By Brock Shepperd - In previous articles the idea of ‘Gamification’ and how it can be applied to junior coaching scenarios and general coaching settings has been discussed. The principles which are applicable in a junior coaching environment are very different to those that need to be applied in a senior environment with older and more experienced athletes. There is a difficulty also in that most players over the age of 15 years would not have been coached in a ‘Gamified’ environment.
These athletes are also the first generation who has spent the majority of their leisure time indoors rather than outdoors. They have not sampled in a variety of different sports or games, which limits their all-round skill set. In a senior environment as coach you are receiving athletes whom have had a variety of different coaching experiences and are at different levels of skill and technique. This creates a variety of different challenges. In the past 10 years our game has progressively become more and more structured to the point where athletes are specialising in one sport and one position at a very young age. With the increased structure and constraints placed on these athletes they have lost the ability to be creative and play instinctively with a level of skill required to break down structured defences consistently. When placed under the fatigue of a game this ability is further inhibited.
The challenge then becomes to increase player skill and conditioning levels to the standard necessary in order to play at a high intensity under pressure for long periods of time. Skill is the ability to perform correct technique under pressure during a game scenario.
As coaches we need to design practices that progressively challenge and motivate players to develop an understanding of strategies, skills and rules required to succeed in games. Place your players into scenarios where they are playing in a game situation. In game situations players can experiment and test their skills in a pressurised situation which best replicates what they are going to be faced with on the field.
There are a variety of different ways in which to do this and achieve different purposes within a training environment. Most sessions are structured around pure conditioning, skill drills and tactical practice. Coaching senior aged teams often poses the problem of time constraints and affects our ability to meet the needs of your players within the allotted training time on a weekly basis. With that in mind we need to use our time more effectively.
I have heard a lot of coaches use the mantra that ‘Skill is the player’s responsibility’. In regards to closed skills which need to be performed without pressure or reacting to an external stimulus or player that mantra has some truth, once the player understands the correct way to perform the skill from a technical perspective. However when will players practice game related open skills in their own time? The answer is never. This is mainly because they don’t have the tools to do so unless they are organising extra sessions with team mates outside of your allotted sessions.
Pure conditioning is the responsibility of the player. This will obviously depend on your environment. When in grade or junior rep environments you have the resources and time you need along with specialist coaches in each area to best prepare your athletes.
The majority of coaches don’t have these resources. These coaches have a responsibility to their players to teach and develop the player not condition them. Give the players pure conditioning activities to take away to complete themselves outside of your training sessions. This is also a good way to test each individual player’s commitment to their level of fitness.
This does not mean you throw conditioning or its importance in the bin. There still needs to be pure conditioning included in your sessions to test your players, build team work, mental toughness and to see which players are going to give up under fatigue. However it should not be sacrificed for teaching your players the skills they need in order to be successful.
In my belief you can have your players doing conditioning without them knowing it. Competitiveness = Conditioning. While your players are competing they will be working hard, making extra efforts to ensure they beat their opposition. These are the players we are looking for on our teams are they not?
Make every drill you do within your program competitive. Complete your block skill during warm up. Set up your warm ups to include 2 v 1, 3 v 2, 4 v 3 and 5 v 4 core drills bilaterally (Both sides of the ball) and ensure these are completed in a high intensity and competitive environment. This ensures you are addressing your core skill and communication at high intensity to warm your athletes up. A lot of warm ups are slow and monotonous which do not challenge your players to think or perform skills under pressure.
Obviously in preseason block skill and the time spent coaching block or core skills will be of a much higher volume than in the competition phase of training. When coaching block skill get your key points across, demonstrate and then have your players moving constantly with plenty of repetition. Move around and have your assistant coaches moving around the drills correcting and refining technique on the run. When the skills and techniques are retained the drills should then become competitive through the addition of defenders or attackers which will put these skills under pressure and fatigue.
Drills should not be viewed as attacking or defensive they are an opportunity to refine skills on both sides of the ball regardless of the small focuses within the particular activity. This is an issue which needs to be taken into account in all practice scenarios as small habits formed at training transfer into game scenarios.
Conditioning games are the perfect training method when time constraints take hold which is often the case with senior aged athletes who are working and have families. The majority of senior aged teams will only train twice per week for 90 minutes. This will only give you two hours quality work on the field per week so it is important to utilise this time effectively.
There are a variety of conditioning games which are appropriate for different age groups and skills levels. The constraints around these games are to be decided on by the individual coach and that will obviously depend on your individual team and what you are looking to achieve. Conditioning games allow you to encompass: physical conditioning, core skill, tactical awareness, spacial awareness, communication, organisation, performance under fatigue and fundamental movement skills applicable to Rugby League within one game scenario.
Conditioning or skill games are perfect for those coaches who are restricted by time on the field with your athletes. It enables us to achieve multiple purposes within one game or activity.
During the competition phase of the season your final training session of the week is probably going to include an element of ball work or a team run. Opposed ball work places your athletes in a game scenario and allows you to pre-empt issues you may face in your next game. It also allows you to practice specific tactics and even model the tactics that you think the opposition will exhibit in your upcoming game.
This is a perfect way to run your ball work sessions if you have a large squad. It also ensures all players are included as ball work sessions can often involve players who are not in the run on team not focusing and listening to important elements of game plans or tactics because they are not engaged in the activity, or because the coach has them sitting on the sideline. These players therefore do not get involved in the ball work which limits their understanding of what the team is trying to achieve.
Left v Right opposed attacking drills are a perfect way to encompass both sides of the ball in one drill. Separate your team into left defence v right attack or left attack v right defence. The players occupy the middle of the field can be divided up equally and placed on either team. The field should be divided in half through the centre so as to ensure the players work in their allocated area of the field. When running these drills I use the outside post as the middle sideline and the touchline as the other. This gives your players 60% of the field to work in. Ideally you would have a scenario with 9 attackers V 9 defenders. Any spare players can sub in and out between plays.
These types of game scenarios allow your players to work within the small teams and combinations which they will be expected to work cohesively in on the field. These drills can be continuous, one play or any number of plays depending on your focus. They can also revolve around different sections of the field (Good ball, Yardage, Neutral, Taps and Scrums) and have your players working to the game plans or structures you have implemented.
Some coaches create formal competitions within their squads through splitting the squad into two teams which compete for the entire season. A competition is run with a wide range of skills and conditioning games along with some sampling in other sports (Soccer, Cricket, Kick Baseball, Kick Tennis, Touch Football).
Coaches can split up their squad in a variety of ways. Some suggestions include: positional (Backs V Forwards), specifically (Coach selects teams to ensure close competition), players select (Allow players to select the teams) or even a random draft or a simple number system. The team or club sponsor may contribute a prize for the winning team. As a squad you may come to a mutual agreement on a reward for the winning team or even have the players contribute a small sum of money towards a prize for the winning team at the end of the season. Keep track of the scores and update the players throughout the season. This is also a good way of building teamwork, friendship and ensuring your players enjoy their time at training.
‘Train in volumes to match your desires’.
These athletes are also the first generation who has spent the majority of their leisure time indoors rather than outdoors. They have not sampled in a variety of different sports or games, which limits their all-round skill set. In a senior environment as coach you are receiving athletes whom have had a variety of different coaching experiences and are at different levels of skill and technique. This creates a variety of different challenges. In the past 10 years our game has progressively become more and more structured to the point where athletes are specialising in one sport and one position at a very young age. With the increased structure and constraints placed on these athletes they have lost the ability to be creative and play instinctively with a level of skill required to break down structured defences consistently. When placed under the fatigue of a game this ability is further inhibited.
The challenge then becomes to increase player skill and conditioning levels to the standard necessary in order to play at a high intensity under pressure for long periods of time. Skill is the ability to perform correct technique under pressure during a game scenario.
As coaches we need to design practices that progressively challenge and motivate players to develop an understanding of strategies, skills and rules required to succeed in games. Place your players into scenarios where they are playing in a game situation. In game situations players can experiment and test their skills in a pressurised situation which best replicates what they are going to be faced with on the field.
There are a variety of different ways in which to do this and achieve different purposes within a training environment. Most sessions are structured around pure conditioning, skill drills and tactical practice. Coaching senior aged teams often poses the problem of time constraints and affects our ability to meet the needs of your players within the allotted training time on a weekly basis. With that in mind we need to use our time more effectively.
I have heard a lot of coaches use the mantra that ‘Skill is the player’s responsibility’. In regards to closed skills which need to be performed without pressure or reacting to an external stimulus or player that mantra has some truth, once the player understands the correct way to perform the skill from a technical perspective. However when will players practice game related open skills in their own time? The answer is never. This is mainly because they don’t have the tools to do so unless they are organising extra sessions with team mates outside of your allotted sessions.
Pure conditioning is the responsibility of the player. This will obviously depend on your environment. When in grade or junior rep environments you have the resources and time you need along with specialist coaches in each area to best prepare your athletes.
The majority of coaches don’t have these resources. These coaches have a responsibility to their players to teach and develop the player not condition them. Give the players pure conditioning activities to take away to complete themselves outside of your training sessions. This is also a good way to test each individual player’s commitment to their level of fitness.
This does not mean you throw conditioning or its importance in the bin. There still needs to be pure conditioning included in your sessions to test your players, build team work, mental toughness and to see which players are going to give up under fatigue. However it should not be sacrificed for teaching your players the skills they need in order to be successful.
In my belief you can have your players doing conditioning without them knowing it. Competitiveness = Conditioning. While your players are competing they will be working hard, making extra efforts to ensure they beat their opposition. These are the players we are looking for on our teams are they not?
Make every drill you do within your program competitive. Complete your block skill during warm up. Set up your warm ups to include 2 v 1, 3 v 2, 4 v 3 and 5 v 4 core drills bilaterally (Both sides of the ball) and ensure these are completed in a high intensity and competitive environment. This ensures you are addressing your core skill and communication at high intensity to warm your athletes up. A lot of warm ups are slow and monotonous which do not challenge your players to think or perform skills under pressure.
Obviously in preseason block skill and the time spent coaching block or core skills will be of a much higher volume than in the competition phase of training. When coaching block skill get your key points across, demonstrate and then have your players moving constantly with plenty of repetition. Move around and have your assistant coaches moving around the drills correcting and refining technique on the run. When the skills and techniques are retained the drills should then become competitive through the addition of defenders or attackers which will put these skills under pressure and fatigue.
Drills should not be viewed as attacking or defensive they are an opportunity to refine skills on both sides of the ball regardless of the small focuses within the particular activity. This is an issue which needs to be taken into account in all practice scenarios as small habits formed at training transfer into game scenarios.
Conditioning games are the perfect training method when time constraints take hold which is often the case with senior aged athletes who are working and have families. The majority of senior aged teams will only train twice per week for 90 minutes. This will only give you two hours quality work on the field per week so it is important to utilise this time effectively.
There are a variety of conditioning games which are appropriate for different age groups and skills levels. The constraints around these games are to be decided on by the individual coach and that will obviously depend on your individual team and what you are looking to achieve. Conditioning games allow you to encompass: physical conditioning, core skill, tactical awareness, spacial awareness, communication, organisation, performance under fatigue and fundamental movement skills applicable to Rugby League within one game scenario.
Conditioning or skill games are perfect for those coaches who are restricted by time on the field with your athletes. It enables us to achieve multiple purposes within one game or activity.
During the competition phase of the season your final training session of the week is probably going to include an element of ball work or a team run. Opposed ball work places your athletes in a game scenario and allows you to pre-empt issues you may face in your next game. It also allows you to practice specific tactics and even model the tactics that you think the opposition will exhibit in your upcoming game.
This is a perfect way to run your ball work sessions if you have a large squad. It also ensures all players are included as ball work sessions can often involve players who are not in the run on team not focusing and listening to important elements of game plans or tactics because they are not engaged in the activity, or because the coach has them sitting on the sideline. These players therefore do not get involved in the ball work which limits their understanding of what the team is trying to achieve.
Left v Right opposed attacking drills are a perfect way to encompass both sides of the ball in one drill. Separate your team into left defence v right attack or left attack v right defence. The players occupy the middle of the field can be divided up equally and placed on either team. The field should be divided in half through the centre so as to ensure the players work in their allocated area of the field. When running these drills I use the outside post as the middle sideline and the touchline as the other. This gives your players 60% of the field to work in. Ideally you would have a scenario with 9 attackers V 9 defenders. Any spare players can sub in and out between plays.
These types of game scenarios allow your players to work within the small teams and combinations which they will be expected to work cohesively in on the field. These drills can be continuous, one play or any number of plays depending on your focus. They can also revolve around different sections of the field (Good ball, Yardage, Neutral, Taps and Scrums) and have your players working to the game plans or structures you have implemented.
Some coaches create formal competitions within their squads through splitting the squad into two teams which compete for the entire season. A competition is run with a wide range of skills and conditioning games along with some sampling in other sports (Soccer, Cricket, Kick Baseball, Kick Tennis, Touch Football).
Coaches can split up their squad in a variety of ways. Some suggestions include: positional (Backs V Forwards), specifically (Coach selects teams to ensure close competition), players select (Allow players to select the teams) or even a random draft or a simple number system. The team or club sponsor may contribute a prize for the winning team. As a squad you may come to a mutual agreement on a reward for the winning team or even have the players contribute a small sum of money towards a prize for the winning team at the end of the season. Keep track of the scores and update the players throughout the season. This is also a good way of building teamwork, friendship and ensuring your players enjoy their time at training.
‘Train in volumes to match your desires’.
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