Junior rugby child's play no more

Childhood rugby should be all about letting them play and enjoying themselves. Photo / Daily Post

The pure spirit of rugby, if some fans disillusioned with the professional era are to be believed, is in the junior game. Don't be too sure. My youngest son is a 10-year-old rugby fanatic and has played the game since the age of four. He is being coached as if he was in a Super 14 team.

Since he was four, he has had a few coaches - mostly fathers of his teammates who have done the job with a passion that has benefited the boys. Generally they have taught the boys to do the basics - catch, pass, tackle, back up and run straight, and they have wisely let the boys enjoy the game.

However, my son was placed in a new team last year. He has a coach who loves applying terms like "game plan" and "fitness tests" to boys who have no idea what they mean. All of the boys under this coach have a ringbinder full of planned moves they are required to know back to front and each child receives an email following their game with a blow-by-blow account of what they did right and wrong in that particular match. When I was that age, and a bit older, I just wanted to play the game for fun.

According to the NZRU's guide to coaching Small Blacks, that is exactly what these boys are supposed to be doing. When this was pointed out to the coach last season, his response was to invite former All Black Troy Flavell down to the next training session to teach these eight- and nine-year-old boys to "clean out" properly at the breakdown. The coach held a special training earlier this season that lasted three and a quarter hours, claiming the boys needed the extra time "to learn to scrummage properly". Yet boys of this age are not allowed to push at all at this level.

In a warm-up match, the opposition coach got his team together after the match and warned four players they had to improve because "I'm not having you let down the boys who know what they're doing". These are nine- and 10-year-olds. Where are they supposed to learn to play the game? At that age, while everyone wants to win, does the result really matter?

So here we are, 13 years into professional rugby, and we have a unique situation, where a coach of young children is treating their game like it's a test match. Or is it unique?

It seems far from that.

Bruce McFadden, chairman of the metro junior management board in Canterbury, says the board is responsible for 7000 junior players in 313 teams from under-6s to under-18s. McFadden estimates that up to 15 per cent of these teams are coached as intensely as senior club teams.

"The percentage of coaches in it for their own egos is getting higher and higher," he said.

"They want to win at all costs. We have coaching courses where we emphasise enjoyment for the kids above all else but the message doesn't seem to get through to these people.

"At these courses, the coaches that seem to go overboard don't have much input. They just sit there and don't ask questions. Their body language tells it all. Unfortunately they also have a habit of playing their strongest team most of the time and some kids don't get much game time."

McFadden says the over-coaching trend is more of a city problem, with country boys seeming to have more fun and more game time.

"We would like to see the clubs working more closely together to address these problems. I am finding it quite alarming but we can't fix the issues without the help of the clubs."

Daryl Goldsmith, an executive committee member of the East Coast Rugby Union, coaches young kids in a combined competition with Poverty Bay and says things aren't all that rosy in rural rugby either.

"We have one coach who screams at his players like a drill sergeant before and during the game and also while they are warming down. The guy is just putting a target on his players' backs. Our young kids can't wait to get on the field and get into them."

East Coast chief executive Ned Ihaka says a number of young teams are playing to a structure which is limiting the growth of the players.

Bob Bigelow, a former NBA basketballer, wrote a book called Just Let The Kids Play.

Bigelow believes that junior coaches are killing sport with their emphasis on winning, which is screening out late bloomers, and burning out naturally talented youngsters.

"Coaches who want to win will automatically figure out who their better players are and give them more game time," Bigelow says.

"This only discourages the other kids."

Sky sports rugby and league commentator Ken Laban has spent years coaching both codes and says: "Some of these coaches are parents who are foolishly living out their dreams through their kids and place far too many demands on those in their charge. There is a period in kids' lives when the result doesn't count; it is the social aspect that matters. The fun aspect is taken away by this madness."

Nor is New Zealand alone in this. South Canterbury rugby manager Cam Kilgour spent two seasons as a rugby development officer in Queensland and sees the state of junior rugby in Brisbane as an "absolute mess".

"The vast majority of coaches there coach their kids' teams like a Super 14 side and the player drop-off is huge."

The NZRU has instructed that all juniors must play at least half the game but this is not being adhered to in some cases. A couple of boys in my son's team are getting on to the field for an average of only 20 minutes a game. These boys are in their first season of rugby and are thinking of giving it away.

Otago rugby club and school liaison officer Brett Compton believes this is because the attitude to win is too prevalent.

"Some coaches are too pedantic with the result and are far too competitive. If boys are coached this way at 10, what do you have to offer them when they are older?"

Former All Black hooker Bruce Hemara believes the coaching of junior rugby needs to be more closely monitored by unions and clubs alike because, in the end, it is just for the kids - and some coaches need to realise that.

Research for this story included contact with every provincial union in New Zealand. A few claimed they had no problems in this area whatsoever.

Tasman rugby development officer Kahu Marfell disagreed: "You are kidding yourself if you say it doesn't happen in your union and it needs to be nipped in the bud to stop it from festering. As a union, you need to get in there and fix it."

However, that can be difficult. My son's club employs a rugby development officer answerable to his employer, not the union. If the club is demanding results from junior teams, then that is his focus, not the enjoyment and proper development of the youngsters.

With more than 500 junior players under his umbrella, there is a tendency to produce robot coaches, who in turn coach the players into robots with little flair and ability to think for themselves on the field. Sound familiar? Just like Super 14, if you ask me.

It doesn't sound like fun either. A child is more likely to learn in a team that wins a few and loses a few than in a team that constantly wins or loses by 30 or 40 points.

My son has played almost all of every game this season but feels for his friends constantly on the sideline. They have registered to play the game, not act as cheerleaders. Some kids don't get a fair go - in spite of the fact that many kids develop into good players at a later age. Some might even be tomorrow's stars. Unfortunately, some coaches can be difficult.

A former All Black, who wishes to remain nameless, told me last season that he approached his son's coach to question the intensity of the trainings and was basically told he didn't know anything about rugby, even though he had been an All Black and played over a century of games for his province. That coach had next to no rugby involvement previously but, apparently, is an expert now.

Parents are a key element. Too often parents are supporting this trend because they believe coaches must know what they are doing. If it looks too much, then it is. Ten-year-olds don't need two-hour fitness tests. The rule of thumb is they should train no longer than the length of the game they play.

My son's team has a vast coaching and support staff - all that's missing is a nutritionist and psychologist. They even train right through summer.

It's great to have a coach, of course, but it's all way too much, isn't it? Just let the kids play.