Rugby Coach Weekly – Rugby coaching advice
It’s about managing the body as a ball carrier in the tackle, and works with players who have never played before, haven’t played much or have taken a break from the game.
It is also suitable for more experienced players who may have had a bad match, need a confidence boost or want to improve their technique.
The confident contact player is safe and effective in contact situations. This comes through good training, developing the player’s understanding of the style to use and the ability to do so under pressure.
The program is inspired by research into head impacts. Measured using fitted mouthguards.
Evidence collected by Dr Elizabeth Williams at Swansea University found that some of the biggest impacts came from players’ heads hitting the ground in a concussive manner.
It is perhaps even more evident in women’s football due to the wider range of experiences and coaching ages. I started playing when I was 25 and no one taught me how to handle the ball before my first game of full contact rugby.
As a coach, you can use the principles of trust communication as a template to check whether even experienced players are using strong and safe techniques.
There are many different paths, with different training ideas, and there may be something the player needs to catch up on.
The coach has two detailed resources available from World Rugby – Tackle Readiness and Contact Confidence – giving him the tools needed for safer, stronger and more effective players.
Land contact details
The ball carrier needs to understand how to fall and land safely.
It may be that they bounce in and out of the tackle or are wrestled to the ground by the attacker.
The first key point in doing this safely is that the faller needs to create a large surface area as he or she lands. A small surface area, such as the reach of a hand, will cause problems.
Ball carriers should remember this while tackling. If they have just emptied the ball, they might think, “That’s my job” – but the whole job is to land safely, and prevent the impact of the injury, so they can participate in the next stages of play.
The drop ball carrier must focus on preventing a sudden jolt upon impact with the ground.
It can be likened to the elasticity of a ball on a bobble hat. To avoid “swaying,” players should brace themselves as they fall, tucking their chin in (such as creating a double chin) and maintaining a neutral neck and back position.
Confident training
One of the reasons why something is not trained is because the trainer is not confident with the material.
It may be that there is too much emphasis on science, or that the exercises are less engaging because there is no perceived connection to the game.
Contact Confident is certainly research-driven, incorporating science into a dynamic rugby setting. She also draws on the work of people like Dr. Katrina MacDonald, Dr. Danielle Salmon, and Janelle Romanchuk, who have all used principles of neck strengthening and martial arts, especially from Judo, to develop training exercises.
| minute. | Practice | the main points |
| 0 – 2 | Paired Teddy Bear Rolls – Serve the ball and pop the pass to another pair |
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| 2 – 4 | Deep neck flexion gesture (hold for 10 seconds x 5) Deep Neck Raise (Hold for 5 seconds x 5) Bear Crawl (10 seconds+) Pushing a bear crawl partner (10 seconds+) |
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| 4 – 6 | Drop the height and fight |
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Since rugby coaches are not martial arts coaches, they may feel that they will not be able to implement ideas. That’s why we did our best to make it practical.
First, it needs to be sold as a good solution. The players haven’t come for a judo session, so it has to look like rugby.
In fact, our research on the impact of this program has shown that players feel valued by coaches who put in the time and effort to improve their safety. This is important for all stakeholders in the game, mainly due to the recent headlines.
Once we get on the field, we can “hide the vegetables” – in other words, put good principles into our sessions while making it look like rugby.
For example, many Animal Walks exercises support the development of players’ communication skills. With younger players, you can easily incorporate these things into a match or warm-up. For older players, you may need to customize it based on their context.
Another example, in a touch game, if a player is tackled, he puts the ball between your legs and the bear crawls forward, or you can restart the game after a knockdown with three players from each team doing gorilla squats in the “replay box” area. You pass the ball to whoever shows the best level. This can also be used to start 1v1 tackle replays from a low position, reducing speed and momentum.
The game continues with touch but you can use live replay boxes to introduce different intervention types/scenarios.
The “gorilla walk” involves the player moving back and forth for three metres, waving their arms, before being allowed into the game. If they fall, they can use the brace position.
Another idea, based on carrying the partner after the tackle, where the attacker and another player must form a back and then return to the defense line; Or the playback contains a back-and-forth wheelbarrow movement.
Partner balance and body weight exercises are ideal in the warm-up phase. You can play a low-level game of rugby and then break for a minute to do some exercises before returning to the game.
Neck strengthening exercises can be incorporated into pre-contact warmups. Many of them depend on partners; Some of them are competitive, so they’re perfect for the end of the warm-up to build energy. Some other exercises require more concentration, which means they’re best done more slowly.
Players can do these as arrival activities before starting a team warm-up, in the gym or even at home.
Training principles
In a given exercise, you will focus on the proper technique you are looking for.
In the rest of the training, you need to keep your awareness high but you don’t want to stop and start training all the time.
There are two ways to maintain the flow while feedback good and bad practices.
The first is individual hot reactions, where you speak to a player specifically when you see something that needs attention. It must be quick, with language they understand. You can then continue with this later.
Second, you can highlight points in the review after each section. Again, it should just be one point using the terminology you’ve been discussing.
