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Welcome to the Coaching Knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Jason Gilmore, Waratahs Senior Assistant Coach (Defence) and Australia A head coach.

Note! He was with the Waratahs when we recorded this. He is now defence coach with Harlequins.

Focusing on defence, we are going to cut to the root of who is the most important player in ruck defence.

Previously, Jason worked for Queensland Rugby as Elite Development Head Coach Assistant Coach and Junior Wallabies coach, as well as four years in teaching as a 1st XV head coach

Philosophy

Create better men and players

You can contact him on

LinkedIn

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Dan speaks to Tom Morris from Progressive Rugby, an independent player welfare lobby group founded in 2021 to drive change that both better protects player brain health and the game’s long-term future.

In this episode, they discuss:

• Separate strategies to make rugby safer and more appealing at both the community and professional level
• Improving education and the need for a concussion communication system in youth rugby
• Helping young players understand the benefits of learning proper tackle technique
• Implementing a community of care in grassroots rugby and sharing best practice
• Whether the age when contact is introduced in youth rugby should be adjusted
• The importance of attracting and maintaining players in the community game

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

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Dan chats to Sean Phelan, the brains behind Fill Your Boots, the way that players and clubs can connect to fill the gaps on a Saturday.

In the podcast, they discuss:

• How Fill Your Boots works
• Why clubs struggle to find players and creative ways to solve this
• How clubs can welcome players
• How can the women's game grow now
• How do we help retain volunteers

If you want to find out more, go to the Fill Your Boots website, it's totally free!

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

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Dan chats to Kris Stafford, Rugby Development Officer at Leeds Beckett, MSc in Sports Coaching, U.K Coaching award winner, and host of the @bigbreakdownhq podcast.

In the podcast, they discuss:

• Making sure the players are valued and integrated into the coaching process
• How to genuinely engage with the players outside their sport
• How to have entire team conversations
• What a positive and supportive learning environment looks like
• Ways to design a practice to make purposeful
• Using the STEP model to develop practices
• What is meant by the MOTs of the ABCs
• Where to use a self-directed learning approach, where players spend time exploring and practicing key skills both with and without coach guidance
• Where players need guidance and where they can take control
• Using all the coaches in the session to run an effective game
• How to make player huddles more impactful

To find out more about the The Big Breakdown: A Coaching Podcast, click here.

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!

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In this short podcast, Dan speaks to Gary Townsend, head of rugby at Switch Rugby with a focus on developing young players, coaches and clubs.

He is former RFU National Player Development Manager and Bristol Bears Junior Academy manager.

They discuss how you make a U12 player more skilful and what that might look like in training.

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!

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Welcome to the coaching knife when we cut to the root of the matter. In this episode, we speak to Callum Adam, Currie RFC Senior Mens Assistant Coach and Edinburgh University Women’s 2nd XV Head Coach.

Focusing on defence we are going to cut to the root on what comes first, tackling or defence

As well as coaching with Currie Mens and the Edinburgh Uni women, Callum has coached with the Scottish Rugby Union with their age grade development teams, plus a stint at Dundee RFC.

His philosophy: To make a difference in people's lives on/off the pitch.

You can contact him on: LinkedIn Callum Adam

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!

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Dan welcomes Dr Kimberly Berens, founder of Fit Learning and CEO of Fit Learning Online and author of Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science That Can Save Them.

Fit Learning is a powerful system of instruction based in behavioural science and the Technology of Teaching, and it aims to transform the learning abilities of children, which it does in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

To find out more about Fit Learning, go to:
http://fitlearningonline.com/

In the podcast, they discuss:

• How Kimberly found watching her son's experience of being coached filled her with horror
• How there's too much talk and not enough practice
• Why measuring progress is vital
• The key to learning through reinforcement
• The huge variability in the learning process
• Simple methods of counting to help check individual progress and what you need to do next when you know the results
• What you need to master and why
• How to differentiate across a larger group
• Helping parents help their children to "work harder" without becoming too bossy

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!

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Dan quizzes the Myths of Sports Coaching editors around how we deal with some of the muddling thinking coaches believe is true.

Dr Amy Whitehead is an Associate Professor at Liverpool John Moores University, and Jenny Coe is the Performance Well-Being Lead for the Women's Professional Game at the FA.

Their first edition was so good that they’ve been persuaded to do a second edition, which will be out in the autumn.

In the book, they invited experts to delve into myths about learning styles, deliberate practice, coaching women differently, and fundamental movement.

Here's a link to the first edition on Amazon.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What are the most pervasive myths in sports coaching?
• Is coaching girls any different to coaching boys?
• How do you approach a coach who is hung up on something you know is a myth?
• At what stage do you stop discussing, check and challenging as a group, and start making hard and fast decisions?
• How much evidence does there need to be until a “finding” becomes a myth?
• Should we use SMART goals?
• How do we discern the research validity from authors who have a vested interest in continually proving they are right?
• How evidence from verbal answers needs to be looked at carefully, because interpretation can easily not be what the respondent first meant.

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!