The ‘Stop Focus’

“If you don’t know what you are looking for you don’t see it. -  The ‘Stop Focus’ ”.

A question every coach has to ask himself each week during the season is, ‘how much do I change the tactics based on the strengths of the opposition’?  Too much time spent planning on how to negate certain aspects of the opposition play can be counterproductive if it eats into the preparation and fine tuning your own game, yet too little time could well mean that the opposition are not placed under pressure and can easily carry out the strengths of their game.
As a suggestion at club level, it is a good idea to create a ‘Stop Focus’.   Find out as much as you can about the opposition and create a plan on how to upset and negate as much as possible the one aspect of their game that will create the most problems for them if your team stops it from working.  This is the ‘stop focus’ for this particular game.  By disrupting a tactic, or pattern, or individual player, you can create a negative thought process in the opposition psyche which will give you the upper hand.
Most importantly the team members need to come up with what the ‘stop focus’ will be, and as little as 15% of the training time during the week can be spent on practicing how the plan will be put in to operation. Obviously you will have the most information and have developed ideas on how to practice these, but the players need to be ‘on board’ if it is to work. Prior discussions with the ‘leaders’ will ensure no time is wasted.
For every team you play there will almost always be a different ‘stop focus’.  A couple of successful plans I have seen in operation concern plays from the lineout.
In observing one team, every time they got inside the attacking 22 the number two jumper walked back a few paces and acted as though he would be a lifter.  Just before the throw he would turn and run forward and create momentum with a fast jump that would set a dynamic drive for his pack and place the opposition under real pressure.  This was before video analysis but the opposition coach had done his research and moved his two jumpers slightly forward and not following. By cutting off the ball at two the attack team became confused and much of their lineout play became ragged.  This was one of the aspects that helped this team win the Ranfurly Shield on this occasion.  If they are smart, you have to be smarter.
In club rugby recently another smart coach had observed that a particular team built its attack around driving lineouts followed by a box kick from the halfback and a strong chase from the designated players. By developing a plan to pull the lineout down straight away, mixed with the odd opposing jump, it ensured that the attack team was not already on the front foot.  The defending team also put their best high ball receiver in the box and developed a plan that counter attacked the previous kick. Once again this proved to be a stumbling block for the attacking team.
There are many aspects of the game to be considered. For example if the halfback is a fast and elusive runner how do you stop him by creating pressure at every scrum and ruck?  If the Backrow player is the main ball carrier do you set two tacklers on him and track him wherever he may be?  If the opposition are really quick on the flanks do you defend from outside in and push them in to your defence coming up from the inside? How would you practice this?  If the second five is the main attacker how do you deal with this?
It is best to choose one main aspect and concentrate on this during training and the game. This will give your players a single focus and not cause any confusion as to what needs to be done.

Exercise:  when you are watching the next few games on television, or live, consider what your ‘Stop Focus’ would be if you were playing against each of the teams you are viewing.  You can only choose one aspect although there may be a couple of parts to it. (As in the lineout example above).
Write down what it is a then develop a plan that you will use at training that will only take up to 15% of your training time during the week.
If you are coaching the same team this coming season against pretty much the same opposition, then your planning can start now. (Of course it will need updating when the time arrives)  Good luck.