Mid-Season Review: 5 Easy Steps to Refocus and Setup for Success in 2025
As we hit the midpoint of the rugby season and take a bit of a break over the Christmas period it is a good time to reflect on our progress, challenges, and opportunities for the rest of the season. A high quality mid-season review helps to make sure our goals are smart, our sense of team is on track and to check are the processes, procedures, tools and technologies are giving us the results we desire. Here are a couple of key area’s we think you should consider, if there is something you think is missing please drop us a line at team@rugbysmarts.com we always love to hear your thoughts:
Sense of Team: The Glue That Holds It All Together
This time of year most people are in a pretty happy place and no doubt you’ve had a Christmas bash or two. However it is like going into half time and having just scored or conceded…. We can often get misled by the most recent events in our analysis. Have a good look at what has gone before and ask:
- Is our communication on and off the pitch up to scratch?
- Are there any splinter groups in the people pool(s)?
- Have we an appropriate level of trust and accountability?
What does your plan for the second half of the season look like, have you got regular “team building” sessions planned. They don’t all have to be formal and expensive… an informal get together to recognise birthdays or other events can bring together as well as big days out!
Strategy and Tactics: Adapting to the Season’s Challenges
Where are we at with our on pitch strategy and tactics. What are the challenges we’ve faced that we didn’t expect. A quick SWOT analysis across a couple of key area’s will tell a lot:
- Attack : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats?
- Defence : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats?
- Set Piece : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats?
- Player Awareness : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats?
After reviewing game footage can we pinpoint any tactical weaknesses and areas for improvement, is there something we are seeing from our opposition that we didn’t expect. Filter that into your plan for the coming period.
Player Development & Recruitment: Building Skills and Confidence
How are the player group getting on as individual athletes
- Are they as committed as we expected?
- Is their fitness and skills up to scratch?
- How have we managed player drop off and recruitment?
A little individualised video analysis is a good way to highlight areas of strength and weakness and can be communicated in a nice non confrontational way to help bring players that are lagging behind along. You may need to adjust your depth chart and succession plans depending on the toll of the initial part of the season has had.
Tools, Technology & KPI’s: Are They Working?
The mid season lull or break is also a great time to review the tools and technologies we are using and ensure the KPI’s we are tracking are aligned with the realities of where we are at:
- Are we spending too much time manipulating data?
- Is our feedback process optimised?
- Do the KPI’s make sense going forward?
An additional question on this front is to look at who are managing the systems? Does it all fall on one person or is the load being distributed. Can you turn your video review sessions around and have them player driven rather than coach driven?
Team & Coaches Check in
After going through the above steps a good way to finish off the process is to hold a mid season check in with the players and coaching group. With much of the homework already done, get their direct feedback on what they feel is working well and what needs to be improved. As with all our coaching, the language used in this session needs to be positive and encouraging, to elicit the right response. The output from steps 1 to 4 can help drive and guide the conversation:
- Dedicate at least 30 minutes to this session.
- Split them into groups of 5; Keep Coaches and Team Management in a separate groupings
- Get them to provide 3 things that are going well and 3 things they feel need to change/improve
Collate the responses, find a common theme and agree a couple of focus areas for the group going forward. Document it and ensure it is well communicated back to the group.
In our opinion a mid-season review is an essential part of the season and a real opportunity to ensure your team is heading in the right direction. By being open to a bit of constructive criticism at this point in the season you can go a long way to finishing out strong. Having the right people on the bus and the best set of tools in the garage will help, so if your video analysis efforts are taking too much time or you’d like to get more out of them we’d love to hear from you.
Here’s to a fantastic 2025 on and off pitch! 🏉
