Anyone have a for they use to keep track of match data?

Simon JonesCoach, England

Brian

I was asked to join a club in October who were bottom of the league and had only drawn one game. After watching a game I found that, although there was a lot of talented players, we were missing many tackles which resulted in all our pressure coming to nothing. For the next game I introduced a simple but effective method of showing the players how to be accountable for missed tackles which the players really enjoy.

I have a one page Excel sheet with a list of the players names down the left hand side. Then there are two columns one entitled "Good Tackles made" and the other "Tackles missed". At the bottom, there are a couple of sub titles - "Line outs" and "Scrums" and under these are "Our ball" and "Opp ball" and then numbers won and lost under each.

I found that getting someone reliable on the touchline (a substitute, parent or ex player) to tick the boxes as the game went on and keep the stats works well. I then have a totals page which links all the results from each game and I display the results every week in the changing room. I also read out the numbers of tackles made and missed in the changing room after the game. All in a good natured way - it is not a witch hunt!

We have have seen the numbers of missed tackles fall dramatically from 68 in the first game to an average of 17 and good tackles rise. The forwards have seen the numbers of scrums and line outs won increase.It has had a dramatic effect. We were losing games but have now started winning! We have won our last 4 games on the trot!

This simple system, which can be built on to include "Line breaks" etc, has had a huge effect. Tthe players now feel that they are being watched as individuals and they don't like being the one to have missed the most tackles after a game! It isnt the only answer as good and effective coaching must accompany any system but it is a change agent.

I hope this helps you.

Simon

Rugby CoachCoach

A lot depends on how many people you have available to fill in the data you want. In my school club in Japan, we had 25 nominated players for tournament games, and about 45 who weren't playing. 10-12 were involved in match support activities (water boys, kick tee to the goal kicker, etc.), and we had a good number who were put into groups to do the same kind of record-keeping that Simon shows above. They good thing about having several groups was that we could ask each group to focus solely on ONE aspect of the game - our rucks/successful/turned over/quick ball/slow ball, and so on. Putting 2 or 3 people on one skill is good, because it can be hard to concentrate for the whole game, and they can share the observing and recording. If you have smaller numbers, I'd suggest having several people watch one thing rather than have one person on each skill. If you are skilled with a computer, Excel is great - my wife made a superb spread sheet for our fitness shuttle runs, but if not simply use ordinary lined paper - but put the paper on a clip board of some kind.

Gary DCoach, Northern Ireland

Hi Brian,

Flag this up for you, its maybe not quite what your looking for:

http://www.uafc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8990&p=159335&hilit=spreadsheet#p159335

I am sure if you asked "cables" he would send you a copy :-)