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Merlin Gape O'Donnell - Part 1 - Developing Young Players

Merlin Gape O'Donnell - Part 1 - Developing Young Players

FromThe Journey of a Grassroots Rugby Coach (More Tracksuits less Business Suits)


Merlin Gape O'Donnell - Part 1 - Developing Young Players

FromThe Journey of a Grassroots Rugby Coach (More Tracksuits less Business Suits)

ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
Dec 5, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

This is part 1 of a 2 part sepisode
In this episode I speak with Merlin Gape O'Donnell.
Merlin works in sports development and has previously worked for England Rugby as a Community Rugby Coach.
He is currently one of the U15 DPP lead coaches for Harlequins in the UK and is currently in his sixth season for the club.
In his former Director of Rugby role at Weybridge Vandals, Merlin established a player pathway to transition young players into senior rugby and created the club’s first U21 side.
He has previous coaching roles that include being a lead coach for Surrey Rugby’s developing player programme and Head of Varsity Rugby at an American school based in England.
He has also worked as a performance analyst for London Welsh and for Wales Women whilst studying Sports Coaching & Performance at the University of South Wales.
In part one we spoke about having a blend between player led and coach led training and what gives your team energy and what takes it away.
Adapting training games to suit player ability and also how a lot of coaches are not designing sessions to develop players but to just prepare them for the next game.

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Released:
Dec 5, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (55)

This Pod is about the journey we take as grassroots coaches. As most coaching pods speak with elite players and coaches, which is great. I want to talk to the coaches on the front line, the ones out there every weekend helping at the grassroots level. We will discuss the heartache, disappointment, enjoyment and euphoria we experience as coaches of the next generation of players. We will also discuss the lessons we learnt along the way, what we would do to fix the game at the grassroots level and how we see the game in the future. You never know we might just learn something along the way.