Brett Burdick, USA Rugby Certified Coaching Instructor
Message from our Coach Brett Burdick Jan 22,2000
Well, I'm back. After a brief sabbatical away from coaching club Rugby with United I have returned to the fold. I thought that it would be good to put something in writing about my goals and aspirations for the club, not as a "chiseled-in-stone" plan but as a roadmap for the near future. It is important that you, the player and the entire membership of the club help develop the goals for the club. My vision is nothing more than a starting point. You need to flesh it out and complete it with your hard work and commitment at all levels. I have high aspirations for this club. If you do not, then I don't think we will get along.
First, thank you for inviting me back. Dan asked whether I was interested in helping out and, of course,I said yes. It is nice to be wanted, for sure. Thanks also to Andy and Rhys for agreeing to help. I am sure that our coaching philosophies will work towards a consistent and uniform apporoach to the game.
I guess that my biggest surprise over the last couple of years is that we are not playing a much better band of Rugby than we are. With the personned,talent,and the program we have we should be playing much better. We do not deserve to be near the bottom of the heap and we don't deserve to be looking over our shoulders at the potential for relegation each year. We should be pushing hard on the best clubs in MARFU Division II rather than being seen throughout the Union as a whipping boy.
Last year the club set a goal of making t to post season play. In that, we fell short. It is my immediate goal to be able to beat the clubs we should be able to beat. My personal goal--and one that I hope the club agrees to--is a league season where we finish around 4-3 rather than 1-6. This is an achievable goal! But it all starts between your ears!
Do you remember the "Pledge?" Most of you signed a document that promised that you wold put forth a maximum effort to play as high a standad of Rugby as we could. How many of you feel that you have lived-up to this? How many of you feel that you are in as good shape as you can be? Do you feel that you have attended as many practices and as many games as you really could have? Have you really applied as much effort as you could? More importantly, how many of you really think that your team mates would say you gave as much as you could? It is time to make your fellow players proud of your effort, not to make excuses!
I have made a commitment to this club by agreeing to coach. The agreement goes two ways--I have a right to expect that you will get fit, that you will attend all practices you reasonably can, and that you will put the team in front of your own ego. In exchange I will promise you that I will be knowledgeable, organizd, and fair. That's the deal, take it or leave it!
We have a long way to go. We can make it, but only if each of you takes it personnally. I look forward to the challenge. How about you?
Cheers,
Brett
"There is nothing more common in this world than people who say they want to win. People who feel dejected after a game when they lose--that's the most common thing of all time.
It's all Bullshit.
The game is not about Saturday, it's about Monday and Monday three years before. The most courageous people in this world are the ones who want to prepare to win......
Bob Dwyer
Former National Coach for World Champions, Australia
From Brett Burdick
November 1, 1997
Rugby is more than just two teams playing for 80 minutes on Saturaday. In a very real sense, successful Rugby is an effort to impose your will on the other side. You are trying to defeat them, and their will is trying to defeat you
United is about as technically proficient across the board as any club in the league. Our line out play is the best around. We don't go backwards in scrums and can realistically expect to take 95% of our ball and a couple of theirs each match. Our attacking system works. Flooding their defensive back line with as many as six attacking backs and utilizing the "white" formation produce confusion and holes against every opponent we will face. Our defensive system puts players in the correct position to stop their attack, even when we are blow out from our failure to tackle. From a purely technical standpoint, we should have finished better than we did.
Where we are lacking as a team is in the area of the "force of will." This is to be expected somewhat, since we are new to this level of play. Before this season only about five of our 1st XV had ever played a full season at this level of competition. But that's just an excuse, not an explanation. Rugby in MARFU Div II is 7 weeks of hard physical activiy. There are no matches we can "blow-off." There is no rest. Every side that we face is capable of hanging 50-60 points on us if we let them.
Maintaining competitiveness at our level requires more than showing up on Sat.and expecting a match on the 1st XV just because you showed up. You can get by with that attitude in Div III and 2nd XV but that's not where I want to play or coach.
I have enjoyed much of this season. I am sorry that I was not able to help us do better. I accept the responsibility for our poor showing this fall. I hope that we decide to raise our level of commitment to whomever coaches our club next season.
If you don't want to win, you are wasting your time out here.
To me and in my country (Wales) the ability to hold onto the ball is a judge of a man. Any silly fool with pace can run around people, or bigger men can bully littler players, but the essense of a man is the ability to retain possession in the contact situation. At this point the body is forgotten. The only thing of import is the retention of the ball.
Frank Butler
Keep controll of the ball
More from Frank Butler, Senior RFU Coach
The basic skill of all the Richmond squad has been very good. The problem comes when they need to use those skills under pressure and also to select the appropriate skills for each match situation as and when it arrives. After the initial set piece rugby is a game that cannot be played by the numbers. Players must be able to make decisions on the move as and when they occur! Practice should allow players to develop their techniques and let them become skils by practicing against a large variety of opppsition ranging from unopposed to full contact, 5 vs 5, 15 vs 15. The techniques of rugby will not become skills unless they are practiced in match situations. Coaches should show players a variety of techniques and allow the players to slowly turn these into skills for match situations. Players should then take responsibility for all decisions made on the field in open play. They need to react to what they see in front of them, not to a playbook! The pace of practice should also reflect the game, some slow, some fast, some quick, other a mix of all speeds. When under pressure and in doubt of the correct decision hold onto the ball and regroup. slow the game down and start again. Do not give the ball away by panicking!! Selection will always be the key. You should select your strongest squad at all times. Ideally select early in the week so combinations can work together. My son, Allan and I would like to thank everyone at United for making our stay a very enjoyable one. Good luck for the coming season.
Yours in rugby,
Emil Signes, American Coaching legend
"Each person, each group of people responds differently to coaching, and I try to pick up on clues I get from the players' responses to what we're doing, to what I'm saying. Based on those clues, I continuously modify how I proceed."
"I can't underestimate the importance of my wife Heide for understanding that rugby was something I needed to do."
Emil Signes, 7's Coaching Legend
Zinzan Brook
Former All Black Captain/Player and Coach Harlequins
Mark Fowler
Former Welsh Div I Rugby Center
Former Coach James Madison/3 Time State Champions and sweet 16 finalist
Player/Coach James River RFC
Cornwall RFC, Senior Coach
Do not panic going into contact
Keep the ball,regroup,start again
Most of all, enjoy
Frank and Allan Butler