Helping our student coaches

I have had the honour of piloting a “Students-Coaching-Students” programme at St Bede's College. I assist your senior students in giving back to the College by coaching junior rugby teams. Judging from what I have seen so far, these fine young gentlemen are well on track to contribute significantly to St. Bede's Rugby.

Our goal has been to devise a programme to support these students to ensure that they deliver a quality service to the athletes. As a result, hopefully they (as coaches) and their athletes will develop a life-long love of rugby, and at the same time develop some extra life skills.

During pre-season the College held a number of meetings and seminars with various experienced coaches to provide advice around planning sessions, creating a good learning environment and how to reflect on a session and games. The student coaches were amazing, asking good questions and showing some impressive knowledge from their own experience with other coaches.

After the enforced break for Covid19, the boys finally started to sink their teeth into some actual coaching. It was great to see the young coaches implementing the information they had absorbed during the excellent series of seminars.

Since then, in order to give them feedback on the “Art of Coaching”,  I have observed each of the young coaches running a training session.  They are a very impressive group of young men as all teams they are involved in have a great environment for their athletes to enjoy the game and improve their skills.

The most enjoyment I have personally had was watching the teams play pre-season fixtures against Christchurch Boys' High School on 13 June. It was great to see the excitement felt by the student coaches when some plays from the training field were used to good effect in a game.  It was great to see them experiencing that “I taught them that” moment.  

I can't wait to see where this experience takes these fine young Bedeans. I wish them well, and hope that I have the pleasure of coaching with or even against some of them in future. 

Nathan Brown