The Rugby Coach's Corner Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Rugby Coach's Corner Podcast
Welcome to the Rugby Coach's Corner Podcast - Sharing ideas to make the game better! #TRCCP is a fortnightly podcast where we discuss rugby coaching concepts with a variety of people involved in the game at all levels. Follow via Twitter @RugbyCoachsCnr and like on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therugbycoachscorner Check out the website via www.therugbycoachscorner.com
JP Nerbun is the author of The Culture System: A Proven Process For Creating An Extraordinary Team Culture. Basketball was his first love where he played at the University of South Carolina. He’s also coached for over 12 years in the US, Lithuania, and Ireland, where he now lives with his wife and family. He works with people who are serious about leading and building a better culture
Jason Gilmore is the head coach of Australia A and assistant coach at the Waratahs. From 2017 to 2020 Jason was coaching with the Australian U20 team and in 2019 led a great group of players to the final against France. He’ll lead the Waratahs defence in the upcoming Super Rugby season.
EVOLVE Rugby
Online coach development course
What you get:
https://evolverugby.podia.com/
Sneak peek:
https://evolverugby.podia.com/evolve-rugby
James Barkell is the owner of The Coach Doctor, a consultancy group working in all aspects of coaching, from program design, skill acquisition, S&C, leadership, and more. He has a Masters in Sports Coaching, a World Rugby Level 4, and a PhD, where he studied high performance rugby. James is also a Lecturer at the University of Sydney & runs The Coach Doctor Podcast.
Twitter: @James_Barkell
Instagram: thecoachdr
Website: https://thecoachdoctor.com.au/podcasts
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-barkell-phd-a952904b/
Josh Macy is the head coach of Division 1 Lindenwood University in the United States, currently ranked 2nd in the country. Having started playing the sport in college, he then went on to coach in a variety of summer camps and then eventually made his way to Guatemala where he had a major role in introducing the sport there. He even captained their national team!
Sign up below to receive your discount code to the EVOLVE Rugby online course!
12 video modules, downloadable PDF worksheets, reflective journal, a closed Facebook community, and more!
Release date: October 31, 2022.
http://www.therugbycoachscorner.com/online-course.html
Originally from the UK, Andrew Brownhill recently relocated to Australia where he now heads up the academy at Northern Suburbs RFC in Sydney. He’s had coaching roles with Worcester Warriors, the Scottish Rugby Union, and Gloucester Rugby.
Twitter: @AndrewBrownhil
Alana Thomas is the head coach of the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby women’s team and played for the Wallaroos over a 4 year period before moving into coaching. In 2017, Alana won Rugby AU’s Community Coach of the Year award on the back of winning the Victorian premiership with the Melbourne Unicorns.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanathomas7
Andrew Lockwood is the founder of Rugby Vacancies and S&C Vacancies, and most recently Grey Wolf Consulting Group. He’s been a member of the British Army since 2004 and has toured both Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s had a wide variety of coaching roles, in both union and rugby league, and also created a charity called The Rugby Outreach Project.
Twitter: @rugbyvacancies @sandcvacancies @greywolfteams @rugbyoutreach
James Kent is the Technical Analyst at France Rugby as well as Academy Coach Stade Français. He also has roles with Monaco Rugby 7s and is the Director of Rugby at Rugby Club Luxembourg.
Twitter: @jim_kent
Insta: jamo08
Jess Bunyard is the Editor at Women's Rugby Coaching Magazine and Head of Women's and Girls' Rugby at Huddersfield in the UK. She is a Level 2 RFU coach currently completing her Level 3, has guest coached men’s teams, and previously coached Yorkshire U18s.
Twitter: @RugbyCoachJess @Womensrugbycoa2
Instagram: @jessbcoach @womensrugbycoaching
Sean Graham is the Director of Rugby at Nudgee College in Qld, Australia. He coaches there and has also had roles with Junior Gold Cup, Junior Reds, regional schoolboy rep teams, and is also a World Rugby Educator. He’s heading up a Youth Rugby Coaches Forum, January 21-22, 2022.
Coaches Forum Website: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/836713
Instagram: @rugbynudgee
Wayne Smith is a Rugby World Cup winning coach, has won Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders and the Chiefs, is the current DoR at the Kobelco Steelers in Japan, and has influenced countless coaches worldwide.
Ian Baillie is the head coach of McGill University’s men’s rugby team who compete in the RSEQ championship against teams from Quebec and Eastern Ontario in Canada. Ian has also had a major impact on club rugby around Montreal, heading up the Montreal Irish and before that, the St Lambert Locks. He also coached the Quebec provincial senior men’s side for a number of years.
Photo credit: @gariesphoto
Ryan Schultz is the 1st XV head coach at ACGS in Brisbane - better known as Churchie - who compete in the GPS competition. He’s coached extensively in and around Brisbane, having had roles with St Patrick’s College, Gregory Terrace, Brothers Rugby Club, and the QLD Reds U18 team as head coach.
All for us and us for all: Introducing the 5R Shared Leadership Program
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1469029220302946
Katie Hunter resides in New Brunswick, Canada, and coaches her U19 NB Provincial team, as well as being the President of her home club, the Saint John Irish. The Saint John Irish only field a women's team and Katie has been instrumental in their growth.
She is passionate about bringing free development opportunities to women in the province by way of official training, athletic sessions, nutrition education, Level 1 & 2 certification, and more. She’s also a teacher, a referee, and is still fitting some playing in there as well.
John Manenti is the head coach of the Aussie 7s women’s team and is currently preparing them for the Tokyo Olympics. Before this role, he was the Wallaroos head coach, winning bronze at the 2010 WRWC. He also coached Eastwood to 3 Shute shield championships and one Australian Club Championship.
Twitter: @john_manenti
Mike Rogers coaches with the Chiefs Women’s Super Rugby and Waikato Women's Farah Palmer Cup teams. Formerly he’s had roles in the Mitre 10 Cup with the Bay of Plenty, who were winners in 2019. He’s the founder of Inside Running Academy and The Athlete Factory NZ, and has been heading up the Coaching Learning Series online.
Contact:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-rogers-416b2617/
mike@insiderunning.com
The Athlete Factory NZ
https://theathletefactory.nz/
Inside Running Academy
https://www.rugbyacademy.global/
David Sharkey is an Irishman who trained as an English teacher in London and has been working and coaching in the UK for the past 12 years. He currently coaches at HAC RFC and hosts a blog titled The Great White Sharkey.
Blog:
https://thegreatwhitesharkey.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/teachingsharks
https://twitter.com/SharkTeams
All Chats Pod:
https://shows.acast.com/all-chats-pod
Lesley McKenzie hails from Fort Nelson, British Columbia in Canada and is the women's head coach for the Japan Rugby Football Union. She represented Canada at two Rugby World Cups and earned 25 caps. Lesley had coaching roles with UBC before moving to New Zealand as a Rugby Development Officer. She has been based in Japan for 3 years now.
Chris Campbell is the Performance Sport Manager at Nottingham Trent University in the UK where he oversees 11 performance programs across various sports. He also has Head Coaching roles at Hinckley RFC & Leicestershire Men's Senior XV. Most importantly, he is the Under 7s coach at Stow-On-The-Wold
Curtis Bradford has had roles formerly with NSW Rugby, Leicester Tigers and the Welsh Rugby Union. He currently heads up Rugby Austria’s 7s programme.
Tim Walsh is the head coach of the Aussie men’s 7s team and the former head coach of the Aussie women’s 7s team. He coached the women’s team to the first ever Olympic 7s gold medal in Rio Brazil 2016.
Twitter: @timwalsh7s
Steve Anderson is the Director of Rugby for Rugby WA and recent author of a book titled “A Coach's Journey: Discussing essential aspects of professional coaching”. He’s held numerous roles worldwide, with organisations such as Australian Rugby League, Scottish Rugby Union, Irish Rugby Union, and Rugby Australia. He is a level 4 coach in Rugby Union and a level 3 coach in Rugby League.
Rugby WA Webinars: https://bit.ly/30MEtjZ
A Coach's Journey: https://amzn.to/3fOot7d
Robin MacDowell is Rugby Canada’s lead in talent identification for the women’s national team and is a former player for the Canadian 7s team. He has coached extensively across Canada and even led the Mexican women’s team in their historic qualification for the 2018 RWC 7s. Twitter: @MacDowellRugby
Phil Llewellyn is an experienced coach, manager, educator and administrator. He has worked in player development roles for both England and Ireland Rugby, as well as senior, minis, and junior sections with grassroots clubs. He spent a season coaching in Canada and is also passionate about coach education plus mentoring.
Twitter: @philllewellyn
Eddie Jones is the head coach of England. He has also coached Australia, South Africa, Japan, and the Brumbies to success.
In this episode, we discuss his coaching journey, the RWC, his autobiography, tactical periodisation, and the Law interpretations being seen in Super Rugby Aotearoa.
This episode is sponsored by Ruckie Analytics. If you contact them via coach@ruckie.com and mention the podcast, you'll receive a 40% discount on analysis for next season! For more information, visit https://ruckie.com/
Pierre Villepreux is a former Toulouse and French national player, receiving 34 caps for his country. He has had coaching roles with Toulouse, Italy, and France, and was their assistant coach during the 1999 RWC. He then went on to be the technical director for the French Rugby Federation and also held similar roles with World Rugby. In 2018, he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Twitter: @LePlaisirDuMou1
Stuart Edwards is based in Edinburgh and is the attack coach for Scotland U18. He is also Head of Rugby at Stewart’s Melville College who won the 2019 Scottish Schools’ Cup. He is still an active player with Heriots in the Super 6 and is enjoying being coached as a way to develop his own philosophy.
Twitter: @stuarted10
Joe Winpenny is the Director of Rugby at Oxford Brookes University RFC, a Rugby Development Officer at Oxford University, and Scrum Coach at Oxford Harlequins RFC. Joe played overy 200 1st grade games for Chinnor RFC, the club where he also first started coaching.
Twitter: @OURFU_RDO
Dr Sommer Christie is a mental performance consultant who works with Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches, professionals, surgeons and performers. Her primary focus is to facilitate the enhancement of performance through mental skills training, including neurofeedback and biofeedback.
Sommer is also a former Canadian national player who competed in two World Cup’s, the World University Games, and several International test matches. She was also recently inducted into the Concordia University Sports Hall of Fame.
Journal mentioned in episode: https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/iscj/7/2/article-p209.xml#d231691324e662
Rugby Soupe: https://www.rugbysoupe.com/donner-donate
Geraint Davies is a Head of PE and Games, based in the UK and recently completed his Level 4 Coaching Certificate. He is an RFU Senior Coach Developer, a club head coach, and has coached from U6’s up to senior international, in both the men’s and women’s game.
He’s producing some excellent coaching resources on Twitter and YouTube under the title Geraint Davies Rugby Coaching & Analysis.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/daviesGDD
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqGVtDWh5ZIbdJUsASV_5mA
Curtis Lauzon is the Technical Director at Rugby New Brunswick in Canada and moved from Ontario where he took up the role in 2017. He heads up the province’s Senior Women’s team and has had assistant coaching roles with both the Canada U18 men’s and women’s programmes, and the Atlantic Keltics Senior Women.
Twitter: @curtislauzon
Born and raised on a dairy farm in New Zealand, Kendrick played his rugby with Southland, the Highlanders, Bay of Plenty, a short stint with the Chiefs, and also represented New Zealand in Sevens.
He moved to France in 2014 to play for Lyon and has been part of their coaching staff since 2016.
Twitter: @kendricklynn82
Jim McKay is the attack and assistant coach at the QLD reds. He was previously with the Reds from 2009-13, where they were successful in winning the Super Rugby title in 2011. Since that first stint with the club, he has gone on to have coaching roles with the Wallabies, Kobelco Steelers in Japan, as well as a number of consultancy positions.
Dave Morrow is a retired Canadian Armed Forces infantry officer and did one operational tour in Afghanistan during 2010-2011. He is also a former high school teacher and recently completed his Masters in Education Leadership where he researched high school concussion management programmes. He now runs his own personal training business tailored for military, police, and EMS professionals.
Website: https://www.davemorrow.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davemorrowpt/
Beau Robinson is a former professional rugby player who started out his career in rugby league with the Bulldogs under 20s. He then went on to the Waratahs academy and senior side for 3 years, which included a Super Rugby final in 2008, before moving to Italy to play. After that, he moved to Brisbane, played club rugby, worked in a bar, got picked up by the Reds and went on to win a Super Rugby title in 2011 and a Wallabies cap. He also had 2 seasons with the Harlequins in the UK and is now working as a business and leadership coach.
Jeremy Holt is an occupational psychologist, leadership coach and facilitator from England who works with high performance teams in business, sport, and the military. His company, the Centre for Team Excellence, specialises in applying behavioural science to develop great teams and has been working with the University of Sussex in an attempt to understand the psychological factors that make teams great. He’s also a grassroots rugby coach with 15 years experience
Twitter: @jeremyjholt
Stuart Lancaster is a former school teacher and is now Senior Coach at Leinster in the Pro 14. From Yorkshire originally, he joined the RFU in 2007 where he was Head of Elite Development and the head coach of the England Saxons until 2011 before becoming the head coach of England between 2011 and 2015.
Links mentioned:
https://findingmastery.net/stuart-lancaster/
https://www.udemy.com/leadership-lessons-and-building-high-performing-teams/
Contact details if you want to advertise on the podcast:
https://therugbycoachscorner.com/contact.html
https://twitter.com/RugbyCoachsCnr
Vicky Alexander is currently coaching with the Richmond Women’s coaching team in the Tyrrell’s Premier 15’s.
She is also an RFU coach educator and community rugby coach at Cobham RFC, as well as a school coach at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham.
Twitter: @ruggachick7
Gary Gold has extensive coaching experience, heading up teams such as the London Irish, Western Province, Bath, the Sharks, and the Worcester Warriors.
From 2008-2011, Gary was the assistant coach for the Springboks and is now the head coach of the USA Eagles as they prepare for the Rugby World Cup.
Twitter: @GaryGoldrugbyiq
Warren Abrahams is from South Africa originally but has been based in England for the past decade.
He coaches with the England Rugby 7s set-up, is the former Harlequins Academy coach, holding that role for 8 years, and was the Lithuanian Rugby Federation’s Head of 7s.
He is the founder of Coaching 4 Potential where his goal is to develop people through coaching.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/W_Abrahams
Instagram: #coaching4potential
Dave Lyme is from Australia originally and has been around rugby for most of his life. Having only starting coaching in 2014, he had immediate success with the Fairfield Yankees men’s team out of Connecticut who went on to win the USA Rugby D3 National Championship in 2016. Currently he is the head coach of Sacred Heart University, Staples High School, and Westport P.A.L. Youth Rugby. He has also started doing some consultancy work with his company Scrum Down Rugby.
Website: https://scrumdownrugby.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescrumdownrugby/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescrumdownrugby/
Kris Stafford has been coaching rugby for 10 years and is the full time Rugby Development Officer at Leeds Beckett University, as well as head coach at Old Otliensians RUFC in West Yorkshire. Kris recently completed a postgraduate degree (MSc) in Sports Coaching and applies a lot of the theory and concepts to his daily coaching environments. He and his fellow coaches at Old Otliensians recently won the "Coaching Moment of the Year 2018" at the UK Coaching Awards.
Twitter: @KrisStafford
Instagram: therugby_coach
You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnwbWpJUF08
Andy Friend is head coach of Connacht Rugby in Ireland and has been coaching professionally for 24 years.
Before Connacht, Andy had head coaching roles with the Aussie Men’s 7s, Suntory Sungoliath, Canon Eagles, Brumbies, and Harlequins.
Twitter: @andyfriend2011
Russell Earnshaw, formerly of the RFU, is a returning guest of #TRCCP Rusty is the co-founder of The Magic Academy and is now working extensively in rugby, as well as numerous other sports, supporting coaches and organisations to provide great learning experiences for athletes.
Website: www.themagicacademy.co.uk
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8tJuGq_Q4
Twitter: https://twitter.com/russellearnshaw
Try of the Year: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5BncWU-Ajs
Jonny McMurtry is originally from Northern Ireland and is now based permanently in Brisbane, Australia. He has been involved in numerous coaching roles since 2010, including junior club, colts, as well as Queensland and ARU age grade programmes such as the Junior Reds and Junior Gold. He is also heading up a study through the University of Queensland that looks at the needs of adolescent elite rugby players. On top of this, Jonny runs an excellent blog titled Coaching the Coaches - Website: https://www.coachingthecoaches.net/ Twitter: @coachingcoach_
Charlie Morgan is a rugby reporter at Telegraph Media Group Limited in the UK and has been in that role for almost 2 years. Before that, he was a freelance writer and was also an assistant editor for the RFU for 4 years.
In this episode, we discuss some of the playing trends that he has observed during the 2018 end of year tours and how they will move into the 6 Nations and RWC 2019.
Twitter: @CharlieFelix
Francois Ratier is the Technical Director for Rugby Quebec in Canada. Born and raised in France, he played in the French Championship for SC Angouleme where he also coached their under 20s team. Shortly after, he relocated to Canada and has had various coaching roles in club, university, provincial elite, regional elite, and age-grade national.
His most recent roles have been with the Canadian national women’s team as head coach for 2 World Cups and the Canadian national men’s team as interim head coach.
Twitter: @FrancoisRatier
Daniel Ritchie is the Director of Rugby at Brisbane State High School in Queensland, Australia. He spent his playing days at Norths Rugby Club in Brisbane as well as a few years at Falkirk Rugby Club in Scotland and a 1 year stint as a player/coach for Meraloma Rugby Club in Vancouver, Canada.
Along with his coaching and teaching duties at BSHS, he was manager of the Brisbane City U19 team that won the inaugural 2018 URC National U19 carnival.
Twitter: @RitchieDan9
Chris Silverthorn is the head coach of the Ontario Blues in Canada and has held that position for 8 years. He is also the head coach for one of Major League Rugby’s potential newest franchises, the Ontario Arrows. Along with these roles, he has been involved with the Canadian senior men, Canada A, Canada U17 and U19, as well as some age-grade representative coaching with Ontario.
Dan Cottrell is the Editor of Rugby Coach Weekly and comes with 25 years of coaching experience.
Originally a teacher, he took on the Rugby Coach Weekly role full time in 2005 and now mixes it with coach education, tutoring, and coaching. He has had roles with age-grade rugby in Surrey and the Ospreys region, along with an assistant coach role with the Welsh Women.
Twitter: @Dan_Cottrell
Website: www.rugbycoachweekly.net
Nick Leah was formerly in charge of the Brumbies Academy for a number of years and has held numerous development roles with the organisation since 2011. Outside of the Brumbies, he’s had coaching roles with the Kubota Spears in Japan, the Melbourne Rebels, and University of Queensland among others. Nick holds a Bachelor of Coaching Science from the University of Canberra and is now the General Manager of Ignite Rugby, along with Mick Byrne and Rod Kafer.
Email: nicholasleah@yahoo.com
Dan van Zyl played for the Springboks between 1997 and 2000, captaining the midweek side on various occasions. He also played both professional Rugby and Cricket in SA and UK. Dan moved to Ireland 16 years ago to start a career in coaching and worked at Leinster for 11 years in Coach and Player Development. He’s coached Leinster u18, 19s and Women's teams, Irish Youths and Irish Universities, and is a World Rugby Coach Educator.
He’s recently started up a business called Rugby Academy Ireland.
This episode is brought to you by Bula Boots. If you are a UK-based rugby club, please assist this amazing charity to continue their excellent work in the Serua Province of Fiji. For more details on how you can help, please go to:
https://www.bulaboots.com/
Dan van Zyl:
Twitter https://twitter.com/vanzyl_dan
Rugby Academy Ireland:
Website http://rugbyacademyireland.ie/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/academy_ireland
Email
Dan@rugbyacademyireland.ie
Matthew Taylor is the defence coach for Scotland. He is a 46 year old father of two, former flanker who played in Australia and Scotland with clubs such as Souths, Sunnybank, Edinburgh and Borders.
He started coaching at Exeter Chiefs in 2005 then went home to coach in Australia at Sunnybank Rugby Club and The Southport School. This led to working with the QLD REDS and following 2013, Matt returned to Scotland to coach with the Glasgow Warriors and the Scotland National team.
Richard Shuttleworth has over 20 years coach education and support experience in elite level sport, focusing on skill acquisition. He has worked at the Australian Institute of Sport with Olympic level coaches, various national sporting organisations, Super Rugby franchises, the NRL, Football Federation Australia and Australian Rules clubs.
He was the Professional Coach Development Manager for the RFU for 4 years before moving into his latest role as a High Performance Coach Development Consultant. Richard has a BSc in Coaching Science, a MSc in Sport Psychology and a PhD in Skill Acquisition.
Twitter: @skillacq
Rameses Langston is based in Vancouver, Canada, and is the head coach of the University of British Columbia men’s rugby team.
His home club is Capilano RFC, and he has had coaching roles in schools, junior age-grade, and senior club. He’s a father of 3, a teacher and an Athletic Director.
Barry Maddocks is the Skills Coach at the Welsh Pro 14 club, the Dragons and I recently met him there on a professional development trip.
Previously Barry worked at Bath, where he was responsible for the management of senior academy players as they transitioned into the senior squad, as well as supporting senior coaches with technical and tactical delivery. He was also the former head coach for the England Women’s 7s team.
Twitter: @barrymad
Ross Munro Williams is from South Africa and started coaching rugby at age 19. He has been involved with every age group, from U7s at school to adult Super League A, club, and Varsity Cup U20s.
He owns 2 businesses, is currently the U21 coach at the University of Cape Town and runs a coaching blog titled Ross Rugby.
Twitter: @RossRugby
Blog article mentioned in the show: https://rossrugby.co.za/2017/09/after-10-years-of-coaching-heres-what-i-think-i-know/
Will Precious is the head video analyst at the Welsh Pro 14 team the Dragons who I met during a recent professional development trip. After completing a Sports Science degree from Brunel University in London, Will went on to work as an analyst with the Ospreys in the first season of regional rugby. From there, here worked with the Welsh U21 and then U20 sides before taking on the Dragons role.
Nate Osborne originally hails from Queanbeyan in Australia where he played a lot of his rugby in Canberra as part of the Brumby Runners. After moving to the US, he’s had coaching roles with Metropolis RFC in Minnesota, the USA Eagles as backs coach for the 2015 RWC, and was recently named as the head coach for NOLA Gold, based out of New Orleans.
David Williams is the head coach of the Glendale Raptors. Originally from England, he played for both the USA Eagles 7s and 15s teams. Between 2006 and 2015, David was the head strength coach for USA Rugby Men's national teams, and skill and assistant coach for the men's 7's team for some of that time. He was assistant head coach for the Denver Stampede, in the PRO Rugby competition, who were winners of the 2016 season. He’s been the head coach of the Glendale raptors since then.
Twitter: @Daviewilliams9
Mark Bennett is a British Commando and has been involved in coach development since the early 90’s. His business, Performance Development Systems (PDS), began out of his work in “training the trainer” courses for the military. From this experience, Mark left the military to focus on his business full time.
Mark believes in a practitioner-based approach to maximise real-world performance and PDS has worked with England Rugby, Bath Rugby, Warrington Wolves RL, NBA teams, the British Military, along with a host of schools, universities and businesses. He was honoured with a Member of the British Empire in 2006.
Website: https://www.pdscoaching.com/
Email: mark.bennett@pdscoach.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PDScoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markb5/
This episode will be the first of a series on coaches involved in the new Major League Rugby (MLR) competition starting up in the US for 2018.
Curry Hitchborn is no stranger to the podcast, as he was guest number 10 of #TRCCP and is the first to rejoin the show. He was recently announced as the new Director of Rugby Development at the Seattle Seawolves.
Twitter: @CurryHitchborn
Tony Healy is a former Canadian national player, receiving 15 caps in the late 90’s. Professionally, he played for Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Mosley RFC to name a few. He was the BC Bears head coach in their undefeated 2017 CRC campaign and has also had roles with Canada U20, James Bay, and Brentwood HS. He’s going to be the head coach for the Seattle Seawolves in 2018.
Twitter: @arah1707
Dr Nick Winkelman has been the Head of Athletic Performance and Science at the IRFU since April, 2016. Before that he held various roles at EXOS in the United States.
Initially, he completed his Bachelors in Exercise and Sports Science at Oregan State and then undertook a Masters in Strength and Conditioning at Edith Cowan University and a Doctorate at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. He is certified through the NSCA, the USA Weightlifting Association and the USA Track and Field Association and is an internationally recognised speaker and author on topics pertaining to skill acquisition, coaching science, movement skill development, and athletic profiling.
Twitter: @NickWinkelman
Articles:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313368925_Experience_level_influences_the_effect_of_attentional_focus_on_sprint_performance
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311780294_Attentional_Focus_and_Cueing_for_Speed_Development
Simon Thomas is the Head of Physical Performance at the BNZ Crusaders in Super Rugby and has been a full time S&C coach in rugby for ten years. He’s had involvements with the Tasman Makos, Canterbury Academies, NPC teams and two U20 World Rugby Championships with New Zealand.
He began his career as a volunteer with the Crusaders in 2005 and now heads up the physical performance programme, consults across various rugby teams, sporting organisations and business.
Twitter: @stsandc
Will Webster is the assistant coach for the Kenya men's 7s team on the HSBC world series and just finished his 1st year with the group.
Will went to Kenya in 2014 as Director of Sport at Kenton College Preparatory School, coached several clubs in Kenya's top-flight league as a skills coach, defence coach, and then as a head coach.
His playing career involved stints at U.S. Oyonnax in France, the Western Province Institute of Rugby, and he was also a member of the Exeter Chiefs Academy.
Twitter: @willowebbos
David Wessels is the Head Coach of the Western Force, who finished 2nd in the Australian Conference of this year’s Super Rugby competition.
He started coaching Under 9’s as soon as he left school and worked his way up for there. He won the Varsity Cup in South Africa with the University of Cape Town, coached with Jake White in his first year at the Brumbies, and then joined the Western Force in 2013 as a defence coach, before being promoted to senior assistant coach and then head coach for the 2017 season.
Twitter: @DaveWessels
Damian McGrath is the head coach of the Canadian Men’s 7s team, who finished 8th in the World Rugby standings for the 2016-17 season.
Born in Yorkshire, England, he played and coached professional rugby league, both for the Leeds Rhinos and England (Coaching) before Sir Clive Woodward offered him the opportunity to cross codes in 2001. After this, he had multiple roles with England, Leicester, Spain, Wales, Samoa and now Canada.
Twitter: @mcgrath_damian
Andy Evans is a strength and conditioning consultant based in British Columbia, Canada.
He holds a Bachelor of Human Kinetics and is currently completing a Masters in High Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership, both at UBC. He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Rugby Canada for 2013 to 2016, and prepared the senior men’s team for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
He recently created Strength School, with the goal to establish a way to help any athlete, anywhere, with affordable and effective training programs.
Website: https://www.strengthschool.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndyEvans_SS
Bronco video with the Chiefs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgTCk3rb_gg
Russell Earnshaw is an International Performance Coach. He is currently involved with the England U18 program and works for the RFU, providing support to coaches throughout England. Russell also coached England 7’s for 7 years. His playing career was with Bath, where they won the 1998 European Cup, and he also represented England in 7’s at the 1998 Comm Games. On top of that, he taught economics at Eastbourne College for 2 years.
Email: russellearnshaw@rfu.com
Twitter: @russellearnshaw
360 rugby video: http://bit.ly/2qBfwE6
Nick Hill is a former professional player of 9 years with Northampton Saints, Exeter Chiefs, Bedford Blues and Nuneaton, and also represented England U19 in the 1999 Junior World Cup. Being a rugby coach for 17 years and PE teacher for 15 years, Nick has worked in schools and clubs where he has coached players from 8 years old through to 58 years old in both the northern and southern hemisphere.
Website:
http://nickhillcoaching.com/
Twitter: @NH_Coaching_
Paul Clarke is the coach-in-chief with Match-Fit Ireland, a company that looks to integrate all performance elements into every coaching session in order to cater for holistic player development in terms of an athlete’s physical, mental, technical and tactical needs. He also operates the European arm of VX Sport, which is an athlete monitoring system used by some of the world’s leading teams to help drive performance-based decision-making.
Paul is also a technical and tactical Gaelic Football coach in Ireland who has a passion for rugby.
Website: www.matchfitireland.com
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2o40dH0
Twitter: @matchfitireland
Instagram: matchfitirl
Email: paul@matchfitireland.com
Article: "Ready? There is no substitute" http://bit.ly/2l8axt2
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZGXwa2bBI
Shane Horgan crossfield kick receipts:
http://bit.ly/2kZccja
Philippe Saint-André. Philippe is a former national player for France and earned 69 test caps between 1990 and 1997, mostly on the wing. After retiring, Philippe went into coaching, starting at Gloucester, who he also played professionally for. He then moved to Sale, where they won the Challenge Cup and Premiership title, after which, he returned to France to lead Toulon for 2 years before taking over as French national coach until the 2015 RWC. He now spends a lot of his time heading up PSA Academies, which the Tignes Rugby Academy in France is a part of.
PSA Academies:
Website: www.psaacademies.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSAAcademies
Philippe Saint-André:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSaintAndre
Murray Kinsella is a sports journalist based in Ireland who writes extensively about the technical aspects of rugby.
He works primarily with The42.ie, a news source for Irish sports fans, but has also worked with TV3, Eir Sport and The Rugby Site.
His analysis work is a great resource for rugby coaches around the world.
Twitter: @Murray_Kinsella
Daniel O’Brien hails from Australia originally and is just finishing up as the attack, defence and backs coach for the Coca Cola Red Sparks in Japan’s top league.
He has held numerous coaching roles in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, Dublin, Ireland and Brisbane, Australia and continues in his pursuit as a full time professional coach.
Twitter: @obie_22
Bernard Jackman is the head coach at FC Grenoble in France and has been with the club in a variety of roles since 2012. During his time with the club, they have been promoted from Pro D2 to the Top 14 to where they now have the 4th best attack in the league. Considering the club’s available budget and access to national players, this is a considerable achievement.
His professional playing career include 9 caps with Ireland and 4 with Ireland A, along with stints with Leinster, Connacht and Sale. He played under coaches such as Declan Kidney, Warren Gatland, Michael Cheika, Alan Gaffney to name a few.
Stuart Lierich is a specialist kicking coach from Australia and comes from an Aussie Rules background. After a semi-professional playing career, he began coaching with a VFL team and really connected with the process. With a keen interest in Kick/Catch, Stu then found himself in Rugby Union and Rugby League after moving to Brisbane 15 years ago. He’s now with the NEC Green Rockets Rugby in Japan’s Top League and was recently appointed as the Account Manager Aus/NZ for Coach Logic.
Contact details:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/stuartlierich
Email - stuart@coach-logic.com
Longomatch (mentioned in the episode) - http://bit.ly/2kNIbao
Scott Allen is the assistant coach for the Wallaroos, the Australian Women’s Rugby team, and is currently in the midst of their 2017 WRWC campaign preparations, which will take place in Ireland during August. He’s had previous senior coaching roles with the University of Queensland and was also a prominent analyst on The Roar website and Green and Gold Podcast.
Dr. Wade Gilbert holds degrees in physical education, human kinetics, and education and has taught and studied coaching at the University of Ottawa (Canada), UCLA, and Fresno State. He has more than 20 years of experience in conducting applied research with coaches around the world spanning all competitive levels, from youth leagues to the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. He is widely published, including his recent book Coaching Better Every Season (Human Kinetics) and is frequently invited to speak at national and international events. Gilbert is Editor-in-Chief of the International Sport Coaching Journal and is a regular contributor to coaching seminars for Olympic and national team coaches in the United States and Canada.
Book:
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all-products/coaching-better-every-season
Human Kinetics Coach Education Centre:
http://www.asep.com/theCoachDoc.cfm?
International Sport Coaching Journal:
http://journals.humankinetics.com/journal/iscj
International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching:
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/spo
Nathan Parnham is a Sydney-based S&C coach whose goal is to inspire others to achieve their personal best and aims to positively impact his athletes’ lives everyday that he goes into work.
He is the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Newington College in Sydney, which is a member of the GPS, where he oversees the programming for senior rugby.
In this episode, we discuss how Nathan and his S&C staff at Newington College embrace the LTAD model when it comes to physically preparing their high school rugby players - who are also multi-sport athletes - from grade 7 through to 12.
Website: https://nathanparnham.com/
Twitter: @NathanParnham
Ray is the PRO Rugby San Diego Head Coach and originally hails from Ireland where he developed his rugby at Cresent College School and Young Munsters RFC. He then moved to England to attend Loughborough University where he continued playing but also coached the University’s women’s side. After university he returned to Ireland and began working for the IRFU and Munster as an S&C coach, and later as an Elite Player Development Coach. He has had coaching roles with Munster and Ireland underage and senior teams and began coaching Belmont Shore RFC when he moved to the US with his wife. He now heads up PRO San Diego and is also involved with the Eagle Selects.
Along with being married with 3 boys, Luke Gross is the Head Coach of the Sacramento Express PRO Rugby Team and took that position on after 7 years working for USA Rugby in numerous roles. Luke arrived relatively late to rugby, at age 24, after a university basketball career, and went on to be awarded 62 caps for the USA, which included 3 World Cups and a 12 year professional career in Europe.
http://www.prorugby.org/
John Lavery is the Rugby Canada U19 forwards coach and has had numerous roles coaching both men and women. Whether it’s high school, university, senior club, age-grade regional, national and senior women, Lav’s made some great contributions to the game over the past 10 years.
Links mentioned in our conversation;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS-xlNEab-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsHmqbQLM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPLi3vNlPs
John Alder hails from Gloucester, UK and comes from a rugby family who passionately support the Cherry & Whites. John was a junior international player, Gloucester academy member and then played senior rugby at the Exeter Chiefs before being forced to retire young, at 23, following a niggling shoulder injury. John has since established himself as an international coach developer who brings experience in crafting and delivering leadership and learning solutions to coaches and sport organisations around the world. He worked extensively with New Zealand Rugby League and, during that time, completed a PhD in High Performance Sport Management with a particular focus upon culture-driven leadership and change. John is currently the Talent & Performance Coaching Manager at sports coach UK.
Twitter: @LeadCulturally
NSSU-ICCE Coach Developer Programmes:
https://cda.nittai.ac.jp/program/index.html
Kieran Crowley was born and raised in Taranaki, New Zealand where he played 200 first class games for that province. He was an All Black between 1983-1991 and lifted the very first Webb Ellis Cup in 1987. He has coached professionally since 1998, which involved 9 years with Taranaki, including 2 with New Zealand’s u-20, and then 8 years with the Canadian men’s side. He has recently relocated to Treviso in Italy to take on the head coaching role at Benetton Rugby.
Dr. Starrett is the author of the New York Times bestseller Becoming a Supple Leopard, which has revolutionized how coaches, athletes, and everyday humans approach movement and athletic performance. He is a co-founder of San Francisco CrossFit and the website MobilityWOD.com, where he shares his innovative approach to movement, mechanics, and mobility. He travels around the world teaching his wildly popular Movement & Mobility Course and works with elite athletes from the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB, and has also worked with a number of professional rugby clubs, including the Harlequins. He believes that every human being should know how to move and be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves.
https://www.mobilitywod.com/
http://playrugbyusa.com/
http://www.xptlife.com/
Natascha Wesch is Assistant Professor at Western University Faculty of Health Sciences and a Mental Performance Consultant in private practice. She was a Canadian Senior Women's National team athlete, from 1992-2002. Towards the end of her playing career, Natascha was Canadian Junior Women's National team head coach and then moved into the Canadian Senior Women's 7's team head coach for 3 years. She coached Western University Women's Rugby team for 22 years and retired from that role last season to focus time and energy on family and her private practice in Performance Psychology Consulting. She holds a PhD in Sport Psychology, Masters in Counselling Psychology, Masters in Exercise Biochemistry, and Bachelors in Exercise Science.
Below are the resources mentioned in the show;
http://www.elitemindperformance.com/resources.html
https://www.facebook.com/elitemindperformance/?nr
http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/performance_support/psychology/brainwaves
Jake Schuster is an American strength coach who is currently completing his PhD in New Zealand. He is looking at how to best train speed in 7's and worked very closely with the New Zealand women's 7's team, the Black Ferns.
He has worked with Cressey Performance in the U.S. and the Netherlands Olympic Federation, as well as various other roles in the Germany and the U.K.
Jake is the host of the Well Traveled Wellness podcast and can be be found via @W_T_Wellness and @CoolHandJakeGS
In this episode, I continue my conversation with Keir about pre-season programming. He discusses in detail blocks 2, 3 and 4 and we explore some concepts around triphasic training at the end.
This episode is based on a consultation call that I did with Keir to programme the S&C needs of a representative side that I coached this year.
It's not your regular podcast but provides a good theoretical blueprint for those interested in the field, as well as the solo head coach who needs to be a Jack of all trades.
Jocelyn Barrieau is the head coach for Rugby Quebec's Women's 7's programmes. She’s a stalwart of rugby in that region and has assisted in the development of countless female rugby players. Having played 7’s for Canada in 2007 when the programme was initially set up, she has continued to play and coach both 15’s and 7’s, with the primary goal being to help young women represent their country. Check out #LeanInTogether which is mentioned in the interview.
Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, where he played and worked for Currie RFC in Scottish Premier Division, Graeme moved to Canada in 2010 to be Director of Rugby for the Calgary Hornets, spending 4 seasons with the club. He then moved into his current role of Director of Rugby for Rugby Alberta. He is the head coach of the Prairie Wolf Pack, who are the current CRC Champions and has had roles with Canada as U20 Assistant coach, Senior Men’s skill’s coach at the 2015 RWC and attack coach Canada in 2016 Americas Rugby Championship.
Ben Darwin played Super Rugby with the Brumbies and is a former Wallaby who received 28 caps before retiring after a neck injury. He's had coaching roles with Northern Suburbs in Sydney, Western Force, Shining Arcs and Suntory in Japan, and the Melbourne Rebels.
After coaching, Ben went on to start the company Gain Line in 2013 which is involved in developing predictive models and understanding why some teams not only win, but win consistently.
http://www.gainline.biz/
Michael Cheika is the head coach of the Wallabies and became a coach after a successful playing career with Randwick, where he played over 300 games, including 7 Shute Shield victories and a few stints in Europe. He started his coaching career in Italy and then returned to Randwick for several seasons before heading to Leinster for a very successful 5 years, guiding them to their first ever European title in 2009. After a period of time at Stade Francais, Michael took over the head coaching role at the NSW Waratahs, who won the Super 15 title during his second year in charge. He’s currently preparing the Wallabies for their upcoming encounters against England and the 2016 Rugby Championship.
Joe Payton is the Player Development Manager for the Hawkes Bay Rugby Football Union in New Zealand. Having been in the role for over 7 years, Joe is also involved as the defence technical adviser for the Hawkes Bay Magpies in the ITM Cup. On top of this, he’s one of the key people involved in the Hawkes Bay Rugby Global Academy. He’s had numerous coaching and analyst roles with the NZRFU, Hurricanes Development, Samoa, NZ U20 and more.
For more information on the academy go to http://www.rugbyacademy.nz/
Tyler is based in Toronto, Canada, and is head coach and director of the academy Upright Rugby. He played rugby for 15 years in Canada and Australia, as well as some time with the Canadian Classics. He started coaching when he was 20 and has been involved in school, club and university rugby ever since. He now dedicates his time to Upright Rugby and its player development programme, where he specialises in skill acquisition assessment and refinement.
David Joyce is a sports physiotherapist as well as a certified strength coach. He has had roles lecturing on the Masters of S&C at Edith Cowan University, Australia, as well as the Masters of Sports Physiotherapy course at the University of Bath, UK. Previously, he was Chief Physiotherapist and Performance Specialist for the Chinese Olympic Team, Head of Athletic Performance at the Western Force in the Super Rugby competition and is now the Head of Integrated High Performance Unit at the AFL club, Greater Western Sydney Giants.
David Walder is the current attack coach for the Newcastle Falcons in the Aviva Premiership. David played 15 years professionally in England and Japan, with the Newcastle Falcons, London Wasps and the Mitsubishi Dynaboars, including 4 full caps for England. He’s scored over 1000 points in the English premiership and is a Heineken Cup, Guinness Premiership, Powergen Cup and Tetley Bitter Cup winner.
After retiring in February 2013 due to knee condition, he coached kicking at Newcastle Falcons, as well as roles at Percy Park RFC, Durham University and RGS, before being offered the team attack and backs coaching role at the Newcastle Falcons in 2014.
Richard Cheetham is a Senior Fellow in Sports Coaching at the University of Winchester where he has worked since 2005. This followed three years spent teaching and coaching in New Zealand.
He has developed a strong reputation on creative thinking and innovation within coach education and development and has presented to Rugby Canada, British Cycling, Cycling Ireland, England Handball and the England Cricket Coaches Association.
His research focus centres on a more holistic approach to coaching, with time spent since 2013 at Saracens RFC within the Academy programme as well as the challenges of captaincy in the English Premiership.
Richard is an experienced Rugby Union Coach Educator for London South region and Hampshire RFU as well as a Tutor for Sports Coach UK on the Talent Foundation Series.
Richard.Cheetham@winchester.ac.uk
@twowheelprof
Stephen Lewis is the Director of Rugby Operations for PRO Rugby, a professional rugby competition set to launch in the United States this year and is sanctioned by USA Rugby and World Rugby. Stephen is a World Rugby Level 3 coach and was the USA Rugby Coach of the Year in 2014. He has a long history of coaching in the US, with multiple roles at the elite level and with his club, Old Blue RFC in New York City, and even coached the Nigerian national team in the 2012 Africa Cup.
David Butcher was a professional and semi-professional player for just under 10 years. He played in England, France, Ireland, Scotland and retired in 2006 due to injury.
He then worked for Scottish Rugby for 8 years as their performance coach, focusing on talent acquisition and performance development, as well as working as a specialist scrum coach.
He’s the current Rugby Ontario High Performance Manager and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Gabriel Fulcher is a former international for Ireland who won 20 caps between 1994 to 1998 and was also a member of the Ireland squad at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He played his club rugby with Leinster and the London Irish, captaining Leinster for the 1998-1999 season. As a coach, he’s had roles with Leinster U20, Ireland U18 Schools, Belvedere College and St Mary’s College. He’s now the head coach for UBC Old Boys in Vancouver, British Columbia, and, shortly after our interview, was named as BC's provincial head coach.
Andy Muir is the Managing Director of Coach Logic, which he started in 2012 with business partner Mark Cairns. He met Mark whilst playing rugby at Currie RFC, a Premiership club in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Supported by his wife Claire and kept 'honest' by his 16 month old son Jamie, this former college lecturer in Sports Science has a real interest in how coaches get the most out of the players they work with.
Contact Coach Logic via:
info@coach-logic.com
http://www.coach-logic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/CoachLogic
https://twitter.com/coachlogic
Curry Hitchborn is a longtime servant to rugby in British Columbia, Canada. He’s had numerous coaching roles, ranging from BC u17 boys to Capilano Senior Men, and is now into his 3rd year as the forwards coach for the University of British Colombia. We’ve coached together in the Canada u17 programme and I really enjoyed chatting to him in this episode.
Reed Maltbie is a 26-year veteran coach with a Masters Degree in Sport Behavior and Performance and a Masters Degree in Education. He’s coached at all levels of the game, from age 5 recreation players to adult professional players. Spent time coaching in High School soccer, collegiate soccer, Olympic Development for USSF, and in the NPSL Professional ranks. He’s ran performance camps, worked as a teacher and is currently on a mission to help change the culture of youth sports in America by empowering coaches through a more multi-disciplinary approach to educating children, focusing on coach communication, athlete empowerment, ethics in sport, and developing champions beyond the game. He writes for SoccerNation, Amplified Soccer, and several other magazines, appeared on TedX and also has a book coming out, titled "What's Your Echo."
Ray McLean founded Leading Teams in 1992 and developed a model that would help teams to align behaviours and actions with their values.
Before starting Leading Teams, he worked as a leadership officer with the Air Force for 6 years. Prior to that, he was a Phys Ed teacher for 10 years. He has published two books, ‘Any Given Team’ and ‘Team Work’.
Leading Teams has worked extensively with many sporting organisations, including the NSW Waratahs and other Super Rugby franchises.
Keir Wenham-Flatt is the strength and conditioning coach for Argentina Rugby and is currently in England with the team at the Rugby World Cup. He started his S&C career with London Wasps as the academy S&C from 2010-2013. He then spent 6 months as head of S&C with Rotherham Titans before taking on the Argentina role in 2013, as well as spending a period of time with the Sydney Roosters rugby league club as head of strength, speed and power 2013-14.
He’s also the owner/operator of the RugbyStrengthCoach.com where he hosts the only online community for developing strength coaches.
Stuart Armstrong is the Player Pathways Manager for the RFU. We discuss his background, role with the RFU, talent ID vs talent development, player retention, the obsession with size in talent ID and more. For some great information on developing athletes, Check out Stuart's blog, The Talent Equation.
Jack Hanratty, from Leinster to Nova Scotia. Jack discusses his journey from Ireland to Canada, questioning techniques of his athletes, games-based philosophy and working with scrum halves.
This episode is a brief introduction by myself regarding the goal of the podcast. I discuss my background, coaching history and how I'm hoping to see the show develop over time. Thanks for listening!
Tom Farrow is a performance coach and rugby combat consultant. He is the owner of Areté Performance (http://www.arete-performance.com/), a sports performance and personal training company based in London.
Tom worked for Wasps RFC for the past 3 years as a strength and conditioning coach, both with their senior team and more recently with the academy. Tom has also consulted as a combat coach (applying wrestling techniques to rugby) for Wasps, England Sevens and England Women’s rugby, as well as various other clubs and schools in London and the surrounding Home Counties.
Tom has recently taken on a position with Speedworks as a Performance Coach, working under renowned sprint specialist Jonas Dodoo. Speedworks oversee the training of some of the country’s fastest sprinters as well as World and Olympic champion long jumper Greg Rutherford.
Tom has also recently been appointed the UK Director of the International Strength and Conditioning Institute, a newly born, educational association that promotes sensible, evidence based sport training methodology as well as bridges the gap between science and practice.
Gavin Hickie is the Head Coach of Dartmouth Rugby in New Hampshire, USA, and is also the current Collegiate All Americans Head Coach as well.
He’s a former professional player who has had stints with Leinster, London Irish, Worcester Warriors & Leicester Tigers, and has also played for Ireland at various levels, including 7s.
He is the co-creator of the website LineoutCoach.com and is also an author for the very first time, with his new book titled: Rugby Revealed
Mark Upton, originally from Adelaide in South Australia, took up his position as the Coaching Science Manager at the English Institute of Sport early in 2014, after 12 years working in coaching and sport science at a professional Australian Rules Football Club.
In his current role, Mark works closely with UK Sport's world-class coach development programmes and has a brief to help coaches optimise their practice & learning environments in regards to decision making, performing under pressure, technical change and developing problem-solving athletes. Mark is also a co-creator of myfastestmile, a social enterprise designed to help people be their best by encouraging organisations to create functional coaching systems and dynamic learning environments