Fine Tuning the Planning

Recently Jono Phillipps, formerly a coach in the Hurricanes and Taranaki set ups, and advanced thinker with many years experience in the game, spoke to our club coaches on the topic of 'Attack Contact'.

The key element that came out of this presentation was the effective manner in which the topic was broken up in to specific compartments, with each compartment having it's own technical and tactical requirements, which culminated in achieving the principles of play in 'going forward, maintaining pressure and continuity'.It all seemed pretty simple in the end because it gave clarity to what was required. Certainly the players who attended were more than happy with the outcomes.

Attack Contact was broken up in to four sections: Evasion; Ball in to Contact; Presentation; Support.

Each section in itself then became a specific coaching module with each module then requiring several specific aspects to be defined, taught and practiced. Over a period of time all these aspects would be covered off and would be part of decision making scenarios so that the technical and tactical had to come together.

The 'Aim', a 'Policy', as well as the 'Focus Points' were discussed and defined under each heading.

Under the first heading 'Evasion' for example the aim was centred around controlling the tackle and the tacklers. The policy was linked to how many players would support the ball carrier at the tackle and the focus areas concerned 'footwork, fending, hit and spin, support lines and the policies associated with each, open space running, and close in skills and policies.

Many coaches would have covered off all these aspects at various times but to put them in a package highlighted what was available and allowed discussion over team preferences and the important aspects to develop such as the 'long ruck' in the tackled situation.

Ball in to Contact included the importance of a square up field carry and the focus points leg drive, low body position head up, technique to maintain the ball and the go forward, and of course ball protection.

Presentation covered off pop passes, off loading, technique before placement, same way placement, long place and squeeze balls. In time the decision making aspect would be all important here.

Support included the three decisions on arrival for the first two players and policies surrounding the closest support players in entering the ruck, where they come from and who is the support runner.

The point of mentioning this is to stimulate some thinking when you are planning for the season. For example in the past you may have broken your scrum coaching in to three headings of 'pre engagement – engagement – post engagement' and of course  there are many aspects which must be learned under each heading.

So if you and your co-coaches sit down and choose a specific area of interest or strength that you each have you could break it up in to as many headings as you see necessary and list a number of focus points and team policies. This way the role of individual players is far more apparent and the whole process is easier to follow.

Some quick ideas might be: Lineouts:: set up – coordination (jumpers/lifters/throwers/movement/ speed) – ball in the air – presentation – continuity.  Policies could be established around what you want to achieve in certain areas of the field based on your team philosophies.

Kick off chase:: positional set ups – target areas – chase – contact zone – continuity. Policies could revolve around your set ups and whether you want to be combative, safe, or open up the opportunities to recover the ball and attack in space.

Under these focus headings of course the technical aspects of each must be taught and drilled. For example chasing and recovering the ball in the air is a toughie but you may have a winger who is good at this and that would be a way to use this player.

Try it with a couple of key areas of the game for a start. Get planning and start coaching in detail.