London Irish launched the Guinness Premiership’s first online rugby coaching toolkit for clubs and schools across the country with the help of head coach Toby Booth.
Booth joined Community Coach David Williams on the Sunbury training pitch to run through a number of the skills that will be featured in the Eteach Skill of the Week series, an innovative set of coaching videos that is aimed at giving amateur coaches free access to professional coaching drills and techniques via the internet.The pair ran through a number of different drills with help from representatives of some of London Irish’s community club partners and players from the club’s AASE programme who study at St Paul's Catholic College in Sunbury.
Speaking at the launch, creator David Williams said: “I have really enjoyed working on this project for the past six months and I’d like to thank everyone whose hard work has made it a possibility. I have been passionate about player and coach development since I first started coaching back in South Africa 13 years ago and I really hope that coaches, across all levels, will be able to benefit from this series. The clips are primarily aimed at school and club coaches and I’m hopeful that the videos will help with session planning and enhance the core skill development of the players involved.”
Toby Booth, who is an ambassador for the Eteach Skill of the Week series added: “I’m delighted that London Irish is offering such a valuable coaching tool to amateur coaches. When I was starting out as a coach it was always helpful to watch the ways in which other coaches ran sessions and drills, and to be able to do this at the click of a button is really invaluable. At London Irish we believe in the importance of nurturing young talent through our academy system, which I have personal experience of, and this is a great opportunity to spread rugby to a wider audience.”
John Wanklyn, CEO of Community Club Partner Maidenhead Rugby Club remarked: “From a coaching perspective I think it’s a really fantastic idea. We’re always looking for ways to improve our coaching and to have access to something like this is really valuable. “I’ve really enjoyed watching the demonstrations from David and Toby and look forward to putting them into action back at Maidenhead.”
Paul Clark from Redingensians RFC and Andrew and Sam Earle from Andover RFC also attended the unique event and all agreed voiced their enthusiasm for the new coaching series and think it will be very well received at their respective clubs.
Also keen to get involved in the day were representatives from Eteach who enjoyed watching the afternoon session. Speaking about their involvement in the scheme Online Marketing & Advertising Sales Manager Aishling Finnegan said: “It’s been great to see David in action today and get a real taste of what clubs and school’s can look forward too, through the Eteach Skill of the Week. I’m sure a lot of the school’s we work with will be very interested in the series.
Paul Howells CEO of Eteach added: "Eteach are proud to be a part of this great initiative, making teaching resources available to busy teachers and coaches is a great idea. I know schools, particularly primary schools, are very keen to improve in their PE delivery and this sort of initiative is going to be a great help."
To view the current Skill of the Week, just visit the home page here!