Issue 146

Ruddock Inspires Students

09th October 2006

Grand-slam winning welsh Rugby Coach, Mike Ruddock was part of a group of guest lecturers on campus recently to talk to a group of students about sports leadership, management and careers. Ruddock was the final speaker after lectures from a member of the Osprey's coaching squad and a member of the Welsh Swimming coaching team about different types of training for team sports and individual events.

Ruddock (OBE) was the first coach to lead Wales to a Grand Slam since 1978, but before he had a chance to try and retain the title he was ousted after rumours of disputes between himself and key players. He is now a Personal development manager for Acorn Recruitment, there have been rumours of him returning to professional coaching but as yet nothing is set in concrete.

His speech was entitled "Winning Teams and Effective Leadership", and covered both his personal views on managing and motivating sports teams as well as video examples of some of the sides he has managed. In the section on motivation he showed an extended video of great Welsh sporting moments, from his Grand Slam winning side, to other athletes like Colin Jackson, Joe Calzaghi, David Davies, Wales' victory over Italy in 2002 in the Euro 2004 Qualifiers and Glamorgan's famous win over Somerset in the 2004 One Day Trophy. He showed how there is still passion in Welsh sport and it is something to be proud of, even if it is not one of the heavyweight sporting powers they can definitely hold their own.

Ruddock set out his own personal views on team management, and distilled it down to several key features, cohesion, hard work, selfbelief and intelligence and talent. In amongst this he included several humorous stories and quotes from a variety of people, from Eric Cantona to Sven Goran Eriksson and some of his own personal experiences , including how he embarrassed himself on the first day of his new job, by calling the Managing Director of the company rather than the canteen to order his breakfast.

In a Question and Answer session after the speech Ruddock was quizzed on the biggest challenges he has faced over the years, and replied that it was not preparing for big games that he found trouble with, but restoring confidence and coping with loss that was the hardest part of managing a sports team. Confidence is a critical part of any team sport, and it has taken a while to restore confidence to a Welsh side that previously had none and as a result used to languish at the bottom of the Six Nations table. But confidence breeds a winning habit and Wales under Ruddock were back and playing the rugby of their lives. It remains to be seen what will happen to the national side in life after Ruddock.

He also answered on the prospect of motivating individuals as part of a team set up, and how you need to be flexible when it comes to gearing up sides for big events, as you can over motivate people. For example, if you gave big rousing team speeches before every game they would become ineffective, which is why you would only use them for special events. Clearly Ruddock's methods go deeper than any of speech could indicate. The intricacies involved in management and the psychological aspect to the game are too much to convey by talking about them. This shows the mountain of challenges involved in professional coaching. It is not simply a turn up and play issue or a matter of having the best players. More an issue of tactics and knowing your strengths and being able to exploit opponents weaknesses.

It proved to be very interesting to hear about Ruddock's thoughts on these issues, and would have been very useful for all the sporting students present with an eye to the coming season to hear such positive words. Lets hope that he has inspired the several members of the University's own Rugby team that were in the audience onto great things this season.

Inspiration is not all that Mike Ruddock will be providing the University's rugby teams as he will be running coaching sessions for the Rugby 1st's and 2nd's packs. His experience could prove crucial as the technical aspects of the scrum are detailed and undeniably complex. After a disappointing season last year this could be just be enough to help the rugby teams back into a winning habit.

However until he coaches the University sides here he is helping to coach local side Mumbles. It is good to see a coach with such quality go back to grass roots level and help build the sport from it's foundation. It will certainly do the game no harm.

Matt Cannon