| PLAYER DEVELOPMENT |


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7


Attributes required to excel at the elite level


What does this mean to a coach of academy athletes?


First of all we must examine the attributes required to be an elite player.


The attributes required of players to progress to Super League and beyond are depicted above following a recent study of academies. The information was obtained by interviews with Super League head coaches, heads of youth and academy coaches.


Having a good attitude is seen as a must for an elite player. This is particularly important for an academy player, as the academy is teaching them how to make the difficult transition from youth to senior Rugby League.


There are some challenges that academy players need to confront during this transition period. They may find it difficult to adapt to both the physical demands of training and the psychosocial elements of their new environment.


Physical demands of training


Academy players need to consider themselves as full- time athletes. Their volume of training will suddenly increase from four hours per week (when they were in the Under-16s category) to 16 or more hours per week. Associated with this is the need for players to be educated in the appropriate nutritional, rest and recovery strategies, hence the need for players to adopt good self-discipline.


Psychosocial elements of the new environment


The most problematic part of a player’s path towards elite level is psychosocial. The types of problems encountered by players include:


• the ability to get on with, and relate to, adults in a working environment


• being able to work with the demands of a wider network; athletes are now going from one coach at community level to an environment where they will


i Dave Rotheram is a National Player Development Manager at the RFL


have to interact with conditioners, medics, performance analysts and other specialist coaches


• self-doubt and fear of expressing themselves in the way that got them to this level in the first place


• self-awareness of actual ability; players may not be as good as they think they are


• mental and emotional immaturity


• transition from Under-16s to an academy that encompasses three age groups (17s, 18s and 19s) and therefore not always being selected and occasionally dropped


Among the coaching team (this applies equally in the community game as the professional) there must be a contingency plan in place to know when these issues are about to emerge. You, as the coach, should ensure players understand these issues and can learn from them in order to improve.


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