A lot has been said about the top two inches winning or losing rugby games. But no one really goes on to explain how to win with the top two inches. This article (Part 1 of 3) will explore some of those options.
Back in my playing days, I was thrust into the role of captain-coach, even though I really was a reluctant leader. All I really wanted to do was play some social rugby, and have a few beers afterwards.
The reason I found myself in this predicament was that we were losing badly that year. We were near the bottom of a 12-team competition and were two-thirds through the season. It got so bad that the incumbent coach decided he didn’t want to travel to away games anymore.
In fact, he didn’t coach again. That’s how I got saddled with the role.
That first away game I captain-coached, we were playing one of the strongest teams. They went on to win the competition that year.
We started off getting our usual flogging in the first half. Their forwards were too big and their backs were too fast and skilful. Not a lot we could do about that. At halftime, I was struggling to come up with a motivational speech.
I don’t know why, but for some reason I decided to focus on the positives and forget about the negatives.
I pointed out all the good things that we had done that first half. I highlighted a player if they made a good tackle, a half-break, or won a line out – anything to be positive. I decided that people already knew when they had stuffed up, so there was no need to rub their noses in it.
We still lost the game by quite a margin, but we didn’t play so poorly in the second half and we didn’t concede as many points as the first half. I thought I could be onto something here.
In the following games, I continued the formula. Reinforce the positive, forget about the negative. People liked having their names mentioned in halftime speeches when they had done something right. There even began some friendly competition to have their names mentioned.
Another item that dawned on me was that we were playing well in patches. Five minutes here, ten minutes there, mixed in with all the usual rubbish we dished up. I informed the guys of this in my halftime speeches.
If we could just keep extending those good patches of play until they all met up, then we would be playing to the best of our ability. I couldn’t ask for more than that.
The errors began to decrease. More passes started sticking. Moves started coming off. We even started to win our own line out ball and scrums.
Unheard of.
(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
I then contacted the Australian Institute of Sport to see if they could point me in the right direction concerning motivation and sports psychology. They were helpful and recommended some books, but they weren´t really what I was after. They were mostly about different people’s motivation levels and how to arouse them all to the same winning level.
But I couldn’t find anything about what I was doing and why it was working.
To cut to the chase, we started playing better and better each week. We just missed out on making the final four that year. It would have been interesting to hang around the next year to see what we could achieve, but I left the town for work reasons.
What did I learn from this exercise? I believe that if you want a team to perform to their full potential, then they must have self-belief and confidence instilled in them. Forget about winning too much if you can’t at least do that.
I also learnt that no one means to make a mistake. No one goes out there to fail (unless they are into dodgy gambling schemes). They don’t need flogging in public to remind them of their shortcomings. Otherwise, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and they will keep spiralling down into the abyss of dismal failure.
If I had the time and resources, the next step would have been to tape our games and then to edit out all the mistakes we made. The idea being to show it after training during the week. It would have been a very short program at first, but hopefully it would keep getting longer as the season progressed. Who knows, but I believe it would have worked.
I also believe this concept of instilling self-belief and confidence applies to the most social of rugby players all the way up to international level. They may be elite players, but they are human, after all.
So, if every country has elite players, then what separates the best from the rest? Other than a couple of X-factor players, I firmly believe it’s in the top two inches… and self-belief and confidence is a major part of that.
I believe that a team who truly believe in themselves and have the confidence to carry out the game plan efficiently should beat a team with just a couple of X-factor players.
Therefore, if you can firstly work out how to instil self-belief and confidence in your team, then the rest will fall into place. If you want an example, look at what Dave Rennie is doing with the Wallabies. Ask yourself: what is the big difference between the latest All Black games and the Springbok games?
I believe that Rennie is primarily about instilling confidence and self-belief in the Wallabies. The ability, confidence and self-belief of Quade Cooper and Samu Kerevi was also infectious and really lifted the rest of the team.
Has anyone else had any other experiences out there in the field of self-belief and confidence in sports?
I would really like to hear your stories in the comments below.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
>the brain loses focus and slows or even stops ‘thinking’ well before the legs have given out. To my cost I know this is true! Regarding the All Blacks, I still believe they have not replaced Gilbert Enoka sufficiently. The management team might think they have all the Enoka bases covered, but I nowadays no longer trust the All Blacks to deliver a come-from-behind win with ten minutes to go.
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
There is an actual psychophysiological response on winning and losing. I suspect some people feel it more -- a bigger high on winning, and a bigger kick in the guts on losing. Here's an interesting paper: Winning and Losing: An Evolutionary Approach to Mood Disorders and Their Therapy Objective: To advance a new evolutionary model that examines the effects of winning and losing on mood and physiological variables. Previous studies have focused on the involuntary defeat strategy in de-escalating conflict. Here, we propose that there also exists an involuntary winning strategy (IWS) that is triggered by success and characterized by euphoria and increased self-confidence. It motivates efforts to challenge, and promotes reconciliation. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674371105600603
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
And also a reason why fitness is so important, particularly in the closing minutes of the game. One small lapse in concentration -- the brain loses focus and slows or even stops 'thinking' well before the legs have given out.
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
No worries... I lived in a country for a while where the Govt would just switch it off for days. Made for interesting times. Yes, it is fascinating how the mind works... It can take a lot of thought to word statements that don't use don't. Sometimes it's just planting a 'seed' -- like my mum did when telling my sister, "Don't you hit your brother with that shovel." A minute later I was off to the hospital to get my first lot of stitches right on the top of my head. I was 4 years old :)
Connor33
Guest
Bloody good article. And also agree with your comments highlighted by Jeznez: “no one is going out there intending to make mistakes.” I don’t know, I prefer a half glass full. But to be sure I don’t dream in cartoons or deposit in rainbows. Perhaps the Roar could set up a dedicated post each week, say Friday: “Finish up the week on Positive!”
ethan
Guest
Yes I wish I'd understood it better at the time. I was aware of the irony always getting dropped when I least cared, and never getting dropped when I most cared, but only realized upon reflection it was all to do with my style of play. Of course not every dropped catch falls neatly into categories like that, but it was certainly a trend. It's also no surprise to me now my dad has a terrible track record as coach, despite being knowledgeable about the game. He always blames the cattle. In rugby, from a mental point of view, it wouldn't matter much whether you set inside or out, so long as which ever option chosen was committed to. So long as you tried to dictate terms in defense. From a physical point of view it might matter though, whether you had speed or physicality. From a tactical point of view it might matter too, whether you wanted them to go towards the sideline or stay in.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
I was too slow Jez, so I would try and stay outside my opposition player. Another method was to try and tackle in pairs. The first one aimed for the inside shoulder or a bit more of the attacking player. This forced them to step outside the first defender. The 2nd defender tucks in behind and slightly to the outside of the defender side stepped, hopefully straight into the path of the 2nd defender. Kind of like a reverse shepherd? Spectacular when it came off. The attacker usually doesnt have time to side step twice. Hunting in pairs makes sense when you can.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
Mindset is crucial. I can remember having a real lean trot at cricket, I couldn´t score a run to save myself. One day I went out there with the same lack of confidence. I was shaky and nicking them all over the place. Then I was dropped in the slips. After that I said well, stuff it. I need to take control here and take advantage of the life given me. I went on to make a decent score. Nothing else changed, just a small change in mindset.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
Ah yes, the good old nerves coming into play. Learning to get on top of them is a real skill. My Father used to say he could tell from the first ball if I was going to make runs that day. And he was right. Sadly, he couldn´t give me any tools to get over my nerves. More in Part 2.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
It would be great to video every good thing the players do and show it back to them after the game. Not everyone has the time or resources for this, so I see you´ve found a good work around.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
Yeah, I think thats what they mean when they say the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And that should be the coach´s job to make that happen.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
And we will touch on visulaization again in Part 2.
Robert DeHoy
Roar Rookie
Its a continuous feedback loop isnt it? Whether negative or positive. Instill some self belief leads to better results leads to more confidence and so on.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Jez, very true and I had forgotten about that aspect. Where would a rugby club be without singers and odd songs?
jeznez
Roar Guru
those unsung 4th and 3rd graders while unsung, they are often great singers!
jeznez
Roar Guru
Nice one Ethan. Find your comment on the impact on fielders due to your mindset fascinating. Within a rugby context helping guys 'dictate terms' is big. Easiest example is on defence - getting players to just be switched on to setting up inside or outside the player they are marking. Do you set inside and back your pace if they try to go around you? Or do you need to set outside them and prevent the footrace, back yourself in a more direct hit?
ethan
Guest
As a junior cricketer I used to fear getting out - usually because it meant a reprimand from my father for playing a stupid shot. So I was really scared of playing stupid shots, which lead to me playing very defensively - a style he endorsed. As such, I usually looked good without getting many runs. But my highest scoring innings always came when I let the shackles off and just played positively. Usually because my dad wasn't there watching, or it was a game of no importance - like a trial game - or because it was bloody hot and I was sick of batting, so decided to try and find the rope instead of run. I was too young then to understand the reason I scored so many more runs in some innings was all mental. If I'd worked it out, I would have scored a lot more, but I gave the game away. Psychology is something my dad has a very poor understanding of, which is why it never got taught. The other interesting thing about my best innings was that I got dropped more - and usually sitters. Whereas in my defensive innings I hardly ever got dropped, hard catch or not. I think this is psychological too. Playing defensively, the fielding team didn't fear me, and felt in the contest. So when a chance came, they were ready to take it. Playing dominantly, they felt the contest was being taken away from them, or feared making a mistake themselves, thus weren't as ready for their chances.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
JC, I would be happy if Rennie can instill in the Wallabies your quote: The next bit is teaching them the skills that allows them to make better decisions under pressure, firstly for themselves in their role and then for their part of the team
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Bobby, in my experience, strong players get great joy out of winning and those of us of a different viewpoint were working not to lose.... Don't get me wrong, I loved winning. What can bring down those who love to win is their, despite their outrageous talent, they would not feel the need to do the work, some even had no great love for the game and therefore could not succeed. Whereas myself and others like me did not concern ourselves about this aspect. The ones I always felt sorry for were those who worked their backsides off but did not have a natural talent or the skill set to succeed and I still have admiration for those unsung 4th and 3rd graders. They are often the backbone of amateur rugby.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Robert, I think you have mentioned something important that I certainly missed. That is empathy, to my disgrace, I could not understand why these guys went out there certain of defeat but did nothing to improve themselves. So to sum up my failure as a coach I fully own its outcome thanks to you. Try to avoid doing this too often, my not so fragile ego cannot take it!