Monitoring the Progress

If you have taken the time to have a meeting with your team and set a plan in place to refocus the group on what lies ahead and how to get there, then it is a good idea to monitor their progress along the way to keep things on track.

This does not have to be a difficult or lengthy process and can take the form of charts or graphs that can be filled in by the coach and quickly discussed with the player, or filled in together whenever time allows.

The obvious idea would be to use the aspects of play that have been the main target areas when you have been refocusing the game plan.

As an example you might get a player to fill in a sheet something similar to this following a scrummaging session on the machine and against another pack.

You might produce a much smaller card based on the several key things that you want to achieve.  Once you start discussing the main points then the technical aspects will come to the fore. You may like to include the backrow plays aspect of the scrummaging so just add or delete as you wish.
Just how you mark this sheet is up to you. You may put a mark out of 10 in each column or you may just put a comment. You might even make a bar graph so that the players can compare their results. The whole idea is to have a check list to aid with further improvements.
The key technical aspects can be found in ‘The Coaching Toolbox’.

As an alternative idea the coach can get each player to set out his own goals for the upcoming matches.
The player will list the goals/aims down the side of the sheet and then give himself a mark out of 10 at the end of each week (prior to the first practice of the next week)

If you can get your players to do something along these lines it will help retain their focus during the season and provide a guideline as to how they can improve.
The coach will need to monitor this strenuously if it is to be effective. Good luck.