In the market for some new coaching material? This is a good place to find all the material you need to make the most out your coaching. Remember that successful coaches are successfully in planning their program. Reading up, viewing videos, getting inspiration from other coaches or other sports even! Here you can meet those companies or people that supplied me with coaching material in the past and I have now teamed up with. Click on the logo to go to get more information or to go to their website.

Fitness testing: the FitnessGram package

FITNESSGRAM is a package with several tests. You can use it stand alone or share testresults across networks. The assessment measures three components of health-related physical fitness that have been identified as important to overall health and function:

• aerobic capacity;
• body composition;
• muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility.

You can piece together the tests yourself or opt for the quick way out an order this package.....

FITNESSGRAM® helps you achieve your goals by applying easy-to-use technology to conduct fair and accurate fitness assessments and easily record the results, set individualized goals for students, give students responsibility for managing and recording their own activities, create detailed reports of progress and results for students, parents, and administrators help students and parents understand the value of physical activity.

Amazon Books

Looking for rugby coaching books on the web? Here you can find everything you want. I have reviewed some books I have bought in the past and really developed my coaching skills:

• Winning the Mental Way
• The Hooligan's Game
• Rugby Tough
• Plyometrics for Athletes at All Levels
• The Wingate Anaerobic Test
• Group Dynamics in Sports
• Core Performance
• SAQ for Rugby

(more info in my book section of the site)

Jump test mat
The vertical jump test measures the explosive power of your player. With the mat the test is easy to administer.

I have scored line-out jumpers at 70 - 80 cm. but understand that 100m sprinters jump over a meter.

I have found that players enjoy doing the test too!

Grassroots Rugby

Playing and Coaching Rugby Union in the Minor Leagues, is a unique coaching resource on a CD written specifically for
developing players who want to understand the basics of winning rugby and for junior and intermediate club, university and school teams - teams that are keen to achieve promotion but who often don't have the benefits of regular coaching. It also provides an essential framework for beginning coaches uncertain about how to prioritize their efforts and for referees, journalists and spectators interested in gaining a better understanding of the details of the game.

GRASSROOTS RUGBY contains entirely new master classes on the scrum and the lineout plus defense, taking the ball at pace - and (as they say) much, much more. It is accessible on any computer with a CD drive and pages can easily be printed for distribution.

Peak Performance

[A Sports Science website for athletes, trainers and coaches of all disciplines - devoted to improving stamina, strength and fitness, coaching and the treatment of sports injury]

I use this newsletter to give me another perspective on my work as a rugbycoach, sometimes parts of it are not relevant to rugby like long distance running.
(more info)

Ultimate Sports

Een internet winkel voor al je rugby spullen. Canterbury reseller in Netherland met trouwens ook een echte winkel in Enschede (kijk even naar de Motherruggers teamfoto). Goede spullen - goede prijs - goed service. Hier koop ik altijd alles.

SAQ: Speed, Agility & Quickness

How to improve these factors for your players? How to beat the oppositons tight defence? By improving the mobility and speed of your players.
The SAQ organisation offers a complete program that makes it easy for you to set up a training session to improve this for your team. It worked for me! (more info)

If you know of some great books or videos for sale, let me know! I am looking for training videos on tackling: how do you organise the two man tackles (gang tackles) like they do in League, are there tackle videos from American Football? Please contact me.

last edited on 8-8-07