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I started playing rugby
at the age of 19 and was lucky to by coached and trained by some
of the best coaches in Holland. I have certainly learned a lot
from Frits Frankfort and John van Altena. This site is dedicated
to them. |
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In my spare time I have a regular job at Atos Origin Netherlands B.V. as project manager for IT projects having a strong background as IT service manager. Yes, those lectures about cross over of sport and business: most of them are crap!
My experiences as a rugby coach
Rotterdam Motherruckers
Our mini's
were out on the beach playing a little tournament and we went
along to watch. Found myself refereeing and at lunch time called
out "In 5 minutes: Mothers against the mini's!". The
mothers won and wanted to experience more. The idea of participating
at the yearly beach rugby tournament at Ameland was born, surprisingly
they wanted to start preparing for it 6 months before the event.
These six months were an unforgettable journey for everybody
and was very interesting to see the mothers grow and even beat
teams that play regularly in the NRB competition. Good opportunity
for me to try out en test my ideas about the essence of rugby.
The Motherruckers have their own website here. You can also look-up my old weblog entries here.
Rotterdam Juniors
Two years
with the 14-16 youth team of Rotterdam. It was great building
a team again and see the youngsters develop. Working with Irwin
Toonder and Ae Kyong on the team success was super. The end was
a dream: taking the best four players out for the National Squad
we put a lot of trust in the others while they had to qualify
for the National title play-offs. They did and with the internationals
back we went to Scotland for a super trip were we had great matches
against Scottish Champions Gala Triangle and Jed Forrest. Came
back to win the semi and the final......
Rotterdam Colts
Being a rugbycoach with the Rotterdam Colts returned me to where
I started. These three seasons gave me to opportunity to put
all the stuff I learned into practice at the bottom of the pyramid.
Creating awareness amongst youngsters, promoting a 15 man game
play in a competition where other coaches are parents or senior
players and play is very poor. Eventually becoming National Champions
will be something the players will never forget....
Rugbyclub Delft
I was working with a National Selection and had premier league
experience with Hilversum and I wanted to do more work at the
bottom of the premier league. With R.C. Delft I had this opportunity.
A club wanted to be amongst the top clubs and asked me to guide
them in 1995. Ambitious, but in the end not enough people within
the club really wanted to perform at that level. Some interesting
experiences: goal setting, team involvement in team management,
individual successes and development of coaching structure.
Netherlands Rugby
Trainers Association (NRTV)
Enthusiastic as I am I got involved with this organization, first
writing articles in the monthly magazine, later as chairman.
Being an intermediate between the governmental institutions,
the Netherlands rugby union and member trainers was very interesting.
I was involved setting up special seminars, working on the union
regular course programs and improving the communication between
the premier league and National team coaches.
A lot of energy went into this with very little response. In
the end I decided to save my energy for other things like this
website.....
The Dutch National Under 21
Working with Hilversum and showing the improvements I was asked
in 1993 to coach the Under 19 selection. It was a duo job together
with Cees Eskes. I helped to set up the team and establish it
within the other selections. I helped set-up a testing program
and we introduced new issues to the players like regular weight
training, nutrition and goal setting.
Rugbyclub Hilversum
With Hilversum I started coaching the Colts and discovered a
whole new dimension to rugby! I took my level I course in 1988
and developed the Colts and myself to one of the top teams in
Holland. My playing career ended when my Achilles Tendon problems
could not be solved and I decided to take my coaching career
more seriously. I took over as coach of the first XV in 1991.
Changing the style of play, bringing new techniques requiring
the older players to adapt. It took some time but in the end
the results showed.
District Midden Colts
As Hilversum coach I was also involved with the District Midden Team. Both Frank Steginga (left on the picture) and myself enjoyed putting a team together and working with it. I not so sure how the team did at the National Championships....
My C.V.
1986: |
Forced to retire due to Achilles injury I started coaching the Hilversum U16 |
1988: |
Level I coaching course |
1991 - 1992: |
Coaching KMD R.C. |
1991: |
Level II&III coaching course |
1991 - 1994: |
Coaching Premier League R.C. Hilversum |
1992: |
S.R.U. Summer Course at Edinburgh |
1993 - 1996: |
Committee member of the DutchCoaching National Under 21 with Cees Eskes Rugby Trainers Association (NRTV) |
1994: |
F.I.R.A. Stage du Expert, Coimbra Portugal |
1995 - 1997: |
Coaching Premier League R.C. Delft |
1998 - 2001: |
Coaching Rotterdam R.C. Colts (Dutch Champions in 2000) |
2002 - 2003: |
Rotterdam R.C. Juniors (Dutch Champions in 2003) |
2004 - ....: |
Member of Topsport Committee of the Dutch Rugby Union |
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2004 - 2006: |
Coaching the Motherruggers of RC Rotterdam |
Being a rugby coach in the Netherlands is not easy. With only 7000 people playing the game, not many coaches are around. Little is available for coaches like clinics and courses. This results in a small but totally committed group of (amateur) coaches.
After finishing my level I and II courses I started coaching at Dutch Premier League level as a 31 year old! I needed the support of other coaches. I started to built a network for getting info. How did I set this up? Here are some tips.
I am very interested in your comments and or questions. Also if you would like to be notified when I have added new content to this site or if you would like to see special things added, please send me an email.
Trip to Larne Ireland, yours truly standing third from the left
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Last updated on 1-04-07 |