More Food for Thought

More Food for Thought.

In this article I have sat down with Paul Martin, a centurion for Taranaki as a player, and now a very experienced coach which includes New Zealand Schools and Southern Maoris, being a NZ U19 selector, as well as stints in Scotland and Italy amongst the many positions he has held. The following are some of his thoughts.

“The cloning of players and teams is the single most disappointing thing about the game today as it has created a game that lacks innovation and has created coaches that accept there is only one way of doing things.

Of course it is most important, particularly at youth level, that the basic skills of passing, catching, lineouts and scrummaging are established and practiced continuously but after the set piece the continuity patterns need to be more imaginative and they should include trying to penetrate directly from the set piece rather than setting up a contact point deliberately.

Selecting a ‘stepper’ in the middle of backline has many advantages over a ‘hitter’ if the coaching concept is about ball movement and creating ideas on how to beat a defence with skill and guile rather than brute force.

With the advent of professional rugby many of the New Zealand provinces have lost their own identity, whereas Taranaki and Waikato had different styles, as did Wellington and Canterbury, and any other province for that matter, the differences now are just based on the quality of player in the team, with most teams producing similar game styles.

When coaches are creating their continuity patterns the need to think like ‘backs’ (if they are not already). It is important that backs receive the good ball from the contact zone and that forwards do not gobble this ball up until it is almost worthless to the backs. Many teams have the phase play scenario based on forwards receiving the good ball and the backs receiving the bad ball rather than having it the other way around.

Keeping the forwards, particularly those with an unsuitable skill base, out of the backline is a must. If coaches were to watch the All Blacks they would get a fair idea of what I mean, and they have a back at the helm.

An important coaching aspect to assist in this phase play is to make players aware of their options as support players and guiding their thinking ‘away from the ball’, rather than just coaching the ruck and the flow on. There is much more that can be done.

Coaching means being a good organizer and being organized, as well as having a sound game understanding and knowing what you want to achieve, but the most important aspect is to involve the players, listen to them intently, and work together so there is ‘buy in’ from both parties. Getting to know the players as individuals is equally important as this will create trust and confidence. If possible have good people in the management group who you can trust and respect. If you have this then anything is possible.

The art of selection is a crucial element in a teams’ success. Having learnt from All Black selectors at various times in different roles, a simple plan to follow is the trick to picking the right players.

Sort out the crucial position under scrutiny or the players vying for a position, and watch each player for three lots of 7/8 minutes at various times. Of course this means you can only watch about three players but it is a method that works.

Don’t over analyse players through statistics and look at the good things and positive influences rather than the errors. Basically it is about how many touches the player has in that period and what he does with the ball and off the ball. It’s pretty simple. If you don’t know what you are looking for though you don’t know what you have got”.