Forming a dream team with your co-coach
Hannah Avoth and Andy Stevens coach together at Ellingham and Ringwood RFC. Dig into their tips for working with other coaches and why allyship matters.
Hannah: We started coaching together about 6-7 years ago. I’d coached my son’s age group since he was U6s. When the girls split from boys, I moved across to be head coach for U13 girls. Andy was delivering the RFU all schools programmes and supported midweek training sessions.
We’ve coached a range of girls age groups over the years. At the moment our focus is on the U18s girls and the women’s team.
The team is a joy to coach. This is due to their welcoming nature, resilience, maturity, sense of humour and their drive to develop and improve.
They’re a pleasure to work with. My work is now in education leadership, so I rarely get into the classroom. Coaching is my respite. Even on a cold, wet Wednesday evening, I leave training absolutely buzzing.
Andy:
Another big part of it is that the players feel comfortable enough to approach us and ask what might appear to be a daft question to others.
They want to be the best version of themselves and are very open to asking for support. I feel all of this is directly linked to the environment that’s been created for them, so they feel safe in all scenarios.
Co-coaching is a skill
Hannah:
I would say we work effortlessly together (Andy will say it’s because I don’t put any effort in!!).
I’ve never played a game of contact rugby. My background is in PE teaching, so session design, observational analysis and adaption are skills that I find easy.
Andy is a level 3 coach and over the years I’ve definitely relied on his technical and tactical knowledge to develop my own coaching ability. I’ve trained him to sort cones by colour.
I think we co-coach seamlessly. We both play an active role within the sessions and happily switch between lead and support. Neither of us is waiting around to be told what to do. We’re in sync.
Andy:
I would say it feels effortless too, and we almost co-coach by osmosis sometimes.
We’re both always very active and involved in the sessions, and have been known to communicate and agree a zone progression by just a few words as we pass each other. We’ve also agreed a regression before just by the use of eyebrows!
Our rugby experience is quite different, but we blend really well as a delivery team and respect each other’s thoughts and suggestions.
Hannah:
As we go through a session, we’re constantly chatting on how it is going and whether the session/activity goals being achieved.
We’re definitely not afraid to adapt and divert from the plan. At the end of the session, we usually have a reflective chat in the car park.
In terms of planning the next session, it’s usually linked to reflections from a previous session or a ‘work on’ from the game at the weekend.
We’re always trying to embed the principles of play and problem solving through games and skills zone. I’m really bad at writing a plan ahead of time.
I’ve got ‘form’ for sending a session plan via text message as I arrive in the club car park (usually just a couple of bullet points).
I know Andy will get what I mean and will always have some tweaks and improvements. I love being challenged to consider adjustments. Then we just run with it. It works for us.
Andy:
I think one of our biggest strengths as co-coaches is our ability to adapt as we go, or even fly off on a big tangent.
We’re both constantly reflecting in action, so post session reflections aren’t usually very long as we’ve debriefed as the session takes place.
I’ll then make some notes in my journal within 48hours. These notes tend to be more emotional than technical. It will be more about how I felt the session went than the fine detail of the skill and/or game zones.
As Hannah mentioned, we can pretty much take a few keywords and build a session from there by constantly reviewing and adapting.
We’re always very open with the players. They understand we might be trying something a bit different as we may have identified an area of the game they need help with.
They know we’re trying to find the most accurate way to recreate that scenario and stretch the players to learn.
Hannah:
I think that respect, confidence and being comfortable with the other person stepping in are important for successful co-coaching.
You also need to be open to listen to and learn from the other person. It’s important to not be afraid to ask for help.
Be honest and don’t take it personally when a part of the session doesn’t work out well.
Andy:
It’s important to be confident in the other coach’s ability and their mindset.
Not everything goes to plan, so having your co-coach’s back with an adaptation to support their idea really helps.
As Hannah mentioned earlier, we’re very much in sync and we easily bounce off each other as we go.
All co-coaches need to be be fully involved, in amongst the action and happy for the lead to change hands.
You also can’t compromise yourself. Remain authentic and true to your coaching approach.
Allyship is important
Hannah:
I’m the only female coach across the 5 girls and women’s teams. Sadly I think this is still common amongst most girls’ teams.
Over the years I’ve visited other clubs and their coaches automatically talk to our male coaches who then point out that I’m the head coach.
I’m really lucky. Over the years, the male coaches I’ve worked with have been amazing. I’ve never been made to feel inferior.
They’ve advocated for the girls’ teams and have really raised the profile of our girls at our club. They get how to coach girls and get the best out of them.
Andy:
We are very lucky at club to have such a supportive group of coaches which is clearly reflected in the growth of the female game for us.
Some of these coaches are also taking their experiences and sharing them outside of the club.
Hannah:
My 20 year old daughter has always played rugby and cricket, which have traditionally been male dominated sports.
We watch a lot of sport together and both adore listening to male allies such as Nasser Hussain, Ian Wright and Ugo Monye commenting on women’s sport.
These high-profile athlete’s elevate women’s sport, combat stereotypes and improve visibility.
The passion they bring to promoting women’s sport fills my heart with joy and can only grow the number of girls and women participating in sport.
Football stadiums are full. It won’t be long until rugby stadiums and cricket grounds are packed too.
Andy:
I think male coaches need to appreciate the female game is almost a different brand of rugby - less about the size of the players and the force of the collision.
It’s more around the interplay, the evasion, the “heads up”, the support play, etc. This should also translate into a slightly different coaching approach.
The content can be the same, but the delivery and interaction with the players needs to be more detailed and more player-centric.
Having high-profile allies is really positive and helps shine the light on the female sport that it deserves.
Male coaches also need to help shine that light at pitch level and support female coaches at every opportunity.
When I think of the long list of coaches I’ve been lucky to work with, I’ve learnt the most about player interaction and getting the best out of a session from female coaches (Hannah included).
Hannah’s Coaching philsophy: I’m not sure I can really define it. I want to create a team who respect and value the contributions of the others and give their best and enjoy the experience
Andy’s Coaching Philsophy: PLAYERS
Player-Led - it’s their game, so I need to cater for their wants and needs, not my agenda.
Approachable - the players need to know they can ask or speak to me about anything.
My why - Why do I coach? Why do I coach the way I coach? Why do I coach particular groups? Why do I coach with particular coaches..?
Empowering / Enjoyable / Equitable - empower the players; it has to be enjoyable (for them and me); equitable - no one gets treated differently.
Reflective / Realistic - if we don’t reflect in action and on action, we’re not going to improve the players or ourselves as coaches. If we’re not realistic, we’re wasting each other’s time!
Safe / Sensible - we have to be sensible with our processes; the players have to feel safe.