Last month I talked about when communicating to teamates it is important to give them information.....
Communication : give team mates information not just Yep or Yes ie close left wide right not there etc.. the most important person for this is the original ballcarrier who has/had the ball or our original tackler/contact person...we need info like on me , ball lost ,break , they have the ball , and one of the most useful is relaying what the ref is saying to your team mates in the ruck situation ie if the ref says thats a ruck let it go green dont just watch your teammate get penalised , tell him , using his name of course .
I also talked about participating not spectating.......Tell your players to Participate not spectate at all times ie even when standing still they can still give information to teamates and participate in the game.
In fact , most of my drills are now set up to facilitate participation not spectating and this month I'll talk about how to set up your drills for this and how to use 1 ball to facilitate this.
The basic concept is to have the players who are not physically doing the drill lined up in such a way that they can see the drill being done and participate verbally and maybe even physically if needed.And by using 1 ball there is lots of communication going on to get the ball back to the start so the next group can go.
The rest of the group is lined up facing into the grid to watch the drill being performed .
I use the red cones to keep the rest of the the group away from the activity area but close enough to participate verbally and even join in physically if there are mistakes.Eg if there is a dropped ball or a mistake , the ball is thrown back to the start and the next 3 players join in to make it 5v1 , lift the ball and form a maul and finish the drill by scoring a try.
In this particular drill I make the players facing across the grid talk to the defender and make him come forward to defend..using the words UP and his/her name.
So rather than two lines of players waiting their turn and fooling around they have to participate all the time and using one ball keeps the talk up to get it back to the start toget going again.
As the ball carrier or a player involved in the action, orin this; case a player watching ,you should be always asking yourself What is going on! What decision do I have to make? What skill do I choose to achieve my aim? You need to get used to experiencing the decision making sequence of see ,understand ,decide, act.
As you play the game, or participate in the drill ,you need to respond to the constantly changing situations that confront you. You will find yourself adapting to the actions and reactions of your own team and the opposition.
The game changes very quickly, and your ability to cope depends largely on your understanding of the situation you and your teammates face.
Moreover, you need to understand each other and read the game in the same way to be effective. You will be faced by various challenges in attack and defense, when you are carrying the ball and when you're not. You will have a split second to answer certain questions and to react purposefully.
.....Look Up and scan the positioning of the opposition and your teammates....this format forces the players into this sequence regularly as they watch the 2v1 , participate verbally , and are ready to join in if needed.
