Written by RFU National Academy Fitness Advisor Simon Worsnop this book has over 115 training exercises for improving technique, tactics and fitness.
The book is split into 10 chapters:
Using Games and Drills
Small sided handling games
Small sided kicking games
Attacking and Defending drills
Bag and Shield drills
Non-specific rugby games
Small sided rugby games
Large sided rugby games
Fitness requirements for rugby
Planning for the season
Each chapter has a variety of different drills, enabling the coach to keep sessions fresh, as well as covering a range of different scenarios to test skills in game specific situations. Each exercise also comes with variations in complexity, physicality and specificity.
The drills are set out clearly with both written instructions and visual diagrams to make it easy to follow, with objectives and key coaching points highlighted to maintain focus of the exercises.
Each exercise also has a suitability rating at the top of the page e.g. 12+ or All ages, however they are not necessarily in age order so finding an appropriate drill requires searching (although this is only a minor point, searching won’t take long).
For coaches and players who may be short on time (this is the real world) and need to train multiple skills in on session, e.g. half backs passing/kicking and back row forwards tackling, there is a useful ‘Game and Drill Finder’ at the start of the book which cross references each of the drills with all the skills being worked.
What could be better
The Chapter that lets this book down is the fitness requirements for rugby. There is a lot of detail about the requirements for rugby, from strength and power values to work capacity and speed.
Despite this, there is no practical advice for coaching these components. Simon touches briefly on using small sided games and technical drills to also develop work capacity; however the inclusion of general fitness work is also vital.
I would recommend this book for any coach of junior or senior rugby players looking to improve delivery of technical coaching, as the variety of drills and simplicity of explanations make it a very useful tool.
The Season Planning section would be extremely useful to coaches with information on long term planning (different phases of season) and short term planning (individual sessions), as well as written examples of each.
To read more of Simon’s insights into conditioning for Rugby, see here
I got this book as a birthday present (thanks to Amazon wish list!) and it is a very good read. For those of you who think you are strong, or have researched every minutiae of “sports science” I recommend you read this. Sometimes getting strong just means doing more work.
Dan writes like someone who is having a chat with you over a beer, so it is eminently readable. Thousands of hours of coaching and training experience is put into a sequence of articles that cover topics from nutrition, to self discipline to motivation.
My only disclaimer on this book for the armchair coach, is to actually do a few sessions yourself before you inflict them upon athletes.
For those of you who haven’t read Dan John’s articles on T-Nation, I would recommend you read a few.
A number of books have appeared recently in the USA and the UK purporting to explain the development of talent and excellence in the sporting and business environments. A common feature of these books is that they are written by journalists,who attempt to deal with complex scientific concepts.
Four of the most popular are: “Talent is Over-rated” by Geoff Colvin (Nicholas Brearley2008); “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle (Random House Books 2009); “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (Little Brown & Co 2008) and “Bounce” by Matthew Syed (Harper Perennial 2010).
The common message of these books is that to achieve excellence in a chosen field, all that is needed is hard work and the correct – so-called “deliberate”- type of practice . The books all suggest that talent is not innate.
Through a basic misunderstanding of science, all four books re-open the false dichotomy of the nature versus nurture debate. The authors present stories in order to support their cases but repeatedly confuse correlation with causation.
The books’ messages appeal simultaneously to two opposing ideals: one of the largely American free-market right, who profess that whatever a person’s social and economic circumstances, he or she can get to the top in society through hard work; the other, the liberal left tradition that all individuals are born equal with a “blank slate” that is then molded by society (the environment). One review of Bounce describes it as “banalities for egalitarians” with good reason.
Ordinarily, the topics contained in popular literature would be largely of no concern to the coaching and sports science fraternities, but this is different. These books are increasingly described in reviews as if they were scientific masterpieces on sporting performance and talent development.
First, the general message that talent is not innate, “not in the genes”, “not genetic”.
All the authors suggest that those they perceive as being on the “nature” side of the debate believe that there are “genes for sport” and that a person is born with this immutable advantage. Nothing could be further from the truth; none of the geneticists quoted in their books believes this to be true and to suggest otherwise is the most simplistic form of reductionism
But I am of course not suggesting that small genetic units work in isolation from each other, any more than a chemist thinks that atoms do. ((Dawkins R. The Extended Phenotype Oxford 1982 p 113)
The authors also variously describe DNA as being a “blueprint”, but geneticists don’t believes this to be the case (The blueprint myth is dealt with adequately by Dawkins in The Greatest Show on Earth, chapter 8).
There are approximately 30,000 genes in the human genome. These genes interact with each other and both the cellular and external environment from conception to death. This process is very fluid and some genes switch on or off other genes, depending upon certain environmental conditions; we are certainly not born with a blueprint that remains fixed for the rest of our lives.
There are, however, relationships between certain genes and many human conditions, including certain diseases ; I.Q.; grip strength; VO2max, willingness to train. Some of these can be related to single genes and others not as yet identified but whose heritability is verified through twin studies. To deny this as the authors do, is to deny science in the same way that creationists deny evolution or homeopaths deny chemistry.
What is also very damaging is that genetic mapping is only in its infancy having previously concerned itself with what is known as single nucleotide polymorphisms which is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, whereas now we are entering the start of “genome wide mapping” which will aim to identify correlations and possible causes across a whole range of human expressions.
Adopting the “not in our genes” stance within sport would retard scientific advancement in the areas of talent identification, development and injury prevention.
The books themselves contain errors:
Here is what Professor Steven Pinker says about Gladwell’s “Outliers”:
The reasoning in “Outliers,” which consists of cherry-picked anecdotes, post-hoc sophistry and false dichotomies, had me gnawing on my Kindle.
Gladwell frequently holds forth about statistics and psychology, and his lack of technical grounding in these subjects can be jarring. He provides misleading definitions of “homology,” “sagittal plane” and “power law” and quotes an expert speaking about an “igon value” (that’s eigen value, a basic concept in linear algebra). In the spirit of Gladwell, who likes to give portentous names to his aperçus, I will call this the Igon Value Problem: when a writer’s education on a topic consists in interviewing an expert, he is apt to offer generalizations that are banal, obtuse or flat wrong.
The common thread in Gladwell’s writing is a kind of populism, which seeks to undermine the ideals of talent, intelligence and analytical prowess in favor of luck, opportunity, experience and intuition. Unfortunately he wildly overstates his empirical case. It is simply not true that a quarterback’s rank in the draft is uncorrelated with his success in the pros, that cognitive skills don’t predict a teacher’s effectiveness, that intelligence scores are poorly related to job performance or (the major claim in “Outliers”) that above a minimum I.Q. of 120, higher intelligence does not bring greater intellectual achievements.
(Gladwell responded in the New York Times (SW) and the stats dept of the NFL intervened – and sided with Pinker)
“Talent is Over-rated” is the least reductionist and dogmatic of the books, and on p 81 the author says:
…but practice proponents do not dispute the possibilities that genes could play a role in a person’s willingness to put himself through the extremely rigorous demands..
In chapter 11 he refers to:
an intrinsic drive working alongside extrinsic forces and practice (i.e. nature and nuture).
He also admits on p196 that many things “remain a mystery”,but he still makes many basic scientific errors e.g.
Since talent is by definition innate, there should be a gene for it… scientists could yet find the piano playing gene or investing gene or accounting gene…..
….genetic changes which take thousands of years.
Genetic changes do not take thousands of years; they happen every generation. This is discussed in Dawkin’s “Greatest Show on Earth”
When talking about mainly sporting potential, Colvin states:
..clear evidence that such non-physical (by this he means “anthropometric” SW) constraints exist has not been found so far …
This simply is not true, since there is evidence for example of differences in inherited VO2 max potential.
They pick an isolated paper and printing its findings as fact.
Colvin refers to a paper “A day at the races” from 1986 and treats the results as fact. This paper was criticised and the results dismissed the following year in the same journal and again by different authors in the same journal in 1988.
He later states:
but it’s important to note that advocates of the deliberate practice framework have never excluded the possibility of a genetic role in high performance. Their stance has been that they have not seen the evidence supporting it.
As Matt Ridley says about personality:
indeed, given that twin studies could find almost no effect of shared environment on personality, the genetic hypothesis should actually be the null hypothesis; the burden of proof was on nurture. If a socialization study did not control for genes, it proved nothing at all. Yet socialization researchers went on year after year publishing these correlations without even paying lip-service to the alternative genetic theory.
The Talent Code
The book is largely about myelinationation i.e. the laying down of myelin (white matter) in the neural pathway via extended practice. What is not mentioned is that this process is highly heritable.
The author describes the birth order of 100-metre world record holders and attributes success to chasing siblings, which myelinated their sprinting neurons. At least one of the men in the list did not grow up with his siblings and another’s birth order is simply wrong.
The Spartak tennis club in Russia that he writes about screens kids at 5yearsold and they continue to screen them and remove them from the program at every stage if they are not up to par. Any population that starts pre-screened cannot purport to demonstratet hat everybody and anybody can become excellence.
For the last century and a half, we’ve understood talent through a Darwin inspired model of genes and environment….Since Darwin the traditional way of thinking about talent has gone something like this: genes…..
This shows complete ignorance of the facts, since Darwin knew nothing of genes.
Nature/nuture has been a terrifically popular model because it’s clear and dramatic..
Iit was to philosophers in a previous era but this model is no longer used. This is followed by a number of pages describing the flawed “blueprint” as the correct model of the human genome. Throughout chapter 2 and 3 the impression is given that genes are static entities (following the “blueprint”):
…their genes do not change, as they grow older.
But this definition is far too simple, as many genes are turned on and off during a person’s lifetime in response to both environmental changes and the action of other genes.
Bounce
Bounce contains factual inaccuracies e.g. the claim on p242 that sickle cell anaemia does not just affect “black” people is plain wrong (see S. Jones, “Language of the Genes” p219-220). The author suggests that geneticists Yannis Pitsiladis and Daniel MacArthur are of the opinion that genes have no role to play in athletic talent development when what their research papers reveal is the opposite. On page 59, he writes:
there is no evidence at the moment for differences in innate specific capacities for mathematics.
There are a number of published papers showing this statement to be wrong. The same is true of the genetic component in children’s reading, IQ, VO2 max, response of muscles to training, inclination to train, response to endurance training and so on. This is part of Syed’s denial of genetic influences against all the available and growing body of evidence.
(For Simon Worsnop’s detailed critique of Bounce, see here)
For a comprehensive overview of the false dichotomy between nature and nurture, see Matt Ridley’s “Nature via Nuture” (Harper Perennial 2004)
For an accessible book on evolution and genetics, see Richard Dawkins’ “Greatest Show On Earth” (Bantam Press; First U.K. Edition edition (3 Sep 2009)
For an accessible book on genetics, see Steve Jones “Language of the Genes” (Flamingo; New Ed edition (14 Mar 1994)
For a review paper, see Keith Davids and Joseph Baker’s “Genes, Environment and Sport Performance – Why the Nature-Nuture Dualism is no Longer Relevant” Sports Medicine 2007:37 (11)
For a magazine article, read David Epstein’s “Sports Genes”, Sports Illustrated May 2010
I am indebted to Yannis Pitsiladis for his review of my original draft critique of Bounce.
We are now counting down to the end of our internship with James at Excelsior, and this is a good point to reflect on what I have experienced!
But before that I just want to mention the events from the last few weeks at Millfiled School.
For the last three weeks we have seen a new intake of girls for next year’s sessions. James has aimed to get them moving correctly over the summer to provide them with good technique and so that he can start then loading in September. We have gone through the 5×5 injury prevention programme with them as well as given them agility and leg exercises to do over the summer. Providing a good base (if they train consistently over the summer) to aid future training and improvement.
Self reflection of an Intern
Throughout this process I have learnt many things, which I will list in a minute, but the most valuable of these has been the chance to gain firsthand experience with quality athletes and coaches.
As Matt mentioned in his last blog it is great to assist a good quality coach and mentor, but it is also important to have the chance to coach by yourself and think for yourself. This is something I have had the chance to do recently and has helped me become more confident as a coach.
If you want to be a coach, or even work with athletes, then I have discovered that experience is the most important factor to consider.
As well as experience, other buzz words I would relate to this internship include:
Reflection
Confidence
Consistency
Goals
Knowledge
Practice
Experience
Recovery/rest
Injury prevention
Women in the gym
Squats
Movement
Technique
Fun/inspiring
These words and phrases have all cropped up in previous blogs over the last year and are concepts a coach should regularly consider.
Although this internship has been invaluable, I know my learning and growth as a coach is far from over.
I shall be reviewing a few of the books I have read so far this year on this week’s blog.
Entertaining, well written.
The first is by John McCallum and is a compilation of articles first published in Strength and Health magazine from 1965-1972. (For students, this is before your expert lecturers in S&C were born).
At some 260 densely printed pages, it contains quite a bit of information. McCallum uses anecdotes and fictional characters to cover various different concepts related to physical training- mostly how to increase mass and strength.
They usually start with him or a friend who is a gym owner looking at a weedy youth who moans that they aren’t progressing quickly enough. It often turns out that the weedy youth has a rubbish diet, goes out late at night, and thinks that working hard involves 3 sets of bicep curls and talking for 60 minutes.
(Nice to see how things have progressed).
The book is full of different programmes, lots of tips on setting goals, improving concentration and working on specific body parts. It has some good dietary advice, and some not so good.
As it was a series of articles over 7 years, reading it in one sitting is tough. Instead it is an ideal book for dipping into.
It is quite challenging training groups of athletes from different sports and at different ages and stages of development as a group. Here is something we were doing this week.
I think the athletes found that it suited their needs and was quite demanding.
The book is written in a colloquial 1950s fashion, and is more entertaining as a result- palooka is a phrase not often used.
The book is a good guide to training for boxers, but also for other athletes and coaches. I especially like the way Dempsey has stated that fighters are made not born, and that he has analysed his sport and written a guide on how to get better at it.
Not for him the lazy coaching analysis of “natural talent”. He offers clear advice on how to get better.
His guide to daily training for the amatuer athlete is spot on, and still relevant 60 years later.
Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain, by John J. Ratey is a book that analyses the benefits of exercise on various mental capacities.
The author points to evidence that shows that exercise can be used as both treatment and prevention for many mental disorders. These include: stress, anxiety, depression, attention deficit, and addiction. It also highlights the case for exercise for pregnancy and aging as well as the ability to improve cognitive learning.
It would make interesting reading for school governors and teachers in this country as they would see research and case studies that show how exercise has improved academic test scores.
With children no longer walking or cycling any distance to school, getting turfed from bed to car to classroom may explain why they are not receptive to learning.
Physical Education classes are the first casualty of a squeezed curriculum (my 9 year old son had no p.e. in school last week, again).
Worth reading for more information on benefits of exercise.
I have been meaning to get this book for a while, having read a lot of Thomas Kurz’s stuff on his website about flexibility training.
The book is a bit old now, published in 2001, with most of the research quoted pre dating that. This would probably disqualify it from being used as an academic text book, but as a Coaching handbook it is very good.
Kurz has an Eastern European training and coaching background, although he is now based in the USA. Most of the research comes from Eastern Europe as do the coaching philosophies.
What comes through is the need for a massive preparation and general conditioning phase before specialising- what is commonly termed LTAD (Long Term Athlete Development ) over here.
The book is split into 4 sections:
Introduction to sports training
Developing physical abilities
Developing physical skills and mental toughness
Planning and control of training
As I was reading this book I could see mistakes I have made in my own training in the past, with diet and mesocycle planning being the obvious ones.
But, more pointedly, I can see mistakes that coaches are making time and time again, operating within their own little bubbles and not knowing what they don’t know.
A sample quote highlights this
“Coaches who want quick success, even with young athletes, develop mainly the physical abilities that are dominant in a given athletic event. Some use so-called exercises of direct purpose or immediately applicable exercises.
In such a system, a shot-putter practices technique only by putting shot, develops strength by standard weight lifting exercises, and speed by short sprints and starts.
Such an approach results in considerable improvement of sport-specific performance in shot put but a stagnation of it in only a few years, after which permanent progress of the athlete is limited to strength as measured by standard weight lifting methods and speed measured by the standard 20-meter sprint from starting blocks.” (p42).
Compare this with the how much can you squat, clean and bench press approach to fitness testing in the UK- and then making young athletes do this and comparing them with adults!!!
Summary and Further Reading
The book is pretty comprehensive, but easy to read. I especially liked the planning and cyclical aspects of training and how different training modes affect recovery and the next training session.
This is probably because I have been looking to improve that area of my Coaching, and sometimes you find what you look for.
It is an applicable book, with not much information wasted.
Written by RFU National Academy Fitness Advisor Simon Worsnop this book has over 115 training exercises for improving technique, tactics and fitness.
A number of books have appeared recently in the USA and the UK purporting to explain the development of talent and excellence in the sporting and business environments. A common feature of these books is that they are written by journalists,who attempt to deal with complex scientific concepts.
It is quite challenging training groups of athletes from different sports and at different ages and stages of development as a group. Here is something we were 
doing this week.
Jack Dempsey’s guide to championship fighting
