Motivate your players during a losing streak

While enjoyment and development should be the ultimate focus when working with young players, it’s natural for players to want to win games.

We can’t, and shouldn’t, discourage this – rugby is a competitive sport, after all.

You would expect that, over the course of a season, a youth team will experience a mix of wins and losses, allowing them to learn from all scenarios.

But it doesn’t always work out like that; sometimes we may be faced with a run of defeats. It’s our role, as coaches, to support our players through that. 

Here are some tips to help your players shrug off a losing run...

01 Model behaviours

Whether you know it or not, players, and their parents, will look to you on the sideline and take in your manner and your responses to things. 

Your behaviour needs to set the tone. Show that you enjoy winning, but that it’s not the be-all and end-all for you, by keeping your tone consistent throughout, whatever the score at the time.

Be positive and encourage your players to work hard and keep going, whether winning or losing.

Sometimes, they may need a bit more support when losing, but do this in the same positive manner, showing you are there to support them.

Celebrate the positives and learn from the negatives. Don’t let the highs get you too high, or the lows get you too low.

02 Set different goals

Think about what your aims for a matchday might be beyond winning. 

You could consider things like:

• Can we look to score at least one try in this game?
• Can we go a certain period without conceding a try ourselves?
• Can we focus on using the quick rucks to create chances?

The last suggestion is an example of how you might link your training focus to your game day.

Targets like these will help you to chart progress from game to game, rather than focusing solely on the score.

Communicating these goals with players and parents will also give them another focus, and something else to measure growth against.

03 Give players individual goals

Individual goals and challenges can also be used to provide focus for players.

Can you give separate players different aims in the games, linked to what they need to improve on, to develop and make progress?

It doesn’t have to be all of the players at once, of course. You could focus on different individuals each week, or target a unit – for example, you could do the forwards one week, and the backs the next, or give a particular challenge to those in the lineout.

The following are all examples of individual or unit goals:

• Full-back: How loud can you be when you claim the ball?
• Centres: Can you ensure that no attacker goes between you in defence?
• Lineout: Can we ensure that we secure front ball every time?

You can then reflect on these challenges post-game, again offering another focus and concept to measure against.

04 Track progress over the season

Keeping track – whether officially or unofficially – of results can give you a reference point to track progress against.

Though you may lose three games in a row, for example, the scoreline might be less damaging with each loss. This can be something to celebrate.

You can also track results against certain teams and set targets in this way – for example, if you lost 45-0 against a certain team the last time you played them, can you aim to concede fewer tries in the next fixture? Or perhaps you could aim to score one yourselves.

05 Consider how you set your team up

It is likely that, at youth levels, you will have a mix of players in your group, in terms of ability, physicality, game understanding and even confidence levels. 

As much as possible, look to have a balance across your team – don’t field all your stronger players, or all your weaker players, at the same time. 

Consider how you might set up with a mix of players. Where possible, try to resist the temptation to field all of your stronger players to ’get a result’ – this will impact the confidence of your other players.

You might, however, think about how you strategically put players in positions to allow them to better compete within the game. 

For example, you might put your strongest players at 2, 8, 9, 10 and 15 – sometimes called the spine of the team – and those players striving to improve in other areas, where there is less pressure.

06 Make sure you lose together

When a team loses, or gets into a losing streak, it can be easy – and quite often natural – for them to place blame on individuals. 

It’s important that, as the coach, you don’t allow this to happen. If you see this starting to seep in, act quickly. 

Remind players that there is no room for individual blame: we win as a team and lose as a team. We celebrate each other when things are going well, and support each other when things are difficult. That means all players, coaches and parents.

One way to reinforce this is by tracing things back. An example may be conceding a try. 

When reflecting on how it was conceded, rather than just focusing on the player that could have made a stronger tackle, can you also include the player that previously turned over the ball, the defensive alignment that could have moved up quicker and the other defenders who could have given more cover?

The same thing can be done for successful actions, like scoring a try.

Rather than just praising the scorer, praise the player that provided the assist, the player that made space for the scorer to make a run, and the player that won the ball back to start the transition to attack. By doing so, you’re showing that it was a team try.

Losing together also means including yourself in the equation – don’t be afraid to admit to things you feel you could have done better.

Modelling this behaviour will support players to be more open about things they want to improve on. 

And ’improve’ is the key word here – rather than focusing on what went wrong, can we shift our focus to improving so that things go better next time?