumped when the ball was thrown in to try to get their timimg right.  Once we felt that there was a chance of succes then the bag was whipped away and the ball thrown to the jumper.  Do not expect a leap but you do get a jump.  Next we practiced the 3m throw and jump in a similar manner.  We visit it every now and again.  Originally we did attempt a 6m throw, but this was a none starter, yes we could have tried but why try to fail.  I do believe that now might be the time to try a '8' throw to go with the '2' and '5' throw.  Using a plop onto the bag means that now when throwing a '5' ball their throw clears the first two jumpers.

What about 11 and 12yrs, well I shall try moving to the posts, get the jumpers to leap against the posts and mark the average jump, next put the post protector back around the post with the top level with the mark just made.  Taking some bits of wood place them under the post protectors as stilts to hold them at the correct height.  Hookers throw aiming at the top of the post protector. Jumpers time their jumps alongside. As soon as you believe there is a chance of success both take a step away from the post and the ball is thrown to the jumper.  Two posts so a front and middle ball can be practiced with the hookers a different distances from the posts.  Jumpers and hookers swopping around so all get the feel and practice.  Anyone tries the goal post version let us know how it goes please.

Thanks for the bit about the wind I shall keep this in mind.  Does not let my kids off though!!

Bit of an extra this weekend quite a few parents and children went to down the coast on a coach to watch the Saxons  (23) play the Wolfhounds (17), good bit of father son bonding time.  Sat just in front of the kids i heard such comments as 'ruck over', 'pass' and 'get it out wide'. Oh! guys if only YOU would do it. We live in hope.

In previous seasons I have had to referee, now because the game is meant to be non-competitive I did not keep the score, if teams or parents wanted to know the score then they had to keep it, I couldn't be accussed of bias either.  This season I have noticed the kids now keep score.  Now you do not keep the score to know if you are losing therefore they must be keeping it to see if they are winning.  Which means they are becoming competitive, so training can be adjusted accordingly.

Last week at the end of the game I asked them how the game went, what went well, (passing, support, mauling) and what didn't go so well, (rucking and mauling) were the replies.  I advised them that this week we would cover those areas. We actually lost the game through lack of ball retention, they were not turning at the last moment before contact, they just left the ball infront of their bodies, where once they were slowed it was stolen.

Warmup another coach lots of running I noticed, you have to be careful with that as under 10's have not really developed aerobic capacity yet.  Then onto four stations one coach to each. 1) mauling all the way back to the biginning. 2) 1v1 wrestling for the ball, how to hang onto it and how to steal it. 3)Rucking all the way back to the beginning. 4) Multi passing RCW142. (this went down well lots of thought is needed).

Game emphasis on shielding the ball in contact and passing before contact.

Bulldog to finish, as stated before the kids love it.  I get fitness training out of them ask them to run 10 lengths of the pitch you might get 1 properly, ask them in bulldog and you will get 10.  With sidesteps, swerves, cut backs and change of pace throw in as avoidance tools.  the change this week however was as they put it 'full take down'  tackling.

Gained another player a young lady, who seemed to enjoy herself.  We have lost one of the three from the other week I feel, have advised the dad to bring him down in the summer to the beach where we play beach tag rugby on a Wednesday night, once he gets confidence on the ball he might then come back.  The new addition takes us to 24 players very important as it means next season we have enough for 2 teams (11 aside) and 2 subs, things are looking promising for the future.  

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