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Forum Guru
 
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Hi guys-
I wanted to get some feedback about how you enable players to transfer skills from training to a game situation. I realize that a lot of the sports science literature, especially around rugby, talks about games-based training.
The challenge I face is that here in the US, is that I get kids who come in at 18, most with no rugby experience at all. So, a good portion of my time is spent working on very basic skills. While I understand the need to put them in games-based situations, if their basic skills aren't developed, they spend the games-based activities reinforcing poor skills.
To compound the issue, we only train for approx. 4 hrs. per week, and our season is 12 weeks long from pre-season to the last session, so time is limited. So what time I do have, I spend a good part of it trying to build a base of skills, but they have trouble transferring the skills to a game scenario.
Any suggestions for approaches I can use to progress them from training focused on specific skills, to a more "open" environment where they need to employ several different skills simultaneously?
Thanks,
Nipper
Nipper
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Forum Newbie
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| Nipper, Game based activities need not be sperate to developing core skills, catching,passing, running, tackling. Iuse game based activities at all the age groups I coach. The answer is to think of conditions to the games that you are using to develop a particular skill. e.g. If you wanted to coach continuity, then conditioning a 30 miniute touch session, where; 1. Defenders go down on one knee immediately following the touch. (This creates space fo attack and encourges looking for space and runing at space) 2. Attackers go through the phases; Passing before contact/on contact/two hands on maul and roll out/passing off the floor on contact/set up ruck ball/set up maul ball. 3. At each of these phases you can stop at any point and coach the skill you are trying to develop, then put it back into the game situation. 4. These skills can be put under incresing amounts of pressure to develop them; smaller grid to work in/varying degrees of speed and contact/overloading attack and defence. The other thing is not to expect too much too soon from your players it is a slow process, game related will take longer but encourage the development of your players situational rcognition, which will make a bigger difference to their playing ability especially when they have had little or no experience as youngstrs on which to build. Andy
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Supreme Being
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| to add to what andy said above, further conditioning to the game of touch could be * tackler runs to own goal line before re-entering game (creates space and also is a conditioning tool!) * number off players in pairs for each team (eg 2 x #1, 2 x #2 etc) and at any time during the game call a number - the players with that number on the DEFENDING team (team w/out the ball) must run to goal oine and back as above. these will create spaces and gaps for the attacking team to (hopefully) recognise and exploit. didds
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Supreme Being
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The following clip on youtube from RLCM might be of interest - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ9nCgbsAzs
There the coach, Luke Ellis, explains the D.E.P.E system. (Just a pity the clip cuts off just as he starts to talk about the whole part whole method!). As Ellis notes, it is really the evaluation bit that is the key coaching wise. The type of exercise/drill you use (provided always it focuses on the skill you are wanting to work on), whether it is a game or whatever is less crucial than your ability to evaluate and give feedback. It is a vehicle through which the players participate and practice, not an end in itself.
Technique + Pressure = Skill. If technique is not sufficiently ingrained, when pressure is applied in a game it falls apart. I am sure this is familiar to most coaches to some extent or other. It takes a huge amount of repetitions to ingrain movement patterns. Techniques that will withstand the severest mental and physical pressures. Swimmers and golfers spend vast amounts of time working on their strokes and "grooving" them. There are no short cuts sadly. Give them some homework?
Rugby, with its many facets and skills (both individual and collective) is a daunting prospect for a coach with raw players. The former GB swimming supremo Bill Sweatenham is credited with saying that "it is better to do a basic skill exceptionally well rather than an exceptional skill basically well." (Apologies for any misquote.) There is something in that I think.
I hope this helps a bit.
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Forum Guru
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Last Login: 22/12/2010 15:51:42
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Thanks for all the info guys -- gotta love all the great info on YouTube too!
Nipper
Nipper
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Supreme Being
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| The Luke Ellis video should be shown for another reason - "how not to" Why? He talks in his demonstration. Demonstrate, then talk, or go through slowly with chat. He does not involve the audience. He could have involved them all the way through. He talks without pausing. He offers too many thoughts. Yes he is moving towards DEPE, but there is too much there. Feedback is two way remember. Did you notice at least one participant having to shade his eyes - "face the elements". His content is good in part, but his style pays no attention to the current thinking on "learning". I have this video replaying in the background as I write and all I can hear is Luke Ellis voice at 10 to the dozen.
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Supreme Being
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Supreme Being
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| What is the current thinking on "learning"? What he says about different learning styles seems to fit with a good deal of current practice (my wife, until relatively recently worked as a skills trainer for a worldwide professional services firm - so this lot sounds familiar!)
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Supreme Being
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| The content is variable though the learning styles ideas are pertinent. Current thinking is that players (and all people in fact) have a preferred style of learning, "monkey see, monkey hear, monkey do". There are dangers that we as coaches do two things with this knowledge: 1. We think that all rugby players are "doers" or "seers" and so we only coach with video, demonstrations and drills. 2. We forget in all the theory, that learning comes from the style of delivery and not just the method of delivery. Some people are good joke tellers, some are not. Looking at this video, we can see a very personable, verbose coach, with lots of energy, delivering the same style for too long, without time for coach reflection. Have you ever been to an event where a comedian was on for 10+ minutes. Loads of jokes, laughter all the way - how many can you remember? He wasn't there to teach you 100 jokes, but can you see a thread emerging?
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Supreme Being
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| I see exactly what you mean - a torrent of info leaving the audience punch drunk (if that is not to mix metaphors!) It took me a number of viewings to get everything from it, a luxury his audience at the time did not have. To be fair to Mr Ellis, I suspect we saw a coach, talking to other coaches about DEPE, presuming a good deal of knowledge and so moving swiftly (especially with the technical demos) in a way he would not have done with a group of U9s.
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