Rugby Coach Weekly

Dan chats to Telegraph sports journalist Fi Tomas about where women’s rugby needs to go next. 

Fi has worked on the paper since 2019, was number 11 on 2023 BBC Women's Hour Power List and recently nominated for the 2023 British Sports Journalism women’s category. She is a keen advocate for a stronger voice in female sports.

In the podcast, they look at:

• Why women want to play rugby
• The hurdles facing women in sport
• How the media portrays women in sport
• What needs to be addressed in terms of language and attracting a broader audience
• The issues that rugby faces, from male-dominated spaces to the role of governing bodies
• How sports should appeal to a new generation, and why commentators need to ensure they help grow the game

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

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Ralph Knibbs, Head of Human Resources at UK Athletics and a Bristol rugby legend, chats with Samba Ceesay, Broad Plain RFC’s captain.

In an extraordinary podcast, Ralph first describes his journey as a black player from a non-traditional rugby background, why he turned down playing for England twice and how his children made him more self-aware about being a role model.

He then asks Samba about his journey. Coming to rugby late, Samba talks about how Broad Plain stood up for him, allowed him to become a better player, and what led him to lead the club.

As the podcast unfolds, you will hear how Ralph helps Samba acknowledge his crucial role in giving others the confidence to follow their ambitions.

They reflect on the challenges faced by black players, both professional and amateur, but also the development of leadership skills, camaraderie, and a sense of family and belonging.

Listen to find out how two humble sportsmen, who love their sport, want to make rugby a more inclusive and diverse environment.

Click here to find out more about the Star Scheme

Click here to find out more about the Rugby Black List

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

This podcast is dedicated to the memory of one of the guest's daughter, who passed away suddenly a few weeks after the recording.

The Peel family have set up a donation page for Katie in support of FarmAbility. Here's a link.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/katiepeelfarmability

Please listen to this inspiring journey of three coaches providing something amazing. It needs us all to reflect on setting up a SEND rugby programme.

Dan Cottrell speaks to Darren Rea, John Peel and Gareth Lewis of Gosford All Blacks, Wallingford and Whitney rugby clubs.

There are plenty of lessons for all of us, but specifically, we focus on:

• How to set up the programme
• How to make it a realistic and inclusive environment
• Easy ways to involve everyone
• Making everyone confident
• The pathways beyond training
• The joy of making rugby a meaningful place to express yourself

If you want to get involved, please reach out:
Gosford All Blacks
Website https://gabrfc.rfu.club/
Email youth@gosfordrugby.com
Contact- Darren Rea 07531118213
Session times: Sunday 10 am to 11 am

Witney Wolves
Website https://witneyrfc.rfu.club/teams/witney-rfc-wolves-sen/470302/profile
Email theresaclark1234@aol.com
Session times: Sunday 11 am to 12 noon

Wallingford Wolves
Website https://wallingfordrfc.rfu.club/teams/wallingford-rfc-wolves/467870/profile
Email the_peels@me.com
Session times: Sunday 11 am to 12 noon 

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Dan chats with Dr Rachael Jefferson about fundamental movement skills and how to introduce them effectively into our coaching sessions.

Rachael is a lecturer in human movement studies and creative arts, and author of Fundamental fun: 132 activities to develop fundamental movement skills.

You can get a copy of her book here.

In the podcast, we explore:

• What is meant by fundamental movement skills (FMS)
• What do the terms body management, locomotor, and object control skills mean
• Why we need to coach FMS
• How to make it part of our training sessions
• Ways to help less skilful young people become better movers
• How we can use balloons and scarves to help catching
• The importance of choosing appropriate objects based on skill levels.
• Rachael's own journey on throwing the javelin
• How we need to know the biomechanics of movement to help players progress

More bio:
Rachael is a physical education, dance, inclusion and wellbeing specialist, who is fascinated by the moving and creative body. Her PhD focused on the governance of the body in physical education in England from 1902 to 2016. Rachael has nurtured her own wellbeing and self-awareness to a high level by training in yoga and also Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

Rachael is particularly well known for her work in the area of fundamental movement skills (FMS). This began in earnest in 2006, when she trained in a Western Australian research-led FMS professional development course by STEPS PD. Following this, she became the UK FMS consultant and worked with sport coaches, teachers and lecturers across England and Ireland for several years. During that time she was regularly publishing FMS works, including her play-based pedagogy book for teachers.

Rachael’s influence in FMS, PE and inclusion is global; she has worked on several long-term international projects in these domains for the University of Cambridge, UNICEF, UNESCO, and Montrose. Her curriculum design is especially valued for its creative, inclusive, and student-centred foundations. She has developed national PE curriculum (primary and secondary) and led teacher training for Kazakhstan, Egypt, Myanmar, and Mongolia.

Rachael enjoys social media and the wonderful connections she makes there. She has written popular gender and sport articles for ‘The Age’ and ‘The Conversation’, as she believes in the power of telling stories to raise the general public’s awareness of athletes’ inclusion issues and rights. 

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Dan chats with Chris Dossett, chair of the Professional Association of the Directors in Sport, and very experienced DoS himself.

In the podcast, they talk about:

• How a good director of sports supports their less-experienced staff
• Connecting with the players
• Making the less-able teams enjoy rugby as much as the top-flight
• What equality looks like in sports in a school environment
• How to make girls' sport part of the fabric of the school sports system

Chris gives many examples of practical ways to operate, not just as a director of sport but also as an example of good coaching for others to follow.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Dan talks to Jess Hayden, former Times sports journalist and author of

Dan chats to Jess Hayden, author of The Red Roses: Behind the Scenes with the England Women's Rugby Team.

Jess, who was previously a sports journalist at The Times and The Sunday Times, is the editor of Contested, a new social app for sports fans.

In writing the book, she was able to get exclusive access to the England Women's team, known at the Red Roses, plus speak to former players and coaches.

In the podcast, she talks about:

• The highs and huge lows of a World Cup campaign
• Professionalism in women's rugby and the lessons to be learned from the difficulties in the men's game
• Why the audience for women's rugby is growing, but also, what's holding it back
• Should England have chosen a woman to be their new head coach
• The rise of WXV
• Why the Lions touring team isn't the right vehicle to grow women's rugby
• The simple misunderstanding that made the England players so angry 
• Who was the only player to watch the lost final on the plane home from 2021 World Cup

The book is out at the start of March.

Contested: Because every athlete and team sport deserves recognition.

A unique space for fans to join the conversation, debate predictions, and celebrate sports together. It covers lots of sports in the detail you won't get in the mainstream media.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

In this episode, Dan chats with Sean Lindersmith. They discuss how he created a coaches’ coffee club, and how he made it a genuine place to learn and support each other.

Sean is the Vice President of Operations at Premier Rugby Sevens and Silicon Valley Rugby - defence and forwards coach.

His past roles include University of MN Head Coach, US Coast Guard Sevens Head Coach, St Augustine High School Head Coach, MN Youth Rugby Youth and HS Director and USA Eagle’s National Team Manager (Men’s)

In the podcast, we cover

• Establishing the Coaches’ Coffee Club
• Mentorship and sharing initiative
• Practising vulnerability in coaching
• Coaching, trust, and celebration
• Creating supportive team dynamics
• Embracing change in coaching
• Coffee club vulnerability and connection
• Key concepts in coaching community

You can contact him on

LinkedIn: @SeanLindersmith

IG/X: @Snackattk

TikTok: @CoachSnackattk

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Dr Jocelyn Solomons joins Dan on the podcast to discuss her research on how dance can improve rugby players.

Based at the world-renowned Stellenbosch University in South Africa, she is a lecturer in strength and conditioning.

She has a PhD in women's rugby development and an MSc in Sport Science focusing on rhythmic movement and rugby.

In the podcast we explore:

• How you persuade rugby players that dance can make a difference
• How it did make a difference in the research project
• What happens if a player can’t dance
• How it can be made position specific
• Jocelyn’s passion to drive forward women and women of colour in all sports and in academic sports research
• How to continue to change the landscape for women in sport 
• What are her biases and how has she overcome them
• How to motivate those who are not as motivated as yourself

Here’s a link to her research

The effect of a rhythmic movement intervention on selected bio-motor skills of academy rugby players in the Western Cape, South Africa

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1747954120956909

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Mike Penistone is a global rugby coach, starting his coaching career in the 80s with Trent Poly and then Cambridge University rugby league as head coach. He went on to GB Student's head coach before moving to Leicester Tigers Academy via Nottingham. He did a stint at NSW Waratahs and then Eastern Suburbs in Australia. He is now a rugby coach consultant.

In the podcast, we cover:

• How to make a great first impression as a coach
• How to make your sessions engaging and intense
• Why threes and fives are magic numbers
• What stops great players becoming good coaches
• Asking the best questions to get the most from your players
• Managing talent
• Helping an expert player become more skilful

Mike is available for coaching consultancy and sessions. Drop him a line on mike@globalrugbycoach.com

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Dan Cottrell chats to author and coach, J.P. Nerbun about his latest book, The Sports Parent Solution, Proven Strategies for Transforming Parents from Obstacles to Allies.

We explore how coaches can get the most out of their relationships with parents. Sometimes they are super-supportive, and sometimes not!

How do you get them onside to start with, speak to them, involve them and make them part of everyone's journey.

We talk about the ways to have difficult conversations, how to build your value offering and chances to show leadership.

J.P., as always, offers lots of evidence from either his own experience or from experts around this space.

He has written three books:
Calling Up: Discovering Your Journey to Transformational Leadership
The Culture System: A Proven Process for Creating an Extraordinary Team Culture
The Sports Parent Solution, Proven Strategies for Transforming Parents from Obstacles to Allies

He is host of the The Coaching Culture podcast.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the Coaching Knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Tom Chaloba, Manager of Get Into Rugby Zambia.
Focusing on volunteering we are going to cut to the root on how to build a group of volunteers and retain them.

Tom is a coach and match official educator at Zambia Rugby Union, as well as working with the Tag Rugby Trust. He is the founder of Die Hard Rugby academy.

His philosophy is aim high but don't miss what is near. This helps him stay grounded and rooted but also gives him the freedom to shoot for the stars.

You can contact him on
Twitter @TomChaloba1
Instagram @TomChaloba1
LinkedIn 
Facebook

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the Coaching Knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Professor Kevin Till, Professor of Athletic Development at Leeds Beckett University and Strength and Conditioning Coach at Leeds Rhinos RLFC academy. Focusing on warm-ups, we are going to explore how they are used to prevent injury and give us performance gains.

Kev has worked in strength and conditioning with Yorkshire cricket, Yorkshire Carnegie rugby union, football with Leeds United, as well as his roles in rugby league, at Leeds Rhinos and Castleford. He completed his PhD in Sport and Exercise Science over 12 years ago, and  has had seven papers published. 

 He has helped edit and write two books, The Science of Sport: Rugby, and published last year: The Young Rugby Player: Science and Application

 His philosophy is about supporting people in the best way possible. Similar to work on 'Talent', everyone has potential, and it is how we can support creating opportunities to support as many to develop as effectively as possible. 

 You can contact him on Twitter
@KTConditioning
Email: K.Till@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the Coaching Knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Craig Gunn, coach, teacher and motivational educator, and founder of Gunn Engagement. Focusing on why high-performance sport is dangerous for grassroots, we are going to cut to the root on why we need to break the brooms of the All Blacks.

Craig is an experienced PE teacher and former head teacher. He has worked across many sports, including Aussie Rules and Rugby League.

His philosophy is that kids learn teachers NOT subjects; Sometimes you have to mow the grass before you save the whales.

You can contact him on LinkedIn or The Coach Whisperer.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the Coaching Knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Ian Costello, Head of Rugby Operations at Munster Rugby. Focusing on talent, we are going to focus on how that term might impact the way we approach coaching.

Ian has had a busy coaching career, with stints as assistant coach at Munster and Wasps, the Munster Academy manager, as well as head coach at Nottingham and an Elite Development Manager with the Irish RFU.

 His philosophy:

The purpose is to develop and sustain a high-performance strategy for Munster Rugby. Philosophy would be to find and develop the best people, build system capability, always improving, learning faster than the opposition. Quality coaching is key to producing consistent winning performance.

You can contact him on Twitter at Iancostello1 

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the Coaching Knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Grant Doorey, performance coach @Mobicoach Australia and passion projects Rugby ATL, Queensland Rugby and Australia Rugby.

Focusing on the power of purpose in coaching and life, we are going to cut to the root on how we can turn thoughts into action.

Before becoming a consultant high-performance coach, Grant was an assistant coach with Tonga, Italy and Japan national teams, a technical adviser with the IRANZ, plus roles with pro clubs in France, London Irish, and the Blues Super franchise. He started as a teacher and director of school rugby in Australia.

His philosophy is the relentless pursuit of short-term goals leading to long-term success. To inspire leaders and teams to develop rigour and discipline, striving for excellence in their daily habits,  he connects, engages and empowers people through coaching.

You can contact him on LinkedIn or directly to mobicoachnz@gmail.com

He values human connection. Please reach out for a conversation and explore synergies to collaborate.

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Dan chats with Gary Townsend, the Bristol Bears Junior Academy manager about a question from Will Jones, an U15s coach from Cardiff.

He asks: The backs are doing the forwards' work when it comes to the breakdown. Plenty of forwards are way too lazy and not bothering to clear out and secure the ball. Do you have any good drills we could use to get them switched back onto this?

We cover:

• What do the forwards want to do
• Do we need to have position-specific roles
• How to use decision-rich training, both drills and games
• Encouraging players to ruck, and also encouraging the ball carrier to be active at the ruck
• Changing habits by manipulating the drill

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the coaching knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Keith Lewis, founder of rugbyreferees,net, the leading online community for rugby referees across the world

Focusing on the refereeing the new tackle height laws, we are going to cut to the root of what referees will be looking for next season.

Philosophy: Helping people to become better referees, no matter what level that may be

You can contact him on rugbyreferee.net
or keithlewisrugby on Twitter

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the coaching knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Catherine Spencer, author, speaker, and former England women’s rugby captain.

Focusing on coaching women’s and girls’ rugby, we are going to cut to the root on what men need to know about coaching women. 

Catherine retired from international rugby in 2011, with 63 caps, 18 tries, winning 6 Six Nations titles, 3 for them as captain. She has written the award-winning book ‘Mud, Maul, Mascara’. She is a patron of the Tag Rugby Trust, and she is CEO and founder of Inspiring Women. Currently, she is teaching sociology and RE at a secondary school in Kent.

You can contact her on Catherine@inspiringwomen.co.uk
Or on Twitter: cathspence8

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the coaching knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Geraint Davies, Rugby Coach & Content Creator, GDD Coaching.

Focusing on improving performance and learning, we are going to cut to root on what training sessions should look like.

 Does training need to look like rugby for them to learn to play rugby?

Geraint is an academy coach and was previously Head of PE & Games at Leicester Grammar School & Head Coach at Nuneaton.

Philosophy: I believe in leaving no stone unturned in order to help everyone in my environment be as good as they can possibly be.

You can contact him on Twitter:
@daviesGDD
or GDDCoaching

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!

Welcome to the coaching knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Bradley Busch, director of Inner Drive and psychologist.

Focusing on how we ask questions, we are going to cut to the root on where coaches go wrong when they try to engage their learners.

What is a bad question?

Bradley education, sport and business, helping them improve how they learn, think and perform under pressure.

Within sport, he has worked mainly in football, with clients from Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and athletes who have medalled at London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020.

He is the co-author of the best-selling book ‘The Science of Learning’ and has written regular blogs for The Guardian, featuring regularly for The Telegraph, the BBC 5 Live, Men's Health and BT Sport.

He also has a new book called ‘Teaching and Learning Illuminated’

You can contact him on innerdrive.co.uk

To find out more about this podcast and many others, go to Rugby Coach Weekly

Also, tap into the library of 4,000 pages of activities, advice, tactics and tips to help you become the best rugby coach you can be!