The Journey of a Grassroots Rugby Coach (More Tracksuits less Business Suits)

The weeks conversation is part 3 of a 3-part series where I speak with Dr Andy Gilbert PhD and Associate Professor at George Mason University.

Andy Gilbert started his grassroots coaching journey at the university level in the United States 20 years ago.

Some of his early coaching roles included backs and attack coach at New Mexico State University) as well as head coaching roles at Kent State University and Evergreen State College.

He took a university teaching and research position at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia and used his background in education to coach the littlest players (U6) at Eltham Rugby Club for two years.

After returning to the USA, he has continued his youth coaching and has worked with the same group of kids moving up from U8 through U14 for the last six years at Loudoun Youth Rugby in the state of Virginia.

I have broken the conversation into 3 parts as we had some really good discussions about a number of topics.

This is a great series of conversations with Andy and getting his thoughts around coaching junior rugby in the USA.

In episode 1 we spoke about not getting hung up on the results but focusing on performing at their best.

Not coaching young players to win now but developing their skill sets for the future and using players from your senior team to help at training.

In episode 2 we talked about how Andy is improving the parents’ rugby IQ in a non-rugby community and coach development in the US.

In episode 3 Andy spoke about his thoughts about where USA Rugby is heading and using gamification at training.

This episode is with Andrew Fraser.

Andrew has been the Assistant Coach at Hunter Wildfires in the Shute Shield and has recently been appointed as Assistant Coach at Bond University in the Hospital Cup.

He has also held positions as both Assistant and Head Coach at many NSW Country Championship teams.

During our chat we spoke about how you must be prepared as a coach, learning the skill of communication and being ruthlessly curious.

Andrew spoke about as a coach you must making an effort to make connections by speaking with other coaches as well as being engaged with training and having high energy in your sessions and making them quick and as efficient and it’s all about preparing our players for 3 o’clock on Saturday.

His advice to any new coaches or coaches in general is “Don’t let fear hold you back”

Andrew is also the founder of Rugby Palooza, a two-day coaching forum to be held in Lennox Head on the New South Wales north coast on the weekend of 29-30 January 2022.

There is an amazing line up of quality coaches attending to share their knowledge and talk about rugby. The theme for the weekend is Collaboration is Cool.

Some of the coaches that will be in attendance and sharing their knowledge

Scott Wisemantel (Wallabies Assistant Coach)

Jay Tregonning (Wallaroos Head Coach)

Nick Stiles (Melbourne Rebels General Manager)

Dan Hooper (Brumbies Skills Coach)

Sam Needs (Scrum Strong)

and many more.

Tickets available through Eventbrite

Also follow RugbyPalooza on Instagram and Facebook @rugbypalooza

This is second part of my chat with Merlin Gape O’Donnell.

In this episode we discussed Players moving to another club for their development.

As coaches what environments are we Creating environments for our players.

Learning how to coach through coaching different sports

Finding a Mentor creating a stake holder map

Self reflection and learning

This is part 1 of a 2 part sepisode

In this episode I speak with Merlin Gape O'Donnell.

Merlin works in sports development and has previously worked for England Rugby as a Community Rugby Coach.

He is currently one of the U15 DPP lead coaches for Harlequins in the UK and is currently in his sixth season for the club.

In his former Director of Rugby role at Weybridge Vandals, Merlin established a player pathway to transition young players into senior rugby and created the club’s first U21 side.

He has previous coaching roles that include being a lead coach for Surrey Rugby’s developing player programme and Head of Varsity Rugby at an American school based in England.

He has also worked as a performance analyst for London Welsh and for Wales Women whilst studying Sports Coaching & Performance at the University of South Wales.

In part one we spoke about having a blend between player led and coach led training and what gives your team energy and what takes it away.

Adapting training games to suit player ability and also how a lot of coaches are not designing sessions to develop players but to just prepare them for the next game.

This is the second part of my discussion with Jonny McMurtry.

In this episode we discuss Jonny's recent research around "Why players play and what is important to them"

In his research he was looking at the motivations of elite U20 age grade players. His research was part of his Masters and was completed in conjunction with University of Queensland and the Australian Rugby Union.

This week’s episode is with Jonny McMurtry

Jonny works in coach development with Coaching the Coaches webpage (www.coachingthecoaches.net) and Rugby Coach Weekly

He also works as a facilitator with Outside the Locker Room

Jonny is also an International Gymnastics AUS Advanced Silver Coaching

He has held many roles in coach development as well as working on work within various sporting organizations/clubs including:

•Southside Swimming Squad, Rochedale, Brisbane.

•Wests Bulldogs Rugby Union, Toowong, Brisbane

•St Joachim’s Catholic Primary School, Holland Park, Brisbane

•Anglican Church Grammar School (Rugby 1st XV Head Coach), East Brisbane

He has been involved in national and state age grade programs within rugby union for 11+ years

During the episode we talked about

Finding your players motivation and what do they want to achieve

Asking more questions

Giving regular and Reflective Feedback

Step back before you step in

And often the coachable moment is in the players answers

This weeks episode is with Jonathan Flynn.

He is originally from Scotland.

Jonathan is currently coaching the senior team at Rugby Club Metz (Fédérale 2, France) and at Rugby Club Luxembourg (1st Division in Germany).

He has Spent 5 years as head coach of the Luxembourg national team (15s and 7s) he has also coached club rugby in Belgium, Luxembourg, and various national age grade teams.

Jonathan is also a Trainer/Educator for World Rugby and has delivered coaching courses to various unions throughout Europe.

We spoke about how the score doesn’t matter and the importance of developing skills in young players.

Keeping training sessions fun through competitive games and working at a high tempo.

We also spoke about questioning our players and letting them try and fix errors themselves.

This weeks episode is with Tomas Marks.

Tom has previously worked for the Welsh Rugby Union for 7 years in development, he has also worked for the RFU.

He now runs Coffee and Rugby Coaching Services.

In this episode we spoke about the use of mentors for your development, which helps with making you’re a better coach.

Using the APES principle for training.

Timing of questioning and Peer to Peer coaching.