Coaching Children

Physical competence

Every player must be suitably prepared physically to play the game; this is known as Physical Competence. Rugby is an invasion (enter opposition team’s territory) and evasion (don’t get caught doing so) game which involves physical contact. Through development of their players’ physical competence, coaches will prepare their players to play the game in the present and provide a strong foundation for their future physical development.

The FUN stage (early years 6-9)

During the early years of the fun stage the major objective is to develop the player’s physical literacy through participation in rugby and other sports. Physical literacy should be developed through:

  • Games-based and FUN (Foundation, Understanding, Nurturing) activities, with 100% involvement at all times
  • Festivals and small-sided tag and touch games that allow the opportunity to express enjoyment and develop skills.

The rationale behind this is that without speed, agility, balance, and co-ordination, as well as the ability to run, jump, throw, kick, catch and control the body (sensory awareness), children will not only be incomplete as rugby players, but will not have the confidence nor competence to take part in many sporting activities.

During these early years, the role of the coach is to provide well-organised, well-communicated, well-planned and well-structured practices that involve 100% activity and enjoyment. All practices should promote FUNdamental skills that will underpin future player development.

How to coach

As mentioned earlier all sessions should follow the Active, Purposeful, Enjoyable, Safe principles and coaching through games should be used as much as possible.

Total length of the coaching session should be approximately 60 minutes:

  • Warm-up (developing physical competence) approximately 15 minutes
  • Main body of session (game-based) approximately 35-40 minutes
  • Cool-down (developing physical competence) approximately 5-10 minutes.

Every session should have an aim or purpose as part of a longer-term plan for developing the players rather than just correcting what did not go well last match.

What to coach

During this stage, coaches should develop their players in the following areas:

Physical competence

Physical competence should be developed through following the warm-up and cool-down guidance provided and in the delivery of game-sense coaching. The main areas to be worked on are:

  • Agility, Balance, and Speed – through sprinting, acceleration, deceleration, change of direction, jumping, falling, getting back to feet
  • Co-ordination - spatial awareness and body (sensory) awareness developed through gymnastic activities and game-sense coaching
  • Strength - developed through effective warm-ups incorporating animal walks and body-weight exercises, game-based activity and appropriate cool-downs
  • Endurance - developed through game-sense coaching
  • Flexibility and recovery - through effective warm-ups and appropriate cool-downs.

How to build an appropriate warm-up

The warm-up section of the session should last for approximately 15 minutes and should progressively prepare the players for their session. Remember this is also an opportunity to coach specific skills appropriate to the objective of your session.

Each warm-up should contain the following elements:

  • Generalised movements - enabling increased blood flow round body - 3 minutes
  • Gradual build up range of movements - dynamic flexibility based around the specific movement of the session. Use animal walks and gymnastic activities to improve players’ physical competence - 6 minutes
  • Multi-direction speed technique / evasion - aimed at getting the players up to maximum speed for the session - the use of specific exercises will aid speed development, decision making and reaction, acceleration, deceleration and change of direction - 3 minutes
  • Preparation for contact and strength development - aimed at building intensity while focusing on strength development. The use of body-weight exercises and wrestling activities will enable increased levels of intensity to be achieved - 3 minutes
  • Please see activity menu on pages 34-35 for appropriate content.

The importance of a cool-down

It is important for players to cool down appropriately after a session. Again, this needs to be structured accordingly to enable the body and mind to return to resting activity levels. This can be an opportunity to continue coaching specific skills at a lower intensity. Each cool-down should contain the following elements:

  • Generalised movements - ensure activity / games are not above jogging pace-3-5 minutes
  • Static stretching - this will improve players’ levels of flexibility and lessen future injury potential - 5 minutes
  • Please see activity menu on pages 50-52 for appropriate content.

Skills competence

The coaching of skills should be developed through game-sense or whole-part-whole coaching and effective warm-up and cool-downs. Coaches should aim to develop the players in the following areas:

  • Handling
    • Passing in all directions including the lateral pass
    • Catching - early hand catch, high ball, above head (jump and catch), low catch
  • Running
    • Evasive skills - how to dodge and evade defenders
  • Defending
  • Teamwork
    • How to attack and defend as a team, go forward, communication
  • Continuity
    • Keeping play moving

Mental factors

Coaches should strive to build a foundation built on confidence in each of their players.

Coaches can model confidence in their players by providing opportunities for players to be successful and by setting basic goals for players to better their performance in all areas, physical, skills, mental and lifestyle.

Involve every player as much as possible in the session - try to ensure as much activity as possible for all players during the session by adopting a game-based approach. (Drill-based coaching where players are standing waiting for their turn or are not engaged should be avoided).

Manipulate the conditions of the games to encourage every player to develop. For those more skilled you may need to set different goals during the sessions - likewise you may need to set different goals for those who need additional support. Try to encourage self-motivation (intrinsic) by making your sessions as much fun as possible and by challenging players to practice and play whilst at home and away from your sessions and to come up with new solutions for the problems you set them in training.

By coaching through games, you can introduce imagery skills - by highlighting things that worked you can ask your players to reflect on what worked best for them and to reinforce positive thoughts for next time.

For example, if a player scores a try by executing a 2-on-1 situation - ask them what they did that worked well and therefore what they will try to do next time to ensure success? You can also ask other players to imagine what they would do in similar situations.

Lifestyle factors

This stage is an ideal time to get your players into sporting habits that will stay with them for the rest of their sporting careers:

  • Safety: World Rugby recommends that all players use a gumshield
  • Values: At this stage, it is vital to introduce the spirit and values of the game such as partnership and team working, respect for team-mates, opposition, and officials - not to mention other volunteers
  • Hydration: Always ensure there are water bottles available for players - encourage your players to be responsible for bringing their own
  • Nutrition and rest: Work with players and parents to reinforce the benefits of healthy nutrition and sleep for young players’ development.

The FUN stage – (later years 9-12)

During the later years of this stage the focus should be on learning the basic skills of the game.

These ages are known as the skill hungry years as, motivationally speaking, children are geared to learn skills at this time, so this is an ideal opportunity to focus on building the skills of the game on to the movement skills of the children that have been developed in the earlier stage. Using games-based approaches to skill learning, the emphasis should be on developing basic running, handling and contact skills that will form the foundation of the players’ future participation in the game.

Competition opportunities should reflect developmental principles (e.g. equal playing time for all) through small-sided games which allow enough involvement in the action to develop the necessary endurance fitness without additional training. Key physical qualities to develop in every training session are speed and agility. The growth of the nervous system continues until approximately 12 years of age and the development of fast-twitch muscle fibres (the fibres that generate power) is still able to be influenced.

Coaches should focus on developing confidence, the vital ingredient to future participation and performance, through fostering and reinforcing success in achieving basic goals or targets.

Focusing on praising and reinforcing effort is very important. Without understanding why it is important to try hard, players will not develop characteristics such as commitment and training intensity that will enable them to succeed in later years. The basis of commitment to future training is formed at this stage and coaches should encourage ‘homework’ and independent practice, as well as participation in a wide range of sports, including team games and athletics, gymnastics, and swimming. This could include informal play and non-structured practices and games (for example, games of touch rugby between friends).

The role of the coach at this stage is to motivate, stimulate confidence, and to develop skills and game-sense through planning and delivering well-structured programmes with progression within and between sessions. During this stage, the coach should:

  • Provide an enjoyable environment that fosters a love of the game and promotes an environment that encourages children to continually challenge themselves
  • Challenge players by setting basic goals; valuing effort and persistence; and reinforcing improvement by providing objective and constructive feedback
  • Differentiate between individuals within a practice - make things more challenging for those who can do a task, less challenging for those who can’t yet do it, but keep the task the same. This helps the player develop both self-esteem and the ability to realistically evaluate their performance.
  • Provide equal playing and training opportunities for all players, regardless of how good you think they might be at this stage
  • Foster an understanding of, and respect for, rugby’s laws, spirit, and values.
  • Provide equal playing and training opportunities for all players, regardless of how good you think they might be at this stage
  • Foster an understanding of, and respect for, rugby’s laws, spirit, and values.

How to coach

All sessions should follow the Active, Purposeful, Enjoyable, Safe principles, and coaching through games should be used as much as possible.

Total length of session approximately 60 minutes:

  • Warm-up (developing physical competence) approximately 15 minutes
  • Main body of session (coaching through games) approximately 35-40 minutes
  • Cool-down (developing physical competence) approximately 5-10 minutes.

Every session should have an aim or purpose as part of a longer-term plan for developing the players rather than just correcting what did not go well last match.

What to coach

During this stage, coaches should develop their players in the following areas:

Physical competence

Physical competence should be developed through following the warm-up and cool-down guidance provided and in the delivery of game-sense coaching. Main areas to be worked on are:

  • Agility, Balance, and Speed - through sprinting, acceleration, deceleration, change of direction, jumping, falling, getting back to feet. Developed through running and agility activities, jumping, throwing, team games, wrestling activities, ground to feet activities, rotational, gymnastic and reaction activities
  • Co-ordination - Spatial awareness and body (sensory) awareness developed through gymnastic activities and game-sense coaching. Players should be able to combine a number of gymnastic and dynamic movements into a fluid motion within a confined space i.e. jump - forward roll - back to feet - accelerate away
  • Strength and Power - developed through game-related skills, light medicine ball activities, jumping and hopping, body-weight activities, gymnastic and postural integrity. Introduction to Olympic lifting technique (broom handle resistance) should also occur during this stage
  • Endurance - developed through game-based activity
  • Flexibility and recovery - through effective warm-ups, animal walks and appropriate cool-downs. Players should also gain an understanding of benefits of range of movement in developing skill and injury prevention.

How to build an appropriate warm-up

The warm-up section of your session should last for approximately 15 minutes and should progressively prepare the players for the session. The Later Years warm-up is more advanced than the Early Years warm-up and there is more emphasis on strength and speed development.

Remember this is also an opportunity to coach specific skills appropriate to the objective of your session.

Each warm-up should contain the following elements:

  • Generalised movements - light general movement enabling increased blood flow round body - 2 minutes
  • Light specific movement - more of a focus on the content of your session - 2 minutes
  • Gradual build up range of movements - dynamic flexibility based around the specific movement of the session. Use of animal walks and gymnastic activities to improve players’ physical competence - 5 minutes
  • Movements to build intensity using specific exercises to aid speed development, strength development and contact skills - 2 minutes
  • Specific strength, speed, and contact-based exercises at full intensity. Use body weight exercises, gymnastic and wrestling activities to enable increased levels of intensity to be achieved - 4 minutes
  • Please see activity menu on page 36-37 for appropriate content.

The importance of a cool-down

It is important for players to cool down appropriately after a session. Again, this needs to be structured accordingly to enable the body and mind to return to resting activity levels. This can be an opportunity to continue coaching specific skills at a lower intensity. Each cool-down should contain the following elements:

  • Generalised movements - ensure activity / games are not above jogging pace - 3-5 minutes
  • Static stretching - this will improve players’ levels of flexibility and lessen future injury potential - 5 minutes
  • Please see activity menu on page 50-52 for appropriate content.

Skills competence

The coaching of skills should be developed through game-sense or whole-part-whole coaching and effective warm-up and cool-downs. Main areas to be focused on are:

  • Handling
    • Passing - lateral, switch, loop, pop, clearing, chest
    • Catching - hand-catch, high ball, above head (jump and catch), low
    • Throwing - football shy
  • Being able to pass to support in space
  • Running
    • Evasive skills - dodge / evade, react to others, side-step, swerve, recognise and attack space
  • Contract
    • Strong body shape maintained pre, during and post-contact
    • Leg drive / ability to stay on feet when tackled
    • Confident in contact situations
    • Ball presentation
    • Decision making pre, during and post-contact
    • Winning the ball on the ground / getting back to feet
  • Defending
    • Tackling - individual technique - front, side and rear tackle and correct selection in different game situations
    • Going forward in defence
    • Working as a team in defence
  • Teamwork
    • Working within a team to attack space and defend, go forward in attack and defence, communication with team in attack and defence
  • Continuity
    • Keeping the ball alive (the hierarchy of contact SOS - Step to evade defender/take a side on tackle, Offload pre /during / post tackle, Set-up ruck / maul as last resort)
  • Kicking and catching
    • Kicking and fielding skills - place kick, drop kick, punt kick, kicking on the run, fielding a high ball
  • Set Piece - understanding the role of the set piece as a restart play with a contest for possession and an opportunity to create space for attack
  • Scrum
    • strong / safe body position maintained (every player)
    • safe engagement procedure - crouch, bind, set (every player)
  • Lineout
    • ability to outmanoeuvre and out-jump opposition in the lineout (every player)
    • ability to throw accurately to a moving jumper (every player)
    • note - supporting the jumper should not be introduced until youth rugby

Mental factors

Coaches should strive to create a foundation built on confidence in each of their players. Coaches can model confidence in their players by providing opportunities for players to be successful in increasingly challenging practices with the coach providing constructive feedback which will develop self-confidence.

Involve every player as much as possible in the session - try to ensure as much activity as possible for all players during your coaching by adopting a game-based approach. (Drill based coaching, where players are standing waiting for their turn or are not engaged, should be avoided). Manipulate the conditions of the games to encourage every player to develop. For those more skilled, you may need to set different goals during the sessions - likewise you may need to set different goals for those who need additional support.

Praise the effort involved in achieving the outcome (perseverance, resilience, focus, drive etc.). This will encourage hard work and will provide the foundation for committed effort to overcome challenges.

Structure the sessions to encourage decision-making by your players by providing constructive feedback into what the consequences of their decisions were in relation to the principles of play and the aims and objectives of the coaching session. Try to encourage intrinsic (self) motivation as opposed to extrinsic (coach-led) motivation by making your sessions as much fun as possible and by challenging players to practice and play whilst at home and away from your sessions.

Demonstrations and feedback during these sessions should be focused on the relevant information your players need to be able to achieve success - this will help develop their attention-control skills. By coaching through games, you are able to introduce imagery skills - by highlighting things that worked you can ask your players to reflect on what worked best for them and to reinforce positive thoughts for next time. For example, if a player scores a try by executing a 2-on-1 situation - ask them what they did that worked well and therefore what they will try to do next time to ensure success? You can also ask other players to imagine what they would do in similar situations.

Promote a positive attitude to training and its relation to performance. If the players train poorly then they will more than likely play poorly. Set the standards as a group for both training and playing.

Lifestyle factors

The aim at this stage is to further promote sporting habits that will stay with the players for the rest of their sporting careers. Work with players and parents to reinforce the following:

  • Safety: World Rugby recommends that all players use a gumshield
  • Values: At this stage, it is vital to introduce and further promote the spirit and values of rugby union and team sports such as partnership and team working, respect for team-mates, opposition, and officials - not to mention other volunteers
  • Foster an understanding of the laws of the game
  • Hydration: Always ensure there are water bottles available for players - encourage them to be responsible for bringing their own
  • Nutrition: The benefits of healthy nutrition and the impact this can have on performance
  • Rest: The importance of sleep and the impact that has on recovery.
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