Why is it that you can make a career out of rugby if you are good enough except in the field of coaching?
It is a question I have been struggling with for about a week now after a New Zealand rugby fan asked me firstly if I think we have world class coaches to which I replied that I can arguably count them on one hand. His follow-up question was predictable but no-less important; “Why?”
Indeed ‘why’?
With a country so rich in rugby resources and tradition why is it that we cannot turn out world class coaches, or leaders in the coaching environment at will?
It really comes down to a combination of things, but two things for me stand out – one is more of a global problem but the second I believe is one we can easily address.
It seems that in professional sport there is a trend globally that past players usually end up as coaches once they hang up their boots. This in itself on the surface is not a bad thing necessarily, some guys become great coaches and their experience of playing at international level in many ways prepares them for the pressures of coaching there.
But then you also have the old thing that not all players become good coaches (there are many examples of this) and you also run the risk of falling into the trap of not being innovative enough or changing as the game changes – a case of doing what worked when you played when the rest of the world has moved on.
Innovation is a big thing in coaching and that is arguably the biggest challenge for ex-player coaches. The Springboks have just recently been accused of showing no innovation and being overtaken by teams they dominated last year. You obviously also run the risk of not modernizing yourself as a coach by including necessary elements or expertise in modern sport such as specialised conditioning/fitness experts, bio-mechanics experts and of course the psychological or mental experts to name a few as you did not ‘need them when you were a player’.
Coaches often limit themselves more than structures or the environment they operate in do, and this is the most obvious failing from ex-player coaches.
Some even believe that guys who have/had a massive passion and love for the game at a young or junior/amateur level, but knew and understood their limitations as players and always had to innovate themselves to keep up with the more talented guys are the ones who will apply the same type of innovation as coaches…
The second problem is one that can be managed however.
Rugby is a professional sport, meaning that you can make a career out of the game like many do at the moment. Aspects or certain areas of the game compliment or help you to achieve this through the structures in place like player and referee structures, but some progression structures specifically in coaching is non-existent.
If a rugby player is good enough to make it to the highest level, or even a level where he can make a decent living out of the game, there is a set structure to support him.
From schoolboy level you have systems like Craven Week in place, this progress to club level where local and national competitions allow you to progress through the ranks. Naturally and if you are good enough, you end up in union structures with stepping stone platforms like the Vodacom Cup through to Currie Cup, Super 14 and eventually Springbok rugby.
Throughout this process the demands get more on the individual, but they also improve and learn additional skills and with experience become better players. The best make it to the top but some might just hit the ceiling at Currie Cup level but even then, a system backed them up and helped them make a career out of the game of union.
No such thing exists for coaching or individuals interested in becoming coaches.
In recent years academies have sprung up in South Africa and although a few are closely linked to unions, even they do not provide you with a platform to progress as a coach.
In fact, those who end up in coaching, like what happened to me in the past, became involved completely by chance and being in the right place at the right time.
Of course no system will guarantee vast numbers of successful coaches being delivered but modern day coaching is more than just carrying a whistle on a training pitch directing players. Like any career there are areas of specialization that opens up for individuals or which suits their specific strengths, like psychology, mechanics, analysis and planning, skills, fitness, defense, attack, kicking, contact, running and many other specific areas of specialization in which they can move into which all forms part of the environment or challenges of coaching.
Like all players are not destined to become Springboks, not all coaches will be destined to become head or senior coaches but at least through a proper system or structure, we can ensure that we produce specialists or coaches who are innovators and leaders.
Currently two of our top 5 unions in South Africa are coached by foreign coaches and all of them are coached by ex-players, some hanging up their playing boots as recently as 2005!
This is not to question their quality as coaches, but it is a clear indication to the pattern which is followed and perhaps answers the Kiwi-rugby supporter’s question as to why we struggle in South Africa to produce quality coaches in which I would have to use at least both hands to do a roll call!
Morne, the way i see the situation with ex players coaching is that they have playing experience, and rugby knowledge. Both these do not necessarily mean you are ble to coach as being a coach has a lot to do with being a leader, manager, trainer and communicator.
Some players just don’t have those characteristics.
The other problem we have is that coaching has now become very specialized, and all coaching programs that are available are perhaps focused on a general level of competency in coaching.
What I think is required is programs to develop specialist coaches, in other words, there should be a program for defensive coaching only, then a program for analytical and technical analysis, forward coaching, back line coaching etc.
and even if you were a rugby player, those levels of certification must be achieved whilst coaching an amateur club, to employ practically what has been taught in the class room.
SARU must be able to give an indication of how many coaches are required form school, to club, to professional level and set out a decent training and certification process in order to qualify “employable” as a professional coach.
@ biltongbek:
A Coaches Association was recently formed in JHB with (supposedly) compulsory membership for all club coaches.
However there are many coaches that have not yet joined their argument being that if membership is compulsory, why should they pay fees?
The association are really trying hard to increase the level of competency.
My real bitch lies in Primary School coaching levels. I feel that there are not enough qualified coaches in this area.
For example, when my stepson started school and wanted to play Rugby, because he had never played, he never got an opportunity because there was no one capable of teaching him basic Rugby skills.
We’ve recently come back to JHB after a few years in Africa and now his High School coach is bugging him to play.
He’s 13 years old and is already 1,8m tall and wears a size 10 shoe, so naturally the school coach sees a potential lock. My problem is that the school doesn’t have a coach qualified to teach him to SCRUM CORRECTLY AND SAFELY.
I was privileged to spend some time with a former England U16 (IRB level 4) coach when in Africa, and boy did it open my eyes. A quality coach can make a world of difference to any player or team.
@ Scrumdown:
The more we delve deeper into the problems facing SA rugby, it is a wonder we have won two world cups.
How is it that noone recognises these shortfalls?
Just think of the potential that is being lost.
I’ll give you an example of when I started playing club rugby in my early twenties.
I used to play flank or eigthman at school, when I joined the club I started playing flank, for two games, then they put me at loose head, and nobody gave me one iota of advice.
In my first game at loose head I played against Wanderers who was the strongest club in the second division at the time, firstly my lock was a flcuken idiot and kept on hitting me above the hip, the tighthead propped up and I was bent both ways the whole match, I didn’t even know how to bind legally.
This went on for two matches until in the third match the referee acutally penalised the tighthead for illegal scrumming, I asked he why he was penalisng the guy, and he was the first oke that explained to me how we must bind.
From there once i understood that the tighthead had to bind over and me under, I then started coming right and then serached fo advice until I mastered the art of scrumming.
Thinking back, I could have been paralised.
It seems to me that although the game went professional in 1996, we are actually still very unprofessional in our development of the game.
@ biltongbek:
@ biltongbek:
@ Scrumdown:
On professionalism, once something becomes profit driven you have those in it for the money, and those in it for the game, the trick is to split the two and assign roles accordingly in what they do, and which areas they can influence.
As for structures, it is something that can be fixed and can be implemented – but that means people actually have to do some work…
@ Morné:
So how does one go about it?
@ biltongbek:
Get the right people to drive it.
@ Morné:
Morne, I agree with a lot of your ideas and opinions, but if it only remians our opinions nothing will change.
How does one force SARU and all role players to wake up and realise things need to change.
I know to get the rugby public involved is a waste of time, as they all bitch and moan, but then forget about it.
Surely there must be a way to influence SARU
@ biltongbek:
Problem with SA Rugby as many will tell you that has dealt with them is that they are governed and run as a self-regulatory organisation. So the only ones that can force them or force a change of power and organisation, would be someone with greater power – and we all know who I am referring to…
The problem with rugby fans is that we mostly react emotionally, and not logically or rationally.
No matter how big a fan movement you start, your influence within an organisation like SA Rugby will be merely an acknowledgement of your existance…
@ Morné:
Then basically what you are suggesting is that the staus quo will remain?
@ biltongbek:
Afraid so.
@ Morné:
Then we may as well stop writing all these articles and just frustrate ourselves even more, because it is of no use if we can see this and they can’t.
We should take a leaf out of Boots and All and brush it all under the carpet, and make happy faces. 🙂
There are some specialist areas of coaching such as scrumming where having had playing experience is vital.
The funny thing is that this is an area that is poorly coached in SA often by those with no experience.
Biltonbeks story above about his propping experience is very common and one that I can relate to!!
Consider this… if our National coach and his assistants cannot see the logic in having a balanced loose trio (ie choosing Kanko at No 7 a few Tests ago) or try to make a hooker into a tight head prop overnight (John Smit a year or so ago)…. how much worse is the knowledge at lower levels and at High School and Primary School level?
EVERY coach, even the u/9 coach of 2 Buffels-met-een-skoot-doodgeskiet-fontein, should at least have done a very basic coaching course…
I saw this in other sport as well, for instance when BonzaiGBS was 6 I was forced to become his Baker’s Mini Cricket coach, because the Doos who was going to become coach for the 23 little shits did not even know how a cricket bat was properly held… hand positions all wrong on the bat and all.
The younger better and proper knowledge is taught, the better rugby players we create all the way down the line.
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