Grunthos
Kennel Enthusiast
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- May 6, 2018
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Part two.
Setting the pace:
Mum and Dad need to be aware that you are a volunteer Rugby coach, not a childminder or occupational therapist!
At the beginning of each year, a responsible coach should “Read the riot act!”
In other words, let everyone, players and parents know how you want to run the team for the season.
This should be worked out and fully agreed upon with his assistant coach/s and manager before this first team meeting. It’s vital that you’re all reading off the same page on how things should be done.
From the very outset, parents and players should know about their commitment and that there’s no point in being in the squad if it’s too much of a bother getting to training or even attending games sometimes!
Encourage parents to take an active part in the team either in helping with training, running or as linesmen.
It’s also a good idea to let mum and dad know about the “code of conduct” and what’s expected from them when they are on the sideline!
However some people never learn and I had an irate referee call me over one time and tell me in no uncertain terms that if he gets any more abuse from parents he would call off the game, and this was the grand final!!!! We still won in the end, only just.
Discipline is vital; you must be in control of the team from the outset. If you have a difficult player who is continuously disruptive take him aside and tell him to pull his finger out or he could be suspended from playing the next game or off the team entirely, make sure his mum and dad know this as well if necessary.
All players should understand they must take responsibility for their actions!
An undisciplined player is loose cannon and can not only lose you a game but he can also be a physical danger to himself and to everyone on the field as well!
Players who just want to have “fun” and screw around and be disruptive at training should be pulled into line as quickly as possible or kicked off the squad (if you can cover his loss) simple as that!
However, be aware that some bad and disruptive behaviour can be a symptom of problems at home and you and the team might be the only stable environment the poor kid has in his life at that moment so try to be as sympathetic and supportive as possible whilst still maintaining discipline.
You and your and assistant coach are responsible for choosing the positions that the boys will play in, not mum and dad! Everyone wants their son to shine (including you if you have your boy/s playing in the team) but you must have the right man, doing the right job, at the right time or the team won’t be balanced to the best effect.
I can recall a mother being very “specific” to the coach of a team we were about to play concerning what position her darling boy must be in!
“My son is a five-eighth or a centre at worst! We didn’t join this team for him to be merely a lock!”
The coach should have said “Thanks for the input, but he goes where I put him.”
but he didn’t.
So I decided to help a little.
Just before kick-off, I called the team together and apart from the normal gee-up and instructions I added;
“Ok, listen up you bunch of mouth breathing rock-apes! You see that wonderful specimen over there? Their five-eighth. The Golden child with the perfect tan and fine chiselled good looks and wind billowing through his blond curls?
“GO 9/11 ON HIS ASS!”
And so they did and made his life a compleat misery with some very solid “in your face” defence.
Mummy dearest was not happy…!
The Manager, God’s Gift.
You must love your manager.
You must care for your Manager and bring them flowers and chocolates every day (unless they’re a bloke)!
You must sing sweet songs to your Manager under their balcony; if that’s ok with his or her wife or husband.
The Managers is probably the most demanding and important of jobs, you just can’t run a successful team without an organised, efficient manager!
He or she must be a diplomat, child and parent wrangler, taxi driver, nurse, statistician, communications officer and the list goes on and on!
At the beginning of the year, you should get an accurate contact list together, you can’t do without it.
It should have parents and players names, home addresses, home, work and mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses as well as all the other team managers and coaches numbers and all the council's wet wether numbers as well as the player's registration cards etc and it must be kept up to date at all times.
It’s always a good idea to explain to the parents that at the beginning of every season, everything is going to be a bit of a mess; Teams are getting finalised and graded and everything will be up in the air for a while, and you won’t even know when or where the first game will be played till a day or two beforehand, so please mum and dad, be patient.
When the dust finally settles, get the info out to everyone immediately!
Clear communication and good organisation will save a lot of problems and make everyone’s life a lot easier.
A reminder SMS and e-mail of when, where and who we are playing a day or two before the game is vital.
If this is your first time on the job, get some advice from some of the older hands
It’s also a nice idea to have team awards as well as the usual club ones.
“Encouragement Award” for the player who has given it his best shot week in and week out at training and games, chosen by the coach, manager and assistant coach
“Best and fairest” chosen by the mums and dads.
“Players player” chosen by the team. The best way to do this is to get each boy alone and ask him who he thinks it should be.
The danger of political correctness:
“Ok, let’s forget about the score, are we all having fun?”
If mum and dad don’t like the way you run things they have every right to ask questions or make suggestions.
Whinging and bitching from the sideline shouldn’t be tolerated; if they like, they can come to training and help out, shut up or take their
bloody offspring and bugger off!
(As before this only works if you have enough players to cover the loss, otherwise you may well just need to put up with their bitching!)
You are the coach, you are the (diplomatic if possible) boss, don’t forget it!
The boys are there to have fun, but this is rugby, not playgroup and unlike school teachers, you and your co-coaches, runners and manager are volunteers
and you’re not being paid to put up with bad behaviour from kids… or parents!
Sometimes Mummy (rarely dad) objects to the way you speak to the team or to her darling little cherub and will complain to your assistant coach, manager or club official rarely if ever directly to you. All I can say is put up with it and try to explain that there is no such thing as “politically correct” rugby and it is a game for men, even very young men and it will sometimes be necessary to be direct, blunt and very much to the point. I’ve never met a young player who didn’t respond positively to being spoken to like an adult, in fact, they love it!
This being said, it’s not considered good form to sware at six-year-olds.
Also, there is no time for a “frank and open exchange of views” during a game.
If someone’s son and heir needs a little verbal discipline or motivation, or a damn good rocketing, he should get it without fear or favour!
Sometimes you must point out the negatives to ultimately get a positive result.
I’ve never heard of a kid bleeding to death or bursting into flames from being told to pull his finger out!!
If you are incessantly looking over your shoulder, biting your tongue and always afraid of offending Mummy and Daddy then you will never be an effective coach, you will never have a successful team and will certainly NEVER win a premiership!
If your team has a try scored against them, have a meaningful message for your runner to convey if possible. There was a reason the points
were scored against them so tell them what the mistake was (if you saw it) and give them a remedy; just saying “Get in there and smash e’m boys” doesn’t
mean a dammed bloody thing and probably won’t improve your position on the scoreboard one bit!
Don’t be afraid to call a spade a spade for heaven sake! If the team/player is performing poorly tell them honestly, then instruct them how to fix matters and drill accordingly, don’t sugar coat things with “political correctness!”
Always mix criticism with instruction and encouragement but not to the point of sugar coating.
I got in trouble after a training session of a U12 team when I informed the squad that the team that had beaten them (57 to 0) the preceding Sunday thought they were a bunch of “Pussies” and laughed at them from the sideline.
I told the boys in no uncertain terms we needed to take things more seriously at training and drill a lot harder to improve matters.
Apparently telling the truth offended some mums and dads…
I must be honest, I hate political correctness in all its forms and I can be very blunt at times, but that’s just me.
Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong, take it or leave it or pull on some boots and lend a hand coaching, otherwise, go and have your kids play Tiddly-Winks and forget about competitive sport of any kind!
Sorry about that. That’s me venting…
Putting simply, being “positive” is important but being realistic is of far greater value to your team.
Winning isn’t everything but you still must strive to be competitive!
And yet another case in point;
I watched a U10 team a few years ago getting a terrible beating and during half time all the coach could come up with was;
“Ok, let’s forget about the score, are we all having fun?”
Let’s talk about what we did right!”
“I made a tackle,” says little Johnny.
“I passed the ball,” says Harry.
Isn’t that nice, how very, very sweet…
I contend that what they were doing right wasn’t getting them beaten forty-six to zip by half time and, though winning isn’t everything as there’s no fun in getting a flogging either.
What they wanted to know, as I recall was; to move up quickly and try to be more aggressive in defence, the halves to stop hogging the ball and for the forwards to drive over in the ruck and mall etc.
(As well, of course, as a U10s team can.)
The team wanted to know what to do; they wanted guidance and leadership, all they got was politically correct claptrap!
I think the end score was about seventy-something to Duck egg.
“But we are we having fun aren’t we kids?!”
In a nutshell, if you religiously adhere to the rules of political correctness and fret about offending someone (you will anyway so there’s no point worrying) you will always find yourself at the bottom of D grade!
A team (and kids in general) needs and want leadership and discipline and that’s the coach’s job. Do it bluntly, honestly but with good humour, without fear and your teams success is guaranteed
Here endeth the lesson!
Raaa! Raaa!
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."
Winston Churchill.
It’s good to have a team motto and a war cry if possible, something to gee the team up and something to play buy.
I have always coached my teams to,
“Play hard! Play tough! Play Fair! And Never Give Up!”
This can be explained to the team and parents thus.
“Play hard!”
Give it everything you have, play to the best of your abilities.
It takes a lot of hard work to “Make your own luck!”
During training let the boys know that it’s OK to fail and that you’re there to help them learn and if they fall flat on their face, you’re there to pick them up,
dust them off, point them in the right direction and try again.
And again and again and again if need be.
It’s also a good idea, though a little mean, to remind the team that everyone is watching them so hogging the ball, chickening out
of simple tackles etc is all going to be noticed and, “You don’t want to be the one who lets the team down now do you…?!”
“Play Tough!” (This is more for the graded teams, not minis)
This is along the lines of mental toughness and having and a hunger to win, not playing dirty.
Encourage the team to play with focused, single-minded determination and controlled aggression. Digging deep and not backing down, and not giving up just because we're behind on the scoreboard.
Even the most mediocre of teams can beat the roaring favourites and win the premiership if they have the right mental attitude.
A perfect example of this “Play tough” attitude is the Collaroy Cougars U14 boy who hobbled off after about five minutes of a game with a nasty
kick to the “Jatz Crackers” as he put it.
“Just give me a minute coach and I'll be right” he winced
When he recovered he asked to get back on and completed the whole game.
Now the As were short players and looked as if they were going to forfeit their match, so he and some over boys volunteered to play and the team took the field and only just got beaten.
We found out on the Monday that the “Jatz Cracker Kid” had also suffered a minor broken hand during the first game but he didn’t want to let the side down!
Years later the “Jatz Cracker Kid” played for Australia…
It goes to show,
“A good player plays a good game whenever he wants to”
“A GREAT player plays a great game when he doesn’t want to!”
“PLAY FAIR!”
Foul and rough play, bad sportsmanship, “showboating” “sledging” “trash talking” and “attitude”, waving a finger in the air before scoring etc must be discouraged
at all times! Some will say that it’s all just part of the game.
IT-IS-NOT!
This is an excuse put forward by the dick-headed parents of loutish children and a symptom of a gutless and/or irresponsible coach!
If a coach is encouraging or turning a blind eye to foul or rough play, he should be cautioned or removed from his position. “Thugby” must not be tolerated!
I have seen penalties given and games lost (including a grand-final) because of idiotic foul play and skiting.
One of the funniest incidents of fatal showboating I have ever seen was at an U17s rugby league game.
A centre made a great break from deep in his half and races downfield, as he gets to the try line and thinking no one had kept up with him, he turns around with the ball held high in a gesture of victory before placing it down under the posts only to be hit like a tackle bag by his opposite number who hadn’t given up the chase!
The defender proceeded to scoop up the ball and charge back down the field where a pass later his team scored under the sticks and goes on wins the game by a single conversion!
I was close enough to hear the coach’s words to his runner and haven’t forgotten them to this day, “Get that F---ing stupid! F---ing pinheaded C..t! F---ing wanker of the F---ing field now!” I wonder if the coach got in trouble from the mummies and daddies about that one?
A player who indulges in showboating or big-noting himself must be taken aside and instructed accordingly and if necessary the player’s parents left in no doubt that this “wankery” will not be tolerated!
It’s also usually a sign of weak character and this can be used against him, not only can the player give away penalties or get himself sent off but he can also make himself a target for retaliation and hand the opposition a powerful motivation to play harder and meaner.
Remember what happened to the Australian swimmer James Magnussen at the 2012 London Olympics. He loudly boasted how well he would do and when he was beaten, fell in a complete heap and seemed to take the whole swimming team with him who were swept up in his hype.
A few solid tackles and good “in the face” pressure applied when he has the ball in hand can make the “showman” drop his bundle quite nicely thank you.
It’s also good to remind your team that. “You can learn a lot about yourself at the bottom of a ruck; because horrible things happen there to the lout, showboat and smart arse!”
A team that plays a tough, uncompromising but sportsmanlike brand of Rugby or league is a very intimidating foe indeed and should be able to sweep the trash-talking show ponies aside!
On a side note, Rugby and league are also a great way to network and players that indulge in foul play rapidly get a reputation and this can impact on them later on in life.
A case in point.
A young man applies for a job in my local area, only to be knocked back because the potential employer had seen him playing like a compleat oaf over the years.
The ex-player could probably have been a very good employee but his loutish reputation preceded him.
Conversely, a good sport could well find doors opening to him that otherwise may remain shut or him unnoticed.
“Never give up!”
It is quite possible to score three converted tries in five minutes and to score the winning points ten minutes in injury time after official full time, (in rugby) therefore,
NEVER-GIVE-UP!
More to come tomorrow.
Grunthos
Setting the pace:
Mum and Dad need to be aware that you are a volunteer Rugby coach, not a childminder or occupational therapist!
At the beginning of each year, a responsible coach should “Read the riot act!”
In other words, let everyone, players and parents know how you want to run the team for the season.
This should be worked out and fully agreed upon with his assistant coach/s and manager before this first team meeting. It’s vital that you’re all reading off the same page on how things should be done.
From the very outset, parents and players should know about their commitment and that there’s no point in being in the squad if it’s too much of a bother getting to training or even attending games sometimes!
Encourage parents to take an active part in the team either in helping with training, running or as linesmen.
It’s also a good idea to let mum and dad know about the “code of conduct” and what’s expected from them when they are on the sideline!
However some people never learn and I had an irate referee call me over one time and tell me in no uncertain terms that if he gets any more abuse from parents he would call off the game, and this was the grand final!!!! We still won in the end, only just.
Discipline is vital; you must be in control of the team from the outset. If you have a difficult player who is continuously disruptive take him aside and tell him to pull his finger out or he could be suspended from playing the next game or off the team entirely, make sure his mum and dad know this as well if necessary.
All players should understand they must take responsibility for their actions!
An undisciplined player is loose cannon and can not only lose you a game but he can also be a physical danger to himself and to everyone on the field as well!
Players who just want to have “fun” and screw around and be disruptive at training should be pulled into line as quickly as possible or kicked off the squad (if you can cover his loss) simple as that!
However, be aware that some bad and disruptive behaviour can be a symptom of problems at home and you and the team might be the only stable environment the poor kid has in his life at that moment so try to be as sympathetic and supportive as possible whilst still maintaining discipline.
You and your and assistant coach are responsible for choosing the positions that the boys will play in, not mum and dad! Everyone wants their son to shine (including you if you have your boy/s playing in the team) but you must have the right man, doing the right job, at the right time or the team won’t be balanced to the best effect.
I can recall a mother being very “specific” to the coach of a team we were about to play concerning what position her darling boy must be in!
“My son is a five-eighth or a centre at worst! We didn’t join this team for him to be merely a lock!”
The coach should have said “Thanks for the input, but he goes where I put him.”
but he didn’t.
So I decided to help a little.
Just before kick-off, I called the team together and apart from the normal gee-up and instructions I added;
“Ok, listen up you bunch of mouth breathing rock-apes! You see that wonderful specimen over there? Their five-eighth. The Golden child with the perfect tan and fine chiselled good looks and wind billowing through his blond curls?
“GO 9/11 ON HIS ASS!”
And so they did and made his life a compleat misery with some very solid “in your face” defence.
Mummy dearest was not happy…!
The Manager, God’s Gift.
You must love your manager.
You must care for your Manager and bring them flowers and chocolates every day (unless they’re a bloke)!
You must sing sweet songs to your Manager under their balcony; if that’s ok with his or her wife or husband.
The Managers is probably the most demanding and important of jobs, you just can’t run a successful team without an organised, efficient manager!
He or she must be a diplomat, child and parent wrangler, taxi driver, nurse, statistician, communications officer and the list goes on and on!
At the beginning of the year, you should get an accurate contact list together, you can’t do without it.
It should have parents and players names, home addresses, home, work and mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses as well as all the other team managers and coaches numbers and all the council's wet wether numbers as well as the player's registration cards etc and it must be kept up to date at all times.
It’s always a good idea to explain to the parents that at the beginning of every season, everything is going to be a bit of a mess; Teams are getting finalised and graded and everything will be up in the air for a while, and you won’t even know when or where the first game will be played till a day or two beforehand, so please mum and dad, be patient.
When the dust finally settles, get the info out to everyone immediately!
Clear communication and good organisation will save a lot of problems and make everyone’s life a lot easier.
A reminder SMS and e-mail of when, where and who we are playing a day or two before the game is vital.
If this is your first time on the job, get some advice from some of the older hands
It’s also a nice idea to have team awards as well as the usual club ones.
“Encouragement Award” for the player who has given it his best shot week in and week out at training and games, chosen by the coach, manager and assistant coach
“Best and fairest” chosen by the mums and dads.
“Players player” chosen by the team. The best way to do this is to get each boy alone and ask him who he thinks it should be.
The danger of political correctness:
“Ok, let’s forget about the score, are we all having fun?”
If mum and dad don’t like the way you run things they have every right to ask questions or make suggestions.
Whinging and bitching from the sideline shouldn’t be tolerated; if they like, they can come to training and help out, shut up or take their
bloody offspring and bugger off!
(As before this only works if you have enough players to cover the loss, otherwise you may well just need to put up with their bitching!)
You are the coach, you are the (diplomatic if possible) boss, don’t forget it!
The boys are there to have fun, but this is rugby, not playgroup and unlike school teachers, you and your co-coaches, runners and manager are volunteers
and you’re not being paid to put up with bad behaviour from kids… or parents!
Sometimes Mummy (rarely dad) objects to the way you speak to the team or to her darling little cherub and will complain to your assistant coach, manager or club official rarely if ever directly to you. All I can say is put up with it and try to explain that there is no such thing as “politically correct” rugby and it is a game for men, even very young men and it will sometimes be necessary to be direct, blunt and very much to the point. I’ve never met a young player who didn’t respond positively to being spoken to like an adult, in fact, they love it!
This being said, it’s not considered good form to sware at six-year-olds.
Also, there is no time for a “frank and open exchange of views” during a game.
If someone’s son and heir needs a little verbal discipline or motivation, or a damn good rocketing, he should get it without fear or favour!
Sometimes you must point out the negatives to ultimately get a positive result.
I’ve never heard of a kid bleeding to death or bursting into flames from being told to pull his finger out!!
If you are incessantly looking over your shoulder, biting your tongue and always afraid of offending Mummy and Daddy then you will never be an effective coach, you will never have a successful team and will certainly NEVER win a premiership!
If your team has a try scored against them, have a meaningful message for your runner to convey if possible. There was a reason the points
were scored against them so tell them what the mistake was (if you saw it) and give them a remedy; just saying “Get in there and smash e’m boys” doesn’t
mean a dammed bloody thing and probably won’t improve your position on the scoreboard one bit!
Don’t be afraid to call a spade a spade for heaven sake! If the team/player is performing poorly tell them honestly, then instruct them how to fix matters and drill accordingly, don’t sugar coat things with “political correctness!”
Always mix criticism with instruction and encouragement but not to the point of sugar coating.
I got in trouble after a training session of a U12 team when I informed the squad that the team that had beaten them (57 to 0) the preceding Sunday thought they were a bunch of “Pussies” and laughed at them from the sideline.
I told the boys in no uncertain terms we needed to take things more seriously at training and drill a lot harder to improve matters.
Apparently telling the truth offended some mums and dads…
I must be honest, I hate political correctness in all its forms and I can be very blunt at times, but that’s just me.
Sometimes I’m right and sometimes I’m wrong, take it or leave it or pull on some boots and lend a hand coaching, otherwise, go and have your kids play Tiddly-Winks and forget about competitive sport of any kind!
Sorry about that. That’s me venting…
Putting simply, being “positive” is important but being realistic is of far greater value to your team.
Winning isn’t everything but you still must strive to be competitive!
And yet another case in point;
I watched a U10 team a few years ago getting a terrible beating and during half time all the coach could come up with was;
“Ok, let’s forget about the score, are we all having fun?”
Let’s talk about what we did right!”
“I made a tackle,” says little Johnny.
“I passed the ball,” says Harry.
Isn’t that nice, how very, very sweet…
I contend that what they were doing right wasn’t getting them beaten forty-six to zip by half time and, though winning isn’t everything as there’s no fun in getting a flogging either.
What they wanted to know, as I recall was; to move up quickly and try to be more aggressive in defence, the halves to stop hogging the ball and for the forwards to drive over in the ruck and mall etc.
(As well, of course, as a U10s team can.)
The team wanted to know what to do; they wanted guidance and leadership, all they got was politically correct claptrap!
I think the end score was about seventy-something to Duck egg.
“But we are we having fun aren’t we kids?!”
In a nutshell, if you religiously adhere to the rules of political correctness and fret about offending someone (you will anyway so there’s no point worrying) you will always find yourself at the bottom of D grade!
A team (and kids in general) needs and want leadership and discipline and that’s the coach’s job. Do it bluntly, honestly but with good humour, without fear and your teams success is guaranteed
Here endeth the lesson!
Raaa! Raaa!
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."
Winston Churchill.
It’s good to have a team motto and a war cry if possible, something to gee the team up and something to play buy.
I have always coached my teams to,
“Play hard! Play tough! Play Fair! And Never Give Up!”
This can be explained to the team and parents thus.
“Play hard!”
Give it everything you have, play to the best of your abilities.
It takes a lot of hard work to “Make your own luck!”
During training let the boys know that it’s OK to fail and that you’re there to help them learn and if they fall flat on their face, you’re there to pick them up,
dust them off, point them in the right direction and try again.
And again and again and again if need be.
It’s also a good idea, though a little mean, to remind the team that everyone is watching them so hogging the ball, chickening out
of simple tackles etc is all going to be noticed and, “You don’t want to be the one who lets the team down now do you…?!”
“Play Tough!” (This is more for the graded teams, not minis)
This is along the lines of mental toughness and having and a hunger to win, not playing dirty.
Encourage the team to play with focused, single-minded determination and controlled aggression. Digging deep and not backing down, and not giving up just because we're behind on the scoreboard.
Even the most mediocre of teams can beat the roaring favourites and win the premiership if they have the right mental attitude.
A perfect example of this “Play tough” attitude is the Collaroy Cougars U14 boy who hobbled off after about five minutes of a game with a nasty
kick to the “Jatz Crackers” as he put it.
“Just give me a minute coach and I'll be right” he winced
When he recovered he asked to get back on and completed the whole game.
Now the As were short players and looked as if they were going to forfeit their match, so he and some over boys volunteered to play and the team took the field and only just got beaten.
We found out on the Monday that the “Jatz Cracker Kid” had also suffered a minor broken hand during the first game but he didn’t want to let the side down!
Years later the “Jatz Cracker Kid” played for Australia…
It goes to show,
“A good player plays a good game whenever he wants to”
“A GREAT player plays a great game when he doesn’t want to!”
“PLAY FAIR!”
Foul and rough play, bad sportsmanship, “showboating” “sledging” “trash talking” and “attitude”, waving a finger in the air before scoring etc must be discouraged
at all times! Some will say that it’s all just part of the game.
IT-IS-NOT!
This is an excuse put forward by the dick-headed parents of loutish children and a symptom of a gutless and/or irresponsible coach!
If a coach is encouraging or turning a blind eye to foul or rough play, he should be cautioned or removed from his position. “Thugby” must not be tolerated!
I have seen penalties given and games lost (including a grand-final) because of idiotic foul play and skiting.
One of the funniest incidents of fatal showboating I have ever seen was at an U17s rugby league game.
A centre made a great break from deep in his half and races downfield, as he gets to the try line and thinking no one had kept up with him, he turns around with the ball held high in a gesture of victory before placing it down under the posts only to be hit like a tackle bag by his opposite number who hadn’t given up the chase!
The defender proceeded to scoop up the ball and charge back down the field where a pass later his team scored under the sticks and goes on wins the game by a single conversion!
I was close enough to hear the coach’s words to his runner and haven’t forgotten them to this day, “Get that F---ing stupid! F---ing pinheaded C..t! F---ing wanker of the F---ing field now!” I wonder if the coach got in trouble from the mummies and daddies about that one?
A player who indulges in showboating or big-noting himself must be taken aside and instructed accordingly and if necessary the player’s parents left in no doubt that this “wankery” will not be tolerated!
It’s also usually a sign of weak character and this can be used against him, not only can the player give away penalties or get himself sent off but he can also make himself a target for retaliation and hand the opposition a powerful motivation to play harder and meaner.
Remember what happened to the Australian swimmer James Magnussen at the 2012 London Olympics. He loudly boasted how well he would do and when he was beaten, fell in a complete heap and seemed to take the whole swimming team with him who were swept up in his hype.
A few solid tackles and good “in the face” pressure applied when he has the ball in hand can make the “showman” drop his bundle quite nicely thank you.
It’s also good to remind your team that. “You can learn a lot about yourself at the bottom of a ruck; because horrible things happen there to the lout, showboat and smart arse!”
A team that plays a tough, uncompromising but sportsmanlike brand of Rugby or league is a very intimidating foe indeed and should be able to sweep the trash-talking show ponies aside!
On a side note, Rugby and league are also a great way to network and players that indulge in foul play rapidly get a reputation and this can impact on them later on in life.
A case in point.
A young man applies for a job in my local area, only to be knocked back because the potential employer had seen him playing like a compleat oaf over the years.
The ex-player could probably have been a very good employee but his loutish reputation preceded him.
Conversely, a good sport could well find doors opening to him that otherwise may remain shut or him unnoticed.
“Never give up!”
It is quite possible to score three converted tries in five minutes and to score the winning points ten minutes in injury time after official full time, (in rugby) therefore,
NEVER-GIVE-UP!
More to come tomorrow.
Grunthos