Rugby Coach Weekly

Send us Fan Mail Dale Sidebottom is a leading motivational instructor and coach educator who works across sport and business. He has inspired plenty of other coach educators to create better environments to maximise learning. In this bumper podcast he shares his methods and some of the best ways to make a real difference in coaching. How to make ice breakers really engage First steps to creating t...

Send us Fan Mail Sam Jarman works with coaches and athletes across a number of sports, including golf, rugby, football and cricket. In this deep-thinking, revealing and practical podcast, we discuss... How our thoughts create our experience Is what happened in the past a reliable guide to the future? What to say (and not to say) to players before a big game Evaluating the evidence around performan...

Send us Fan Mail In this hugely positive podcast, Jennifer Fraser PhD, discusses with me how we define bullying, what it looks like and how we can reduce the impact of bullies. She has spent many years researching this area, particularly the neuroscience around the relationship between coach/teacher and children. I was keen to know if, as coaches, we inadvertently bully our players. She was able t...

Send us Fan Mail Bird Burgess, fresh from being appointed as the first woman on the WRU council, talks to former international team mate, Rachel Taylor. When this was recorded, both were still reeling from a famous victory for the mens' team against Australia in the World Cup that morning, but much of their focus is on the women's game. "Tails" is also trailblazing in the coach...

Send us Fan Mail Keri Lovell, a WRU hub officer, head coach with Vale U15s in the Dewar Shield and working across local schools, describes how he changed his approach to coaching. He tells us how he made a big adjustment after chatting to Russell Earnshaw, and discovered how much more comfortable he could be dealing with the balance between winning and performance. In the podcast we find out: How...

Send us Fan Mail Katleho Lynch is a South Africa U17s elite development coach. His passionate about defence training U18s teams at schools, plus working with provinces, clubs and universities. He has learned his trade from all parts of the rugby world and brings his energy and purpose into his sessions. In this podcast, he outlines: The key techniques he looks for How he builds techniques into ski...

Send us Fan Mail Jack Pattinson, academy and DPP coach at London Irish, in the South of England, talks to me about how he plans his coaching and what principles drive his sessions. I challenge him about the balance between skills training and game training, what the future player needs to know and how he measures success. We discuss: The difference between coaching grassroots and academy rugby How...

Send us Fan Mail In this collaborative podcast, Dan Cottrell talks to six coaches across the grassroots spectrum. He asks them about the new regulation for teams up to U18s in England, where all match day squad players must play at least half a game. We discuss: Why did it need to be implemented Will the sanctions work and how What changes you might need to make How do you deal with large squads W...

Send us Fan Mail We spend so much time on coaching the usual suspects of technical, tactical and conditioning, that we can not spend enough time on the unusual suspects. Andy Brownhill, head of rugby at Park House School, Newbury, a pathway coach with Gloucester academy and a coach with Scotland U16s discusses with me: How to use hot feedback to create tempo Using different questions with differen...

Send us Fan Mail Dr Anna Stodter specialises in how coaches learn. Her research gives us an important insight into the impact of coaching courses and how wider learning influences your knowledge and practice. She's a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin university, plays for Saracens and has been capped by Scotland, plus coaches Cambridge University Women’s team. In our conversation, we discuss: What mi...

Send us Fan Mail Recovery is an absolutely essential part of any training regime. Recovery is the process where the body rebuilds itself at the cellular level following physical exertion, allowing those fitness gains to be realised.  With poor or inadequate recovery, not only can much or all the hard work in your training sessions be wasted, you may actually reduce your performance capability, and...

Send us Fan Mail In a highly energetic podcast, inspirational coach and educator, Craig Gunn completely messes up my idea of a structure to develop some brilliant ideas for better coaching. We venture into session design, how to maintain control and where coaches sometimes lose sight of the real goals of a session. We mention some gurus of coaching, including Brian Ashton, Lynn Evans, John Fletche...

Send us Fan Mail Liza Burgess talks with former Scottish international and experienced coach, Donna Kennedy. She is passionate about the women's game, Scottish rugby and coaching as a whole. She talks about how the women's game needs to change to continue to move forward. Donna has coached at lots of levels of the game, including the Barbarians, and as director of rugby at Worcester.  Th...

Send us Fan Mail A podcast with the legendary Anna Richards talking about her progression from playing to coaching along with an insight into what is exciting her about the future of the women's game  How to deal with situations on the playing field when things don’t go quite to plan. Top tips for a coach new to rugby. What’s it like to coach the famous Barbarians squad. An insight into coach...

Send us Fan Mail In our series of session walkthroughs, Chris Sweetapple discusses with a game he renamed "hot rucks", which was a development of the Rugby Coach Weekly game, Snap-back ruck game. We start by chatting about the season review process, including his club's "speed-dating" session to improve each team's understanding of the coming season. In the walkthroug...

Send us Fan Mail Rich Clarke, a highly qualified S&C coach, university lecturer and evidence-based trainer, talks us through how we can make simple changes to improve our agility training. He explains how we can use constraints, ensure a specific stimulus and where we might start with less athletic players. Here are some of the highlights: Agility needs a specific perceptual stimulus Where to...

Send us Fan Mail Liza Burgess talks to LJ Lewis about her Level 4 journey so far. LJ is the forwards coach for Tyrrells Premiership team, Gloucester Hartpury, and former player with Loughborough. Here are some of the highlights: Understand the person to help develop them into a better player Find out what you’re passionate about in the game and learn as much as you can about it Talk and ask questi...

Send us Fan Mail Liza "Bird" Burgess was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2018. With 93 caps for Wales and GB, she's also an experienced international and club coach. Now assisting Susie Appleby at Gloucester-Hartbury in the Tyrrells English Premiership, she shares her approach to coaching, what inspires her and how she's changed her delivery. These are exciting ti...

Send us Fan Mail Experienced DPP coach, coaching coordinator and grassroots coach, Ian Hollingworth chats about how he has learned to take more risks. He tells us how he is passionately curious about his coaching and how that has changed his approach. He explains his escape routes if the session is not going quite right, how to maintain the tempo in training plus empowering players and coaches. Ia...

Send us Fan Mail Talking with experienced grassroots Chris Sweetapple, we look at a recent session he's run using a Rugby Coach Weekly activity. This episode is about "defence zone" which was the game activity as part of the practice plan, Standing in the tackle. We also discuss, and not necessarily agree (!) on the following questions: "Who are we doing this for?" and &qu...

Send us Fan Mail I was delighted to catch up with Ed Robinson, attack coach with the Jersey Reds. His team had just served up a fantastic try in the English second tier competition, which went onto win Skys Sports 2018 try of the year. I spoke to him to find out some of the background behind the try. And I found myself immersed in a great journey and really challenged to rethink some of my own tho...

Send us Fan Mail For more than a quarter of a century, international sports performance coach Wayne Goldsmith has influenced the coaching, thinking and teaching of some of the world’s leading athletes, coaches and teams. His client list has included the Super Rugby Teams the ACT Brumbies, Western Force and Queensland Reds, the Wallabies / Rugby Australia, the NZRU / New Zealand Rugby Union High Pe...

Send us Fan Mail Tim Ravenscroft, lead coach for his U12’s team in Bristol and also Sector Head Age Grade Rugby at Gloucestershire RFU discusses how coaching and fixtures are changing for the better at age group rugby. Tim tells us about: Curry nights for coaches and light bulb moments Letting players play different sports – and hard choices Helping coaches find better ways to engage with their pl...

Send us Fan Mail What changes when you do a Level 1 course.  How has your "language" in coaching change.  Top tips on using demonstrations in training What gets players back - not making fun "silly" What does engaging the players look like When do you drill the players How long before new players can play contact At what age do players start to think "team" How do par...

Send us Fan Mail Dan welcomes IRFU head of coaching and coach development Colin Moran to the podcast to discuss how best to keep players in love with the game. To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly To find out more about our Partner Club offer CLICK HERE Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the...