Should We Aspire To Professional Standards?
Should We Aspire To Professional Standards?
Professional standards are great at professional levels - but do we have to apply these thresholds at amateur levels?
The game at professional level is speeding up; scrums are now non-existent in terms of a competition, the ruck is now a non-compete zone, and tackle laws are changing every year. This increase in speed and complexity of the game makes it less appealing to the amateur player looking to play for recreational reasons.
There has to be a realisation that the amateur player, is slower, less fit and less strong, resulting in them tiring out sooner.
With less than 2% of the rugby playing population playing the professional game, there should be an amateur friendly version of the game, this would impact upon coaching significantly.
We would not have to worry about the power game if it was focused more on rugby skills than power, we could coach a far more people friendly version that what we see on the TV today.
At the grassroots levels we as coaches need to make the sport relevant to our players needs not the needs of the professional game. We need to provide sessions that are:
- Skill based
- Be fun - enjoyable and motivating - always an APES session
- Be player centred meeting the needs of the players and group
- Create a team ethos where TREDS is a basis for the value set of the players
- Create sessions where Resilience, Culture, Creativity, Empowerment are central to coaching delivery
- You plan them, and enjoy delivering them
Fundamental to how we coach at the amateur level is the importance of legacy. As coaches are transitory, we come and go, we impart our enthusiasm, knowledge and skills upon our players. We ALWAYS hope to have a POSITIVE influence and we must always ensure that our tenure as the players coach is one that they look back on with fondness and positivity.
