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Rugby Coaching Blog

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didds
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Rugby Coaching Blog

#124442

Postby didds » March 13th, 2018, 8:38 am

Firstly... I have to declare an interest, as I am involved with this enterprise as a writer, speaker, and proof reader, so if this needs to be pulled by mods I fully understand.

however, in the links that follow although there are vlinks to commercial ie paid provsiions and services, what I am linking to is free and may be of interest.

Here

https://www.rugbycoachweekly.net/rugby-coaching/blog/

can be found some on line editorials about rugby coaching theory etc globally, but also each week a podcast about an aspect of coaching.
So far there are podcasts about the Australian reports and action regarding youth weight graded rugby (as opposed to age graded), and a discussion about the thrills and skills of southern hemisphere professional competitions. Then on Wednesday this week will be added a podcast regarding youth and younger scrummaging in the community game with some bloke called Didds (so I also decalre a self interest here!).

Hope this post is allowed and I very much hope you find the content of the podcasts interesting.

didds

dionaeamuscipula
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Re: Rugby Coaching Blog

#124677

Postby dionaeamuscipula » March 14th, 2018, 12:03 am

I've chatted with people from time to time about weight group versus age group. I'm not convinced.

We are now playing U13. Under the Pathway Rules in Wales we play full size pitch, 15 a side, contested scrums with limited push, uncontested line outs with lifting allowed, close to full rules at tackle/breakdown. I understand these are a bit more advanced than in England where U13 play 13 a side. Don't know about Scotland. Watching our kids play, if you didn't know you'd be quite hard pressed to tell the difference from adult rugby. We're pretty good, second best side in the region.

We have kids from about 25th percentile to 99th percentile for height and I would guess weight. DMJr is 5ft 9in and 70 Kg, but he is soft as a pillow and would give up if he was forced to play with "lumpies". We have a kid who is knee high to a grasshopper but the most ferocious fearless tackler on the team. We have a girl who is in her final year with us, she is the equal of any of the boys, and is probably the best female rugby player in her age group in Wales, and if she continues in rugby will be an international*. The different sizes work well together in the way that old style rugby does. We come across kids who are adult sized as they hit puberty just that bit earlier, but I have never felt that the mix is dangerous, and indeed we have lost more player days to football injuries than to rugby injuries, where we have suffered I think one serious injury on the field in nearly seven years. The big guys have big fun until they come up against a team who can tackle and then both they and their team mates don't know what to do next**.

The kids are all (of course) the same age and play for us on the weekend and their schools during the week. They are school mates and club mates and I don't think the dynamic would work in the same way if they were weight graded. If they were weight graded there would still be the potential issue of the odd outlier (see below) who is so dynamic and big that they would be an issue even in weight graded. Ultimately the most talented players are always going to defeat the less talented, their relative size being mostly irrelevant.

DM

*we have however lost our other girl this year, she started the season but found the boys a bit too big for her. She is still playing girls rugby along with apparently 10,000 other girls in Wales.
**I have been told that when Craig Quinnell was coming up through the age groups, he had to have special rules so that others were safe to play with him.

didds
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Re: Rugby Coaching Blog

#124706

Postby didds » March 14th, 2018, 9:00 am

Without totally rejecting the concept, I also remain to be convinced DM.

Hats off to the Aussies for actually investigating it all, and maybe coming up with a solution, but it seems to me to be a quite complicated and time intensive system, that presumably needs constant revisiting for each player. perhaps I missed something somewhere wrt to this coach etc input, but I just don;t see that the typical club age group coach has the time to devote to this overall.

DM's point about being team mates week in a week out is pertinent too. Its not beyond the possibility thyat a youth player could change age groups a couple of times, leaving them flitting between squads, leaving peers behind at one juncture, rejoining them at another while others are mopving around too. In a period where player retention is important it could be imperfect - I appreciate of course that for much smaller players player retention arguably has a problem here too.

We hear reports of NZ using this approach - but never seem to actually find real evidence of it.

As ever, happy to be better educated :-)

didds


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