Nashua rugby skills project to develop young talent

Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday April 4, 2017 17:19

The ShadowBall team, who are in charge of the project from South Africa, was in Botswana last week to train young players and coaches at Wharic Park.

It was the first time that the programme was introduced to the country. BRU vice president-technical, Sean Irish told Mmegi Sport that the idea is meant to teach players how to pass and catch the ball. 

“The players pass and catch the ball by throwing it against the wall.

That gives them the opportunity to be flexible with the ball. They can do 300 passes and catches in 15 minutes.

That is not the case in normal practice session where you can do it in a month’s session,” he said. Irish said every player should be able to use the ball faster and accurately during a match.  He said internationally, Botswana competes with players who are physically bigger.

He said that means the local players should be quicker and stay away from contact. “A country such as New Zealand is doing well in rugby because they are passing the ball well.

They just do the basics. We have the speed and we can do well too if we stick to the basics,” he said. Irish added that players who are involved in the project are expected to progress in the sport in future.

He said BRU development programme in the past has not been effective as much as they had wanted. He said the downfall is ball skills.

ShadowBall chief executive officer, Gary Crookes said when a person is exposed to constant practice they improve. “If you are exposed to better practice, you improve. But if you repeat the same old habits, you do not improve.

Repetition is the mother of skills and ShadowBall gives you that opportunity. We train coaches in techniques to use in training players,” he said.

Crookes said the ambition of ShadowBall is to develop catching abilities of young players. He said back in South Africa where the programme started, they wanted players to develop their skills.

He said they found out that children were not excited to use the usual rugby ball hence coming up with a shadowball.

The shadowball is designed for players to practice passing by bouncing the ball against a wall.

The shadow ball was first introduced in South Africa in 2013. 

“We are going to leave them with a training program to follow and we are going to come back after six weeks to check on the progress made.

It is the first time we have gone outside South Africa,” he said. 

The one-day training session was attended by 24 young players and 12 coaches. Six coaches also joined in with 30 senior players.