5 Things I Learned Inside a High Performance Enviroment

This past summer was spent traveling to one high performance camp to another for USA Rugby. This is now my third year in side the HP Program so I'm starting to feel I've become a seasoned pro at sleeping on dorm style twin beds, over-eating cafeteria food, and adapting to coaching in this unique environment. Below are five things I've learned in my experience of being an assistant coach at these events as well as being a head coach of an age grade program. I've taken these lessons and applied them to my current coaching position which has made for a positive experience for everyone involved. 

Do you agree with me? What have you learned? Please take the time to comment below...

1. People love meetings, but you don't have to love them
If you've worked in a professional environment you no doubt have been stuck in a room with a whiteboard asking yourself why couldn't we have just written an E-mail about this? 

We've been there bro...

Rugby suffers from this same abuse of meetings too.

What I learned was less is more when you're thinking about holding a meeting.

You can cut out a lot of leg work in your build-up to an event with presentations or well written emails. This serves two purposes; 1. It cuts out your needed meeting time and work to be done on the ground, 2. Once you ask the first question you will know immediately who has done their homework and shown up prepared.

Now, I'm not saying ALL meetings should be done away with I'm just saying most of them should be.

Acceptable Meetings:
- Med check
- Selection
- Pre/post game coaches talk
- 1 on 1's
- Morning team meetings to outline agendas

Unacceptable Meetings:
- Meetings to plan PowerPoint's
- Meetings to plan future meetings
- Any meeting longer than an hour
- A meeting without an agenda and set start and end time
- 'Group-think' meetings

A final note on meetings, make sure if you're the one running the meeting you aren't wasting your time or the participants. You wouldn't go to practice without a plan so why should you go to a meeting without one? Respect yours and others time. Be quick, direct, and prompt.

100% right

2. Trust your assistant coaches

If you are assigned to, or assigned, a group of coaches you need to trust them and their abilities. They, just like you, are there for reason and you need to get comfortable with the idea of prioritizing and delegating to free up your time to focus on what is important. You want to be a leader not a boss give them the room to coach to their strengths (maybe your weakness) and focus on your role.

Trust them...

Take a second and think about your conduct during a training session, now ask yourself a few questions; 

1. If you aren't the lead coach during an activity, who is? 
2. How often do you add "and another thing..." after they are done giving their coaching points? 
3. When they present something to you do you often add "Well, this is how I do it.." without asking why they want to do it their way?

If you can answer yes to 2 or more of those questions you might be undermining your assistant coaches authority with the team. That doesn't mean you should let the pirates sail the ship, but be tactful on how you approach the subject of skill improvement with them and do it AWAY from the team. A simple one on one meeting to discuss your expectations will do more for the coaches development, and respect from the team, than constantly talking over them in a coaching session.

3. Less is more which also leads to less stress

This is less equals more for the math challenged

This is particularly important in an HP environment. You're not with your club team anymore where you have to spend hours hammering away at the fundamentals and game understanding. These athletes that are either on the team or at a camp already have a strong grasp on their fundamentals and game situations so instead turn your focus to improving the individual skills (before and during training, never after) and stretching your own understanding and expectations of the game for both coaches and players.

You are dealing with the 1% in terms of athletic ability, try something new with that will challenge their abilities and stretch the limits of your system.

4. Speak less, listen more
This is especially important during meeting with other coaches. You are surrounded by some of the best minds in the game and their collective knowledge is greater than any website, YouTube clip, or book.

So shut up and listen.


You don't need to prove you belong by yammering on or tacking on comments after a point has been made. What you need to do is take notes about what other people are doing on topics that will make you and your club better. opportunities like these to learn don't happen very often, seize it by shutting your mouth and opening your ears.


5. Prepare for some haters and trolls
One thing I wasn't prepared for when I was the interim head coach for the 7s program was the backlash from trolls on the internet.  What really pissed me off was it came from some people I

Mouth breathing is one sign of troll-ism

consider friends and role models.

The lesson I took away is you need to have thick skin to coach at any level, but you need to have tank armor thick skin when you get to the next level of coaching. People are entitled to their opinions, but you need to understand that those opinions are made up from snapshots (games/press releases on selections/etc) taken from one brief moment in a very long process only you, the staff and team have experienced. 

Have faith in what you're doing and don't be afraid of possible failure. You're in that position for a reason so act like it. Find a someone who will keep you grounded and remind you in those moments of weakness that you are capable of doing it and LISTEN to them. In the end the worst that could happen is you're bad at it, which will only serve a greater purpose of teaching you what you need to improve on.

Last piece of advice on this topic, like and re-tweet every post about you...

Thriller Hands!!! A Dynamic Way to Receive a Pass

The Overview:

Exhibit A

What does the 1982 hit "Thriller" and catching a rugby ball have in common. Its all about the layered hands or, the thiller hands! One of the most iconic moments in the music video is when MJ and his zombie dancers throw their hands out to the side and shimmy to the left before coming back to right, here. This small movement in a very large video gives you the tools to help explain the concept of layered hands while receiving a pass by giving the technique a pop culture reference.  The pop culture reference is important because it breaks up the normal pattern of learning by adding entertainment value which will help with skill retention. 

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

This isn't the only way to catch a pass either, its just another way. The old tried and true methods like the 'W', as illustrated by RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan here, or the 'Diamond" as shown by pro wrestler turned master yogi Diamond Dallas Page. Both of these techniques still have a place in the game, especially at youth level, and should be coached to new players and practiced until mastered. The thriller hands are great for experience players who might be hitting a plateau in their development or for back line players who's attack systems are designed around getting the ball out fast. It should be taught to the whole squad as well since it will help forwards who find themselves in space to become more of a threat. Regardless of how you coach it just make sure you're coaching it. To many of us focus on passing the ball and pay very little attention to the process of catching it.

The Goal:

Create a quick transferable ball by positioning hands to make a pass before the reception.

The Concept:

The concept behind the thriller hands is to have the player's hands position to quickly receive and distribute the ball without having to waste time re-gripping for proper hand placement. Following the three panel sequence of photos we can break down the process...

***The pass is coming from the photos left side and being passed to the right***

#1- Position your power hand (hand at the back of the ball) in front of the guide hand (hand at the front of the ball). keep them open and pointed towards the player passing the ball.

#2- Catch the ball with your fingertips. The ball should be landing in your hands in such a matter that you should be able to transfer it quickly across the body with minimal hand movement to make the pass. 

#3- You should be transferring the ball  quickly across the body and firing it into a pass with fingers pointed at your target.

Looking at the hands from the passer perspective

Focus on these key factors:

Izzy's thriller hands

1. Are the catching the ball and bringing it straight across the body? No dip?

2. How much is the ball moving in the transfer? Are they struggling to get a handle on it?

3. Are the passing leaving their hands ugly? If so, it could be a problem in their passing process.

There is tons of room in how you want to coach this to your players. Don't move on until they have mastered those 3 key area and once they do start looking at moving the back hand closer/farther. Also, what should the feet be doing? How about the eyes immediately after the catch? 

What do you think about the thriller hands? Will it help or hurt your players? I would love to hear your comments below.

Continuous Passing

*This drill is designed to be a skill developer and/or a assessment tool*

Preview:
This activity is designed to help develop varying passing skills during fatigue state.

Coaching Points:
- Fundamental passing technique 
- Footwork
- Receiving hands (both passer and receivers)
- Smart communication

Needs:
- 3 players
- 4 cones
- 1 ball
- Timer

Set-up:
- The vertical cones (running cones) should be spaced 10-15m apart
- Cones making up the horizontal line (passing cones) should be offset so one is 5m from the running cones while the other is 10-15m depending on skill level
- Place on player on each of the passing cones to be passer/receiver
- One player running between the running cones

Action:
- Designate time (i.e. 1-2 minute each player)
- One player works between the two running cones at pace
- 2 players work the short and long pass to runner


Adjustments/build-up:
- Receivers on passing cones have to do burpees, sit-ups, etc
- Lengthen running line and add more passing cones