Pre – Season

What an exciting part of the year. Pre-season! Players old and new returning to the pitch, Coaches old and new connecting with their teams again and of course the big welcome to any new players and families to the Valley Fort Community.

There has been a great deal going on behind the scenes to have the season ready to go. The Youth Teams are entering their third week of training and the Minis began their season in spectacular style across three venues last Sunday.

Coaching

A welcome back to all our coaches for the new season. Both in Youth and Mini we have new faces and I look forward to the sessions they will provide our players this season.

2021 I have introduced a Core Skill guidelines to assist coaches in focusing on the elements of the game that are specifically aligned to their respective age groups. This way we can build a strong foundation of the basics of the game throughout the club and then adapt to a “style” of play we wish to see dependent on the particular group’s competency at these skills.

In addition, I have introduced a Valley Fort Coaching Process for our coaches, that is HOW do the coaches go about delivering sessions in the best possible way to ensure the best learning and performance outcomes.

I hope that everyone supports these changes so that we can attain consistency in the product we are delivering across the club at all levels.

Coach the Coaches

Last Sunday over twenty Mini coaches and Managers joined me at HKRU for a three -hour session on Coaching Process. The interactive and theory- based session was well received and I am sure had coaches looking at the way they coach a little more closely.

The session was themed around :

Keeping it REAL and let’s GROW together.

R – Realistic                                                   G – Goals

E – Enjoyable                                                R – Reality

A – Active                                                      O – Opportunity

L – Learning                                                  W – Whats Next

I thank all those present and those who tuned in on Zoom for their enthusiasm and contribution.

There will be a number of these session throughout the season ensuring our players are receiving “best practice” in relation to coaching at Valley Fort.

Yours in Rugby

JC