Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Could you tell your name, the club and why you started at Crosskeys RFC?
00:12I first got into coaching really when I retired, it seemed like a natural thing to try and
00:20get into. Obviously I initially enjoyed it, otherwise I wouldn't have carried on. But
00:28now I just enjoy the challenge really of trying to make the players at Crosskeys better and
00:36therefore making the team better.
00:38The theme of the webinar Morgan is around the benefits of coaching through game related
00:43activities. Are you a coach that uses lots of game activities in training sessions?
00:50Yeah I use games in pretty much every session really. I find it helps a lot, especially
01:00knowing where individual players are for your team's attack framework kind of thing. So
01:09you can see a lot and take a lot out from playing the games.
01:13You touched on it there around attacking framework. Do you always set some sort of goals and aims
01:19of those games for the team during the session?
01:23Yeah I think especially when you're going to coach using games, I think that's important
01:31because without having a goal from each game, the game can just kind of pit it out really
01:41and just come into a game of touch. Obviously the boys can play that, play at it anyway
01:46doing the warm up or whatever. But when you're actually doing the coaching session you want
01:49to try and get something actually out or get a goal from each game.
01:57Just talking a little bit about your coaching craft really, would you explain that game
02:01in detail before the players actually do it? Or would you just get them started playing
02:05and then try to introduce rules and themes as they go in? How do you work it?
02:13For instance, if we were doing a block where you do five or six different games, the first
02:21game would be explained quickly, 20-30 seconds explaining. Then we'd go in between three
02:29and four minutes depending on the stage of the season then with that certain game. During
02:34the rest then if there's any changes to the next game, that'll get fed in during the rest
02:41and obviously any feedback from the players or any feedback from the coaches would be
02:45done during the rest. So the players really can try and work out the problems in the games
02:53and it doesn't stop the session.
02:57You know obviously you had a distinguished playing career, did you as a player always
03:01felt that you benefited a lot from doing games within training sessions?
03:07Yeah, when I was playing for the Scarlets we always used games even in the back splits
03:14or even if it was simple 3v2s, 4v3s, we'd obviously use them small-sided games then
03:22just to keep the skill sharp and obviously get ideas across to each other.
03:29When coaches now are planning for pre-season, would you do a lot more game-related activities
03:35in pre-season than you would in a normal type of Tuesday-Thursday session in-season
03:40or doesn't it matter for yourself?
03:43I don't think it matters but I think people tend to do a lot more game-related activities
03:53and coaching during pre-season because you need to get a running into the players. You
04:00can do coaching and work on the general catch-pass skills and decision-making while they're actually
04:07having a lot of running in their legs using the game so it probably is a good idea to
04:14use that in pre-season. Like I said in Crosskeys we do use a lot of game scenarios and game
04:20blocks in between the running during pre-season.
04:26As a head coach, do you use other coaches to help you devise those games and organise
04:31those games within the session?
04:34Yeah I think it's good to have three or four coaches really especially when you're doing
04:40the games because the more eyes on the players really for feedback during the rest, the better.
04:47Like I said one or two points, one or two good points could make a big difference during
04:53our rest period to make slight improvements in the next game.
04:57One of the topics we always talk about in game-related activity is that balance between
05:02a conditioning focus and a skill focus. Have you got any thoughts on that? Do you want
05:09to get the skill element out of it and the conditioning?
05:13Yes it's kind of going back to where the planning comes into it and thinking about the goal
05:20and what you want out of each game. So you can use different games. So for example if
05:27you want to use a kind of conditioning game you could use two-touch games or two-touch
05:37pass or some people call it Fijian touch. So if one defender touches you, you're off-load,
05:44two defenders touch you. Obviously you go to the ground or some people even do a turnover.
05:49So obviously there's a lot of line breaks so there's a lot more running and obviously
05:56the attacking team practises then off-load and the support players practise their running
06:03lines then as well. Even the defence has to work hard to work together as a unit to even
06:10stop the off-load. So that's a good one, good one really with high running volume.
06:18You know some coaches are always fed back and they find it quite difficult to coach
06:22during games within that session. What are the key areas that you look for whilst you're
06:28coaching so you can deliver that concise feedback to the players in those rest periods?
06:35I think it's just try not to make the feedback too complicated. Try and focus on one or two
06:42points, I'd probably say two points max and try and let the players have a little discussion
06:50during their rest on what they think is working. Like I say it's always good to listen to some
06:57of the players during those games as well because they're actually obviously taking
07:00part in them.
07:02You know have you had examples where you devised a sort of game-related session and it hasn't
07:09worked and what did you learn from that process?
07:14Yeah it's probably lots of times the things haven't worked completely. You've just got
07:20to try and adapt them really. I know there's one game that we've done which is good to
07:28do in pre-season again but you need to use a team of 15 and I call it a turnover touch
07:35where you use multi-balls. So you just throw different balls in, kick different balls in
07:41and the 15 players attacking and against the rest of the players defending. They just try
07:47and find their shape and try and find the team's attacking shape really from there and
07:53once they go through say five, six phases you throw another ball in and they just got
07:58to react and get into shape again. The issue sometimes you have if you do it too early
08:06in pre-season and obviously if you have a lot of new players is that they're not completely
08:12comfortable with the team's attacking structure so like I say it doesn't totally work then.
08:19It's good to go back to it after you've done a bit of team-shape during the session as well.
08:26You talked a lot today around team-shape and attacking processes. Do you predominantly
08:32use games for attack or do you use them for defence or a little bit of both?
08:38We predominantly use them for both. Like I say we don't always have massive numbers in
08:43training the same as a lot of the clubs in the community game I'd imagine so you sometimes
08:50need to decide what the complete focus is before you do the games if you want to focus
08:56on defence or attack so then you can switch numbers around to suit your session but predominantly
09:03we use them as both attack and defence and defence needs to buy in if it's attack focus
09:09and try and have attack as if they were in a game really.
09:16You mentioned a couple of games so far during the webinar. Have you got a menu of games
09:21that you go through as part of your planning and part of your season planner?
09:25Yeah, it's always a few we normally go through. A nice simple one as well is just to start
09:33off with you concentrate on the contact area where you get the boys just playing general
09:39touch for two or three minutes. It could be in a warm-up even. General touch, two or three
09:46minutes. When a player gets touched they've got to hit the deck, 360 roll and then the
09:53two players closest or two players in the attack they've got to go over and see the
10:00ball or whatever you think, blast past whatever you decide really but it's just the reaction
10:11really around that contact area and working on ball presentation as well. It just gets
10:18the mindset switched on for ball presentation and getting the quick ball for the night.
10:22It's always a difficult question when you ask an experienced coach but what's probably
10:27your favourite game activity really that you probably go to the most throughout the season?
10:36Yeah, it's probably the two-touch or Fijian. It's a good game for the boys. Lots of running
10:47which is obviously good for pre-season. Like I said, the backs, which obviously it's
10:53your back, the backs tend to like it more than forwards because they're off-loads and
10:58you get the forwards chasing the backs. Lots of the games can be used and you just need
11:06to tailor them really and think about what you can get out on yourself and change it
11:09for the aims of your team.
11:11Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best for the season coming up.
11:16Cheers.