Speaker 1: How are you doing? Welcome to the Rugby League Coach Podcast,
Speaker 1: Episode two hundred and fifty three. We're in season four.
Speaker 1: My name is Lee Addison. I am the owner of
Speaker 1: Rugby League Coach dot com dot au. I'm a coach mentor, coach, educator,
Speaker 1: coach consultant, and I'm also the author of Rugby League
Speaker 1: Coach thirteen Game Changing Conversations Transform Your Coaching. I consume
Speaker 1: a lot of water, and that water on. This podcast
Speaker 1: is sponsored by the Global League Network and you can
Speaker 1: find them at Global League dot Network. Going to go
Speaker 1: straight into some tactical things here and technical things have
Speaker 1: you noticed over the last five six years in the
Speaker 1: NRL and in Super LEA. I suppose there tends to
Speaker 1: be a shape now that centers, wings, second rows in
Speaker 1: particular tend to run in attack now they tend to
Speaker 1: go into out, so they tend to go, if you like,
Speaker 1: forty five degrees across towards the corner flag as they're
Speaker 1: attacking the opposition try line. I've had this described to
Speaker 1: me as a bit like just changing your angles when
Speaker 1: you're running up against your opposition center or your opposition wing, etc.
Speaker 1: I still personally can't get my head around why you
Speaker 1: wouldn't attack touch line to touch line, i e. Everybody
Speaker 1: in shape in field balance if you like, and let
Speaker 1: the ball do the work in many cases, come back
Speaker 1: to me admin at Rugby League Coach dot com to
Speaker 1: tay you at Rugby League Coach on socials if you've
Speaker 1: got any thoughts on that. And then the other one
Speaker 1: is a little trend that's come through in the NRL
Speaker 1: over the last few years and particularly is forward running
Speaker 1: tighter to the ruck and then running something of an
Speaker 1: over's line to get away from the ruck. Now. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of this is because a lot of
Speaker 1: players like to hit and spin and go into the
Speaker 1: tackle at the NRL level, backing into it sometimes because
Speaker 1: you can then accuse the opponent of doing a crusher tackle. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I think there's a little bit of that, But
Speaker 1: again my personal coaching philosophy, start wide at the ruck,
Speaker 1: six seven or eight meters wide of the ruck, run
Speaker 1: straight and then cut a slight unders line, or run
Speaker 1: straight or cuts a decent unders line. There's no point
Speaker 1: running anywhere near markers. I don't understand that anybody who
Speaker 1: runs an over's line risks when they open the body
Speaker 1: up getting really really rattled with shoulder contact. You can
Speaker 1: go tighter to the ruck when your rucks are faster
Speaker 1: because the markers won't get to you. So there's something
Speaker 1: else to think about. Again, Contact me if you've got
Speaker 1: anything to challenge me. There. We've had an outbreak of
Speaker 1: forwards that now pass the ball, and a lot of
Speaker 1: them don't know why they're doing it, they don't know
Speaker 1: where they're doing it. The reality is passing should be
Speaker 1: for when somebody is in a better position than you,
Speaker 1: and quite often now we've seen that all levels of
Speaker 1: the game, some forwards who just get in and pass
Speaker 1: the ball and it smacks of I can't be ours
Speaker 1: running the football, quite frankly. And this has impacts on
Speaker 1: pivots because you're six or seven and sometimes you're thirteen,
Speaker 1: and back in the day it used to be you're thirteen,
Speaker 1: and then we sort of turned our thirteen into another prop,
Speaker 1: another middle, and now we seem to be going back
Speaker 1: round again, except we're using the thirteens in places as
Speaker 1: a pivot now. I was doing this twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1: I wanted my fullback on We're thirteen to act as
Speaker 1: pivots to confuse the defense, and I don't mind that. However,
Speaker 1: many teams just adopt this without thinking it's through, without
Speaker 1: thinking what impact could that have on six and seven
Speaker 1: and their direction and their direction will play what impact
Speaker 1: can that have on the structure of the set? Again,
Speaker 1: if you're willing to challenge me on that, or you
Speaker 1: want to come up with some theories for me to
Speaker 1: digest and therefore for public dissemination on this podcast. Adding
Speaker 1: at Rugby League coach dot com dot a you at
Speaker 1: Rugby League Coach on socials, many of you contact me
Speaker 1: about the differences between coaching Division one and Division two players.
Speaker 1: So a's and b's, I suppose whichever way you want
Speaker 1: to look at it. The most basic advice I can
Speaker 1: give to you that will make sense without having met
Speaker 1: your players and without looking at the quality of the
Speaker 1: side that you're dealing with. The best way of summing
Speaker 1: this up is, for every three bits of information you
Speaker 1: give top players, give your second division or your reserves one. Okay,
Speaker 1: so if in the first grade or in your Division one,
Speaker 1: you like to say, hold the ball, take the set
Speaker 1: to the left, and then go and then shift right,
Speaker 1: and then I don't know, throwing or under an inside ball.
Speaker 1: That's three bits of information. You might just say to
Speaker 1: the regis team, hold the ball. Well, you might say
Speaker 1: hold the ball and just move it when you see space.
Speaker 1: So that's a very simple answerer thing to what you're
Speaker 1: looking for. And what's the difference between these players. You've
Speaker 1: got to remember, players that aren't in your first grade,
Speaker 1: in your Division one team or whatever labels you put
Speaker 1: on it, they're not as good as the ones that
Speaker 1: you put it in the top grade. But why aren't
Speaker 1: they as good? Well, they're probably not as good physically,
Speaker 1: they're probably not as committed. But even if they are
Speaker 1: as good physically and in terms of commitment, it might
Speaker 1: be they struggle to process information quickly enough into action,
Speaker 1: and that is quite often what separates the top from
Speaker 1: the top. So many of you are coaching at levels
Speaker 1: where you no doubt have to coach against an opposition coach.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you can coach a game and you
Speaker 1: realize that if your team holds the ball, you'll win.
Speaker 1: Or sometimes you'll coach a game and you realize the
Speaker 1: opposition are just better than so you're just trying to
Speaker 1: cling on. But many of you coachure levels where all
Speaker 1: things are equal, and you've got to outthink your opponent.
Speaker 1: So how would you look at the game? How would
Speaker 1: you study it, how would you study it's in game,
Speaker 1: and how would you study it if you saw a
Speaker 1: video of your opponent beforehand. I'll give you some pointers
Speaker 1: to think about. Well, obviously, you want to know what
Speaker 1: their exit sets are, like, what their good ball sets are,
Speaker 1: like good ball being the opposite end of the field
Speaker 1: from your own try line. However you want to define that.
Speaker 1: You want to look at their defensive system, their market system.
Speaker 1: Defensive system. Is it up and in? Is it up
Speaker 1: and out? Is it spread? Is it compressed? Is it
Speaker 1: compressed in some areas spreading other areas the market system
Speaker 1: first first market chase, second, hold, hold and fold or
Speaker 1: split marker. And then after that, have a look at
Speaker 1: how your opponents give up ground. So in the video
Speaker 1: that you're watching, or the game that you're watching live
Speaker 1: of your opponents, or even in the game that you're coaching,
Speaker 1: how do they give up ground? Is it when you
Speaker 1: move the ball sideways? Is it when you target a
Speaker 1: certain defender in the line, is it when you play direct?
Speaker 1: And what's most common when they give up a line break?
Speaker 1: Is the weak defenders. Is there a weakness in the system.
Speaker 1: Is there an opportunity to repeat a couple of sets
Speaker 1: on them and then they get tired, And then of
Speaker 1: course you've got your own considerations. Now there'll be some
Speaker 1: games where you have to put your best defensive team on.
Speaker 1: I think, and I always think at the start of
Speaker 1: the year you should always put your best defensive team
Speaker 1: on if you've got that option, i e. Put a
Speaker 1: defensive thirteen on the field to start. Give up a
Speaker 1: little bit of attack. You know, you get some players,
Speaker 1: don't you, who are great in attack, but as a
Speaker 1: rule they can't defend very well. LOOKI Galvin being one,
Speaker 1: Michael Morgan used to fall off tackles all the time.
Speaker 1: James Maloney did. And when you say that person's good
Speaker 1: at attacking, you've got to wonder whether the juice is
Speaker 1: worth the squeeze. And I think for somebody like I
Speaker 1: don't know, Terrell Sloan, who's going from the Dragons in
Speaker 1: the NRL to Super League, I would imagine that the
Speaker 1: Dragons coaches have felt that the consistency in attack the
Speaker 1: juice is not worth a squeeze for the defensive lapses
Speaker 1: that may happen, have a think about doing something different.
Speaker 1: I'll say this until I'm blue in the face. And
Speaker 1: there's still people who comment on a post on a
Speaker 1: clip where I said, what's rugby league's obsession with going
Speaker 1: down the middle of the field. And there's even people
Speaker 1: who wrote things like what does this pomino? Or tell
Speaker 1: me you know nothing about rugby league without telling me
Speaker 1: you know nothing about rugby league, or tell me you
Speaker 1: never played rugby league because you don't go down the middle.
Speaker 1: Why do teams do early shifts and make massive breaks? Honestly,
Speaker 1: the thickness out there, and some people, I'm sorry to
Speaker 1: be so blunt about that, most kicks failed because of
Speaker 1: poor kick protection from your own team. So if the
Speaker 1: kick isn't protected and the defense rushes up in your face,
Speaker 1: as a kicker, you actually have to kick it higher
Speaker 1: to get over the defense, whereas if you're kicking off
Speaker 1: the front foot, you can kick the ball at a
Speaker 1: lower trajectory and kick it further. So make sure you
Speaker 1: kick protections in place. I guess what I'm doing today
Speaker 1: is giving you some little things to think about own
Speaker 1: in your own coaching. On the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: how often do you con see tries in certain areas
Speaker 1: of the field. I in my coaching have found that
Speaker 1: one of the weaknesses of my defensive system is an
Speaker 1: area of call the corner flag pocket, which is basically
Speaker 1: on our own goal line on the short side right.
Speaker 1: So I've done things in the past to counter that.
Speaker 1: I find a lot of players defensively ease themselves into games.
Speaker 1: They want to know how hard they can go and
Speaker 1: whether it's full gas or not throughout the game. Players
Speaker 1: will always try and pay themselves through the game. So
Speaker 1: if you want good collision and good defensive rocks from
Speaker 1: the start of a game, you must demand it from
Speaker 1: the start of the game. It's something you need to
Speaker 1: be talking about in the sheds. Many of you will
Speaker 1: struggle with defenders who come out of the defensive line
Speaker 1: but actually don't achieve anything. So they jump out of
Speaker 1: the defensive line and you think it'd be great if
Speaker 1: they tackle somebody at some point, but they just fly
Speaker 1: out the line and it causes more hassle for you.
Speaker 1: There's two things you need to do then. Number One,
Speaker 1: sometimes that player jumps because they want to tackle on
Speaker 1: a certain shoulder and you've got them on the wrong
Speaker 1: side of the field. So think about that. You know
Speaker 1: that you know what I'm talking about, don't you when
Speaker 1: the balls going sideways and one of your defenders just
Speaker 1: shoots out for no reason. But the second thing I
Speaker 1: want to discuss with you is that if you don't
Speaker 1: want them to jump and they can't get it into
Speaker 1: the head, I'm telling you now, a jumper will always
Speaker 1: jump and give them three maximum in I don't know,
Speaker 1: three games or one game, and then you need to
Speaker 1: make a change. Most of you will have discipline issues
Speaker 1: with your team at times, and I can guarantee if
Speaker 1: you analyzed your penalties, most of them would come from
Speaker 1: your front row. So it's about educating your players on
Speaker 1: why they're giving those penalties away and why they shouldn't
Speaker 1: give those penalties away. Quite often we like to simplify
Speaker 1: this and go always tick props doing thick things. Well know,
Speaker 1: you want those props to be physical, and then sometimes
Speaker 1: that they go over the line or you want them
Speaker 1: to be the biggest players on the field, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they don't make decisions that benefit efficiency of defense. It
Speaker 1: just benefits the efficiency of themselves. So be very wary
Speaker 1: of that, particularly at the start of the year. Be
Speaker 1: careful when you're analyzing your training, when you're analyzing your games,
Speaker 1: and when you're in games, be careful of the difference
Speaker 1: between moving fast and rushing so fast feet rather than
Speaker 1: rushing to do things and being fast too fast. In
Speaker 1: the head, you want fast feet and I can't mind
Speaker 1: as a footballer. And there's also a difference between panic
Speaker 1: and intensity. Intensity is energy. Intensity is quality of what
Speaker 1: you do and the noise you bring with it, and
Speaker 1: the energy you bring with it, it can sometimes spill
Speaker 1: over into panic. Though. For your team to perform at
Speaker 1: its best, you need to make sure as many players
Speaker 1: as possible in your team can get go forward, even
Speaker 1: if it's in their own way, even if that go
Speaker 1: forward is running in a ball, getting tackled and immediately
Speaker 1: drop into the ground to play the ball. Because go
Speaker 1: forward is one of two things. Go forward is what
Speaker 1: pain Has does when he runs right through people and
Speaker 1: knocks them out the way. But the go forward would
Speaker 1: be minimal if he didn't get down to play the
Speaker 1: ball really quickly as well. And that's the second part
Speaker 1: of go forward. And sometimes just getting down to play
Speaker 1: the ball quickly is enough to go forward. What's go
Speaker 1: forward when the defense hasn't got time to get back,
Speaker 1: So maximize that for every single player, study their tape,
Speaker 1: study their game, whatever works for them. If you can
Speaker 1: get go forward and every single player, you go very
Speaker 1: far to winning an awful lot of football games and
Speaker 1: always spend time on your good ball. I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: a drink, Thank you, Global League Network. A too handed
Speaker 1: carrier of the football helps any player, any attacking player,
Speaker 1: do what they want with it in an efficient way.
Speaker 1: It literally changes your game because if you just pitch
Speaker 1: yourself now and you've got the ball under your elbow
Speaker 1: tucked under your wing, you're only going to do one
Speaker 1: thing with it, aren't you. If you've got it in
Speaker 1: front of you, you can promote it, you can pass
Speaker 1: it left or right if you need to. You can
Speaker 1: kick it with either foot if you want to, or
Speaker 1: you can then tuck it under the wing and prepare
Speaker 1: a fend with your other arm. But you can do
Speaker 1: all this with relative ease if you've got it in
Speaker 1: two hands, and if you've got support play. It's easier
Speaker 1: for you to engage opposition defenders when you've got the
Speaker 1: ball in two hands, because they don't know what you're
Speaker 1: going to do. With it until you've done the same
Speaker 1: things twenty times and then they know. And I always
Speaker 1: teach players and I think you should that once you
Speaker 1: get a two handed carry habit, you open up a
Speaker 1: whole new world, a whole new attacking world. And remember,
Speaker 1: as a coach, what you like go is what you allow.
Speaker 1: What you walk past is what you allow. The Rugby
Speaker 1: League Coach website turns eight. Probably this week, is it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there'd be this week or this podcast. So there's plenty
Speaker 1: of deals on at the moment and it's a great
Speaker 1: time for you to jump on. Also those who are
Speaker 1: interested in getting mentored and doing something I did a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, which was where I basically get
Speaker 1: a small retainer off you, but you don't pay me
Speaker 1: the coach Mentor feel unless we reach certain targets. So
Speaker 1: if you want a big run to September and you
Speaker 1: want to win your comp or get close to it,
Speaker 1: and you're a little bit worried about money, come on
Speaker 1: the coach Mentor program on those terms. Give me a
Speaker 1: buzz and we'll chat. We'll chat some terms. I'll give
Speaker 1: you an offer that hopefully you'll find hard to refuse.
Speaker 1: You get hold of me admin at Rugby League Coach
Speaker 1: dot converte you at Rugby League Coach and Instagram or Facebook.
Speaker 1: If you want to send a message, if you go
Speaker 1: on Rugby League Coach dot com dot ay you and
Speaker 1: go to the contact page, you'll see a phone number.
Speaker 1: I hope as many view as possible are listening to
Speaker 1: the Super League three sixty podcast those of you are
Speaker 1: interested in it. It's mostly about Super League, but we
Speaker 1: do mention the NRL as well, myself and Australian English
Speaker 1: based journalist John Davidson. And I'm also regular on the
Speaker 1: Loose Carry podcasts from Zero Tackle, I do a coach's
Speaker 1: corner analysis on there each week and I do a
Speaker 1: weekly column for Zero tackled mccolumn. This week was about
Speaker 1: having some sober analysis of the Origin series, probably one
Speaker 1: of the worst coach Origin series I've seen. Also the
Speaker 1: hyperbole around Nathan Cleary. Yes, he played well. Some people
Speaker 1: wrote to me and said, oh, Nathan Cleary, done enough
Speaker 1: for you. Nathan Cleary did what he gets paid to do,
Speaker 1: which is distribute the ball well, steer his team around
Speaker 1: the park, which he did in conjunction with Mitchell Moses
Speaker 1: may Iyad who kicked further and ran more than him
Speaker 1: got better meters in both scores, but you won't hear
Speaker 1: about that in the mainstream media. But what he also
Speaker 1: did was a dummy and goal, which he scored from
Speaker 1: quite often, if you've watched my analysis of him, he
Speaker 1: sometimes does that because he's not organized things well enough.
Speaker 1: And the amount of times I've seen him do that
Speaker 1: in rep football and just get clobbered or run down
Speaker 1: a dark alley. This time he managed to run through.
Speaker 1: That's fine, well done. He did some support play which
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a half to do, and
Speaker 1: he also stripped a ball one on one, which you
Speaker 1: don't have to be a half to do. So I
Speaker 1: just think he had a good game and that's it.
Speaker 1: To say that he's conquered Origin, it's just a stupid narrative.
Speaker 1: And I've got nothing against Nathan Cleary. I think he's
Speaker 1: a damn good player, but he struggles in a rep
Speaker 1: arena and the reality is he played like that because
Speaker 1: Laurie Daily seemed to accept that things were going very
Speaker 1: wrong after game two, and that's why he was calling
Speaker 1: himself a leader and arguing with some journalist about being
Speaker 1: a leader. And that's why before Game three, the coaches
Speaker 1: gave their interchange plan out because in games one and
Speaker 1: two the interchange plan was shocking and Billy Slater wasn't
Speaker 1: much better either. Some of his decisions around players that
Speaker 1: stayed on players that were off. We wrote about these
Speaker 1: on Coach Corner on zero Tackle. But also the big
Speaker 1: thing for Queensland is shifting ball and play four all
Speaker 1: the time. I always say, if you can to take
Speaker 1: three plays before you shift the ball and play four,
Speaker 1: that's fifty percent of your players that have gone, fifty
Speaker 1: percent of your opportunities that have gone. But if you
Speaker 1: want to know how dumb the coaching was on New
Speaker 1: South Wales side of things, it took them until game
Speaker 1: three to work that out. James in the UK wrote
Speaker 1: to me, Hey, pal, all good. We have a great
Speaker 1: boxing gym lined up near the community club and the
Speaker 1: sessions are great for kids. Would you utilize this fitness
Speaker 1: session as part of our annual training program with thirteen
Speaker 1: year old lads or would you stick to rugby related
Speaker 1: conditioning Unless your players are of origin standard, you've got
Speaker 1: some football work to do and you're preparing them for
Speaker 1: rugby league. Save the boxing gym for when it's raining
Speaker 1: and you can't get on the field, and as we
Speaker 1: know in parts of the UK, does that an awful lot.
Speaker 1: We might remember Joe sent me a message last week
Speaker 1: about halfs talking, and he replied to me again because
Speaker 1: I asked him to. If you remember, mate, appreciate the honesty.
Speaker 1: Genuinely useful. Right now, my half back runs first receiver
Speaker 1: and carries most of the organizing himself. He reads the
Speaker 1: game two three steps ahead of everyone else, but he's
Speaker 1: getting swamp teammates screaming for the ball either side of
Speaker 1: him while a rushing line closing clo in. That's on me,
Speaker 1: Joe said, not him too much. Low on one kidvest
Speaker 1: come off soon and we move into full rules. That's
Speaker 1: when I'm building what you describe spreading the organized guy
Speaker 1: organizing across nine five eighths and fullback calling intentions early
Speaker 1: instead of demanding the ball late. Should lift the ceiling
Speaker 1: on my other communicators too, since they won't be boxed
Speaker 1: in by the two pass rule anymore. Also wanted to
Speaker 1: let you know that we beat a team that put
Speaker 1: forty on us last year twenty four eighteen. We beat
Speaker 1: them on the weekend. No bench either played the full
Speaker 1: eighty with nothing in reserve. Your work's been a real
Speaker 1: big part of turning this group into something real. Best
Speaker 1: story out of it, though, is my leading, best and
Speaker 1: fairest right now is a kid and other coach didn't
Speaker 1: want and handed to me last year. Watching him go
Speaker 1: from that to leading the counts as everything about what's
Speaker 1: possible when kid just gets the right environment. Cheers again, Mate,
Speaker 1: appreciate everything, no problem, Joe. And all I'll say is
Speaker 1: the more you've got kids talking to your half, the
Speaker 1: more you've got to go out as a coach, because
Speaker 1: it's better than having nobody talking to the half, or
Speaker 1: nobody talking at all. Tell your half to go to
Speaker 1: the loudest one. Trenting, New South Wales said, Lee, hope
Speaker 1: you're well, just letting you know that I'm working on
Speaker 1: you coming over to the club. So there's a few
Speaker 1: clubs now I'm talking to about coach mentoring things and
Speaker 1: I'll be somewhere this week and I'll tell you all
Speaker 1: about that next week. Speaking to some coaches in a
Speaker 1: far flung location, Trent said, listening to your latest podcast
Speaker 1: just now, and as a teacher it rings true around
Speaker 1: learning preferences. Nice chat. I coach a girls under fifteen
Speaker 1: tackle side that haven't had much coaching in the past.
Speaker 1: I took them on at the start and they had
Speaker 1: no real concept of game plans. We were the third
Speaker 1: best team in the comp. Since taking them on, I've
Speaker 1: been coaching letter options off nine and seven which they
Speaker 1: already knew of, such as X and Y. I've introduced
Speaker 1: red and green sets and some block shape at the line,
Speaker 1: along with letter options at the line of plus X
Speaker 1: tips on behind the roock to a hard runner behind
Speaker 1: mark a box being too an X. Anyway, we have
Speaker 1: now improved our results by thirty points per game and
Speaker 1: we are now rolling into the Semis. A slight favorite
Speaker 1: point is they have not yet done a single block shape,
Speaker 1: plus or box to date in a game, but we
Speaker 1: are playing out of our skin with confidence. It would
Speaker 1: be an interesting point to see if yourself or others
Speaker 1: have found something similar in the past and why the
Speaker 1: improvement has been so steep considering they're not getting two plays.
Speaker 1: Is it a girl thing or a rare side that
Speaker 1: hasn't been coached like this before. Now it's not a
Speaker 1: girl thing, it's a rugby league thing. It's a human thing.
Speaker 1: So twenty six years ago, something like that. Twenty five
Speaker 1: years ago. I did a big study of the super
Speaker 1: League side and then I backed it up for my
Speaker 1: master's degree as well, a playbook of forty odd plays
Speaker 1: that a super League side worked on all year. They
Speaker 1: used three of them and one of them was the favorite,
Speaker 1: and they use that most. That's all you need. You
Speaker 1: don't need all the plays. Half the time we do
Speaker 1: it as coaches because we feel like we need to. Basically,
Speaker 1: you don't need any set plays if you're getting go forward,
Speaker 1: you just need vision being able to capitalize on the
Speaker 1: go forward. But it is very very very common what
Speaker 1: you're talking about trend. So don't get obsessed with your
Speaker 1: extra plays, get involved, get obsessed with not ever needing them.
Speaker 1: Zach from Queensland North End, Hey mate, been a while
Speaker 1: since the contacted. You're still loving every minute of your pods.
Speaker 1: Just a coaching question. My team is struggling to win
Speaker 1: two halves of football. As a sniffle example from the
Speaker 1: weekend we played top of the table. We only have
Speaker 1: fifteen players for the match and the opposition were fully stopped.
Speaker 1: They haven't lost, while we linger down down at the
Speaker 1: bottom at the moment due to player numbers. Our first
Speaker 1: half on the weekend was one of the better halves
Speaker 1: we have played this year. We didn't hit top gear,
Speaker 1: but the footy between the lads was great to see
Speaker 1: and going into halftime the score was only four nil
Speaker 1: to our opposition. I had another very experienced coach come
Speaker 1: in to help out that's had experiences at NRL level
Speaker 1: to try and help me figure out where we are
Speaker 1: going wrong. After a good chat and very simple game
Speaker 1: plan to help us start the second or half, we
Speaker 1: ended up losing a game thirty eight meal. It's becoming
Speaker 1: a bit frustrating as if we played top really well
Speaker 1: in the first half, second half seems to one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty degree turn and vice versa. If we played
Speaker 1: for poorly first half second half we seem to win.
Speaker 1: Just wondering if there is any tips or anything to
Speaker 1: try to help lead these lads at all. I'm going
Speaker 1: this is going to sound really brutal what I say,
Speaker 1: you've got a mentally weak group. I'm afraid they When
Speaker 1: when a team starts really poorly, gets to halftime and
Speaker 1: then plays better in the second half, that's often because
Speaker 1: they've built the opposition up before the game. In their
Speaker 1: head to be some kind of monsters, but got to
Speaker 1: halftime and reflected on it and realized that no, really,
Speaker 1: they're making them look good. So they're putting a bit
Speaker 1: more effort. Plus the other team tech the take the
Speaker 1: foot off the pedal when it goes the other way.
Speaker 1: It's either because they're so worried about the opposition that
Speaker 1: they're really aim up, or the opposition they're taking them easily.
Speaker 1: Just sounds like you've not got the best squad mate.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. There's no other way of attacking this than
Speaker 1: completely focusing on processes and forgetting the scoreboard. Okay, so
Speaker 1: all you've done, Zach is telling me about the scores.
Speaker 1: Give them completion rate time, it's give them tackle targets
Speaker 1: ien x number of no more than x missed tackles,
Speaker 1: penalty targets, ie, no more than x number of penalties,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Just focus on those things because all the
Speaker 1: focus on the result also brings into focus the opposition.
Speaker 1: So based on what you're telling me that it could
Speaker 1: also be because of your opposition are playing in two
Speaker 1: halves as well. Okay, so the first game you described
Speaker 1: sounds like you were playing a good side they took
Speaker 1: you a bit easily. That helped you a bit, but
Speaker 1: then they got their shit together at halftime and put
Speaker 1: thirty pasture the second that you're describing. That's what started
Speaker 1: to make me think you've got mentally weaker players. And
Speaker 1: by saying mentally weak players on weaker players, it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they can't get mentally stronger. But you have to
Speaker 1: break it down into components. I'll give you a fantastic example.
Speaker 1: As we all know, football is coming home. England are
Speaker 1: in the semifinals of the World Cup as I record
Speaker 1: this podcast. By the time some of you listen to this,
Speaker 1: the World Cup might already be over. But when they
Speaker 1: beat Mexico in the quarter know, the round of sixteen,
Speaker 1: they celebrated pretty significantly after the game, and one ex
Speaker 1: coach who's aupunned it, Wayne Rooney, criticized them and said
Speaker 1: they're celebrating too much. Well, for the record, when Rooney
Speaker 1: was a terrible coach wherever he went, but he's a
Speaker 1: good pundit. But secondly, there's a lot to be said
Speaker 1: about looking at too far ahead and the damage that
Speaker 1: can do. Okay, so put it this way, golfers don't
Speaker 1: concentrate for the whole eighteen rounds of golf. They'll play
Speaker 1: a shot, and they'll play a drive. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how many heat meters they hit
Speaker 1: the ball these days, but let's say four hundred. And
Speaker 1: while they're walking that four hundred, they think about everything
Speaker 1: else apart from golf, because what they found was if
Speaker 1: they stayed concentrating all the time, they run out of
Speaker 1: mental energy by the time they got to hold sixteen,
Speaker 1: seventeen and eighteen. Well, a game is the same thing, right,
Speaker 1: A season is the same thing. So if you break
Speaker 1: the game down into little parts that they have to master,
Speaker 1: that will help them. I need some more water. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Global League Network. About Global League Network, Look, I love
Speaker 1: it when I'm a bit thirsty. What was your best
Speaker 1: year coaching? I was thinking about this the other day,
Speaker 1: and is it this year? Can you enjoy it? How
Speaker 1: many of us coach because we actually enjoy it, or
Speaker 1: how many of us actually need the rush of coaching?
Speaker 1: Do you think? When I think back, I think twenty
Speaker 1: thirteen was probably the most joyable coaching year of my life.
Speaker 1: I just started at Ipswich stayed high and it was
Speaker 1: third division, right, and we won every single game, and
Speaker 1: I always think about those lads as the ones who
Speaker 1: dug the well. But the reason I enjoyed it is
Speaker 1: because I didn't have to chase one percentage every thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: I could be a little bit more relaxed, and I
Speaker 1: accepted that they'd get things wrong that with hit in history.
Speaker 1: In the past, sorry, I've referred to them as my
Speaker 1: social side, but they still won a regional competition at
Speaker 1: the school had never won before in its history, and
Speaker 1: it made the boss really proud. And that same year
Speaker 1: as well, I also went to the twenty thirteen World
Speaker 1: Cup to assist Mattison with the USA, and I ended
Speaker 1: up going to England with the squad and I hadn't
Speaker 1: been back to the UK for a while, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I was getting a free trip
Speaker 1: for work and staying in nice hotels, and one of
Speaker 1: the hotels was three minutes from where my auntie and
Speaker 1: uncle lived. So while all the players were on some
Speaker 1: gluten free diet that made everybody fart a lot, I
Speaker 1: used to go around to Auntie Jenny and Uncle Wayne
Speaker 1: for a bit of proper food and they did my
Speaker 1: washing for me too. All the neighbors used to wonder
Speaker 1: where there was all the USA gear hanging. Obviously that
Speaker 1: trip had emotional value too, seeing members of my family
Speaker 1: that are not seen for a while. I also met
Speaker 1: my godson for the first time, and there's a picture
Speaker 1: of me knocking around on socials and me walking around
Speaker 1: the field at Wrexham with him so he could meet
Speaker 1: some of the players and stuff. After we played Australia.
Speaker 1: Terrible team that Australia, and a few years later his
Speaker 1: brother was playing rugby league himself. But what that did
Speaker 1: for me really energized me as a coacher. I coached
Speaker 1: football that wasn't high octane, so the pressure wasn't huge.
Speaker 1: I do remember the against a school that had a
Speaker 1: boss that was an absolute Can I say this on
Speaker 1: this podcast because I rarely swear on this, but he
Speaker 1: was a Tommy tanker, the one that runs with that.
Speaker 1: In fact, he didn't do anything that useful. He was
Speaker 1: their boss and we played against his school. The reason
Speaker 1: I call in that is he did everything he could
Speaker 1: to try and destroy me, and in the second half
Speaker 1: against them, they we never let them touch the ball,
Speaker 1: even at the end after we scored a try that
Speaker 1: they kicked off a ball, the ball was in the air,
Speaker 1: the hooter went, we caught the ball and one hundred
Speaker 1: meters through some hands as well. So there was no
Speaker 1: pressure that year, just fun. And then I went as
Speaker 1: an assistant coach to the UK, so I think that
Speaker 1: change was as good as a rest. And you know,
Speaker 1: you can tend to look back at things when you
Speaker 1: win as being happy times or if you lose sad times.
Speaker 1: But I think as coaches sometimes we forget to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And there's been others, don't get me wrong, but that
Speaker 1: was probably one of my favorites. So are you enjoying
Speaker 1: your coaching right now? From an article that same year,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest coaches managers of the last half
Speaker 1: a century, Alex Ferguson, said something to the Harvard Business Review.
Speaker 1: It was the same month actually as the World Cup,
Speaker 1: and I remember reading this and it's always stayed with me.
Speaker 1: And he said, as a coach on the field, you
Speaker 1: don't see everything. The key is to delegate the direct
Speaker 1: supervision to others and trust them to do their jobs,
Speaker 1: allowing the manager to truly observe that or when he
Speaker 1: says manager, that's also coach. Once I stepped out of
Speaker 1: the bubble, I became more aware of a range of
Speaker 1: details on my performance level jumped. Seeing a change in
Speaker 1: a player's habits or a sudden dip in his enthusiasm
Speaker 1: allowed me to go further with him. Is it family problems?
Speaker 1: Is he struggling financially? Is he tired? What kind of
Speaker 1: mood is he in? Sometimes I could even tell that
Speaker 1: a player was injured when he thought he was fine.
Speaker 1: I don't think many people fully understand the value of observing.
Speaker 1: I came to see observation as a critical part of
Speaker 1: my management skills. The ability to see things is key,
Speaker 1: or more specifically, the ability to see things you don't
Speaker 1: expect to see. So what does this mean for you? Well,
Speaker 1: if you're a coach, have you got assistant coaches? Use them?
Speaker 1: I believe that the best coaching I've ever done is
Speaker 1: when I had two or three assistants who were singing
Speaker 1: from exactly the same hymn sheet as me, and we
Speaker 1: worked together so much as it went like clockwork. And
Speaker 1: for a large period of that time, those coaches ran
Speaker 1: the drills, the small passing, tackling, decision making, rough defense,
Speaker 1: and speed and agility drills while I pulled the whole
Speaker 1: package together. I influenced performances as an observer, so I
Speaker 1: could see things that they couldn't because they were running drills,
Speaker 1: and I took the team for their team runs. Some
Speaker 1: coaches seen see the training session as a chance to
Speaker 1: run around with their players, and I say that's okay,
Speaker 1: but only in small doses, because your job is to coach,
Speaker 1: not to run around with players. Your job is to
Speaker 1: observe behaviors and intervene to improve them. I think one
Speaker 1: of the most important things you should keep in mind
Speaker 1: too when dealing with your players is establishing mutual respect.
Speaker 1: If a coach doesn't respect his or her players, they
Speaker 1: will not respect him or her and the relationship becomes
Speaker 1: simply unworkable. My mouth is so dry. This does not
Speaker 1: mean you need to be best friends with your players
Speaker 1: all the time, not even at the start, only that
Speaker 1: you treat them with respect, and that is a minimum.
Speaker 1: In this way of doing things, players and coaches with
Speaker 1: very different personalities can continue to get on very well
Speaker 1: together because respect is at the heart of it. It's
Speaker 1: often thought that the practical joker style player can't get
Speaker 1: on with a serious, business like coach, but as long
Speaker 1: as both treats each other with respect they deserve when
Speaker 1: it comes to what matters, and it should not be
Speaker 1: a problem, should it. Many coaches are understandably reluctant to
Speaker 1: get involved in private, family or financial matters of their players. However,
Speaker 1: it's often the case is that the act as a
Speaker 1: mentor to their players and those who get to know
Speaker 1: their players, it will be that coach that the players
Speaker 1: feel most comfortable talking to. Sometimes, securing good communication between
Speaker 1: coach and player is an absolute vital cog in the
Speaker 1: quality of your coaching. If a player isn't performing adequately
Speaker 1: in training, or is late all the time, or not
Speaker 1: reaching the levels that you need fitness, skill, etc. You've
Speaker 1: probably got to let them know. If there's not a
Speaker 1: respect in that, and there's no respect back and forth,
Speaker 1: it'll fall on deaf ears. If you drop a player
Speaker 1: for a match, tell them why, give them targets to
Speaker 1: work on to get back in. Nothing worse for a
Speaker 1: player than not being selected in not knowing why. All
Speaker 1: that does is break down the trust between player and coach.
Speaker 1: You've also got your specific goals and expectations when you
Speaker 1: arrive as a coach, and you've got to live and
Speaker 1: breathe them during your time as a coach. Again, it's
Speaker 1: about communicating these to your players. Giving them clear, specific
Speaker 1: targets and expectations will make them make the transition to
Speaker 1: working well under you, and it will smooth out any
Speaker 1: rough edges that arrive at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: After all, you're the coach in theory the Boston. They'll
Speaker 1: have to adapt to your style. But again, I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been watching England this morning and Thomas too Cool,
Speaker 1: the England manager, was quite critical of his team. Jude Bellingham,
Speaker 1: the star player, didn't seem too happy with his coach's
Speaker 1: comments when he was interviewed. The reality is that we're
Speaker 1: probably both right, but there's only one person who's going
Speaker 1: to get the sack if they lose, and it won't
Speaker 1: be Dude Bellingham. So you've got to get your players
Speaker 1: to adapt to you, haven't you, And you've got to
Speaker 1: get them to respect you and to come round to
Speaker 1: your way of thinking. The player coach dynamic is changing
Speaker 1: all the time and you'll have to adapt to stay
Speaker 1: on top in your own coaching. While there's still plenty
Speaker 1: of room for business like approaches without being buzz and
Speaker 1: buddies with your players. It will not be enough to
Speaker 1: be icily detached from them. Treat them with respect, the
Speaker 1: respect they deserve. Explain your decisions and build up trust
Speaker 1: if you want to get them running through brick walls
Speaker 1: for you. People have different personalities, have to work together
Speaker 1: in any organization, not just a rugby league team, And
Speaker 1: you'll be seeing these players for several hours a week
Speaker 1: for a long time. It might only be a season
Speaker 1: if you're not careful. So it makes sense to have
Speaker 1: a good working relationship with them. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: just end this week with the seventy two hours theory
Speaker 1: of preparation. I suppose coaching and the success of your team,
Speaker 1: and the success of each player in your team does
Speaker 1: not begin when training starts and end when training finishes.
Speaker 1: The teams and the players who maximize what they've got
Speaker 1: are those who take ownership of their improvement and their
Speaker 1: professionalism outside of training time. If a player trained three
Speaker 1: times a week at the club and played on a
Speaker 1: game day, that leaves you a lot of room in
Speaker 1: a week to either ruin or enhance whatever you've done
Speaker 1: at the club. So with for argument's sake, we allocate
Speaker 1: two hours for training or four hours for game days.
Speaker 1: That's ten hours at the club in any given week,
Speaker 1: fifty six hours for sleep, which is eight hours a night,
Speaker 1: and a further six hours for five days of school
Speaker 1: plus travel there and home, leaves you with seventy two
Speaker 1: hours a week. That's each person. She was a coach
Speaker 1: as well. Actually, will you probably go to work for
Speaker 1: a longer time than six hours. But for players it's diet, nutrition, rest, sleep, prehab,
Speaker 1: p rehab, game study, training activities, extras. All the things
Speaker 1: that players need to consider that will make the difference
Speaker 1: between how good your team is and how good your
Speaker 1: team is and how many of you train your team
Speaker 1: really well. But they get drunk half the time and
Speaker 1: don't look after the bodies or eat too much. Crap.
Speaker 1: My name's Lee Addison. You've been listening to the Rugby
Speaker 1: League Coach Podcast, episode two hundred and fifty three. Did
Speaker 1: I say I love your work? Coaches? Take care and
Speaker 1: we will speak or I will speak to you soon.