Using collaborative development to harness talent & increase playing standards
Army Sport has always had extremely talented sports men and women amongst their ranks. In an effort to harness this talent and increase playing standards, Chris Fowke, Army Rugby Union Operations Officer, approached Coach Logic in the middle of 2016 about the possibility of using them for a number of his teams.
The nature of the players and coach’s jobs and the fact many of the squad work overseas made team review difficult and continuation of improvement tricky. It was because of this Chris began his search for an online platform that could overcome these issues.
It [Coach Logic] is without doubt one of the major factors, that for the first time in three years, we won the Inter-Service Championship.
Chris Fowke, Army Rugby Operations Officer
Fast forward 18 months and The Senior Team, A Team, 7s Team and Women’s Team have all been using Coach Logic extensively now for the past season; one which culminated in the senior team winning the Inter Services Championship for the first time in three years.
Many of the players involved currently have played other Representative Rugby prior to Army Rugby and certain players now deem video analysis a necessity. The number one case of this is probably Bath and England winger Semesa Rokodugini.
The Coaches at Army Rugby note the limited coaching time available to them and the resulting need to offer visual aids to training sessions to support learning and development.
Lee Soper, Forwards Coach, explained that they didn’t have the time nor the desire to sit down and do a full analysis session in front of a projector when each player can now review performance in their own personal time. Many found previous team analysis sessions tedious and mundane and even energy-depleting if done before a training session. The crossover of ever advancing technology and innovation seen in the Army was also welcome in the Rugby club with the use of Coach Logic.
Army Sport aims to capture and hone the skills used in their player’s day-to-day work and transition these into the sporting environment. Taking on new and larger responsibility was seen as imperative no different when it comes to the Rugby Club. Players are regularly asked by the coaches to lead the sessions.
With the squad being formed by players from all over the United Kingdom and Germany it makes team communication challenging. Coach Logic has bridged this by allowing easier coach to player communication through private messages and additionally wider team communications and analysis even in remote locations. The remote learnings and observations have been the number one benefit according to Chris Fowke.
In front of over 80,000 attendance at Twickenham this summer, the Army overcame the Navy to secure the Inter Services Championship for the first time in three years. It was the culmination of lots of hard work on and off the field and we hope our partnership will continue to flourish.
