I was very privileged a few years ago to take part in the Midlands Coaching Conference at Welbeck Defence College. During the conference former British Lion and England U21 Grand Slam coach Nigel Redman gave an interesting insight into how young players are currently being coached in the game. The talk was centred on a single question to the coaches in attendance.

Are you coaching to win or coaching to develop?

Back then I believed the majority of coaches opt for coaching to win based on traditional coaching methods passed on to them, the immediate rewards it brings and also the self-gratification that ;

“you must be a good coach because you win games!”

The good news is that there are a number of visionary coaches like Russel Earnshaw and John Fletcher that are currently blazing a new coaching trail away from this and I firmly believe that coaching to develop rather than coaching to win should be the main goal for mini and junior rugby. Below are my top three coaching tips that I have taken from the RFU conference.

No.1 Do not confine a player to a specific position
From as early as 8 or 9 years old coaches are deciding the fate of player’s position on a rugby pitch purely by looking at their physical attributions. We all know the long held belief that the larger, slower players go to the forwards and the lighter, quick ones go to the backs and it is this methodology that is inherently flawed.

The physical changes a mini/junior player goes through from 8 to 16 is phenomenal. Who is to say that a slightly short heavier 13 year old will not go on to be a tall, quick 18 year old athlete or vice versa. There is also evidence of change coming much later in a player’s career just look at Leicester Tigers Tom Young’s. Having been told to convert from centre to hooker by the then Tigers head coach Heyneke Meyer back in 2009, Young’s went from the Leicester Tigers bench to starting for the British Lions within 13 months of the 2011/2012 season.

I believe that players should be tried in a variety of positions backed by good technical coaching to ensure the players safety at all time. This is a key area in developing a players all round ability and skill levels and provides the player with the ability to change position as their bodies change.

No.2 Open up your team to a variety of sports
Heard the saying Rugby is my life? Ask yourself honestly over the course of a year how many times you have encouraged your players to play other sports or even bring a new sport into training? The players love playing rugby fact. But I also believe they are there to socialise as much as play. Year after year I passed the club gates in the offseason to see scores of junior players and coaches carrying on the traditional rugby related drills and could not help but feel this would counteract what they were trying to achieve – development of the players.

My reasoning for this is simple, your players are young, constant training and playing is both physically and mentally draining, all at a time when their bodies are going through enormous change. When asked I was told by the coaches that the players insisted in carrying on and it helped keep the players socially active. If the players want to continue through the summer from a social aspect I have no objection and would encourage this by bringing in a range of non rugby related activities, but I do believe rugby training should be kept to one side for the off season months as this will enable the players to return refreshed and eager to learn for the next season. There is also significant research that shows excessive training can inhibit a child's growth pattern.

Young people need variety to keep them interested, the same old drills and the same old techniques for 12 months of the year only serves to cause frustration and boredom which brings the danger of a player leavening the sport altogether. There is firm evidence from the RFU that a number of their current elite players have come from non-rugby backgrounds such as Basketball, Rowing and Cricket so the belief that a child that trains all there life in rugby only makes it is simply not true.

Bringing in new sports to your team can increase the skill level of your players and can also help level the social standings within the team. We all know that young players have a social hierarchy based on ability in the sport they are playing which in some cases can isolate individuals due to their perceived lack of ability in this sport. Bringing in new sports can allow these individuals to demonstrate their skill and ability in other sports and in turn raise the skill levels of all players involved.

No3. You are the coach not the players and not the parents
My final tip comes from various discussions from coaches of all age groups when challenged about playing to develop. Time and time again I hear coaches say they do certain drills or train in a certain manor because “It’s what the players want” or another common phrase is “It’s where little Jonny’s dad wants him to play” when selecting a player.
These are common occurrences but the fact of the matter is you are the coach not them. I am a huge advocate for letting players explore and discover through game based learning but to do this they require a coach that can provide the right environment to allow this, hence the reason for you being there because you have the best knowledge and coaching qualifications to allow this.

Stay strong with both players and parents alike by setting out your vision of development early in the season and reinforcing it at the end of each session. 9 times out of 10 it is the players and parents not understanding the coaching teams vision and goals that causes the most friction.

Summary
As a coach I feel we should assess our own performance based on the number of players we have developed rather than the number of games won. Personally as a coach I would be happy in the knowledge that a large number of players under my tuition went on to bigger and better sporting achievements as oppose to saying I had an unbeaten age group.

Would you???