Working with Adolescent Players
Overview
Coaching can be a rich and satisfying experience. It is also a tremendous responsibility.
The players in your care are the next generation of volunteers and coaches.
The environment created by you the coach can affect their enjoyment of playing our sport
and having a lifelong involvement in clubs, schools and colleges.
This study pack gives an introduction to
coaching within the 15-a-side game and
concentrates on the facts you need to know
about the technical, tactical, physical and
mental development of players. It describes
the influence good coaching practice can have
on other people – players, supporters officials
and others. It gives practical guidelines
designed to help coaches create a positive
environment for players to achieve their
potential within the game.
Coaching young players can be a rich and
satisfying experience. It is also a tremendous
responsibility. The players in your care are the
next generation of volunteers in the game.
The attitudes they learn from you can affect every aspect of their lives. Your work can
help to give them confidence - or undermine what little confidence they have.
This study pack gives a basic introduction to a complex area. It concentrates on the facts
you need to know about the physical and mental development of children and young
players.
It describes the influence you can have and the influence of other people - parents,
teachers, officials and others. It gives practical guidelines designed to help coaches create
a positive environment for young players to achieve their potential within the game.
When coaching children and young people, remember the three golden rules:
1. Children come first - winning comes second.
2. Rugby should be fun.
3. Remember to reward effort as well as achievement.
Physical development
No one needs to be told that children grow, and often at an alarming speed. To coach
them effectively it is important to understand how they grow and what happens during the
twenty years or so it takes to finish the process.
At birth, a baby is about a quarter of its adult height. The fastest growth takes place in
early childhood, up to age six or seven. A second growth spurt during adolescence
gradually slows down until the child reaches their full height.
More startling, perhaps, are the changes in proportion. A baby’s head accounts for a
quarter of its height; an adult’s head accounts for only one-sixth. Similarly, a baby’s legs
make up one-third of its height, while an adult’s make up half. Young children have
relatively large heads (which affects their balance) and relatively short legs (which affect
their running ability).
Coaching Rugby Union
Just before the adolescent growth spurt, children’s arms and legs are disproportionately
long, which often make them clumsy and uncoordinated - although in some cases long
legs may give some children an advantage in certain parts of the game - such as running
at speed.
Muscle strength is closely related to the size of
the muscles, so small children are
disproportionately weaker than bigger children
of the same age. Strength increases with age, but
muscle development also depends on the child’s
physical maturity and children of the same age
can be as much as four years apart in their
physical development.
To rely on physical size as a criterion for
matching players may not, however, be a more
effective method than relying on age. The
seemingly large 9 or 10 year-olds who look like
12 year-olds, are emotionally still only 9 or 10.
They have the experience and emotional
maturity of their numerical age. To match them
with more experienced, more emotionally
mature players, simply because they look big,
may produce as many questions as it does
answers.
Care, consideration and common sense are the key factors. Coaches are urged to match
players according to size, skill and maturity during their coaching sessions, and referees
to be most vigilant in the way they control vigorous play in modified games.
As young players grow older, they will find that particular positions in the team are suited
to particular body shapes and to temperaments. Perhaps rugby union more than most
games has a place for everyone, of all shapes and sizes.
Onset of puberty
In boys, adolescence brings sharp increases in height and weight, a broadening of the
shoulders, and heavier muscle development.
• On average, the growth spurt reaches a peak around age 14, though it can start as early
as 12 or as late as 15.
• Boys normally reach their adult height around 17 or 18.
In girls, adolescence brings height increases first, with weight increase lagging about six
months behind. Much of this weight will be fat. Physical changes normally include a
broadening of the hips, which tends to change running action.
• For girls, the growth spurt reaches its peak much earlier, on average around age 12,
though it may come as early as 10 or as late as 14,
• By 15, a girl will normally have reached full adult height.
Proportions of fat and lean tissue in the body may vary throughout the growth process.
Both sexes use up fat in that initial surge of growth during early childhood. From then on,
the proportion of fat increases steadily, though less so in boys, who may actually reduce
their fat level during puberty. This gives them a greater proportion of bone and muscle, so
their bodies pack more weight to the cubic centimetre than girls.
The onset of puberty which happens at this time, can bring physical difficulties for
adolescent children, as well as causing them mental and emotional preoccupation.
In sport generally, successful boys tend to be those that mature early with a muscular
build; successful girls are often late developers with a thin build. Successful girls and
boys tend to be at very different stages of growth and development. Younger girls and
boys can play alongside one another quite happily, but the playing of contact rugby
between mixed teams is prohibited after the age of 12 in England and Wales and on
entering secondary education in Scotland. If any player in the mixed team is over the age
of 12 (on the 1st September of the season concerned), then contact rugby must not be
played. Touch or tag rugby, which eliminate the contact element, would, of course, be
acceptable at any age.
Practical tips
• Think about growth stages, not just ages.
• Think how changes in physical proportion will affect performance.
• Help adolescent players understand these changes and come to terms with them.
• Group young players according to physical development, using height and weight as a
yardstick. Avoid matching players with very different development levels, especially in
contact sessions.
• Encourage skill learning for everyone; slow starters could be very successful later on.
Early and late development can cause emotional problems. Late developers may feel they
are being left behind, especially if the others tease them, while early developers may have
problems later when the rest catch up and they find they are no longer in the lead.
You should be aware of these possibilities, and make sure all young players are treated
with respect and support whatever stage they have reached.