“This guy just has so much time on the ball.” Ever heard that expression? Sure you did.
The aspect of coaching and sport that has always interested me the most is the mental aspect towards different sports, and just how much the mental side of the ‘game’ contributes to the physical, or skills side.
In many ways it is all connected of course. You would have heard that a player is often referred to as a confidence player or that a player has really just hit a bad patch in his career, whether it be through rugby, cricket or any sport really.
This however clearly indicates that there is a definite relation between a player’s form, and his mental state. Most coaches dismiss the importance of ‘mental coaching’ not because it is not important – there are many studies that proves this – but because they don’t understand it themselves.
And it is not only coaches… It is players too. Remember the infamous quote by one of our most celebrated Boks who said “Coach, kan ons nie net die kak uit hulle uit tekkel nie?” (Coach can’t we just tackle the sh*t out of them) when presented with more scientific approaches to the game? No prizes for guessing who said it!
All of this however made me ask one question; “Can rugby genius be coached, or is it born into a player?”
Well my answer is yes and no and I will try to explain.
Yes it can be coached because it is also just simply exercising the most important muscle and organ in the human body, the brain, and no because if you want to do this, the player must be willing to be coached in this aspect of the game.
To some people this comes rather naturally, and the scientists will tell you that a person’s mental capacity or ability and how it adapts, or how adaptable it is, will be influenced by many factors which includes culture, upbringing, social surroundings and many more boring topics I would rather avoid.
The fact of the matter is that some sportsmen and women have developed this 6th sense or extraordinary gift or skill, through coaching of their brain and expanding their mental capacity – either consciously through opening themselves up to specific and specialised coaching in this area, or sub-consciously thanks to their surroundings through the years growing up the scientists are on about.
In rugby specifically however you will hear often that the mark of a special or gifted player is how he reads the game, and through this almost predict plays in advance.
This is mainly achieved through pattern recognition which goes hand in hand with coaching that old brain of yours to read what goes on in front of you, and interpret the outcome. I mentioned before in another article it is what we try to coach players to almost learn their own language, not only through actual communication but to pick up patterns and trends (body movement, ball movement, etc.) in the play of your own team mates and that of the opposition, in relation to field position, and the position of the ball (remember the X, Y and Z axis theory?).
This of course achieved on the training pitch first (where the main problem lies with most coaches) where players are not coached in game specific conditions and scenarios enough in my view.
You see factual evidence exists that we as human beings are actually half a second behind from the real world. It takes half a second for the unconscious mind to process incoming sensory stimuli, yet we are not aware of this time lag.
When you stub your toe, you get the impression of knowing about it straight away. This illusion of immediacy is created by an ingenious mechanism that backdates conscious perceptions to the time when the stimulus entered the brain – we are tricked into thinking we feel things earlier.
So what makes rugby genius possible?
Easy, the ability of sensory manipulation, or training your brain to interpret, or predict the outcome of any specific scenario through coaching the brain, and pattern recognition.
Gives a whole new meaning to ‘head’s up rugby’ or ‘decision making ability’ in rugby now doesn’t it?
Actual examples? Well think of the difference between a Dan Carter and Morné Steyn. The difference between Richie McCaw and Schalk Burger, or the difference between Adi Jacobs and a Jaque Fourie. Now you tell me, who uses his brain more?
Till next time!
There seems to be a huge difference between how the game was approached by players in the old days and the way players are thinking and coached in the professional game today.
Greats of old like Carel Dup and Danie Gerber had a natural flair, vision, timing and understanding of time and space.
They did not have to think about their decision making.
It came naturally.
When I see some of the coaching today I am convinced that the players are over coached and that we have developed robots instead of thinking rugby players.
Of course that is a generalization and does not apply to all coaches and players, but it is far too prevalent in the game today.
If you watch 9 year olds playing rugby, they still act on their instincts, good or bad.
We then take them and destroy their natural flair with poor coaching.
I am shocked at some of the coaching material I have read by people who consider themselves to be advanced in the game, which is about coaching options into players who in the old days would not be on a rugby field if they did not naturally take those options themselves.
“This guy just has so much time on the ball.” Ever heard that expression? Sure you did.
Yes indeed, especially when Naas played behind the Bulls pack.
Danie Craven wrote about geniuses many times. So i heard this arguments 30-40 years back. DC , not the NZ one , said that you will find a genius once every 10 years in rugby, well lets admit there is almost 4 times as many rugby played in modern times. So i would reckon one genius ever 2 years might be a great harvest now. Danie named about 5 players in that catagory, sadly i can not remember them all, one was Naas thats for sure, another i think was Morne du Plessis, another might be Danie Gerber or Frik du Preez.
The fact he said is you cant make a genius , he is born. The coach must rather be trained to work with such a gifted player. Another fact is that a genius have this ability to slot into a teams game plan with ease.
Geniuses is a very rare occurrence on a rugby field. There are a lot of players more gifted than others and in the modern game very few “dom” players make it into the professional teams.
To answer you on your 3 examples, Dan is much more experienced and Morne in his short career showed already he has some of the most steely attributes needed to become a top notch player.
Schalk is a total different type of player. I wont compare them, there is things Schalk did and achieved that Richie can only dream about.
The 2 centres, all square. Adi hid his great moments and so did Jaque. Adi could have been in Australia one of their stars by now.
The players is SA that shows real genius qualities is John Smit and Victor.
I have to go to work now will follow this thread later, enjoy your day everyone.
@superBul –
Good post Super.
Have a good day!!
@tight head –
We touched on this before.
Yes they did have a natural feel for the game, the time and the space it offered.
But how did these guys train, and how were they coached?
One reference in the article touches on this…
This of course achieved on the training pitch first (where the main problem lies with most coaches) where players are not coached in game specific conditions and scenarios enough in my view.
Just because I can give it a fancy name today in an article backed up by scientific facts that weren’t around 30 years ago, does not mean all of this is new.
This shit has been coached in rugby for a long time, either conciously or even sub-conciously, but it is definately not new.
The problem is coaching as you mentioned, and where you call it ‘over-coaching’ I would refer to it more as ‘patterned drill execution coaching’ but it essentially means the same thing…
Players are not coached to cope with actual game scenarios.
One of the golden rules of coaching is that the player needs to understand what he is being coached, if you cannot explain the value to him, you have lost the battle.
@Morné –
Well said Morne.
How many times have we seen players who are excellent on the practise field and average in the game situation!!
You cannot learn correct decision making in the critical second of a game situation when you are drilled like one of Pavlov’s dogs and then sent out on a Saturday to do something different!!
Should read “Can rugby genius be coache(d)” 😛
@Sit_Ubu_sit –
Corrected thanks.
If I recall correctly Doc said the same thing about Mannetjies Roux — “Pass the ball to Mannetjies — you won’t know what he is going to do, and he won’t know what he is going to do either”.
Message simply is that those kind of players read a situation and act on it. I think game plays have become far to technical,such as opposing lineouts only in the 22m areas but not outside,etc.
4@Morné –
“One of the golden rules of coaching is that the player needs to understand what he is being coached, if you cannot explain the value to him, you have lost the battle”
… exactly!!!
now
i do disagree with one point in your article though … rugby genius (time on ball, time to make the correct decisions) can be coached … period!! if you teach someone the correct principles, and he APPLIES them, then theres no reason why he cant make the correct decisions at the right time.
take another example … maths. now take multiplication by 11 eg
say 524235424533324 x 11 = 5766589669866564
now
1. i honestly did not use a calculator, but expect my answer to be correct (you guys can check if you want to)
2. my 6 year old can do it
its all about principles
and
APPLYING them!
9@Ashley –
by the way
thats looking at the problem
and then
writing the answer down
without working it out like we were taught to do at school!
anyone can do it!!
@Ashley –
Asbak,my kakkielator kannie so baie digits handle nie 😮
11@trupisero –
hehehe, eks gewoond daaraan!
probeer die een op jou pc!
@Ashley –
i do disagree with one point in your article though … rugby genius (time on ball, time to make the correct decisions) can be coached … period!!
Well uhm… I actually agree with you. No disagreement from me 😉
The point is the player must understand what he is coached and the value of it.
I will share again an actual situation that happened to me.
A couple of years back I was asked to facilitate a technical session on defense, or more specifically, tackling technique.
Now we all know the drills we grew up with. tackle bag, guys standing in a line, and each oke gets a chance to tackle the kak out of the bag on the coaches whistle running from about 10 meters out…
Scary thing is, this is still coached even at senior club level today I shit you not!!!
I decided to start off my session by asking the group of players what the purpose of the tackle in rugby is?
Predictably, the answers centered around: “To tackle the kak out of the opposition”.
I then went back a bit.
I asked what the aim of the game of rugby is?
The answer was of course, “to win the damn game”.
I then asked how does one win the game?
A couple of confused looks was luckily accompanied by Mr. Logic at the back who said, “scoring more points than the opposition”.
I concurred and then asked, how does one achieve this scoring more points?
Of course the predictable answers were, “through tries and kicks etc” so I had to elaborate. I asked, what do you need to score the points and the same Mr. Logic said, “well that is simple coach, the ball”.
I said exactly.
Then I went back and asked them.
“Given all of this, can someone explain to me what the point or your mission in a tackle should be?”
Luckily a few lightbulbs went on and they got what I was trying to tell them.
It is not only what you do with the ball that will enable you to win matches and score points, it is sometimes more to do with what you do without the ball, and your plans not only to stop the opposition (tackle the kak out of them) but in doing so, win the ball back.
The technical application to the drill was obviously very well received by the players as they now understood that their execution in something (tackling) they have done since they were 5 years old, is vital into the ultimate goal in the game of rugby – i.e. winning.
sjoe baie tegnies maar alles begin by n kind se vormings jare sy hand oog koordinasie als word bepaal tussen 1en 6 jaar en dis waar die goed vasgele moet word deur bal spelejies ens.dis wa die genuises gecoach word
@smallies72 – Jy word met ball sense gebore.
@K9-MonsterLeeu – 15
Geld dit vir mans en vrouens?
@K9-MonsterLeeu – ek stry met jou balsence word aangeleer van kleins af die selfde as loop geen kind loop van geboorte af nie en geen kind kan n bal vang van geboorte af nie.
@K9-MonsterLeeu – ek stry nie dat jou ingebore talent nie help nie.ma talent moet geoefen word anders is dit net potensiaal
@smallies72 –
Correct.
It is coached.
If you want I can give you some technical data on the brain, how it is stimulated and how it develops.
It is not impossible for instance to learn skills when older, just more difficult.
@Morné – you will always get children who have a natural feeling for the game and that you cannot teach but you can enhance that to a very graet degree.they also tend to be backline players espesialy scrummys and flyhalfs
@smallies72 –
There is a difference between boys and girls. The brains are constructed a bit differently and also note, references I make are based on average healthy brains. Of course, many aspects affects development of a child even during pregnancy and the first year of their lives.
The ‘natural feel’ you refer to is more the way the brain is stimulated from infancy stages. Every home, family, parent, social and economic circumstance in every house is different which will affect to what extent you as a parent can facilitate stimulation either through social, cultural, econimical, historical, mental and even religious factors which all plays a part.
This is not a definite science, and results will always be different from the one to the next case, but the base stays the same it is in the aplication where individual skills are formed and enhanced.
@smallies72 –
Not props? 🙂
@Morné – but the genes also play a big role if both your pearants were athletes you tend to be athletic.if you are athletic you also tend to have an athletic spouse
@tight head props are a species all of their own diffrent rules aply
@smallies72 –
Smallies you have just given me thought for my next article!!
too add my 2 cents….the peripheral vision of players is also an important aspect that a player can be trained to fine tune. the player becomes much more aware of what is going around him. for some players this comes naturally.
@smallies72 –
Genetics does play a big part of course, it defines your physical skills.
ok, for those who wondered what the ‘principle” is behind #9, it is based on a system developed by jakow trachtenberg who was held as a political prisoner in the nazi concentration camps.
lets use the x11 table again
say 426342 x 11
now
start with the last number thats 2, and just write it down
you now have
2
now go to the next number (which is 4) and add it to the number on its right (which is 2)
thats 4 + 2 = 6
you now should have
62
now go to the next number (3) and add it to the number on its right (4)
3 + 4 = 7
you now should have
762
do the same till you’ve used all the numbers
you now should have
689762
now
write down the first number of the equation (4),
which will leave you with the answer
4689762
easy-peasy!! see why a 6 year old can do it? btw, that same 6 year old didnt want to believe me when i told him that most grown-ups couldnt do that (or should i say, didnt know the principle behind that)
because
even in his mind, it was sooooooo bloody easy!!
the point i’m trying to make? whether maths, rugby or anything else … its much easier when you know the principles behind it, know what you should be looking for etc.
thats all that behind the “genius” of some players … they know what they’re looking for/at
and
they know, based on certain principles, whats should be happening next!!
To a large degree, genius can be coached, but every so often a player comes along has oodles of natural talent, a high work ethic, and the ability and willingness to change what is not working, and of course being correctly coached.
One such individual was one Naas Botha as mentioned. I recall reading an article where it was stated that he was a struggling flyhalf at school, and saw a friend who was a soccer player messing around after a practice. This guy was using the round the corner kicking technique, made famous by Naas, and was putting everything over the cross bar. Naas decided to employ this technique, and the rest as they is history. How many people use the old place kicking technique of using the toe of the boot nowadays?
His vision and ball skill and sense were phenomenal. I remember a game in the old Toyota Club Champions between Tukkies and Despatch. It did not matter where the ball was kicked to by Despatch, Naas was there to field the ball. That spacial awareness cannot be fully coached, but can be developed if the player does have that ability.
Its a bit like being a salesman, you are either a natural, or you have to be trained, but a natural salesman still has to work at his game.
@Ashley – Kyk hie, va wa ko djy?
Sieke die Pêrel ni?
Ons het daai al inni broeikaste by die hospitaal geleer.
Djy wou nie lyster inni skool nie ni?
Wie nie leer nie, kommi deur nie…
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