rlcmrlcmrlcm.com.au BookBook 2525 Endorsed By 2 Coach Talk Matthew Elliott - Canberra Raiders Head Coach 4 Individual Coaching Written by Ashley Bradnam 6 UK Coaches Sourcing NRL Coaching Information With John Dixon, Brisbane Broncos and Peter Roe Wakefield Trinity (UK) 8 Coaching a Country Football Team With Ken Kennedy 9 Today’s Referee Peter Louis and Brian Grant 11 Coaching with Computers David Perry 12 The Pre-Season, A Race Against Time! Terry Gilogley - B.Ex.Sc 15 Pre-Season Training, Some Other Considerations... By Doug King - RCpN DipNg PGCertHealSc(SportMed) Sports Nurse 19 League Coach Forum http://groups.yahoo.com/group/leaguecoach 21 Flying Kangaroos: The impact of jet lag on performance By Rudi Meir - MA, CSCS - School of Exercise Science and Sport Management, SCU 25 Evasion Drills Digi League www.rlcm.com.au Page 1 COACH TALK Matthew Elliott - Canberra Raiders Head Coach Written by Ashley Bradnam The 2001 year was an unpleasant season for the as the Under 21’s. It was a great job because I learnt Canberra Raiders. The once customary premiership so much in those early days and it gave me a taste to heavyweights failed to make their mark on the learn more and more. competition table, struggling to field the same starting Since turning coach Elliott’s passport has thirteen week after week, and experiencing a curious continued to be covered in ink. He has spent time coaching structure with Mal Meninga and Matthew plying his trade in England and now finds himself Elliott sharing the responsibility. In 2002, Elliott will in the nation’s capital. Elliott has used his travels have sole ownership of the Raiders’ reins; and as as a method to be trained by some of the world’s he tells us in this edition of RLCM’s Coach Talk, top coaches. it’s something he’s looking forward to with relish. “I have never been afraid to say I don’t know it all. ”I always had an ambition to coach, it’s something One of the good things about the time I spent in I’ve had pretty much my whole life in fact. I’ve always England was its proximity to the USA. I went over been keen to investigate new ways to get a message there three or four times and was able to spend time across and to teach and now that I have the opportunity with the Denver Broncos and the Philly Eagles. I also to employ that knowledge here in Australia it’s got to see a few ice hockey organisations and a few fantastic”. football clubs in England. All in all it gave me some I actually believe that decision-making is the most important art in our game at the moment, both offensively and defensively. Elliott has become something of a Rugby League fresh ideas and helped to expand my knowledge”. nomad. Born in Townsville he played football in One aspect of the coaches’ role that Elliott Lismore and France before spending six years at considers to have increased in significance is the St George where his playing days were ended issue of ‘man management’. It has become following a serious knee injury. In typical fashion, something of a buzzword in coach’s circles over Elliott refused to let the set back keep him away the last few years and Elliott expects it to become from the game he loves. an art all aspiring coaches will soon have to master. “When the knee exploded for the last time I was “In the USA the American football teams have a devastated because I was only 28 and I thought I still coaching staff that extends to about fifteen people. had a few good years left in me. I played under Craig We don’t have that luxury here so you have to be Young and Brian Smith during my time with the careful with the way you deal with the players now Dragons. I have no hesitation in nominating Brian as that we are all full time professional. I don’t think my chief mentor; I learnt so much of him as a player you should be spending eight hours a day with the but a lot more as a coach. He knew I was keen to stay players or letting them spend that much time with each involved and luckily for me Geoff Carr gave me the other. It’s about getting the right balance and job as the coaching and development officer as well depending on whom you talk to the balance is always Rugby League Coaching Manuals Page 2 different. Some people will say that the game is ten “This might sound strange but I believe that movement percent physical and ninety percent mental while is the key to success. That might sound like a business someone else will say it’s the other way around. I’m statement to some but it’s a performance not sure what the percentage really is but there is no statement for me because I believe if you have doubt that there is a balance and you need to find it in movement (i.e. in attack) with the ball then you will order to become successful. Physically there are plenty firstly create opportunites for yourself and also put of studies and customs you can use to get the players pressure on the opposition’s defence. If you have into peak condition, but when you start dealing with movement it allows you to make more off-loads and the mental side of a player’s make up it becomes a lot quicker play the balls. There has to be some form of more scarier. There will always be a lot of arguments rhyme and reason but it is effective if it is used about how that should be carried out and how it should correctly because it can create so much opportunity. be addressed. My personal way has been to develop a The flip side is that in order to create movement you routine so that the players become aware of what is have to lay the platform of getting the simple things going to be required from them physically before they in order first - you cannot have one without the other. step onto the park. There is no painless way to play While it might sound easy to carry out it is actually our game and the players need to prepare for each one of the harder things to implement because it taxes match as if they were going into battle. I’m not saying so much energy to have continual movement - players that the players have to learn to overcome fear but are carrying fatigue, duress and also a bit of adversity, just that they have to be ready to put their bodies on so that’s one of the great things about our game. If the line”. movement was easy to ensure then we’d all have nil- Despite Elliott’s fascination with physiological all score lines every weekend. It will never happen procedures he steadfastly maintains that Rugby because mistakes will always happen and that will League is a simple game that can fall victim to over- stem from many different areas. complication from interfering coaches. Elliott has a penchant for technique and basics and says he “I actually believe that decision-making is the most won’t stray from that principle. important art in our game at the moment, both offensively and defensively. A decision not to pass or “I think basic skills are and always have been the core to pass can decide the outcome of a match - to stay up of our game. How you actually carry the ball, how in the line or retreat. Some of the responsibility for you pass it and your general tackling technique. The that rests with me, the coach, because I have to make way you do those skills may have evolved over the sure I am coaching awareness into my players. Some last fifteen years but the principles stay the same. I coaches are very good at coaching players’ awareness think kids do need to be exposed at some time to some in their skills but the next phase of the evolution is to of the more technical aspects of the game but up until work on their decision making. For me, that’s what about, say fifteen, I think they should engaged in areas makes someone like Andrew Johns so special - he which are simplistic in their nature. Things like the spiral pass irk me. It wasn’t that long ago that only a just understands what is happening in front of him. few players used a spiral pass and now everyone does; He spends a minimal amount of time making people but I still believe that the spiral pass isn’t an effective around him work because wherever he goes his team pass over a short distance, certainly over ten or fifteen tends to congregate and he can spend a lot of time metres it is, but percentage wise it’s not good to use watching the opposition and making decisions based over a short distance. But because children are taught on what’s best to beat them. He’s just a marvel to nothing except the spiral pass from a young age that’s watch. I’m not saying that Andrew Johns is great all they seem to do”. simply because of his decision-making - it’s just an important part of what makes him good but it’s True to Elliott’s preference for players to have a something I would like my players to improve on this mastery of the basic aspects of Rugby League is year and in the years to come.