News
My Greatest Coaching Challenges
Posted on Friday, May 4th, 2012 at 10:58 amJim Love explains how he is constantly looking for that perfect performance. To achieve this, he knows he has to overcome fear of losing.
I love coaching rugby. After 25 successful years, I continue to enjoy the challenges. But my biggest personal challenge is the fear of losing. Conquering that fear makes me work harder. To me, the key to continued success is looking at myself first when things don’t work out for the team.
The Perfect Performance
When I was coaching with the Maori All Blacks we beat several international teams including England and Scotland. I believe we achieved close to our perfect performances then. They didn’t play badly, we played well. We followed the game plan and scored more than 50 points in each game.
Challenging me first
After every game, win or lose, I look at myself. I am realistic with the players, but I am more concerned with what i could have done differently in the lead up to the game.
I look at two main areas, the physical and mental side of the preparation.
1. Physical preparation
After a game I will consider whether the players were physically in tune for the match. I will look back at sessions during the week, thinking about the intensity we used. This will shape next week’s programme. This is equally applicable to the professional rugby as it is to amateur rugby.
Sometimes if the players are tired after the previous weekend’s game, we will reduce the amount of work for the following week. A week’s heavy training is not going to improve their fitness in the short term and our players need to recover.
2. Mental preparation
Good mental preparation is about the players understanding the game plan and structures. We have plans put in place to carry out certain functions around the field. For instance we put
down what lineouts we will use in their 22m area and the plays we will use from those lineouts.
After the game I need to question whether these were the right plans in the circumstances. Did we choose the right options when faced with the opposition? It might be that we did not choose the right plans before the game, or that the players did not carry out the plans.
Adjusting and adapting
You cannot fundamentally change the way players act in a week, it is a gradual process. You need to have a long term plan and system in place for the whole season. This then provides the basis for each week’s training. Our working week will have some adjustment given what has happened from the last game. Readers of my articles will know this as “work ons”, a section of the week in which we address problems from previous matches.
Continuously fixing the plan
The plan is rarely perfect. But I always strive for perfection, so despite whether we won or not, I will exam the plan vigorously. I expect my players to do the same. We ask ourselves what worked and what didn’t, and then which parts of the plan did we not execute.
If a player decides to take options that were not part of our plan, there is a chance he won’t be playing next week. I am not afraid to drop the best players either. This is no way reduces the belief in flair. Rather we set out structures to create opportunities for flair, based on the strengths of the team and the style of the opposition.
“Why do you play the game?”
One of my daily challenges from running a professional team is keeping the players focused. The holiday period is an especially hard time to maintain the right mental attitude. I continually set goals for them to achieve.
I also ask them why they are playing the game. It is not always a question they can answer, but it certainly makes them consider their personal goals and ways of improving.
“Jim Love”
ICEF Rugby come to visit
Posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 3:02 pmOn Wednesday the 28th of March we had a group of students from ICEF schools visit our academy in Rotorua.
ICEF is a group of chartered schools in the US who have a rugby programme in South Los Angeles. A selected group of 40 boys and girls aged between 14 and 18 years were selected to attend the trip to New Zealand for 2 weeks. ICEF director of rugby Stuart Krohn has played rugby all over the world, including a two-year stint on the North Shore 24 years ago.
He said rugby was one of the fastest-growing sports in America and was exploding among youth worldwide. However, he said people were still surprised to see his students on a rugby field.
They stayed for the day to have a training session with Jim Love, Darrel Shelford and our students, lunch and also learn the techniques used in our curriculum.
It was a great day and our students enjoyed interacting with our US visitors.
2012 Launch of Netball & Brazilian Jiu Jitsu into our Wellington Sports Academy
Posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 12:29 pmThis year sees Netball and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu started in our Wellington. We’re fortunate to have Alex Scott our Wellington manager and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black belt introduce BJJ to the academy. Alex will also be representing NZ at the BJJ World Champs this year and hopefully BJJ academy students will follow in his footsteps.
Julie Wilson will be our netball mentor and brings many years of experience to the academy. Julie was Southland Representative Player for netball, softball and basketball. She has been a Wellington Netball Rep Coach for many years for both age groups and Senior teams and coach and player mentor for the past 10 years. Julie was the PIC national league coach throughout the 90s with many Silver Ferns playing for the team including current ANZ coaches Debbie Matoe, Gail Parata, Noeline Taurua Barnett and Julie Seymour.
Julie specialises in developing players skills required for netball, body balance, footwork, defence and attack court play and patterns.
There are still places available in our Wellington academy so email us for more information at info@nzsportsacademy.co.nz or call Alex on 0212995295
Coach Testimonial :
Posted on Friday, October 28th, 2011 at 1:08 pmMe ha parecido una experiencia inolvidable, los chicos de la academia
son geniales y los entrenadores muy cercanos, lo que ayuda mucho a comprender
la filosofía de rugby Maorí y como trabajan en el campo. Es una pena que sólo
haya estado una semana, aunque ha sido de gran provecho. Dejo en Rotorua
grandes amigos que espero volver a ver algún dia.
Gracias por todo Olga y extiende el agradecimiento a toda la academia!
It has been an unforgettable experience. The boys at the academy are
great and the coaches very approachable. This has helped me a lot to understand
the Maori philosophy about Rugby and how they work in the field. Is a pity that
I’ve only be for a week, even it has been a very good learning experience.
I’ve left very good friends at Rotorua that I hope to see one day.
Raul Garcia (Coach) from Spain
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