Global Rugby Magazine Issue #5 | Page 8

TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR RUGBY COACHES Time management is one of the biggest hurdles that a rugby coach faces. Having an allocated time for rugby trainings, season preparation and match day fixtures will help you achieve what you have set out to achieve, but not if they unrealistic. Having conducted some recent research, we at Global Rugby have identified five tips that actually work to help with your time management. There are hundreds of useful time management tips out there but we have found five that relate directly to our great game of rugby. ONE: USE THE OFF SEASON! At the end of a season, and hopefully a Mad-Monday depending on your side’s success, it is important to begin planning for next season while it’s still fresh in your mind. Whether you won that title and are keen for another, or you narrowly missed out and eager to go one better next year, utilising and employing time management skills around the end of the season is an excellent start to preparing for next season. What is very popular is to enrol y our squad in an off-season Strength and Conditioning program that ensures your players are kept in excellent shape leading into the next season. Whilst your players are continuously training under professionals, use this time to plan what you want to achieve next season – in both the Pre-Season and Regular Season. Create a spreadsheet or download one of our templates to allocate specific amounts of time to specific skills you want to improve. Plan each training session, what you’re going to coach and use the allocated time management skills to achieve it. TWO: BE ORGANISED! As a player, there’s nothing worse than fronting up to rugby training to see your coach either hasn’t arrived yet or has no clue what he wants to coach at that specific training session. Turn up early, set up your cones and lie out all the equipment you intend to use for that session. Having consulted your plan from above point, you should already know what you want to teach. Always carry a whistle, perhaps a clipboard and a pen, and a printout reminding you of rugby drills and key learning outcomes you intend to use. Now, as a player who shows up to training and see’s a Rugby Coach who is already there, cones, drills and equipment all ready to go, you tell me how much of a more positive effect that has. It’s all about being organised that will help your time management.