Day without competition.

What a day.Rushed down this morning to JJ to pass Su and co. the training program for both the J1s and J2s.Was quite a regret I couldn't be there to train them...really wanted to,since we know now that Nationals is on 30th May and that's just about 1 week left! Yeeks! Hope the J1s at least have an idea how to defend,at least at this point they have to know the
1. back 5 meters and
2.defending as a line,as a team.
3.defending 1v1 and minimise missing the opposition.

Rushed again to MOE to sign the Teacher Training Agreement.That's it.The next 5 years I will be a slave to my job,but on a positive note I will have a stable income.

Oh and wth,the stupid cough never goes away.Has been going on for 4 days and I feel like I'm just going to cough my lungs and kidneys and stomach and etc etc out.You get my drift. I want to get well and do my stuff! This sucks!!!

I'll end with the news that Bulls won the Super 14s Cup 2007 (its rugby by the way) with an amazing don't -ever-give-up try in the 80th++ minutes and a conversion which sank the Sharks.Whoo hoo!The last 9 minutes were the best part of the whole game.

Need time.Need space.

Sigh I must be getting used to this kind of thing. As usual I had to call up SRU to get them to send me the rego form for the M1 School Series for the U20s Girls. This aint the first time already.Oh well,I'm just glad that we have at least settled on the competition date and that the J2s can at least have a proper closure to their touch experience in JC.



I'm kinda worried about the J1s.To be fair to them,I hadnt had a lot of chances to train them properly, and what I think now is that they are behind the other JCs.BUT! I think I have a bunch of players who are more gung-ho this year,and hopefully they can learn fast.Cos my number one objective now is to equip them with adequate knowledge to at least play a competition.



At this point in time,I still havent receive the email from Sam Chan!!Arghhhhh!



On a seperate note,I thought this article post-worthy so am just gonna put this on the blog.This is (also) from Rugby Coach,and credit goes to Dan Cottrell,owner of Rugby Coach.



Space



In touch space is a highly valuable commodity, even more when playing against structured and organised defences. Players who are able to recognise and then exploit space effectively are highly valuable, but rare. Here is some guidance about how to help players concentrate on finding space.

1.Scanning
Rugby players need to continually scan for and identify space during a game. Space on the rugby pitch exists:
-Outside defenders.
-Between defenders.
-Behind defenders.
-Between the ball carrier and the defence.
The most common reason why players don’t recognise space is because their focus of concentration is on and around the ball. They follow either the ball visually or physically.
As coaches, we must continually encourage our players to search for space. As part of this, we can get them to practice particular situations, such as the phases following a set piece. Afterwards, we can ask the players questions .This will help the players to find out whether they identified any space, and then when and where it occurred, as well as raise their awareness of the need to be constantly scanning for space.

2.Communication
Improved communication leads to better exploitation of space. Too often, however, one player in the team is left to bear the bulk of the responsibility for not only scanning for space, but also deciding on how to use it and then communicating this to the rest of the team. These activities should be the responsibility of all players.Bear in mind that communication can be a visual cue as well as verbal instruction, so there’s no reason why your team’s communication should signal your plans to the opposition.

The aim is for each of my players to recognise where the space is, to communicate this fact to their team mates (either verbally or with signals), and then for the players to position themselves to exploit the space.

________________________________________________

Oh all right,enough about touch already.I'll just post some pictures of my dog being wrapped up like a baby.wahahaha.

Quicker Defence

I am preety darn glad that I subscribed to this website: http://www.betterrugbycoaching.com/members where i received numberous useful coaching tips. Here's one useful section on defence.All credit goes to Dan Cottrell.

Get Your Defence Up Quicker From A Standing Start

Extra pressure from defenders on the key decision makers can be the difference between success and failure. Give your team an extra defensive boost by utilising the techniques used by sprinters to gain the maximum acceleration from a standing start.

For maximum effect, the following routines need to be ingrained through practise.

1. The feet.The most effective sprint start is where the front foot is in line with the back knee (e.g. the right foot is in line with the left knee). It is also the easiest position for a rugby player to correctly align in the heat of a game.Practice getting the feet into the right place by having the players go down on one knee and putting the foot on the other leg in line with the knee. The players must then rise into a crouching position, before sprinting and then resetting.

2. The arms.The speed of the arms in a sprint has a strong influence on the speed of the legs. The arms need to work in opposite directions to the movement of the legs. Counter poor technique as follows.If the left foot is the furthest forward, start with the right hand on the floor in line with the left foot (and vice versa). Once “out of the blocks”, the player needs to pump the arms as fast as they can.

3. Balance.The centre of gravity of the body must be forward, but also controlled, and the shoulders should be beyond the knees. A hand on the ground can help maintain balance. Players should be on the balls of their feet, with their toes ready to spring forward.Practices can focus on reaction times while maintaining balance. For example, not moving until the ball comes out from a ruck or maul. Drills should be based on real situations.

4. The head.Sprinters focus ahead. Initially they look only at the first few feet on the ground in front of them. This is impractical for rugby. However, the defender does not need to see the full pitch, only the player they are to chase down. Defensive guards and the outside defenders can cover the other aspects.So the head should be focused ahead, probably at hip height, using peripheral vision to see when the ball is going to be released. The most astute player will be able to tell from the movement of their target when the ball is released.

End of Summer Touch League Singapore 2007!

AT the sound of the siren and the final whistle,I raised my hands up in victory and walked out onto the field,all smiles in my white,not-excatly-easy-to-scrub NTU jersey.The Summer Touch League (STL) has ended after a gruelling 11 weeks (with 1 week of delay doing the catch-up games) and the final score for the A grade Women's game was NTU 8,UWC4. UWC fought hard in the first half,with the score tied at 3 all. Frankly, they were able to score cos of our team's own mistakes,but credit goes to them for being able to convert that to tries.

Had a pretty decent game.Had better games during the league,but this one wasnt so bad.Went in with a bad sore throat and miracle of all miracles,the sore throat was fine after the game! (Well at least for the next 1 hour when I'm still on a high after the win). And no wonder considering the fact that we played with 8 ppl against UWC the first time,7 ppl(technically Sari+me = 1 player due to injury so its by right 6) against SMU in the quarter finals,8 again against LFS in the semis.Wa kau stress lei ppl.

And of cos what good is this ocassion without photos of me and the team? (Ok ok I'm just darn happy that I have a bit more free time on Sats.)

Watched Hocus Pocus play Nanda just before our finals.I was pretty disappointed by the way they play in the first half. Maybe its over confidence?They were running into men straight and dumping without a purpose.The player on the left and right of the ball carrier didnt call out whether they want the ball to be passed to them or call for a dump.Just looking at the person run.Wa lau. That is not called reacting thats just pure laziness,expecting some one else to do the work for them. I almost blew my top at them(again) but held back because I can see they are still trying to do their best. It was a pity that the referee was slow and her positioning was off. Hocus actually had the ball grounded and scored at least twice before the touch was made on them.

2nd half was much better with them excuating what I asked them to do. Not to mention the defensive touches done by Huijun(in thefirst half.She was off-side but it took a lot to dive touch), Nicole (though she was the one at fault for letting the person run through her gap in the first place), Sharlene.

Drives were in place and well carried out.The girls might not have realised that but they made Nanda tired and also gained at least 20 meters,so was pretty happy with that. I just hoped that they're learnt the importance of dumper and dummy half connecting up with the runners straight after that.Reacting IS reacting..to the sitution.And that means doing the necessary.Its not just about running around,doing the switch etc etc,its ALSO about how to carry on the flow of your attack be it on the dump or off a pre-called move.

I get the feeling these girls are afraid of hitting up at the defenders.Find the confidence and guts ladies,else I will really step on you girls!