Rugby Bricks Build Their Remote Coaching Service With Hudl
29 Jul, 2020
5 Min Read
A fast-growing online rugby coaching platform is using Hudl to improve the skill sets of world-class talent. With a range of international players already on board, we learn how you too can use Hudl to improve the finer points of your game.
Peter Breen is the man behind Rugby Bricks, the rugby coaching service creating world-class talent by teaching people to work hard and learn faster. After a professional career in New Zealand playing for Otago and Northland, he saw a gap in the market for specialized coaching through short-form content.
“After following a lot of pages and seeing how their coaching was being delivered, I wanted to provide a more detailed, deeper level of coaching that was consumable and quick,” said Breen. “That was my whole plan with the rugby space, because there just wasn’t anything there.”
Peter Breen as assistant coach for the Australian Women's Rugby Team (Wallaroos).
This was May 2017. Fast-forward three years and Rugby Bricks has grown from 37 Instagram followers to over 120,000, with high-profile appearances from the likes of All Blacks Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett, as well as Wallabies fly half Matt Toomua.
Breen’s bread and butter is online kicking reviews and passing reviews. An accomplished kicker from hand and tee himself, Breen created a kicking programme named ‘10 Pillars of Goalkicking’, where Rugby Bricks will review and critique your technique against the 10 Pillars throughout the learning and improvement process.
The 10 Pillars of Goalkicking summarized in an image.
This online platform provides an effective remote two-way feedback system tailored for individual athletes and streamlines the process of analyzing a large number of Rugby Bricks kicking programmes.
“I use Hudl mainly for my online kicking reviews,” said Breen. “Players email footage of their kicks through and I'll upload it to Hudl then based on a questionnaire they fill out, I cut a playlist of clips for them to go through and watch. Probably the best aspect is the comments section, being able to reply, go back and forth on a freeze frame saying, here's what I'm seeing, is this what you're feeling? I also really like the drawing tool with arrows and circles because it draws attention to the thing you're talking about. It's simple, it works. It doesn't have to be that fancy.”
The action of goalkicking involves several specific nuances and microskills, so the analysis of these skills must in turn have a high level of accuracy.
“There's a lot of different things that we look at within the kick,” said Breen. “How far away it is from the ball, what angle the plant foot's on, towards the post or whether it's away, whether it's in front of the ball or behind the ball,” explains Breen. “I get a player to film a behind shot, a side shot and a front shot, so that I can go to their uploads in Hudl to draw arrows to show, for example, if their foot placement before the ball strike is causing issues with their kick.”
Hudl can be used by any athlete to refine your rugby skills through self-reflective and external feedback via video, drawings and comments.
Feedback has been positive from users, with many of them first time users of an online analysis platform.
“Feedback with the online system has been great as a lot of people have never used it before and then jump on and can see everything they need straight away, which has been really good,” explained Breen. “The user experience from sending playlists to view and then adding comments to those playlists is really, really easy. I've had a few people three months down the track sending their follow-up videos, and it's really cool being able to compare their initial video on Hudl to witness their improvement. playlist. People are often blown away when they see themselves and the difference that using it has made.”
"I use Hudl mainly for my online kicking reviews,” said Breen. “Players email footage of their kicks through and I'll upload it to Hudl then based on a questionnaire they fill out, I cut a playlist of clips for them to go through and watch."
The motto of Rugby Bricks is “Outwork, Outlearn” and when asked who the strongest examples of players that embody this ethos, some key international players that Breen has coached stand out.
“Aaron Smith's been a great one, we've done a few sessions now and I guess I love his attention to detail, it's probably why we've hit it off because he can just talk about passing for 10 hours straight if he wanted to,” said Breen. “He just loves it. He's obsessed with half back passing, which is really cool.
“Quade Cooper was an interesting one, I had a couple of sessions with him, just with him. He's the sort of guy where his technique is just so different to, I suppose, what the norm is. So how do you coach someone like that? You just challenge them on their points and if they haven't got good enough answers, just try to get them to get better answers because then as a coach you can fix things.
I've had a few people three months down the track sending their follow-up videos, and it's really cool being able to compare their initial video on Hudl to witness their improvement. playlist. People are often blown away when they see themselves and the difference that using it has made.
“Another great one was Beauden Barrett. He was a pretty phenomenal guy, just so talented. He can do whatever he wants with a rugby ball, which is cool to see. But I suppose one thing that I do love mentioning is I probably learn the most as a coach from coaching people that aren't that good, because you've really got to explain it well and tell them what muscles to use and how to hold a ball.
In Breen’s own opinion, elite players need video analysis more than anyone. “I think all players need it, whether it's at that top level or sometimes even more so the top level, because they've got to a certain level and probably are expected to be nailing all this stuff,” said Breen. “Whereas if you've got a bit of proof, which is video footage and saying, no, this is what I'm saying and also here it is, gets the message across really well.”
Despite coaching players at the top end of rugby union, the most rewarding success for Breen is helping develop a player all the way to the international arena in the women’s game.
“This young girl, Georgia Cormick from Melbourne, I’ve been working with her a lot and she's quite a small girl, but we've just done a lot of work to get confidence in her kicking and passing,” said Breen. “Within a 12 month period she was picked for her first test match for the Wallaroos last year. It was massive to see someone put in a lot of work and it paid off with an international start and she played really well in it. That was pretty special.”
When asked for his professional advice to young players wanting to learn from the best, combining technology with imitation is one way to make improvements in skill.
“Everyone's got a phone now, so I really encourage people to mimic their favorite players,” said Breen. “Pick a really good professional who you can see their technique works really well and you really admire what they do, then film yourself and compare it to them for a start, because they're obviously a professional for a reason."
