Peebles RFC Development Officer
Annual Report to Club AGM
Season 2007 – 08
By
Graeme Paterson
The position of Club Development Officer was resurrected just over 12 months ago
and has become an integral part of the Club’s development plan for the future.
The post was possible due to the hard work of the committee members along
with the financial support of the sponsor (First XV Rugby) and the SRU.
My initial focus was to re-establish Primary School rugby in the Tweeddale
Schools Cluster, improve the Mini rugby (Piranhas) set-up and create stronger
links with Peebles High School players and staff.
There were other areas which were addressed throughout the year and are detailed
in the report within the relevant sections.
This year has been a steep learning curve for both me and the club in terms of
what has gone on in the past, what is happening now and importantly what changes
can be implemented to improve things in the future.
We have both learned a great deal about what the role of the Development
Officer is, and the priorities of the post.
The post and remit of the role is constantly evolving with changes and new
practices being sought to develop rugby both locally and on a national basis.
Hopefully this report will give you all an insight into what has been
achieved over the past 12 months and I would welcome the opportunity to hear any
feedback either at the AGM or another time.
Primary Schools:
This was one of my key points of action and a major priority was to re-establish
a curriculum input of rugby into the 9 Tweeddale Cluster Primary Schools.
This was achieved through contact with all the schools and in conjunction
with the area Active-Schools-Coordinator a programme of sessions was drawn up.
The timetable gave all pupils in the P5, P6 & P7 throughout the area a minimum
of 4 Rugby sessions along with 3 Festivals during the year.
The year was split into 3 “Blocks” with each year-group receiving their
input during a particular term with a festival at the end bringing all the
schools together.
During the year I also ran 2 new projects with Priorsford and Halyrude Primary
Schools in conjunction with the Food Standards Agency.
This involved the children receiving classroom work in relation to
healthy lifestyle and food safety along with an active session of rugby out in
the field. This has been highly
successful and will be continued next year with different schools.
I have also participated in 4 of the schools “Health Weeks” promoting rugby as a
healthy, active sport amongst the whole school from nursery classes up to P7.
Total number of sessions: 125
Total number of participants: 643
Mini-Rugby “The Piranhas”
Prior to this season the Mini-rugby set up consisted of Sunday morning games and
training sessions at Hay Lodge Park for children from P1-7 age groups.
Figures collated indicated that there were 43 players and approximately 6
coach volunteers.
It was identified that this area was one that could benefit from a fresh
approach in order to attract more players and volunteers.
Following a meeting with the coaches and organisers a proposal to move
from 1 training group to 3 centres in the short term and 4 in the medium term
was put forward and accepted. This
was seen as the best option in achieving (i)increased playing numbers (ii)more
coaches/volunteers (iii)long term retention of players & volunteers.
The structure was agreed that there would be 2 training groups in Peebles, one
on Saturday morning and one on Sunday morning.
This gave the opportunity to play rugby to children who had existing
commitments on a Sunday morning. The third training centre was created in West
Linton where a good number of players and coaches were and this lessened there
travelling and time commitments.
These changes were a success for all concerned in conjunction with the
reintroduction of rugby in the Primary Schools numbers increased considerably on
both the playing and coaching side.
The organisers of the Mini section embraced these radical changes and made them
work throughout the season. The
pressure in terms of time and costs were beneficial to all concerned.
The 3 training groups had individual training sessions, inter-group
games, several games against other clubs as well as a superb festival prior to
the 1st XV game against Gala in October.
One area which was started during this season and still requires a bit of work
on is the involvement of senior players with the mini sections training
sessions. A timetable was produced
for all to work from and initially this worked however as the season went on the
players appearances faded away. It
is important that we continue this project as the children can identify with the
senior players of the club and enjoy inter-acting with them.
All players who I spoke to said that they enjoyed taking part in the
training sessions and got something out of helping the children.
I will look at ways of improving this service this season after
consulting with all parties.
As part of the improvement to this area of the club I ran a Foundation Coaching
Course locally in Peebles for current and new mini-rugby coaches.
This was well attended and 12 coaches successfully achieved their
certificates. I have plans to
run another course prior to the beginning of season 2008-09 and am now looking
for people to fill the places on the course, and this includes any senior
players that are interested in becoming more involved.
2006-07 Playing numbers – 43
2007-08 Playing numbers – 108
Increase in playing numbers – 148%
Peebles High School Rugby
Peebles HS has a strong tradition of rugby and continues to run a number of
teams throughout the school year groups.
My main remit this year was to supplement the current P.E staff in the
coaching of the various teams at the school and establish a link between the
school and club.
Excellent working relationships were established with the staff there and I
assisted with all year groups throughout the season both at lunch-time and
after-school.
The school ran teams at S1 through to S4 with teams also competing in the Bell
Laurie Cup at U-15 and U-18 level.
The teams were staffed by the 2 teachers, Mr Changleng & Mr Lacon, and myself.
One area of development would be to see more involvement from members of
the club and/or interested parents who are able to assist in any capacity.
This could be coaching, either at lunch-time or after-school, or in a
more background role such as running touch/putting flags out/etc.
I will be advertising for such roles soon.
I also set up and ran the Borders College sponsored Strength & Conditioning for
Rugby Course with the S3 year group.
12 students took part in a 30 week course designed to give them an
education in fitness principles, diet regimes and basic weight lifting
techniques which were later put into programmes.
Girls rugby was also introduced to the High School with mixed interest during
the season as it usually conflicted with the hockey.
The base work has been done and next season we will be better placed to
plan timings of the sessions to maximise attendance.
There is interest there as 38 girls from S1-3 attended the recent Tag
Festival at Gala – the most from any school in the Borders.
As a result of the working relationships built throughout the season between the
school and club I was invited to be part of the staff on the recent rugby &
hockey tour of Canada. This was a
highly successful tour in terms of results, experiences and cementing
relationships between the school and club which is extremely positive for the
future of rugby in Peebles.
Next season will see a change to the number of teams run by the school as a
result of proposal put forward by myself at one of the monthly Borders
Development Officers meetings. This
was to have the schools concentrate on the rugby between S1 and S3 with the
local rugby clubs then taking responsibility for all rugby after that.
This will give the S4 year group far more games as they have had in
previous years due to a disjointed approach from the various schools and clubs
in the area. This is an important
year for these players and one that has seen the largest player drop-off
throughout the area and this new approach will hopefully see this rectified.
Number of sessions attended - 174
Playing numbers 2006-07 – 102
Playing numbers 2007-08 – 115
Peebles Colts
The Colts this season had started the season in a confident mood with a good
number of players retained from the previous years squad.
The season began well with some excellent wins however a mid-season slump
following a number of injuries to key players resulted in their chase for the
title falling away. Positives to be
taken from this are the number of players who were exposed to Colts rugby early
which will be good experience for them and the team next season.
The season finished with the team joint 4th in the Border Semi-Junior
League tied with Melrose, which is disappointing given the expectation at the
beginning of the season. Some
excellent “one-off” performances were achieved notably the 55-15 win over
Melrose and the gritty 17-17 draw away at Boroughmuir in the East of Scotland
Cup spring to mind.
Another positive from this season is the continued programme of integrating
final season Colts into the senior teams towards the end of the season in
preparation for the following year.
This is an excellent practice and should continue in the future.
Two members of the Colts squad received individual recognition for their efforts
with Stuart Cockburn and Rory Milne winning a place in the Reivers U-18 Squad.
This season also saw the introduction of a Colts Development XV who played 8
games during the season. This gave
the opportunity of game time to players who in the past would have played very
little rugby this year. This will
continue next year in a more structured format with all S4 pupils at the High
School coming into this squad. A
“shadow” set of fixtures has been drawn up running alongside the Colts League
games against all the other Border clubs giving them a full set of fixtures for
the season.
With this increase in teams at this important level there is an obvious need for
adults to service all aspects of the team.
We have some coaches and backroom staff in place already for next season
but would ideally like to recruit more people.
This is a big step for the clubs to take in now running 2 teams at this
level and is a great way of introducing players to the system of a 1st
and 2nd XV where they are playing for their positions.
We need to be able to sustain these teams if the club is to be as
self-sufficient as possible in terms of players and to that end a few more
people are needed and I will be looking to find them now.
Games played – 25
Games won – 14
Games drawn - 1
Games lost - 10
District & National Commitments
The area’s best young players are introduced to District rugby through the
Pathway system which begins at S2 level with one-off skills day through to the
area Squads from S3 to U-18. During
these sessions national themes are coached and players assessed as to their
ability to move onto the next level.
Last season I was involved with the S2 skills days, coach of the Selkirkshire
Blues U-15 squad during the Pathway programme in August.
I was also asked to be assistant coach to the Borders U-16 squad for the
inter-district championships and cross-border games.
This year I will coach the Western Warriors U-16 squad and again be involved
with the Borders U-16’s this time as head coach.
I have also been invited to attend the National Age Grade Programme camp
at Struan to work with the best young players in Scotland.
It is important that we provide coaches for these teams as part of our
commitment to the partnership with the SRU and is valuable experience working in
these environments with the best players in our area at the various age grades.
We can learn from the other coaches and the players which can only help
our own players back here in Peebles.
Number of Pathway sessions attended – 36
Coach Education
If we are to grow the number of players in the area then we need to supplement
them with enough coaches for each of the teams.
This is one area where a lot of clubs, including ourselves, are finding
it hard to fill the gaps.
As part of my personal development and with a view to providing a new service to
the club I completed 2 training courses at Murrayfield which qualified me to
provide localised training to potential coaches.
Following this I ran the very first Foundation Coaching Course (1 day) here in
Peebles for potential and current Mini-rugby coaches.
Running these courses locally makes them far more accessible to local
people and are easier to set-up in response to the needs of the club.
I am planning to run another one of these courses in August or September
in time for the new season and will advertise it soon.
The other course I completed was the UKCC Coach Educators Course.
The UKCC is the new system of coaching levels run by the SRU, RFU and
WRFU from Level 1 up to Level 5.
The entry level is designed to give the participant more instruction on the “How
to coach skills” rather than be overloaded with technical inputs.
It is a far more practical course during which the students are given far
more opportunity to coach sessions and learn by doing rather than listening to
days of lectures.
To date I have been a Tutor on 2 of these courses, one in the Borders (Melrose)
where there were 2 Peebles coaches taking part, and another at Murrayfield where
the students were all part of the National Junior & Senior Academies.
The next step in Coach Education at Peebles is to get as many people as possible
interested in coaching, at whatever level, and then providing them with the
appropriate courses and support. If
we can get enough people onto a UKCC course then there is a strong argument that
it should be run here in Peebles, thus saving the participants time and money.
We do need more people involved in the coaching of teams as the number of active
coaches seems to be falling, especially at the Midi and Senior level.
I would really like to see more senior players becoming interested in
doing a bit of coaching, even if it was for only a couple of years, rather than
all that knowledge leaving the game.
As a new project this year I plan to have regular, probably every other month,
coaching updates. These will be 45
minute presentations on a particular theme which will be open to all coaches at
the club. I will post details on the
website/noticeboard/email details when they are starting.
If you are interested in learning more about coaching please get in contact with
me to discuss the opportunities open to you.
Working with other parties
During this year there have been some new partnerships formed which have helped
in growing the game and making it accessible to more people.
These types of ventures are vital in our work and have seen good returns
for the work put in.
The 3 main groups I have worked with over the year are;
Summary
In short this year has been extremely busy and has seen a number of successes in
several different areas. The focus
now is to build on these successes and address some of the areas of concern.
We cannot stand still on any of the subjects in this report and must continue to
look for ways to improve and sustain the levels that we are currently operating
at.
Time is a major factor and if we can get just a few more people involved in
every area of the club then we will have the time to improve rather than just
doing enough to get by. One of the
major recommendations to the club would be to look at securing funding to not
only sustain this post past the initial 3 years, but to extending well beyond
this point.
Time is a major issue and from reading this report you may assume that this work
was done on a full time basis, however it was done “officially” on a 20 hour
week. In reality some weeks I was
probably doing nearer 30-35 hours per week.
This has led me to believe that this should be a full-time post and again
I would urge the committee and club to seriously look into any evaluating
whether this is possible.
The major successes this year have been the re-establishing of Primary School
Rugby, the increased number of players at Mini-rugby and the strong links built
with Peebles High School. These are
all long term issues and the real benefit will only be seen if we can retain the
vast majority of these players and volunteers within the game.
This is obviously a major part of my remit, but it also falls on the
doorstep of every club member, parent, teacher, player, coach, volunteer as well
to assist as we are a community club trying to involve as many people as
possible from our community.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players, coaches and
volunteers throughout the year who have supported the club and my work.
The post is a demanding one and cannot be done without the backing of
many helpers and luckily we have some excellent individuals in our club.
It has been a successful season from the youngest age group at Mini-level right
up to the 1st XV gaining promotion.
With my new found experiences of this year I am confident that together
we can build on these successes and strengthen the club in all areas, providing
a breeding ground for both participation and performance in Peeblesshire Rugby.
Graeme
Paterson
Peebles
RFC Development Officer
Tel
– 07812 028 172
Email
– graemeipaterson@aol.com