junior rugby advice wanted!

skylar98

Hey guys not going to bore you with details, just looking for some advice for a friend. Her son has been playing Rugby with a club in Galway city for 4-5yrs. As with so many young men he has high dreams and aspirations however over the last couple of years he has slowly had his confidence and hopes / dreams shattered by coaches who either dont care or are for want of a better term egotisitcal. There seems to be a major click formed by the coaches with certain young men on the team, and the other players are left in the dark regarding training and or direction. I have personally witnessed verbal abuse. The final straw has been since the new season started denial of scores unless made by the select few and training methods that are questionable to say the least! Confusing training sessions with one child being told that there play was brilliant and other being told the exact opposite for the same play???? unfortunately the children are now starting to turn on each other due to the way that the "click" are treated in comparision to the other kids. My mate is a single mum and she is at a loss as to what else she can do, her son has become depressed and reclusive and it has started to effect other areas of his life including school as his confidence has really taken a beating. If you can shed some light i would be grateful

Amz

That's terrible, and it's so disappointing to hear. Are the coaches accredited to the IRFU? Have they done their foundation level course and completed it. It really does sound like they're missing some of the very fundamental things needed to coach children.

Would your friend consider doing her foundation level course and coaching the kids too? That way she'd have some input into what's happening and could put in place ways of stopping it. I know in Leinster there are a few Foundation courses coming up, so perhaps it's the same in Connacht. I know Boyne RFC ran a special foundation course aimed at rugby mums and that was hugely successful, would this club perhaps do something similar?

I would, in her position, consider contacting the IRFU and mention some of the issues she's seeing as they do have a strict code of practice that all coaches of young persons and children are expected to sign and adhere to. Have other parents raised similar concerns?

The problem as you say with egos is unfortunate, some of these wannabe Declan Kidneys, don't realise that for kids it should be about fun and that should be the aim with all of their "training".

I sincerely hope that these issues are resolved and her son regains some of his confidence and begins to enjoy rugby.

skylar98

Both coaches have there foundation level 1 (I think thats right) Thank you so much for your advice, and i agree that there is too much emphasis put on winning and not enough about the fun of playing the worst part of this is that the child was selected at one stage to play for connaught at a junior level not sure what age group and due to the fact that he went through a whole year with his head coach not showing for half of the training sessions and confusing changes in position (he played four position in twenty minutes in one match) he ended up loosing his connaught selection reason given was not progressing enough, seems to me a hard thing to do when he was given no direction at club level. Thankyou again for your help .

Amz

Well Level 1 coaches are only reeeally accredited to coach teams from around U18 and higher. For mini and foundation there is a huge emphasis placed on fun and developing the skills through fun games etc. If you, or your friend check out the Long Term Player Development (LTPD) available here This wil give an indication of what players should be doing at each level of their playing career from minis up to senior international. It's definitely worth having a read of even for your own benefit.

Also even being selected for your province is a great achievement and I'd imagine not a lot of his peers got the chance, even if he wasn't given the opportunity to realise his potential there.

Doing the foundation course is definitely something your friend should consider, perhaps as I suggested if she got a group of a few mums together and organised it to be run over a weekend or couple of weekends in the club. The guys running the IRFU courses are all very cool and it would maybe be a good forum in which to raise some of the concerns she has currently about the coaches, without having to name names etc.

Stev_o

Is a change of clubs out of the question? I know a guy personally who switched from a club nearby which at his age level was a joke according to him with people not really give a f*ck he switched to the club i play for has been with us for two seasons is everyones mate and managed to get selected for Leinster development team.

So maybe just enquire around see what else clubs are available and go down and talk to their coaches who coach at that lads age level

Tim Robbins

skylar98 wrote: »

Both coaches have there foundation level 1 (I think thats right) Thank you so much for your advice, and i agree that there is too much emphasis put on winning and not enough about the fun of playing the worst part of this is that the child was selected at one stage to play for connaught at a junior level not sure what age group and due to the fact that he went through a whole year with his head coach not showing for half of the training sessions and confusing changes in position (he played four position in twenty minutes in one match) he ended up loosing his connaught selection reason given was not progressing enough, seems to me a hard thing to do when he was given no direction at club level. Thankyou again for your help .

Loads of people involved with Rugby haven't a clue about it as it's quite a complex sport. At that level, it should all be about fun and exercise in a safe environment.

If the club don't put an emphasis on these values, consider joining another or dropping a polite mail to someone more senior in the club who I am sure would be delighted to get constructive feedback. Just make sure it's constructive.

What age group are we talking about?

In defense of the coach, just remember that these people give up a lot of freetime and it can be frustrating when players don't show up for training or think they know better than the coach or none of the parents help out.

skylar98

Hi Stev we have thought about a change of clubs but he plays school rugby and alot of his peers play for the same club so the worry would be that it would cause friction in the only space that he still feels he can play, my mate rekons that if that happened it would depress him entirely!! He is a good kid that has true potential with no arrogance, When he was dropped from Connaught he took it hard due to the situation with the club coaches, he loves Rugby and it is down to the reaction and influence negative or otherwise of the coaches 07 & 08 i agree totally in regard to the amount of dedication and self sacrifice that most coaches give to sport and have seen it first hand with the coaches he had previously to 06 however he has had the same circle of coaches for 3 years and in that time they have turned great young players in to arrogant players and other players into not wanted to play at all. It has been a credit to this young man that he has had the testicular fortitued to turn up for training even after warming the bench for a full year only getting the odd five minutes on a pitch or playing a match and being roared at to pass and then in the next breath being roared at for passing being told that he was "glorying" or being "greedy" when scoring a try and then in the same match being told that he is "indecisive" when getting the ball????? And the topping on the cake is the match were he went on for an injured centre, was then moved in a 5 minute space to outhalf then moved (in the next 5 min) to flanker finally finishing for a few minutes as second row????? after this match he was informed that he needed to learn to read the game of rugby better????