USA Rugby hosted its annual Course Leader Training Workshop December 6-9 in Atlanta, Ga. with 23 USA Rugby course leaders and three NAWIRA (North America West Indies Rugby Association) Development Officers in attendance.


Upon completion of the workshop’s challenging curriculum and a stringent performance assessment, course participants received the new IRB Coach Educator License.

“The ability for our course leaders to deliver quality workshops is at the heart of developing coaches across the U.S.,” said Nigel Melville, USA Rugby CEO and President of Rugby Operations. “Partnering with the IRB in coach education ensures USA Rugby is at the forefront of coach development delivering programs that offer the latest philosophies in rugby coaching around the world.”

The course was led by six IRB trainers including Gary Henderson of the RFU and Mike Luke of the IRB, as well as four USA Rugby trainers: Brett Burdick, Nigel Davies, Norm Mottram and Rick Humm. The training workshop also included a special Thursday night scrum technique session with Bill LeClerc, Men’s National Team Scrum Coach.

“We felt we needed to take advantage of the gathering and augmented the normal agenda to build our course leaders' technical understanding with the scrum session. We also enhanced the training with a focus on a games approach rather than drills, in all of the modules,” said Rick Humm, USA Rugby Coach Development Director. “We were pleased with the performance of our dedicated course leaders throughout the weekend and are proud to continue our partnership with the IRB in equipping coaches with valuable learning methodology and skills.”

Source: Heaven's Game