Coaching DugOut

Passing Skills Rubbished – Shock headline on:

Sportal.co.nz - 31/12/2008

Players' inability to pass effectively in northern hemisphere rugby has been heavily criticised in the British media. Writing in The Independent, Peter Bills recalled a 2006 conversation with former England utility back Mike Catt, the man on the end of Jonah Lomu's pile-driving run to score the first try of the 1995 Rugby World Cup semi-final between New Zealand and England.

Catt was concerned about the lack of skills among modern rugby players and was looking at getting involved in personal coaching. "The game has become very structured with players being told where to go on the field and what to do with not enough attention and focus on skills and decision-making," Catt said.

"So this is where I go back to the need for one-on-one coaching to get youngsters to learn and improve their core skills," he said then added that with the blanket defences of modern rugby the ability to use the ball to put a man into space had never been more important.

"This weakness [the inability to pass efficiently] helps explain the inability of so many sides, especially in the northern hemisphere, to break down structured defences," he said and given the state of Northern Hemisphere and particularly English rugby, they don’t seem to have moved on much in listening to Catt? 

This is thankfully not the case at Mold but its always good to develop new ideas and remain fresh. So, with this in mind, this resources page has been put together for coaches and players alike. Any coach can add his or her own favourite resource to it (by emailing to the webmaster). For players, it should be remembered that many of the drills to be found on these pages should be carried out under supervision of a responsible adult. Similarly, for those resources/video’s located on “youtube” and your computer has parental control on it, ask your parent to sit with you to show you the relevant coaching videos. 

Skills:

How to Tackle - videos:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/skills/4198712.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/skills/7362451.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/skills/7300707.stm 

How to Evade - videos:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/skills/7362472.stm

Side stepping with Shane Williams – also use the link in the window to look at Mark Jones’ evading using the swerve, sidestep and a simple change of pace and Dwayne Peels passing challenge.

How to Pass - videos:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/skills/4198382.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/skills/7362461.stm 

How to run Faster - videos:

http://www.completespeedtraining.com/video/cst_speed.html

http://www.completespeedtraining.com/video/cst_intro_2.html

Short instructional video on agility training, whilst directed at athletes, applied equally to other sports such as rugby and football.

http://www.completespeedtraining.com/video/cst_intro_3.html

Aerobic conditioning

http://www.completespeedtraining.com/dwu.html

Dynamic warm ups for athletes

Plyometrics:

Plyometrics Training Exercises : Switch Foot Box Drill for Plyometrics Training

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnTj-v92c_Q&feature=related

How to Exercise with Plyometrics Before Running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tz9rmhQUqs&feature=channel

Box Jack Plyometric Exercises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz_vZyI8xos&feature=channel

Plyometric Exercises for Balance & Control

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ3elB616wA&feature=channel

Explosive Squat Plyometric Exercises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDOs1RrpPqo&feature=channel

Drills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZecNWQakFI&feature=related

Drill – 2 balls 4 players

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNTTFmvx6tg&feature=related

Drill passing off deck (Tip No 6)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiuS4N2QjbE&feature=related

Drill – clean out (Tip no 5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2W_kg58Vh8&feature=related

Drill – scrum half pass (Tip No 4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCYX37y3eaQ

Drill – 4 v 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR1s6_opMzE

Drill – continuous defence (Tip no 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl8M4DyQ-7k&feature=related

Warm ups 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yztoh7LiW6k&feature=channel

Cool downs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIbYwbNbOeM&feature=channel

Wrestling drills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gyyAXKW-vw&feature=channel

Speed ladder drills 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12IUGflssEI&feature=channel

Medicine ball drills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxfLykm-dk&feature=channel

Conditioning runs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vQWXDftbQ4&feature=related

Picking up the ball while running

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJmg05IgLx8&feature=channel

Drop kick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te3VaxCpuik&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PazJjTLF0a4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMz6SqfAog&feature=related

Kicking for touch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEd3f-yKVrI&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVVYYQUPW6M&feature=related

Grubber kick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL8qMcKwvvs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2pC4Ic9F2A&NR=1 

Goal kicking 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8bRQNjmoxE&NR=1 

Dummy pass