Mark and I discuss more of the great work he is doing whilst coaching from Cologne as the Currie Chieftains 1stXV Squad prepare for the season.

We discuss how to engage your squad, where the lessons from understanding Gen Z fit in, team selection and the benefits of Coach Logic to make the video analysis process very easy.

You are big on engagement with the squad, let’s start there…

Engaging content is important when working on a feed, which is how Coach Logic is set up. I use Canva (free and easy graphic design platform) to help me create engaging material.

This can be more specific to game preparation, or around events we are doing.

I always put it in club colours to promote the brand and connection to that.

How does Gen Z fit into this?

Feeds are full of pictures and videos, so if I want the squad to engage, I need to put that effort into communicating with players.

If you think about your twitter feed; it’s full of engaging content based around video and images.

I also use Zoom to screen record and bring the images to life. This is handy when sharing game specific information such as setups and formations.

How are you handling team selection?

During preseason the priority is keeping track of game time as much as anything. We want to give players the opportunity to show us what they can do, alongside managing the physical side of things.

On a practical level, we are using Google Sheets, so everyone has access, and it is a ‘live’ document.

What was it like doing the match review remotely?

We’ve got a new squad, and due to the pandemic, it’s like we have 2 new intakes who haven’t had any game time.

From a review perspective I was really impressed that they all completed their analysis on Coach Logic in the collaborative way we have set it up.

Dependant on your jersey number you take a 5-minute section of the game. For example, #1 does 0-5 minutes, #2 does 5-10 minutes…

It’s not a good use of a single coach or player to sit through the game identifying events for hours when it can be done collaboratively in a matter of minutes.

If you’d like to access the full mission, and more, drop me an email

This then sets up the opportunity for discussing key moments with a very small amount of time invested.

The players will identify clips, and this opens the conversation with players and coaches alike feeding in.

On top of this, I like to identify positive impact from individuals, but highlight it to the whole squad.

There are some easy fixes at this time of the year that don’t require much discussion, but I always try to mix it up with positive feedback.

How are you supporting individual player development?

I’ll use Aaron, a young player who has just joined the team, as an example.

Ultimately I’ll try to come up with things he can get stuck into.

He’s watched over 2 hours of footage on Coach Logic since I engaged with him.

I also connect model performance for the player. In this case I’ve shared a YouTube playlist of Maro Itoje’s highlights.

It’s possible to share these in the Coach Logic feed, so it’s easy to connect to his own performance.

We base these conversations around, what we call, Game-Changers and Superpowers.

A game changer is something to improve to change your game. If it’s something that’s already strong we’ll call it a Superpower and try to improve that too.

Connecting to a model performer is a great way to do this.

Video, in all forms, is such a powerful asset.

You can watch the full discussion here.

If you’d like to find out more about how Coach Logic can support your development as a coach, and improve the performance of your team, please get in touch.