Energising players in cold and wet weather

During the cold and wet months – otherwise known as the rugby season – we find it very difficult to get girls involved in the sport.

You might hear the phrases “It’s too cold for rugby” or “It’s raining. Can’t we just go inside and watch a rugby video?”. They then look at us and say, “You have a big coat on to keep you warm”, which, to be fair, is often true.

Here are some tips I have developed to maintain participation and motivation throughout the winter months:

1. Only wear one more layer than the players. This will keep you moving to stay warm and avoid the standing-still coaching method.
2. Make sure there is less time standing around and more time actively moving – so jog on the spot when explaining a drill to keep blood flow high.
3. Develop a down-and-dirty drill to get the players on the ground and involved in match-like play immediately. I use a warm-up game with my girls’ teams known as the ‘army drill’.

The army drill

This involves all players getting down on the ground and ready to face contact, either in training or before a match.

As I mentioned, a big barrier to girls’ participation in rugby is the cold or wet weather. They often aren’t very eager to dive to the ground and get cold and muddy.

By using this game, the players quickly get used to the climate and it removes the fear or barrier of being dirty and cold. This drill is really effective, especially when paired with an enthusiastic coach to guide the players.

Ask the girls to start lined up on a marked line, usually the try line, and use different commands, as follows: 

Down: The players get down on their stomach

Roll: The players roll left or right and back over on to their stomach 

Crawl: The players bear-crawl forward to a marked-out line, or a certain number of paces, and then back to the original line 

Ready, ready, up: This is the girls’ favourite - on this command, we sprint to a marked out line.

If you want to develop the drill further, other command ideas could include:

Jump: The players jump in the air as high as they can five times

Fast feet: The leader will point left or right; the players do fast side-steps in that direction and then back to their original position

Present: The players jump down on to the ground, if not there already, and presents an imaginary ball the correct way

Seal: This could be a follow-on command from ’Present’. For this, every other person on the line, decided before the game begins, jumps up and to their right to seal over the person presenting next to them.

For all these commands, adapt the drill into a game with a points system.

The players get a point for winning the sprint or for being the fastest on the ground. The player with the most overall points at the end of the game could decide a forfeit for the rest of the group.

Elimination could be another variation, where the player last in the sprint or slowest in the group will be eliminated until there is one overall winner. The eliminated players still do the exercise but next to the coach.

When I am coaching this game, I also like to get down on the ground and do it with them. This encourages my players to work harder as they try to beat me in the sprint. 

Once the group have played the game a few times, it could also be a good idea to introduce a new leader, who now calls the commands.