Game Plan Rugby Academy offers several great opportunities: first, it’ll be a great learning environment where U.S. coaches can achieve certification from the NZRFU and their Rugbysmart program, second, it’s a chance to work with USA national team coach Eddie O’Sullivan and observe his teaching methods, and third it will be a way to meet fellow coaches in a relaxed atmosphere where we can learn from one another how to innovate and improve our own rugby programs when we return home.
Liam Messam, All Black, New Zealand Maori Rugby Captain
Playing rugby has taught me life lessons. It has afforded me with opportunities to give back to society and communities. I look to working with participants at Game Plan Rugby Academy 2010 to teach the importance and value of education.
Playing rugby has taught me life lessons. It has afforded me with opportunities to give back to society and communities. I look to working with participants at Game Plan Rugby Academy 2010 to teach the importance and value of education.
Eddie O’Sullivan, USA Rugby Head Coach
Game Plan Rugby Academy 2010 is a unique program offered to support the development of rugby players and coaches. Players will get a chance to compete for an exchange program while coaches will be given the opportunity to learn and to practice their rugby knowledge coaching youth during the academy. What a great way to raise the awareness and educational level of the sport. Looking forward to being a part of a great program as a camp director.
Game Plan Rugby Academy 2010 is a unique program offered to support the development of rugby players and coaches. Players will get a chance to compete for an exchange program while coaches will be given the opportunity to learn and to practice their rugby knowledge coaching youth during the academy. What a great way to raise the awareness and educational level of the sport. Looking forward to being a part of a great program as a camp director.
Richard Skelly | Coach Development and RDO Support Manager | New Zealand Rugby Union
Aloha,
RugbySmart was introduced by NZRU in 2001 as a compulsory annual course for ALL coaches at all levels of rugby from Under 14 up. The course was developed in response to a growing number of permanently disabling spinal and brain injuries in the game in New Zealand mainly in either the scrum or the tackle. As a result of the programme and the increased awareness by coaches of the need for safe technique – the RugbySmart mantra is ‘Good Technique is Safe Technique’ – the number of catastrophic injuries has been reduced from an average of ten to twelve per year to only one or two. Of course one such injury is too many and the challenge is to ensure that our game at all levels is as safe as possible through excellent coaching.
Safety in junior rugby is catered for through compulsory coaching courses as part of the NZRU Small Blacks Development Model catering for all levels below Under 14.
Gameplan 2010 gives USA coaches based in Hawaii the opportunity to experience the RugbySmart Programme and to benefit from an extended version delivered over two days by NZRU’s three Regional Coach Development Managers. Coaches will have the opportunity to listen to the theory as well as experience the safe techniques covered in the course through practical demonstrations and a ‘hands on’ approach and then get the chance to deliver these new-found techniques to players. This inclusive version of the course was recently very successful in Italy with over two hundred Italian coaches attending a series of RugbySmart seminars in four regions.
In addition, Gameplan 2010 will include a number of modules from NZRU’s Developing Rugby Coaches’ Course which will aim to expand coaches’ knowledge and delivery in key areas of the game as NZRU looks to contribute to the development of USA coaches through involvement in the Gameplan initiative.
Remember…….’RugbySmart is RugbySafe!’
Richard Skelly | Coach Development and RDO Support Manager | New Zealand Rugby Union
Aloha,
RugbySmart was introduced by NZRU in 2001 as a compulsory annual course for ALL coaches at all levels of rugby from Under 14 up. The course was developed in response to a growing number of permanently disabling spinal and brain injuries in the game in New Zealand mainly in either the scrum or the tackle. As a result of the programme and the increased awareness by coaches of the need for safe technique – the RugbySmart mantra is ‘Good Technique is Safe Technique’ – the number of catastrophic injuries has been reduced from an average of ten to twelve per year to only one or two. Of course one such injury is too many and the challenge is to ensure that our game at all levels is as safe as possible through excellent coaching.
Safety in junior rugby is catered for through compulsory coaching courses as part of the NZRU Small Blacks Development Model catering for all levels below Under 14.
Gameplan 2010 gives USA coaches based in Hawaii the opportunity to experience the RugbySmart Programme and to benefit from an extended version delivered over two days by NZRU’s three Regional Coach Development Managers. Coaches will have the opportunity to listen to the theory as well as experience the safe techniques covered in the course through practical demonstrations and a ‘hands on’ approach and then get the chance to deliver these new-found techniques to players. This inclusive version of the course was recently very successful in Italy with over two hundred Italian coaches attending a series of RugbySmart seminars in four regions.
In addition, Gameplan 2010 will include a number of modules from NZRU’s Developing Rugby Coaches’ Course which will aim to expand coaches’ knowledge and delivery in key areas of the game as NZRU looks to contribute to the development of USA coaches through involvement in the Gameplan initiative.
Remember…….’RugbySmart is RugbySafe!’
Richard Skelly | Coach Development and RDO Support Manager | New Zealand Rugby Union
