Our trip to the StoneX Stadium in northwest London, home of the Saracens Rugby Club, included a clinic with the coaching staff of the Saracens Women youth coaches. We learned a lot about the significant preparation that players undergo before every rugby match as well as the complex rules and regulations governing the sport. Following a quick warmup and overview of the main technical skills of throwing and kicking rugby balls, we transitioned into what a lot of us had been waiting for since hearing about this field trip: a pickup Rugby game splitting our program into two sides. Following that intense match, we enjoyed a tour of Saracens beautiful facilities and the extensive memorabilia collection of a previous owner of the club.

Beginning our rugby journey, we began with a dynamic warmup that involved activating our hips and legs. We started with some light stretching that involved “opening up the gates” (hip exercises) and lunges with torso twists. From there, we progressed into some bounding movements and jogs. Once our coaches believed we were warm, we started a passing minigame without knowledge of rugby. Due to our lack of practice of the sport, we struggled to complete 10 passes in a row, but eventually, one team emerged victorious. Though this “thrown into the fire” coaching technique was absurd to me at first, I see how advantageous it was to the coaches. It made us players realize the importance of passing techniques, the rules of rugby, and the lack of skill we had going into the practice, further motivating us to learn in the following drills to play a more efficient game. In all, everyone appeared to have both improved tremendously over the course of our brief training session and enjoyed learning rugby. With shared team successes, failures, and laughs, the entire class had fun and became closer during our training. This made me recognize once again the power of unity within sport.

The Saracens staff was nice enough to allow us to tour their facilities and historic memorabilia. This tour started by seeing their impressive facilities, which I found very interesting to compare the rugby and football locker rooms. The locker rooms and facilities were admittedly smaller and a little more modest than Tottenham’s, but what I found so unique was the historical artifacts inside the Saracens stadium. From Olympic Memorabilia to Rugby trophies to Messi’s boots, they had more sports memorabilia than one could fully appreciate in one day. Our guides were also open to answering any questions possible which helped fully understand the power of the memorabilia. Another powerful artifact was the jerseys of some of the great soccer players like Pele and Maradona, showing the power of sport to connect all these countries and players. It was also great to see the representation of “The Rumble in The Jungle”, a revolutionary moment with one of the most revolutionary athletes in US history, Muhammad Ali. Overall, the hospitality of the Saracens and deep history within their walls made for a powerful representation of how important sports are in bringing the world together.

In order to make teams for the pickup game, the youth coaches cleverly asked us all to pair up without explaining what we would be doing next. Naturally, we all gravitated towards the members of our program that we were closer to. However, the coaches then informed us to play rock paper scissors, with the winners on one team and the losers on the other. This made the match more competitive and balanced, and was a neat trick to hold onto when we visit Sevilla in a month. Once we began doing drills, I enjoyed that they started with a game before getting into more skill specific drills. It got us moving around and having fun with our teammates prior to learning. It had also given us a feel for the rugby ball as most of us had not played with one before. When the coaches had us practicing our passing, I thought they made great adjustments on the fly to optimize the session. For example, we were all doing a passing drill in one group, but once we had it down we split into two groups to maximize the reps we got. This shows how numbers you are coaching are important to consider when planning sessions. It also shows how we can be flexible and adjust plans when needed. One of the more small things I noticed was the coaches’ willingness to speak up and call people out when needed. If some people were talking when they shouldn’t be, the coaches would call them out and tell them to stop. This helps with efficiency and effectiveness within the session.

The last main coaching technique that I want to touch on is their ability to understand our level. This is interesting because it can be shown in many ways. It could be that you are coaching a very high level squad, so you talk through very important tactics well. On the other hand, it could be our case. This is where the coaches acknowledged that we were new to the sport and let us play freely. They made sure we followed the rules (most of the time), but they also did not care if we messed up. They recognized we were there to learn and had fun, and they changed the way they coached accordingly.

By Dash Rierson, Owen Detmer, Blake Jones, Chris Elliot (January 13)