I’ve recently come across a great free rugby resource called http://www.fast4football.com/ and think it’s an excellent site with some of the top professional Australian rugby league players sharing training tips.

Andrew Johns, arguably Rugby league’s greatest halfback of all time and named half back of the century and currently a coaching consultant to the games elite, gives his time and services to fast4football. His video content has had thousands of viewers on fast4football.com viewing his interviews and training drills for free.

Other players sharing tips on the site include; Andrew Ryan Nathan Hindmarsh and Brett Hodgson.

Anyway I hope your coaching is going to plan and enjoy this free resource.

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

• Harvey Howard Interview On Amateur Rugby Coaching (3)
• Testimonial From The German Rugby Captain Leo Hardberngruber (English) (2)

I think the one massive plus point to come out of this blog post was the huge number of amateur coaches across the globe that care for the future of both rugby league and rugby union through their selfless coaching efforts.

With that said, due to the number of coaches from different countries, I’ve decided to award one club the full years membership  for all their coaches PLUS  give one club per country a membership for 5 coaches and give everyone else a free month just because it’s Christmas:-)

The winner for a full years membership for all their coaches is Quintin Abrie from South Africa who’s part of a non-profit coaching agency that coaches rugby players, advantage or disadvantage, young or old, amateur or professional. Quote “If they want to play rugby we’ll coach them. We like to go and present coaching clinics @ Child Care Centers, and in the rural communities.”

So congratulations to Quintin and I’ll be in touch with the lucky winners from all the other countries and to everyone that either left a comment or emailed me regarding the free membership.

Enjoy your rugby

Neil Harmon

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Let me explain…….

My blog post before the launch caused a bit of a stir among the amateur rugby coaching fraternity regarding the price of my new membership site http://1RugbyCoach.com and I received quite a few negative as well as positive comments.

One of the comments was left by a guy named Paul, who suggested that I make the site available to a whole club for the same price. Well thanks to Paul, I received a ton of email agreeing with him and asking if this was possible.

Now bearing in mind some amateur clubs have over 20 coaches with most having about 10. Lets take the lower figure 10 x £14.95/month which equals £149.50 (which could be double for some of the bigger clubs). Now times that by 12 = £1796.40 for the year!

Which amateur clubs could afford that kind of money…..not many right!

So I’m going to give away a full 12 month membership to 1 amateur rugby club no matter if they have 5, 10, 15, or 20+ coaches.

This means all the coaches in your club can have access to all the videos, articles and downloads on the 1RugbyCoach.com membership site as well as gaining access to our support forums where you’ll be sharing ideas and techniques with rugby coaches from across the globe!

Here’s the rules:- You must post a comment at the bottom of this blog stating

1. Your name, your amateur club and which country you play in (so we can see your real:-)
2. Why your club deserves the free 12 month membership

Comments will close at noon GMT Sat 5th Dec 2009 which gives you just under a week to get your comments in.

I will announce the winning amateur club on Mon 7th Dec 2009 and should have the memberships available by Wed/Thur (9th/10th Dec)

So with over £1700 worth of memberships available, what are you waiting for….?

Happy Days!

Neil

http://www.1RugbyCoach.com

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Having the right nutritional program can help to boost your match-day performance and give you that vital edge. Eating properly is just like any other part of training – designed to get the best out of your body when the time comes. Equally, it is important to look after your body’s needs during and after the match, to make sure you do not suffer any permanent damage.

In the run up to the match, it is vital to pre-load your body with carbohydrates, found in foods like pasta, wholegrain bread and porridge (these forms of carbohydrate are best, as they provide slow release energy).

These foods are crucial for that “explosive” power so desired in the modern game. Taper down your exercise routine as you come up to the match in line with loading your body with carbohydrates. On the day itself, try and have a full, decent meal four or five hours before the game, that consists of protein and carbohydrates – this can be as little as a sandwich with some lean meat or tuna in it, for those who do not feel much like eating before a match, or some pasta with tomato sauce. If you like, have a small snack some two hours before the game – after that, liquids only!

More long-term, you should remember to include reasonable amounts of protein in your diet to encourage muscle growth and repair. Try to eat five or six small meals a day, rather than three big ones. This keeps your body permanently supplied with energy, rather than overloading your system a few times a day.

Fatty foods should generally be avoided, although there are certain good fats that your body needs, particularly to grow muscle. You will find these especially in oily fish, as well as nuts, seeds and certain vegetables. Avoid alcohol before and immediately after a match – it can dehydrate you and cause real damage when combined with the exhaustion of a game.

During the match, it is most important to keep hydrated. For these purposes, an isotonic drink such as Lucozade Sport is the best way to go, as they can rehydrate quicker than water and give a quick energy boost.

Drinking one before the match and at half time can keep you at the top of your game. Avoid eating solid food during the match! Combined with the pressure you are putting your body under, it is likely to upset your stomach and cause you discomfort.

After the match, your energy levels will have been massively depleted and in need of quick refilling. Try taking sugary foods and plenty of water – this will help your body to recover quickly. Then it’s time to help your muscles heal. You should eat fruit, vegetables and protein in your post-match meal to recover and prevent any permanent damage.

Possibly the most important thing to remember about nutrition is to eat what your body is comfortable with. Try out any new foods during training time to make sure it won’t affect you for the worse on match day. Good luck, and good eating!

Neil
www.1RugbyCoach.com

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Both of these are to be addressed if you wish to have an effective defensive structure. Firstly I’d just like to point out that if you’re implimenting a slide defence, it should only be utilised when you’re out-numbered or stretched and you’re having to over work at reducing the threat.

A couple of coaching points to try are;

1. In your training sessions, try to split your defence into 3 groups, left, right and middle. So your left side wing, centre, second row, half, same for the right with the loose floating and the middle consists of your front row.

2. When performing defence drills, play them against each other with penalties for the losing groups.

3. Point out that every defender only has to talk to the guy next to them

4. Once the ball goes past a defender it’s his job to increase their talk. i.e. the talk always comes from the inside when a slide defence is in operation.

5. Stop the session if the line is breached and ask the players who was at fault and how could it have been averted.

Usually after a couple of errors the players become more aware and switch on to their particular role in the slide defence.

The other advantage of working in their groups in training is they gain more of a bond and it becomes quite competitive between the groups as to who’s performing the best i.e. where are the tries being scored?

For a more in depth view on defence drills plus video go to;

http://www.1RugbyCoach.com

• Rugby Drills – Defensive Video (14)
• Rugby Coaching – Sliding Defence (19)
• Harvey Howard Interview On Amateur Rugby Coaching (3)
• Testimonial From The German Rugby Captain Leo Hardberngruber (English) (2)
• Clive Griffiths Interview (2)
• 30 Min Q&A With Elite Rugby Coach (5)
• Twitter and Rugby Coaching (0)
• Rugby Tips – General Q&A (1)

I’ve been getting tons of questions from coaches wanting more details about the upcoming launch and the 3rd most asked question is “What’s this going to cost?”

Now I’m still working on the final website bonuses but would like to address your “price” concerns up front. (I can tell you that you definitely won’t need to take out a 2nd mortgage:-) )

Bur before I get specifically into price, let me warn you that this information is positively NOT for everyone.

It is FOR YOU if you are already doing some coaching in one way or another. If that’s the case, then I can promise you, “This information which I’m going to share with you WILL be responsible for every one of your team improving his/her Core Rugby Skills and hey, even improve yourself as a rugby coach.

It’s an absolute no-brainer and shoe-in (unless you have a ‘know it all’, ‘seen it all’ attitude.) Or you like to whine and complain. In that case, please, please, please do us both a favour and save everyone a huge headache by allowing somebody else to take your spot and profit from this information. (You should probably stop reading right nowJ)

It is also FOR YOU if you are a complete newbie but very very serious about improving as a rugby coach.

This is a golden opportunity to be provided with a true shortcut and road map from multiple sources who have a huge amount of experience in rugby coaching.

So back to the original question and what kind of price tag should I put on this information?

Frankly this is going to be one of the biggest bargains you’re going to get form me.

I recently attended a 2 day elite coaching seminar in Australia which cost me £177 and that’s not including airfare, hotel, food etc and one colleague argued that I should charge at least twice this amount for a “12 month subscription”.

I seriously considered this £29.50/month (£354/year) but in the end I decided against that.

I wanted to put this into the hands of as many serious amateur coaches WITHOUT price being a barrier so I’m thinking of  charging £14.75/month (£177/year) which works out at less than a couple of beers after each game.

At this price it should put it into the reach of anyone who really needs and wants it.

Now none of this is set in stone yet so don’t hold me to it.

I’m not 100% sure about the price, or that I’ll increase it, however, since I’ve had so many people asking me about the price I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit and give you a glimpse into what I’m thinking. If you’d like to voice your opinion, please post a comment below and stay tuned for more updates.

Speak soon

Neil

http://1RugbyCoach.com

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http://1rugbycoachblog.com/concern1

Concern#2: With the amount of info that’s going to be shared will I have to be a level 4 rugby coach to understand and implement it?

Background: When we released the “Spy Photo” or sneak preview of the site lots of people were stunned by the amount of info and I got all kind of emails from people worried that if these are the drills that the pro’s are using they wouldn’t be able to implement the drills or understand the templates. Lots of folks thought you’d need to be a pro coach to understand it.

Answer: While the concern is understandable, this is clearly one of those “NO Worries” situations. This site is easy to get around and the drills are all video’d so you can watch them as many times as you like.

They are easy to grasp and have an audio explanation to go with the video.

YES, there will end up being a lot of drills (new drills added every 2/3 weeks)

YES, there will be a lot of material – however it is EXTREMELY understandable.

I’ll give you an example;

Craig was my assisstant at Leeds University last season and over the summer he got the chance to coach an amateur side in Leeds.

In his words, Craig was dreading going it alone and thought he wouldn’t be able to handle a full side on his own but after going through the videos and drills on 1RugbyCoach.com, Craig stated;

“I was completely surprised at how easy and well the sessions went and more importantly how the guys loved the drills and many commented that they’d never been shown some of the correct technique before!”

This led to Craig being asked to be the head coach for Bradford University Student RL and he can’t wait to get started.

And here’s the kicker, Craig only used less than a quarter of the stuff on the site and he didn’t have the 4 week skills program, Brian Noble video or the Clive Griffiths interview for reference!!

The 1RugbyCoach.com membership site will be available on Tues 20th Oct 2009.

If you havn’t already, join our 1RugbyCoach announcement list by clicking one of the links below. If you already have one or all these bonuses then relax as you’re already on the list and will be kept in the loop:-)

http://1rugbycoach.com/new_video.html

http://1rugbycoach.com/4weekskillsprogram.html

http://www.1rugbycoach.com/clive_interview.html

And don’t worry, we will respect your privacy and won’t share your email address with anyone for any reason.

Enjoy your rugby

Neil

http://1RugbyCoach.com

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Concern#1 : “If we publish our 1RugbyCoach membership site for amateur coaches, then our killer tips tricks and techniques for coaching especially in video will be shared by everyone and will not be as effective.”

Background: A couple of months ago we let it slip to our interested coaches that we were getting ready to launch a 1 stop shop Rugby Coaching site aimed at all amateur and semi-professional coaches.

That little note in our update set of a bit of a firestorm of email from our coaches and surprisingly enough, the biggest concern was one that we just hadn’t anticipated. Our coaches told us that once we peel back the curtain and reveal these tips, tricks and techniques especially in video form, it would let the cat out of the bag and the drills would either level the playing field or become less effective.

After thinking about this, I came to the conclusion that there are literally hundreds of thousands of amateur coaches across the globe so what are the chances of all of them accessing this information.

But the biggest fact for me was that most of the elite clubs all use these drills week in week out but there are always winners and losers so it obviously comes down to the implementation of the information.

Bottom Line: With that said we are going to share this information with amatuer coaches such as yourself and you can use it as you see fit. But I will guarantee that just by using this information, you will already be putting yourself ahead of your competitors as most will not even be privvy to these core skills techniques.

Stay tuned for more details. Our anticipated release date is Tuesday 20th Oct 2009. The best way to stay informed about the launch is by joining our announcement list through one of the 3 giveaways below.

If you’ve received one or all of the bonuses below then you don’t need to worry as you’re already on the announcement list and you’ll be kept in the loop

Ex-International Rugby Coach Interview

4 Week Skills Program

Ex-Dual International Rugby Coach Interview

Enjoy your rugby

Neil

http://1RugbyCoach.com

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Clive Griffiths International Rugby Coach

In the run up to launching 1RugbyCoach.com, I wanted to share some great content with amateur rugby coaches across the globe and after the Ex GB Rugby League interview with Brian Noble I wanted to interview someone with knowledge of both codes.

This led me to an interview with dual international player AND coach Clive Griffiths. After collating hundreds of questions from amateur rugby coaches from both codes across the globe, I placed them into categories and put them to Clive for his expert opinion.

I think you’ll agree after listening to this 63 min interview that it was well worth the listen:-)

Click Here To Go and Listen to the Interview

Please leave your comments below

Enjoy your rugby:-)

Neil Harmon

• Rugby Tips – General Q&A (1)
• Harvey Howard Interview On Amateur Rugby Coaching (3)
• Testimonial From The German Rugby Captain Leo Hardberngruber (English) (2)
• Defence – How Do You Coach Communication? (4)
• 30 Min Q&A With Elite Rugby Coach (5)
• Rugby Skills Drill Video (13)
• Twitter and Rugby Coaching (0)
• Rugby Drills – Defensive Video (14)
• Rugby Coaching – Sliding Defence (19)

Anyhow I grouped all the questions that were similar and wrote down the top 20/30. I then asked Ex GB and current Wigan Warriors Head Coach Brian Noble if he would answer these questions from amateur coaches from both codes.

I’m really pleased that he agreed and I videoed our Q&A session.

Now for those that don’t know Brian, he’s one of the most respected rugby league coaches in the world and has won every domestic honour in the English game whilst coaching the Bradford Bulls a few years ago. He is also a regular summarizer for Sky TV.

One of the biggest reasons I asked Brian first is, he is a huge advocate of improving core skills which I’m a massive believer in.

To watch the 30 min video, please click the link below and be sure to come back and leave me your comments.

Click Here for your Q&A session with an Elite Rugby Coach

Enjoy:-)

Neil

http://1RugbyCoach.com

• Defence – How Do You Coach Communication? (4)
• Clive Griffiths Interview (2)
• Twitter and Rugby Coaching (0)
• Rugby Tips – General Q&A (1)
• Rugby Coaching – Sliding Defence (19)
• Harvey Howard Interview On Amateur Rugby Coaching (3)
• Testimonial From The German Rugby Captain Leo Hardberngruber (English) (2)