Overnight success

I’m fortunate enough to coach the same team on two consecutive days.

This is beneficial because, if the session on the first day doesn’t go as well as I’d hoped, I can make improvements on the second. Sometimes, it works in reverse, where day two isn’t as good as day one!

The other week, the first day had been average. It was a 45-minute session, and the two activities hadn’t progressed as well as I’d hoped.

The first activity focused on exploiting an overlap after a breakdown, with the players realigning. The second was a game that promoted quick play of the ball after a touch tackle.

That night, I was re-reading Peps McCrea’s Motivated Teaching, and reviewed his core drivers (pictured above).

It was obvious: I’d jumped too quickly into the final part of the activity and the game, without adequately preparing the players first.

They needed to understand what success looked like; training needed to be easier to understand, so they could concentrate on achieving that success; I had to be clear on what was good; the group had to see where it fitted into their game; and they had to feel it was going to improve their skills.

The next day, the three sections I ran went incredibly well – mainly because I had built up the complexity of the exercise gradually, rather than progressing it too quickly.

The players had a clear idea of what they were doing, based on prior knowledge. We found success, and then reached the end point I had in mind.

It was so simple; I was delighted and frustrated in equal measure.

Coaching is complex enough. We need to have simple drivers to reduce the noise and allow the players to hear what they need.