I have been Guest Hosting the #DeepDive podcast for Rugby Coach Weekly which is a series of long-form interviews with various Players, Coaches, Academics and characters around the game. Here is a list of the podcasts and there is a summary of each at the bottom of the page. A huge thank you to Dan Cottrell for giving me the opportunity to publish these via Rugby Coach Weekly, I have loved the process.
Sam Portland – Strength & Conditioning Coach & Performance Consultant who has worked for Wasps & Ealing Trailfinders and Consulted with Kenya 7’s & many individual Pro players from NFL to Bobsleigh
Apple – https://bit.ly/SamPortlandPod
Android – https://bit.ly/SamPortlandGoogle
Paul Hodgson – former England 9, Pro-team coach and now a Director of Sport at Cranmore School
Apple – https://apple.co/2zpQ0fg
Android – http://bit.ly/PaulHodgsonPod
Tom Farrow – Former Head of Strength and Conditioning for England 7s and owner of Areté Performance – www.arete-performance.com
Apple – https://bit.ly/TomFarrow
Android – https://bit.ly/AndroidFarrow
Andre Quinn – Head of Athletic Performance at Cavan GAA. He was previously a strength and conditioning coach at London Irish and Sport Scientist at Harlequins
Apple – https://apple.co/2YSjFry
Android – https://bit.ly/AndreQuinnGooglePod
Mark Williams – interim Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach for Basketball England, a Lecturer in Sports Science and former Head of S&C for GB Basketball & Southend United FC
Apple – https://apple.co/3kcN3kR
Android – https://bit.ly/MarkWilliamsPodcast
Johnny O’Connor – Strength and Conditioning Coach with Connacht Rugby. He previously played for the province as well as Wasps and Ireland
Apple – https://apple.co/3jJfBRI
Android – https://bit.ly/JohnnyOCPod
Jamie Taylor – former head of Academy at Leicester Tigers and now working with Grey Matters as a Senior Coach Developer and the English Institute of Sport as the coaching and curriculum lead. He is a Coach, Coach Developer and Researcher in Coaching Science with a particular focus on Talent Development
Apple – https://bit.ly/JamieTaylorApplePod
Android – https://bit.ly/JamieTaylorPod
William Wayland – a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach and owner of Powering Through Performance Gym
Apple – https://bit.ly/WillWaylandApple
Android – https://bit.ly/WillWaylandAndroid
Jamie Taylor Part II – an even deeper dive into teaching, learning and decision making
Apple – https://bit.ly/JamieTaylorApple2
Android – https://bit.ly/JamieTaylorPod2
Sam Portland is a Strength & Conditioning Coach & Performance Consultant who has worked for Wasps & Ealing Trailfinders and Consulted with Kenya 7’s & many individual Pro players from NFL to Bobsleigh
– Sam’s background & why he is so passionate about speed development
– Why Rugby Coaches should approach speed as a skill to be developed in the same way as passing or tackling
– The basics that underpin speed & sprinting
– The difference between speed development & speed expression
– Heuristics & cues for Coaching acceleration & maximum speed
– The benefits of Extensive Plyometrics for developing a base of tolerance & teaching speed
– Programming speed training into weekly & monthly cycles of rugby training
– The importance of consistency in programming drills & exercises
– How to blend Multi-Directional speed with basic Acceleration training
– Why you should avoid too much competition & racing in speed development
– How Sam developed Speed Gate Golf & how it teaches players to understand “Slow is Smooth & Smooth is Fast”
– Common mistakes in speed development
– How Sam programs Gym training to support speed development and the Rollover Principle for weekly planning
– Moving from working for a Pro Team to becoming a Freelance Coach
– Developing streams of income within a freelance business
– How Sam is using the lessons from his time in Coaching to develop other Coaches through his mentorship
www.coachsportland.co.uk
sam@coachsportland.co.uk
instagram.com/Coach_Sportland
Paul Hodgson – former England 9, Pro-team coach and now a Director of Sport at Cranmore School
In this podcast, Paul shares stories and experiences from his playing, coaching and teaching careers. We chat about:
- Paul’s lessons from pro-sport that he now uses to develop young players
- Formative experiences at Bristol with Jack Rowell, Agustin Pichot and Felipe Contepomi
- Lessons on work ethic and building a fitness base from Mike Catt and Jonny Wilkinson
- The importance of good communication and relationships with players, especially around selection
- Working with the elemental force that is Brendan Venter
Tom Farrow – Former Head of Strength and Conditioning for England 7s and owner of Areté Performance
- Lessons from 7’s for all rugby players.
- What young players should focus on in order to make the leap to being a professional player.
- The PLAY (Physically Literate Athletic Youths) and Freedom frameworks Arete uses with young players.
- Tom’s varied and chaotic path to coaching at the elite level and his immersive approach to personal development.
- The story behind Tom’s mission to cultivate heroes and the influence of Eastern philosophy on his approach.
- What Comedians can teach coaches.
- The importance of body control in contact skills and what it means to “Be like water”
Andre Quinn – Head of Athletic Performance at Cavan GAA. He was previously a strength and conditioning coach at London Irish and Sport Scientist at Harlequins
- Where Andre’s curiosity for improving performance came from
- How the day-to-day training in a Premiership club is set up and why
- Training considerations for amateur clubs
- How the team coped unexpectedly well with a huge increase in workload demanded by a new head coach
- Brendan Venter’s approach to motivation and the organisation of training at London Irish Andre’s experiences of dealing with cancer and how he approached his treatment
Mark Williams – interim Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach for Basketball England, a Lecturer in Sports Science and former Head of S&C for GB Basketball & Southend United FC
- Mark’s story from semi-pro rugby player to a professional S&C coach
- Lessons from the Covid lockdown
- The value in focussing on the basics of movement
- The story behind Mark’s PhD and why player autonomy became central to his thinking
- The Paradox of S&C – How can the controlled environment of the gym carry over to the chaos of sport?
- Completing the circle – Marks’ evolution of thinking, from questioning the importance of S&C to the role he now sees it playing in developing players
Johnny O’Connor – Strength and Conditioning Coach with Connacht Rugby. He previously played for the province as well as Wasps and Ireland
- The Paradox of S&C – How can the controlled environment of the gym carry over to the chaos of sport?
- Completing the circle – Marks’ evolution of thinking, from questioning the importance of S&C to the role he now sees it playing in developing players
- His background from playing rugby with Connacht & Ireland to S&C soach as the world’s oldest intern at Arsenal.
- Johnny’s key takeaways from working with coaches such as Liam Hennessy, Craig White and Warren Gatland.
- The three key aspects for developing young players – discipline, work ethic and the ability to accept failure and how important it is to set that standard as the coach.
- The importance of creating connections with players but needing to understand yourself to be able to do that.
- Cultural differences between soccer and rugby.
- The influence of Shane McDonald
- The environment at Wasps in the early 2000’s
- The psychological and emotional toll that builds over a rugby career
- What rugby can learn from football
Jamie Taylor – former head of Academy at Leicester Tigers and now working with Grey Matters as a Senior Coach Developer and the English Institute of Sport as the coaching and curriculum lead. He is a Coach, Coach Developer and Researcher in Coaching Science with a particular focus on Talent Development
Part I: Psycho-behavioural Characteristics of Developing Excellence – the mental traits and states that underpin Talent Development
- Why are they important? Jamie discusses his research showing how a lack of mental skills was a key factor in players who were expected to make it to the top but didn’t
- How PCDEs can be used to evaluate Players’ needs analysis
- Practical Implementation of PCDEs
Part II: Deep Dive on Coach Development
Jamie’s reflections on his early Coaching & Teaching career – the importance of declarative and procedural knowledge
- How his early mentors supported him via challenging him
- The importance of “Why?” in appraising & implementing methods & knowledge
- The value for Coaches in Teacher training
- Developing Professional Judgement & Decision Making as a Coach
- Cognitive Load Theory
William Wayland – a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach and owner of Powering Through Performance Gym
- William’s approach to S&C with his local amateur Rugby team, Chelmsford RFC.
- How he assesses and programs the S&C for the team using the Dynamic Strength Index.
- What a typical week of sessions looks like for one of his players.
- How the Triphasic Approach has helped improve movement competence and strength levels with the team.
- Working around injuries & micro trauma with contact athletes to show players how they can always train and improve.
- The importance of neck training for rugby players in improving contact skills & reducing concussion risk.
- Lessons from training MMA fighters that help when coaching rugby players.
- How he uses the philosophy of the Pragmatic Approach in his coaching to direct his decision making and assess theory and practice.
- A case study of the Pragmatic Approach in action to coach superbike rider Danny Buchan.
- How the OODA loop can assist coaches and athletes to adapt and overcome less than ideal circumstances such as lockdown.
Jamie Taylor Part II – an even deeper dive into teaching, learning and decision making
- Is coaching teaching?
- Can classroom research transfer to sports coaching?
- Which pedagogical principles can help coaches plan and deliver sessions
- Why a coach needs to be much more than an environmental designer
- The role of cognition in learning
- How coaches can use professional judgement and decision making to decide which principles and methods to use and when
- What factors does it depend on when we say “it depends”
