Playbooks

[V02]

 

On 07/11/2022 at 10:43, sentoffagain2 said:

  Still think it's a simple game ,some players are better at reading a game than others.An ex international that i knew described the modern game as 5 drives and a kick.Despite having a pro career of over 20 years he would not pay to watch S.L.However a club does need two or three get out of jail moves to be used in close games but they are unlikely to come off more than twice a season.

This isn't true. There's probably potential to have upwards of 50 calls.

On 07/11/2022 at 22:42, MZH said:

I'd be very interested to see if any teams use a playbook as such, I actually don't know if they are a thing or not. It's not American Football where most of plays are meticulously designed. A lot of RL is simply playing what you see and knowing what to do in certain situations. Teams will have a general idea of in this set we want to work from point a to point b, but the game is too fast paced to be structured to that extent. Every team will have a handful of pet plays that they like to call at certain times, but is that enough to constitute a playbook?

There is a lot more structure than you think. Teams do have them. 

On 08/11/2022 at 00:28, Madrileño said:

Team Principles - in attack, in defence

Set plays (exit sets, strike plays etc)

Roles and responsibilities of players in certain positions/roles. eg: markers; who steps into dummy half if 9 has scooted and is on the floor; winger on which carry etc.

Kick return - roles of individuals. Calls whether to pass, or run. Where contact should take place on kick return etc. 

Strategy within different zones of the field.

Defensive setup in different zones of the field. eg: how many in backfield, where they are positioned. 

Defensive system: alignment on what shoulder (if any), who goes forward on defence. Where your markers go off a tackle. When tackle is complete, where the 3rd man retreats to in the system.

That is literally off the top of my head. The list though, could be endless. 

Even half serious amateur teams will use a playbook. Suggesting pro teams wouldn't is just nonsense. 

Coaches use them to force responsibility onto players, and remove any excuses such as "I didn't know what we were supposed to do here". No professional coach is going to operate without one. It is 2022, not the 1980s. 

There's also different attacking and defensive calls for different situations, different types of set where each has particular goals, different areas of the pitch and terminology for movements. 

On 08/11/2022 at 06:08, MZH said:

Fair enough. Obviously those are all things that a team will work on in training and will vary slightly from one team to another. Most teams tend to go about things in a similar sort of way, but obviously different coaches have slightly different philosophies about certain things. I suppose I've just never considered that they have an actual play book to document it all.

Broadly similar but they're still going to have different terminology. There's also a lot of scope for differences, moreso in defence potentially. 

[Ragingbull]

If someone does own  such a thing a 'play book'  please could the send  a copy to:

The Coaching Dept.

Stadium Road

Odsal

BD6 1BS 

 

If you dm your back details I'll be more than happy to cover the cost of the postage.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

On 07/11/2022 at 08:09, zylya said:

Thanks to all replies - not looking for drills at training, but looking at playbooks of set moves & shapes. I coach in both league and union and a few years ago the Japan union playbook for the 2015 world cup came out (a few years after the cup had ended) and was interested at the level of detail that went into it. I put together an attack playbook for one of my union teams this year and it ran to 26 slides and that's just the attack (but not including any scrums or lineouts).

I'm putting a league together for a university team nearby, starting with some simple stuff (kickoff formation, attack principles e.g. 2 lines of attack, defence principles, couple of simple set plans e.g. T1-3 work to one side, T4 double blocker play back the other way, T5 kick). Because some of them are so new to the game, it'll also have some key reminders (e.g. receiving kickoff: don't let it bounce out). Although I do occasionally get up there to run a session, I don't have the time to be there every week, so this is to help the senior players know what areas to cover at their training. I'm keen to see what things I might have missed that other teams put in, as well as just being interested in how pro teams (or even semi pro teams tbf) structure their gameplay.

Yes, every pro team will have one, pretty much all semi-pro teams and any amateur team with a coach taking it seriously. I did one a year ago for my team with input from a couple of professional coaches when we thought our team and league was going up a level but alas it never materialized. You have the right approach keeping it simple as it's meant to be a guide, they get terrible when they go into too much detail and get too difficult to digest. 

Send me a DM, happy to help.

[2blackrooks]

Back in the day 80’s 90’s it was pretty simple, we were told in attack do not play rugby in your own half, if the other lot were big buggers we’d move the ball around the pitch and kick deep to turn them around and tire them out. 
In defence keep a tight line a fast line to frustrate them, 1 man covered the ball in the tackle a 2nd player on the legs and get em down but above all communicate communicate communicate

My old boss always said do not leave the opposition 20 without a point, so drop goals were frequent and play for pens, it worked most of the time

[RippinandTearin]

On 08/11/2022 at 09:49, MZH said:

So what sort of things are in them? I've never heard a coach or player refer specifically to a playbook.

In this day & age players all have iPads etc & coaching staff are always sending specifics for individual players that would include moves etc, also content on opposition players & teams

I too doubt you’ll hear the word “play book” I don’t think it’s really in the rugby league vernacular, players are so used to receiving digital content 

[Madrileño]

23 hours ago, 2blackrooks said:

Back in the day 80’s 90’s it was pretty simple, we were told in attack do not play rugby in your own half, if the other lot were big buggers we’d move the ball around the pitch and kick deep to turn

In the 1980s it was also 3 points for a try, 2 for a drop goal, and you still pushed in the scrums. The "elite" level of the game was played by guys who had spent the previous week down a coal mine.

Thanks for the history lesson, but things have moved on since 40 years ago.