Well, we’ve said it before and we’ve said it often, South African players are simply not well enough conditioned to keep up with the demands of the game. The Springboks conditioning coach appears to endorse that view.
South African rugby players will have to become stronger and faster if the Springboks want to compete for the Rugby World Cup in France in 2007, writes Hendrik Cronje for Die Volksblad.
The head of the Boks’ conditioning, Derik Coetzee, says the players in South Africa are falling behind the strongmen and speedsters of the All Blacks, Wallabies and England.
The position of the South African teams on the Super 14 points log is a good indicator that our players are not physically strong enough.
Coetzee said: “That’s why we’re emphasising conditioning all the time.
“We’ve got plans ahead of the RWC and are going to withdraw certain players from all rugby in the September 10 to November 5 period.
“We could keep them for even longer than the eight weeks, depending on how much they improve their physical weaknesses.
“The only way to significantly improve the players’ strength and speed is to withdraw them from matches for long periods and subject them to specific scientific programmes.
Busy rugby programme
“I started visiting the various Super 14 regional franchises from January and explained our aims to the various players,” Coetzee explained.
He declined to give names, but said he was dissatisfied with the progress of some players because of the busy rugby programme.
“The reality is that progress is not happening quickly enough. We’re falling behind.
“It must be remembered that success can be achieved only by good coaching structures and conditioning.
“We consider high intensity important. All our Boks will have to be able to run distances of 1.2km to 1.6km for the forwards and 1.6km to 2km and more for the backs at a high intensity in matches.
“It has been proven that teams with an average high intensity of more than seven metres a second have a higher chance of success.”
The players must also be able to run more than 8km in a match.
“We can’t have any excuses in the RWC. Everyone will have to work together,” said Coetzee.
Inability to protect possession
Some of the Boks are to get together in Bloemfontein from May 14 where Coetzee will crack the whip as far as conditioning is concerned.
A big problem in the Super 14 series is the South African teams inability to protect their possession properly.
It seems as if the New Zealand players, especially, are physically stronger than the South Africans and the technique of some regional teams also could be improved.
It should be mentioned that Coetzee’s Boks seem to be the only players in South Africa’s Super 14 teams who can compete physically with the New Zealanders.
April 13th, 2006 at 8:00 am
Following on from Thomas Castaignède’s thoughts yesterday,
“Creativity means producing a fast-moving game with players constantly available in support and moving the ball wide rapidly.�
If you are not strong and not fit you simply will not be able to ‘swarm’ the point of contact or get into a position of support fast enough or often enough to emulate a team like the Saders.
Throw in the ability, or inability, to:
- pump your legs in contact
- retain possession in contact
- drive an attacker back in the tackle
- break tackles
and to do it for 80 minutes.
Some of the conditioning and strength guys who regularly comment on the site will know better but, in my experience, once you start tiring on a rugby field your skill level drops off rapidly as well – things like passing and catching effectively are the first things to go as your body struggles with fatigue.
April 13th, 2006 at 8:20 am
And if Jake was asked for comment he would have added that they need to be bigger
April 13th, 2006 at 9:00 am
I absolutely dont buy this. It is categorically not the conditioning. Your typical bok is vainglorious and spends his time pumping it up in the gym. I have no doubt on pure conditioning terms the Boks are a match for everyone.
If you ever saw Johnson without his shirt on this was not a bloke fully conditioned.
The shortfall is instead in 2 areas; character or heart and technique. And both these are a damn site harder to resolve than the conditioning point. In the typical SA mindset of focusing only on easy solutions we are looking at the wrong things.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:05 am
“It should be mentioned that Coetzee’s Boks seem to be the only players in South Africa’s Super 14 teams who can compete physically with the New Zealanders.”
No – not sure I agree with that statement.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:19 am
St M
You talking in a deep base this morning!
Seeing the way you look at Johnson without a shirt, there a coaching position open for you at the Cats franchise with Evita, Nataniel and Kakpraat de Vries.
you can apply at
http://www.ithinkthecatsaresexy-xxx.com
April 13th, 2006 at 9:19 am
For those buggers that laughed at me when I said we would start seeing things from JW which showed he had been thinking a bit ahead time, eat my shorts.
I think we will start seeing more little things like this happening. And mark my words, the Bok backline is going to be playing a different style for some games this year.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:24 am
St M,
I can’t agree, our guys don’t look as toned as the Aussies & Kiwis.
Additionally, the English forwards strength tests were, on average, far better than the Boks.
Jake White, along with Coetzee, has gone a long way to start the process of addressing the issue but given recent matches against England and France, I suspect we have some way to go.
I suspect what they are getting at is a balance between power, speed and fitness which must surely require a fairly scientific or planned approach.
I agree with you regarding technique, our skill levels are generally poor.
As for character – the Boks have it (recently) when they play NZ or Australia.
The provinces or franchises seem too often overawed.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Rasputin
Amen brother.
The only word missing from your list is explosion.
Your summary is spot on. The body is a whole unit as it fatigues your skills and mental capacity drop.
Strength, explosion, sprint speed and sprint endurance.
For so long we have thought that big is automatically strong, remember the big fat boy at school who automaticaly plays prop, he probably wasn’t.
I just hope that they get the program right for these guys, but at least they are getting them stronger and faster and explosive (I hope).
Bluegreengold
I did see your posts a few days ago, but I have been busy, trying to start a new business venture that I haven’t had time to reply.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:28 am
St M
Don’t confuse being conditioned with being a ripped and huge muscles. Conditioning means their bodies must be used to the physical demands of the game. If you are a 140 kg sack of lard but your body is conditioned to run and perform for 80 minutes you can be a good rugby player.
What I do agree with you on is the technique – we are a long way off in this area. Most of our players tackling technique sucks. Sure we have some players who are good natural tacklers but your average SA S14 players tackles like crap. I beleive that every guy in the team should be able to make a tackle, swing onto his feet ala Richie McCaw and contest possesion. We see very few of this.
Our running with the ball is also very bad. We hold the ball under the arm and bash it up. The opposition know that we can’t get the pass away and it makes it very easy for them to tackle us because they are left with no doubt about our intention. If we were to carry the ball in 2 hands and just create that little bit of doubt we might see more gaps opening. Also if you are carrying the ball under one arm you are going to struggle to pass out of the tackle. You are going to ground and this gives guys like Richie McCaw and George Smith the chance to contest on the floor. If we were to pass out of the tackle we would go a long way towards neutralising them.
Cheers
April 13th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Ahhh, Methos – “passing out of the tackle”…
Sheesh, it frustrates me.
Why do we not have the ability to learn from season to season?
April 13th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Ras,
The last time the boks played at HQ the pack included 4 forwards who quite fracnkingly did not have the stomach for the contest (Andrews, Matfield, Botha and Van Niekerk). You would not go to war with these men.
This is not a conditioning issue.
You beat England at HQ by sheer force of willpower only.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:46 am
I get frustrated about the conditioning point. Bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger.
What if O’D had broken his neck by that disgraceful act of malice by Umaga on the last Lions tour?
I am starting to feel that the game is approaching the point where we are one serious, high profile injury away from a drastic change in the rules of the game. In 10 years it will be tackling below the waiste only. These guys are too big and too strong.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:55 am
Players aren’t as toned….mmmm. I’m note sure were looking for tone, we want strength, and explosion. Muscular hypertrophy will follow with strength development, and speed work and sprint endurance will cut body fat levels to a minimum, but we don’t want bodybuilder bodies. Body builder use a rep set scheeme that is designed to increase muscle size but does not neccesarily increase strength proportionally. In fact the increase in muscle diameter in body building is as much to do with connective tissue growth as it has to do muscle fibre growth. So if some one is buff as he walks about relaxed you should say what great connective tissue you have. Its part of teh problem is that people go to gym and do 3 sets of 10 reps etc. body building programmes fill the market place.
From a conditioning perspective, people start to lift in a body building style of training, at first any use of weights improves your strength so you see great gains in your rugby perfoprmance, however as the years go by that type of training doesn’t make you stronger relative to bodyweight and it will result in the slowing down of the player. Its part of the reason that players do well in the uner 21′s but seem not to make the shift to senior levels very well. Wrong type of training. Think instead about weightlifting routines. The movement from the top of the pull to jumping under a snatch is one of the quickest in the world of sport. Overhead squat your body weight as a test for 15 reps (if most peole could start with 40kg I’m impressed). The conditioning mindset needs to change.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:01 am
St Michel,
You read John Inverdale’s piece as well?
OMG, you are NOT John Inverdale, are you?
April 13th, 2006 at 10:01 am
Isn’t part of the problem that the provincial coaches haven’t a clue? The players will only take it seriously when their coaches at the different levels take it seriously too. Tell the player at U21 level: “Sorry mate I’m not picking you until you get your conditioning programme sorted out” and you might focus a few minds.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Nick,
I think that toned is a fairly relative or general term. A lot of people use it out of context either because they don’t know the true meaning of the word or they think their target audience will not understand the more technical aspects of what they are saying and so try and use layman’s terms.
One would hope however that Coetzee would know what is required and sets up his programme accordingly.
What concerns me more than their strength is the ability of the players to play 80+ minutes of rugby. At the moment it seems to me that their is a bit of a psychological and physical block for our player in this regard.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:03 am
I considered posting John Inverdale’s piece here, St M.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Methos
Now you’re talking, there are very few natural tacklers. Tackling is a skill that needs to be taught properly. To do it properly you need to be conditioned properly. Better stronger, more explosive players, have fewer injuries.
Its all about the conditioning and bio-mechanics of collision.
These skills should form part of the preparation of the players an add on to the the conditioning programme. Master these skills and the players confidence improves and he begins to to relish contact, then off loading in contact, ball retention in contact and retaining the advantage at the gain line on both offence and defence, begin to win you the game. Years of untaught contact have taught players bad habits at contact time, it takes a lot of work to get this sorted out.
StM – improved conditioning improves player safety. Think about the front row forwards, strong necks shoulders, backs and posterior chain make that phase of the game safer for the players not less safe. No contact sport is injury free, but putting on good strong muscle and good strong tendons comes from lifting heavy, lifting explosively, better condition means better player more able to focus on the skills of the player
April 13th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Ollie
You are right, I thought I was non technical (blush). But the more people that have a grasp even vaguely the better off we will be. Using better language to describe adds to communication then you don’t talk at cross purposes.
I think the mental side is critically important to. I think TG has a good view on this. Its as much about being sharp mentally as it is physical, being able to turn on the focus and step into the zone at will. His NLP stuff seems to be very good for this
Ever been in a game in the second half as you start to gasp for air and your vision turns to tunnel vision. You’re to weak, recruit to much of you muscle for each “intense performance” and don’t have the ability to get you muscles to recover. How are you going to focus the mind, get your passing skills correct and tactically call and communicate. Having the ability to get yourself into the zone mentally is crucial, but conditioning helps
April 13th, 2006 at 10:30 am
I am more worried about our inability to catch and pass a ball to be honest, that happens from the word go so it has nothing to do with conditioning. I hope when they’re conditioning them, that they give them an intensive basic skills program. You can be the most conditioned mofo on the planet, if you can’t catch a ball you’re as useless as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:31 am
St M,
I take it your silence means you ARE John Inverdale?
April 13th, 2006 at 10:37 am
Nick – You’ve got it . I look forward to the day when a team trained by you takes the field!
At least we have got them onto the idea of conditioning coaches. Now lets get onto the idea of CONTACT conditioning coaches. Its a very specific speciality and I can’t see mcuh relationship between making a forward run 8KM and making him kick the shit out of people in Channel one.
I don’t know Derik Coetzee, but I will start to mutter that the Conditioning of the Springboks is actually lookign like a problem. For the sake of brevity lets look at the Front row:
Ascending – BJ, Carstens, Britz. Even Marius Hurter looks well conditioned.
Desending – Andrews, Sepaka, Du Rant, CJ.
Bok Front rowers are atarting to look Fat and soft. With the Exception of Smit, the Front Runnign is comming from outside the Bok Squad. If the Boks couldn’t get this part right, what hope have we for the rest.
Lets give Derick a chance, but talking varagities and “Declinging to mention names” harkens back to “The Secret Plan” days. What we want from a conditioning coach is publicluy available player stats. We wnat becnhmarks for the others to aim at. We want to know what De Wet Barry Snatches, We want to know what weight Eddie Andres’s piddly little legs can Squat.
Was I the only one that was disturbed by the sight of Al Baxter Blowing Os Du Randt right off the Line?
April 13th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Ras – I read it and it left me feeling depressed. We’ll all be playing Rugby League in a few years.
April 13th, 2006 at 11:16 am
NickTat
I agree with you completely. I have been playing rugby now for about 20 years(from age 6) and in all this time I never had a coach who coached me how to tackle. They just assumed that you had the ability to crunch a guy. For years I was scared to tackle a guy. Then in the last few years I worked activly on it and while not yet in the De Wet Barry against Steve Kefu mould I feel that I can now hold my own.
When the whole swing onto your feet and contest the ball thing became popular I made a consious descision to work on it and now I make a few turnovers in a match, not bad for a lock.
Another thing that really peeves me is the way we fall with a ball if we have to go down in a tackle. We never look which way our support is coming from and we fall sometimes with the ball towards the opposition. Last Friday I was watching McCaw – He gets tackled and then in fall wrong but in a move that almost looks like a crocodile rolling turns his body and presents the ball on a platter to his scrummie. I myself am a very big fan of the feutus position, where you fall on your knees and squeeze the ball through you knees. It is very diffucult to steal the ball if presented in this way.
Cheers
April 13th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Phillip and Nick
If our players are poorly conditioned doesn’t that also mean that when faced with properly conditioned players our players tend to tire out faster and then the ‘last 20 minutes’ syndrome takes over.
We’ve seen it with all the South African teams seemingly fading out in the last quarter of matches, even when they’re leading. The Bulls have done it in each game they’ve played so far.
The Stormers too.
StM
I think that the technical and physical development of players will be the way forward in the growth of the game. Rule changes will eventually see League simply being assimilated into the professional setup of Union. This is already taking place in Australia.
And eventually the incredible technical necesities of the game will, in my view, see it approach the physical chess of NFL.
April 13th, 2006 at 11:23 am
St M,
I agree. It was depressing and, I believe, accurate.
April 13th, 2006 at 11:26 am
There were two moments during Sunday’s Powergen Cup final when the heart stopped, and that chilling phrase about rugby’s ‘worst case scenario’ was suddenly writ large in flashing neon lights over Twickenham’s embryonic south stand: a prone player surrounded by a group of paramedics and a hush descending on 60,000 people as the potential enormity of what was unfolding slowly sank in.
First there was the contact that left Wasps’ Jonny O’Connor’s neck compressed like an accordion barely 45 seconds into the match. Then, half an hour later, Simon Easterby, of Llanelli, had his face contorted like a Spitting Image puppet as it took a blow from a raised elbow. Both incidents were within the laws of the game, not a hint of malice on either occasion. And yet such incidents can be at best life-changing and at worst life-endangering.
I am sorry to return to this subject, but the increasing physicality of a sport where power and force are more than ever two of the most dominant features prompted as much correspondence to me during the recent Six Nations as the overall quality of the play and the drama of the tournament. Sunday’s incidents merely served to reinforce the need to highlight it again.
Jan Cope, from Guildford, has a son who was disabled through playing rugby. She is just one of many people who have written demanding that the game’s authorities undertake a renewed and far more comprehensive review of the dangers inherent in the sport, which she fears they are ‘disinclined’ to do for fear of what their findings might reveal.
Then there is Jason Tait, a teacher who witnessed a friend and pupil suffer severe spinal injuries during a match. Are the laws of the game evolving fast enough to cope with the changes in the players’ physique, he wonders? Is society as a whole more or less tolerant of the inevitable serious injuries that some players sustain? Can the game’s burgeoning global popularity cope with a really high profile injury that would reduce the tragedy that befell Max Brito, the Ivory Coast wing left paralysed after a tackle in the game against Tonga in the 1995 World Cup, to a couple of paragraphs on the inside pages? (And, incidentally, how key was that injury in stalling the growth of rugby in that particular African country?)
And all the while at his farmhouse in Northumberland, Ali Johnson, written about in this column a few weeks ago, fights his lonely battle against paralysis with belligerence and fortitude because it is the only option he has. Rugby union is a marvellous sport for rallying round individuals in their times of need but, while the lives of the rest of us move on, for the victims of the game, the long road travelled to some kind of recovery stretches far into the distance.
And don’t be conned by some people in the higher echelons of the game who say that fitness levels are so good and players so well coached at the professional level that it is a problem reserved solely for the lower ranks. Just ask Leicester’s Matt Hampson, who could have been playing for England in the next World Cup but who is travelling down that same road as Ali.
Jason Tait says there is a kind of urban myth that serious injuries only occur at the scrum. His student, Jae Woong Choi, was hurt in a tackle. And while he talks about the inspirational qualities shown by Jae and Ali, he also points to the inevitability of us reading about another similar tragedy in six months’ time. And most telling of all, he wonders what the consequences would have been if ‘that’ spear tackle on Brian O’Driscoll had left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. What would the game have done then?
One highly respected senior official within the Rugby Football Union is a staunch advocate of banning all tackling above the waist. Radical certainly, but he fears the moment when a fatality on the field forces the game to confront the dangers within, while a public outcry ensues.
The first half of Sunday’s final lasted nearly an hour while two potentially serious injuries were dealt with. The clock may well be ticking towards the witching hour when the very ‘worst case scenario’ becomes a reality on a rugby field.
April 13th, 2006 at 11:47 am
DavidS I’m even more depressed now!
Ras only men of erudition read the DT – I salute you learnedness!
Would you encourage your kids play Rugby once they get to 13/14?
April 13th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Methos wrote:
“…in all this time I never had a coach who coached me how to tackle. They just assumed that you had the ability to crunch a guy. For years I was scared to tackle a guy.”
So it’s obvious that a Springbok of more than 50 tests – Breyton Paulse – has never been taught to tackle?
Too many aspects of the game are regarded as “natural talent”, which means coaches think it need not be taught (or maybe they cannot teach it?)
Then you see Boks who can’t tackle, don’t know how to run with the ball, can’t pass from either foot etc.
Conditioning and skills training goes hand in hand – without the one the other one is a waste.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Tackling below the hips may not be the solution that people seek. Low level tackling has an inherent problem that the players will tend to put their heads down in the tackle to stay low, which apart from being impractical, and inefficient is probably the greatest risk of neck injury. Collapsed scrums and heads down in the ruck are serious issues where injury can occur. These phases of play need serious attention also not just tackle ball.
Rules should continue to be modified at the lower levels of rugby and at higher levels too. But I really believe that at the lower levels, poor contact coaching will result in player injury. We have all said it, but the mechanics of contact are never taught. I started playing rugby at the age of 15 (22 years ago) and I played as a loosie and as hooker and neither tackling nor proper scrumming technique were ever taught me, I learned from watching and experimentation. Within two practice session of being on an American football field, I was taken aside and shown how to hit, block, run backwards, come off the line fast etc, taught the basic mechanics and safety.
In the football game you are expected to achieve specific physical training goals before you play, this type of strict enforcement of physical condition helps to minimise debilitating spinal injuries. They still do happen even with all the protective equipment, but the number of incidents relative to the number of players is very small. Here we just let school boys run on a field and play.
April 13th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
NickTat
Where in the world are you situated ?
Cheers
April 13th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Jo’burg. I came back to SA in 1993.
April 13th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I was wondering. Maybe you could do a write up on what rugby can learn from American Football and send it to the Board members to publish here. I think it will make very interesting reading.
Cheers
April 13th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
We will need a separate thread to deal with Injuries, but lets start by saying –
“The aim of Football is not to go out and get injured playing for your team, but to make the other guy go out and get injured playing for his.”
I am conditioning bevok. Football is a game of contact and simply put, the strongest player with the best technique – wins. Even a game that requires you “outrunning” the opposition has to be done with forcing contact and forcing them to run to the breakdown. Avoid this and you loose.
Our coaches don’t lead from the front. What you want from a coach is someone who can mix it with you, not a “selector” who stands at a distance in his tracksuit and points fingers. You want to show a player how to tackle you can’t tell him, you have to hit him – “punch it in” so to speak. This means that the coaches themsleves should be up to it. How many of our Super 14 coaches can Squat 180Kgs or Bench 140? How the hell would they then know what to do about conditioning for contact?
Lets go to tackling – how many Super 14 coaches could actually show you how to tackle. Can you see Frans or Kobus going out and pancaking Wikus or De Wet? Well if you can’t show them, how the hell do you ever expect them to get it?
Conditioning is a start not an end. Case in point being England, best conditioned team in the world, yet their contact technique and lack of structure both in Offense and Defense leaves them unable to capitalise on this advantage.
I agree with Nick, tackling Low is more dangerous. Keep the Head up and take any impact on the forehead. Problems start when you get hit on the back of the head with your chin on your chest – ouch.
Equipment – when we go here, a vast chasm is going to open between us. I have played hundreds of games of Rugby and hundreds of Games of Gridiron. Gridiron equipment lifts the intensity of the cometition. Much less emphasis on cuts and grazes and more empahsis on hits and bangs.
I have watched Boxing and bare fisted Cage fighting. Boxing (with all their padding) is a much harder game. We would all be better off off we started to protect our players from silly avoidable injuries and let them focus on developing the athletic side of the sport.
The better conditioned athletes have the advantage and it sticks. Nonu will always beat Jean de Villies, Baxter will always beat Os. Richie MCCaw will alwasy beat Burger. Fix it or fail.
On individual coaching, Its a crazy number. Coaching at Primrose, whenever I took a player aside to show him specifics, he felt I was “picking on him”. Players here feel that coaching is criticism. – its ridiculous. One on one coachign is standard in Gridiron.
The way you fix the Cats or the Stormers is one on one. They each have their own problems. The answer is not to go out and a have a group koppestamp.
April 13th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
From the Spears thread:
“Of the 100 Most Capped players in S12/14 only 16 are SA players and of those 16, 7 are in the last 10.
Ergo, of the 90 most capped S12/14 players only 9 (10%) are Saffas.”
April 13th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
From the Spears thread:
It sort of makes you think why Saffas feel they are a strong Rugby nation. These figures tell a whole different story.
Do we change our players to easily? How can we have so few most capped players…
————————————
“Poor talent identification in the first place, KSA, followed up by a lack of investment (not necessarily money) in the chosen individuals in terms of building upon their skills and identifying and eradicating weaknesses.
Essentially we’ve cheapened the honour of representing your franchise.”
April 13th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
I have a slightly different problem when it comes to coaching tackling techniques.
I put the team through various tackling exercises, from the tackling bags to various 1 on 1 scenario’s forming the basis. What is starting to become very apparent is that I end up with 3 distinct results:
1. Everything goes well on the tackle bags, but with the 1-on-1 a number of players make the mistake of hitting with the wrong shoulder and end up with their head under the tackled player. I repeatedly explain the errors only to have it popping it’s head up a tackle or 2 later.
2. The 1-on-1 goes well, but as soon as they hit the field in a match their tehnique goes for a ball of the proverbial.
3. A very small percentage of the players tackle well throughout, and these players picked it up from the get go. Not much coaching required.
The point I am trying to make, is that teaching somebody to tackle correctly is an excercise in extremes, either the player is a natural or their is a long process ahead of you.
For a Super 14 coach, teaching somebody who is not a natural tackler to tackle has a fine balance of time management when you consider how much actually has to be covered by coaching in general.
Granted my experience lately has been with a womans team, but from my playing days it was not much different.
April 13th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
“Granted my experience lately has been with a womans team, but from my playing days it was not much different.”
You certainly kept that under your hat, Ollie.
Since when did you start coaching the Stormers?
April 13th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
PhillipDC
Are you still coaching at Primrose ?
Cheers
April 13th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Don’t insult my girls like that, they would whip the Stormers
April 13th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Ollie
You are are ahead of the rest in at least you DO try to teach them.
1) Make absolutely sure that they stay in their feet during the tackle. They must wrap and lift the heavy bag up off the ground.
2) The defender must stand behind the heavy bag, providing resistance all the way through the tackle. He must not just let it fall to the ground. Tackler must keep “Pounding his feet”. NO DIVING. Head UP
3) The reason that your tackling technique collapses in the game is that you are not teaching them “Breakdown”. We call this error “overpursuit”. To find out a detailed explanation of “Breakdown” Read the article on my site http://www.ironrugby.com
Teach any amatuer team the concept of explode acrsoss a 5 m distance and break down so that they are in the right position to hit – they become devastating.
Teach a womens team to actually tackle and they will be unbeatable.
4) Chopping
Start with this – they line in the Hitting position, Lordotiv arch, hands up high, head up. Feet wide – pounding. on the wistle they burst forward 5 meters and take up the hitting position again. Blow the whistle they go backwards 5 meters and take up the hitting position.
A fit team can’t keep this up for much more than a minute.
5) Great tackling will only be taught in Kit. Each set cost about R 2000 so its a bti expensive. Ideally each player needs his/her own set, but you can make do with about 10 sets.
6) Spend 5o% of you time on Defense. In the game we have the ball only half the time (sometimes less !)
Before you start thinking that we have too much common ground, read what I say about which shoulder you should use in the tackle!
April 13th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
I stopped coaching at Primrose last year – I am still a fan.