A College Rugby Guide Coaches and Players Need
A College Rugby Guide Coaches and Players Need
A lot has been said and written about what rugby is, how to play it, and how to coach it—the World Rugby laws book alone is 160 pages long—and maybe sometimes too much has been said.
Like an efficiently-run halftime talk (something he addresses), Loc Vetter gets at the heart of the game in less than 80 pages, with most of those pages not completely filled.
His booklet, Notes From and About Coaching College Rugby is a gospel or manifesto, but in a way puts this write in mind of Sun Tzu’s Art of War combined with Poor Richard’s Almanac.
It brings, through anecdotes and a deep understanding of the basics of the game’s value, quick lessons on how to play, how to coach, and how to grow.
Have you ever thought that a star player might feel pressure to know everything, and so never asks for clarification or to bridge gaps in his knowledge?
When you use an analogy like “Dive out of the pool” what does that mean, and why is it such a great image?
Vetter uses an old T-shirt to help him along. The T-shirt in question came with a short list of timeless adages: Spine in Line, Look then Pass, Bend your Knees.
He starts there, and then makes it fun, interesting, and relevant.
Also … this explains the subhead: Ya Gotta Buy the T-Shirt.
Loc Vetter has been involved in rugby got over 50 years, starting at UCLA in 1969 and coaching the 1987 national championship San Diego State team. That’s a tiny piece of what he has done for the game, but the point is, he’s seen it, done it, coached it, and learned from it.
And the wisdom has been brilliantly distilled down into a book that any coach and any player can learn from and enjoy. It’s the type of book you go back to time and again. Many say they can open the Bible and find the wisdom they need. This isn’t the Bible (although there is one Bible verse in Vetter’s book and it’s a good one), but it is something you can turn to repeatedly.
Buy the T-shirt? Good idea. Buy the book? Most certainly. You’ll learn something, and enjoy learning it.
