Lessons from Great Coaches: Rob Baxter and Exeter

I love learning about how other coaches manage their teams.  This is the second in what I intend to be a series of posts about what some exemplary coaches are doing across the globe, and what lessons we can take from them as amateur coaches. Imagine yourself a professional level coach.  Now imagine yourself with [...]

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Top Tips for Running Drills

The difference between un- and effective drills, in my opinion, is not in how good the drill is but how well it suits the needs of your players and how well it is managed.  Here are some lessons I’ve learned over the years that ensure I have the players’ interests at the forefront. Provide two [...]

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Half Time Chat and Re-Focus

“It was a game of two halves” is one of the great sporting clichés, indicating that a match was going in one direction until the interval and then was very different in the second stanza. Often, this term is used quite liberally reflecting only a relative measure of what really took place. Rarely do I [...]

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In what ways is TRUST important in playing defence?

Trust in your abilities. Making your tackle is vital to team defence as it means the rest of your team mates can focus on their individual responsibilities. Miss yours and someone has to drop theirs to cover you. I feel that quite often missed tackles are a result of lack of focus. Trust that you [...]

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Using Video – Part Two

In the Using Video – Part One article, I talked about analysing other people’s (i.e. from television, top level stuff) footage to make use of ideal practices or multiple camera angles and one’s own game footage for certain specific aims.  In this article, I’m going to discuss two more ways to use video to benefit [...]

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Training Rant!

Despite loving my rugby and being such a passionate coach, I’ve resisted getting back into playing the game because I can’t stand boring and pointless practices run by others.  Yes, such arrogance is definite minus on my part, but if I’m to commit time and money I want to enjoy myself and be challenged. This [...]

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What else should we get out of rugby?

I had this conversation with some players that I coach who themselves have got into coaching.  One is a particularly intense front rower who is a force in contact situations, but always tries to maintain a positive attitude.  I commended her on such an attitude, despite her aggressive play on the field and she said [...]

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Pre-Match Motivation

Heading into some big games in the last few weeks, and more this coming week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how best to motivate the players.  When I first started out coaching, I had come from captaining my school team, and continued some of what I had done there.  Choice words, big speeches, lots [...]

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Having the Courage to Fail

I don’t want to plagiarise here, but I cannot remember who coined this phrase.  I think it might have come from New Zealand mental coaching guru Dave Hadfield who said it in one of his brilliant articles on the part of the game which occurs ‘upstairs’.  Then again, it might also have come from All [...]

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Remember the ‘Good Old Days’?

No, I don’t either!  But this post is dedicated to my first coach, Jim, who was the catalyst for my rugby obsession and who probably does remember some of these things.  For the rest of you, I think they’re interesting to note in light of how much the game has changed over the decades… Taken [...]

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