Transition & Retention Delivery Notes
Youth to Senior Workshops
Workshop Overview
This suite of workshops is designed for Coaches, Players, and Parents/Guardians. They provide insights into specific topics, with player workshops intended for delivery before or after training sessions. The coach and parent/guardian workshops are designed to last 30-40 minutes and can be delivered in a single session or multiple sessions, depending on what best supports your environment.
Providing clarity on your club’s values and culture while establishing personal and team values and culture.
Providing clarity on your club’s values and culture while establishing personal and team goals.
Delivery Order
Where possible, we recommend following the delivery order to best support Club Volunteers, Players, and Parents/Guardians. If you have already covered a specific topic in another format, you can deliver the remaining workshops to complement and enhance your previous sessions. Goal
Explore how people experience change and how best to support the emotions they display during times of pressure.
Understand pressure, explore how you and others handle it, and establish codes of conduct.
Understand what volunteering is, its benefits for both you and our club, and the future opportunities.
Clarifying your club’s values and culture, while establishing a code of conduct.
Developing an understanding of the importance of a unified Philosophy, while developing club specific Philosophies.
Provide guidance for a consistent delivery of Player Goal Setting Workshops, while support volunteers to set their own goals and philosophies.
Clarifying your club’s values and culture, while connecting to their family values.
Exploring positive culture and the role Parents/Guardians can play to support their young person.
Guidance
The following workshop delivery notes align with the suite of workshops developed by Scottish Rugby to assist clubs in creating a comprehensive transition and retention programme, ensuring full support for everyone involved in rugby across Scotland.
While these resources can be used as standalone workshops, for maximum impact we recommend that your club has the following in place:
1. An active Club Development Plan with clear Transition and Retention goals, supported by specific "Plans to Achieve."
2. Completion of the ‘Introduction to Transition and Retention’ workshop, delivered by your regional team, with an active action plan based on the learnings.
3. A current and relevant Club Handbook
4. A defined and active Transitions Officer role within the club.
5. Completion of the ‘Youth to Adult Transition and Retention’ workshop, delivered by your regional team.
6. An agreed Club Workshop Delivery Plan to ensure these workshops support transitions and retention at your club.
The workshops are divided into three categories: Volunteers, Players, and Parents:
1. Volunteer Workshops: Designed to enhance volunteer development. We recommend delivering these as part of a broader volunteer update, potentially incorporating a practical coaching element to help develop a club-specific Blueprint aligned to Scottish Rugby’s Blueprint.
2. Player Workshops: These 15-20 minute modules are designed to complement regular coaching sessions by fostering understanding, sparking discussion, and producing specific outcomes. They can be enhanced with game-specific elements, video analysis, or team-building activities.
3. Parent Workshops: Combining elements from the Volunteer and Player workshops, these focus on key areas for the club while establishing clear values and codes of conduct. They are vital for supporting youth players and strengthening the connection between parents and the club.
These resources provide an excellent way to engage everyone in your club. By involving senior players, coaches, and club leaders, you can foster a greater sense of community and break down barriers to participation and volunteering. Regularly delivering and supporting these workshops will ensure that everyone in your club understands its values and culture, contributing to the growth of rugby in Scotland.
Players Workshop
Delivery Notes
Players - Culture and Values
Clarifying your club’s values and culture, while setting personal and team values.
Outcomes:
1. Understand different types of values and how they guide individuals and teams.
2. Clearly understand the club’s core values and their impact on the club and its members.
3. Identify personal and team values and how they match with the club’s values.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2, What are values? Explore types of values and explain what the definition of a value is
Slide 3, Values impact Everyone Provide an understanding of the wider impact of the game in Scotland.
Slide 4 & 5, Club Values
Slide 6, Connecting Values and Culture
Slide 7, Players Values and Culture
Players have a full understanding of the Clubs Values.
Players understand the connection between values and Culture and how they link to Rugby values.
Individual exploration of Values and Culture, time for self-reflection.
This can be delivered as a 'Tell' Session or Players can be divided into small groups to explore different types of values. For example, "School Values – the principles teachers and students follow to ensure everyone is supported in learning.”
These principles align with Scottish Rugby and the broader effort to retain people in the game. When everyone supports a positive culture, rugby becomes stronger and more sustainable for future generations. Everyone has a responsibility to uphold the values of rugby.
The values shown are from Scottish Rugby. These slides should be updated with the club's own values, and the explanation should clearly define each value and its significance.
Culture is how actions reflect the written values. Divide into small groups to discuss actions that align with the club's values. For example, "Respect: Players clean the changing rooms after training and matches, both home and away, showing respect for the environment, regardless of the result."
Instruct the players to write down their answers to the four questions, addressing one question at a time with 90 seconds for each. After each response, gather feedback and record notes to be shared with players and parents after the session.
Post-Workshop: Gather all feedback from the workshop and incorporate relevant details into the slides, with a focus on slide 7 and the actions the team agreed on to align with the club's values. This will shape your team's culture. Share the updated content with players and parents, and schedule regular team check-ins using the slides to ensure that the values and culture of rugby and your club are consistently upheld.
Players - Goal Setting
Providing clarity on your club’s values and culture while establishing personal and team goals.
Outcomes:
1. Understand different types of Goals and how to structure goals effectively.
2. Set Team Goals and Players Behaviours.
3. Introduce individual player goal setting and share template to start setting goals.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2, What is a Goal? Understand long-term and short term goals and there interconnection.
This can be delivered as a 'Tell' Session using the information on the slide. or
Players can be divided into small groups to "define long-term and short-term goals."
Clarify the connection between the two types of goals. For example, a long-term goal might be, "Make the 1st XV starting team by the beginning of next season and consistently play 60 minutes." A series of short-term goals would then be created to support achieving this long-term goal.
Slide 3, SMARTS Provide an understanding of the SMARTS principle.
Slide 4,5 & 6, Outcome and Processed Goals
Players understand the difference between Process Goals and Outcome Goals
Slide 7, Chat Function Set Team Goals and player behaviours.
Slide 8 & 9, Player Goal Setting Template shared to support players to develop personal Goal
Share the slide content and refer to it when setting goals on slide 7.
Review the four provided examples and use the SMARTS principles to identify how the goals align.
Read each goal to the players, then split them into small groups to identify which are outcome goals and which are process goals. Follow up with a group discussion to highlight the differences and reinforce their understanding.
Divide into small groups and create one team goal using the SMART principle, focusing on the process rather than the outcome. Avoid result-driven goals, such as winning the league or winning 5 games, as external factors may affect those outcomes.
Share the template with the players, explaining that it is intended to help them develop personal goals. Emphasize that it is not meant to be completed during the workshop.
Post-Workshop: Add 3 to 4 team goals and 3 to 4 player behaviours to slide 7. Share the updated slides with players and parents and offer support for completing a personal goalsetting plan.
Players - Developing Connections
Explore how people experience change and how best to support the emotions they display during times of pressure.
Outcomes:
1. Understand various reactions to change.
2. Distinguish between outward expressions and internal emotions.
3. Develop a proactive action plan to support change in a positive and constructive manner.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2, Managing Change?
Understand how you manage change and that everyone has a different response.
Slide 3, Emoji Visible emotions and how we identify them.
Assign a space in the room to the 6 main headings on the slide, ask players to stand where they feel they best fit based on:
• "They are happy with the change and understand what's happening.
• "They are not well informed and do not understand the change."
Explain: "Everyone reacts to change differently, influenced by their mindset, stress levels, and personal situations. Change can be positive when everyone is well informed."
Ask players to identify the physical emotion behind each emoji and share how they interpreted it. Discuss if anyone sees it differently. Highlight that visible emotions are what people express outwardly, and then transition to the next slide.
Slide 4, Emotions Iceberg Exploring physical and mental emotions.
Slide 5, Supporting Change
Determine how the players want to be supported and identify the key areas that matter most to both the players and the team.
Referencing the Emoji slide, explain: "We can only see physical emotions. A change in someone's usual behaviour might indicate that hidden emotions are surfacing. These emotions are normal, and discussing them helps manage underlying concerns."
Use the middle quote on the slide to discuss stress both on and off the pitch. When under extreme pressure, performance suffers like when a coach is shouting at the referee, they miss the opportunity to support the team effectively.
Divide into small groups and use the prompts under each heading to guide your discussion. Take detailed notes to help shape the club's support for both the teams and individual players.
Post-Workshop: Add notes Slide 5 and send to both players and parents to support next steps. Create a plan that support how the players want to be support and include others within your club, for example, Director of Rugby, Youth Convenor, Development Officer and Child protection Officer, where you think it’s appropriate. This will help build a transition specific to the team and age group.
Players – Developing Relationships
Understand conflict, explore how you and others handle it, and establish codes of conduct.
Outcomes:
1. Understanding how you deal with conflict.
2. Understanding how other deal with conflict and create an action plan to improve and support the whole team.
3. Create and agree a player Code of Conduct
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2, What is pressure?
Understand how as individuals deal with pressure
Slide 3, Chat Function Dealing with disagreements and behaviours.
Have the player take some time to reflect individually and write down their responses to each question, starting with identifying a specific conflict they’ve experienced.
Here are a few examples to consider: “You were not selected to play for the team,” “A friend pressures you to do something you're uncomfortable with,” or “You changed schools and are adjusting to a new environment while forming new friendships.”
Divide the players into groups and ask one question at a time, noting the behaviours identified during the discussions. Afterward, have the groups discuss the agreed-upon future behaviours, aligning them with the team’s current values and goals from previous workshops.
When discussing teammates' behaviours, encourage players to make general observations without singling out individuals. For example, they might note behaviours like shouting at a player or making negative comments. Focus on developing supportive behaviours, such as encouraging teammates to try new skills regardless of the outcome. Creating a “development-focused environment”, more information can be drawn from page 11 and slide 9.
Slide 5, Code of Conduct Increase Clubs code of conducts visibility and connect workshop discussions to codes of conduct.
Present the code of conduct for players and coaches, emphasizing the priority areas for your club and the key topics for discussion during the workshop.
Post-Workshop: Update Slide 3 with notes from the session, sharing the slides with players and parents. Highlight any key areas of discussion, development and strengths. Provide reference point for your club code of conduct.
Players - Youth Volunteering
Understand what volunteering is, its benefits for both you and our club, and the future opportunities.
Outcomes:
1. Identify the current opportunities available within your club
2. Explore the benefits of volunteering and how they support personal development.
3. Set goals that align with your individual growth interests and ambitions.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 3, Volunteering Opportunities.
Slide 4, What will you gain from volunteering.
Share and explore the opportunities in your club, with your sponsors/partners or within the wider sporting network.
Direct focus to the young persons personal development, advertising the wider benefits of Volunteering.
Slide 5, Individual Benefits
Spotlight on 6 Key areas the support personal development.
Slide 6, SMARTS Recap on Goal Setting Principles.
Slide 7 & 8, Planning and further opportunities.
Provide young people with a goal setting tool aligned to the “Goal Setting” Workshop and share future opportunities.
Revise, add, or remove content to better align with your environment.
You can share specific examples of opportunities available within your club, or facilitate a discussion using the on-screen images and text: “What opportunities interest you? What qualities would you bring to the role, and how would it support your own development?”
Instruct the players to write down their answers to the four questions, addressing one question at a time with a suggested time allocation of 2 minutes for each section. After each response, gather feedback and take notes to share with players and parents after the session.
Examples are provided to prompt and support their reflections.
Notes are included in the "Notes" section of the PowerPoint to support your presentation and highlight the benefits of volunteering. You can access the "Notes" in the "View" menu, and they will be available in presenter mode to assist with your delivery.
Delivery notes are available on page 6 and slide 3 of the Goal Setting workshop. We have also included four updated examples of youth volunteering goals.
Details on Goal Setting on page 6, Slides 8 & 9.
Future opportunities should be updated with the latest information and, where possible, hyperlinked. The outlined areas in slide 8 are for guidance only, and additional training opportunities from Scottish Rugby can be found on SCRUMS or by contacting your regional team.
Post-Workshop: Update slide 4 with feedback from the night, circulate the slides to attendees and ask them to express interest in volunteering opportunities, follow up with support to develop a volunteering planning document.
Volunteer Workshops
Delivery Notes
Volunteer - Values and Culture
Volunteer - Philosophy
Developing an understanding of the importance of a unified Philosophy, while developing club specific Philosophies.
Outcomes:
1. Provide an overview and example of what a philosophy is.
2. Develop a Coaching Philosophy for your Club.
3. Develop a Playing Philosophy for your Club.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2, What is a Philosophy?
Slide 3, Developing a Club Coaching Philosophy
Provide context to a philosophy and examples to support a club specific development.
Create the guiding principles that all volunteers should follow when supporting players at your club.
Read the overview information in the blue box for context and then split into small groups to identify key areas with the two examples provided. Consider what the brands offer and how this connects the wider impacts they aspire to achieve?
Using the questions in the Blue Box, Split into small groups and detail what your club offers/wants to offer.
Using the Examples in the white box and the detail that has been generated by the Questions 1,2 &3, Split into groups and ask your volunteers to create a Draft Club Coaching Philosophy. This should be focused on the holistic development of individuals and teams.
Slide 4, Developing a Club Coaching Philosophy
Create the Guiding principle that all team will adopt to ensure players are supported in line with the clubs ‘Blueprint’
Using the 3 questions in the blue box, split into small groups and generate feedback on a playing philosophy for your club. Examples have been provided to support and steer conversation.
Post-Workshop: Agree a follow up session date and provide an opportunity for those involved to feedback further information between sessions. This can be linked to the Goal Setting Workshop for Volunteers.
Create a final Coaching Philosophy that has been agreed by the club.
Create a Final Playing Philosophy that has been agreed by the Club.
Publish you Clubs Philosophy for all members and have it visible in your club.
Volunteer - Goal Setting
Provide guidance for a consistent delivery of Player Goal Setting Workshops, while support volunteers to set their own goals and philosophies.
Outcomes:
1. Understand different types of Goals and how to structure goals effectively.
2. Set Coaching Goals and Volunteer Behaviours.
3. Introduce individual Coach/Volunteer goal setting and the development of a plan
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2,3,4,5,6,7, Player Workshop Overview.
Understand the Slide content and how to deliver to Players.
Provide an understanding of Goal Setting from a personal perspective.
Slide 8, Player Goal Setting Set Volunteer goals and behaviours.
Slide 9 &10, Create a Coach Action Plan
Slide 11 &12, Create a Volunteer Action Plan
Create a draft Action Plan to support individual development aligned to your Club.
Use Delivery notes on Page 6 to provide an overview and run volunteers through the player workshop content.
Create a draft Action Plan to support individual development aligned to your Club.
Using the SMARTS principles create goals form the 3 outlined areas, use the blue boxes to record the agreed goals/actions.
Utilising the Template provided and the notes from the Philosophy, support each coach in the development of a draft plan. The Plan should align to your Clubs Philosophy, Values and Culture. If this is the 1st time a coach has created a plan then ensure they have a plan that the aligns to external facts likes work, family and other volunteer commitments and is ‘Realistic’.
Utilising the Template provided and the notes from the Philosophy, support each volunteer in the development of a draft plan. The Plan should align to your Clubs Philosophy, Values and Culture. If this is the 1st time a Volunteer has created a plan then ensure they have a plan that the aligns to external facts likes work, family and other volunteer commitments and is ‘Realistic’. This plan may include personal life objectives and career development objectives, this should aid in the holistic support your club can provide to volunteers.
Post-Workshop: Add 3 areas to each of the Blue boxes on slide 8, this will then become the volunteer groups collective goals.
Ask volunteers to record their own personal philosophy and record the detail for the next workshop.
Agree a date to deliver a follow up session and consider how this session can be linked to a Club ‘Blueprint’ practical.
Parents Workshops
Delivery Notes
Parent/Guardian - Culture and Values
Clarifying your club’s values and culture, while connecting to their family values.
Outcomes:
1. Understand different types of values and how you support everyone in your club.
2. Clearly understand the club’s core values and their impact on the club and its members.
3. Identify personal and team values and how they match with the club’s values.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 2, What are values? Share Learnings from Player Value and Culture workshop
Slide 3, Values impact Everyone
Provide an understanding of the wider impact of the game in Scotland.
Slide 4 & 5, Club Values Players have a full understanding of the Clubs Values.
Outline the process used with players and volunteers to develop the club’s values, ensuring these align with the guidance provided to players on understanding various types of values. Refer to Page 5 for additional delivery notes.
These principles are aligned with Scottish Rugby's wider initiative to retain individuals in the sport. By fostering a positive culture, we strengthen rugby, making it more sustainable for future generations. It is everyone’s responsibility to uphold and promote rugby’s core values.
The values presented are from Scottish Rugby. These slides should be customized with your club's specific values, along with a clear explanation of each value and its importance. Ensure each value is defined in a way that highlights its significance to the club's culture and overall mission.
Slide 6, Connecting Values and Culture
Slide 7, Players Values and Culture
Players understand the connection between values and Culture and how they link to Rugby values.
Individual exploration of Values and Culture, time for self-reflection.
Culture is demonstrated by how actions reflect the written values. Split into small groups to discuss behaviours that align with the club’s values. For instance, "Respect: Players clean the changing rooms after training and matches, both at home and away, showing respect for the environment, no matter the outcome of the game."
Ask parents/guardians to write their responses to each of the four questions, giving 90 seconds per question. After each question, collect their feedback and record key points, which will be shared with both players and parents after the session.
Post-Workshop: Gather all feedback from the workshop and incorporate relevant details into the slides, with a focus on slide 7 and the actions the team agreed on to align with the club's values. This will shape your team's culture. Share the updated content with players and parents, and schedule regular team check-ins using the slides to ensure that the values and culture of rugby and your club are consistently upheld.
Parent/Guardian - Culture and Values
(Developing Young People)
Exploring positive culture and the role Parents/Guardians can play to support their young person.
Outcomes:
1. Exploring Mastery Culture principles and the long-term benefits.
2. Provide guidance on supporting the ‘Process’ to build confident individuals.
3. Provide guidance on having better conversations to build resilience and reflective individuals.
Slide and Content Learning Outcome Delivery Notes
Slide 9, Positive Culture. Explore Scoreboard and Effort Cultures.
Slide 10 & 11, Reward the Process
Explore 8 areas that can support the development of a young person and reward them for effort.
Divide the room into two groups: ‘Scoreboard’ and ‘Effort’. Ask each group to identify one benefit and one disadvantage of these two types of cultures. Encourage them to also consider what behaviours might be displayed on the pitch under each cultural approach
Next, split the room into four smaller groups. Assign each group a specific content box to review. Ask them to discuss examples of how they’ve used this content in the past and what impact it had on the young person involved.
If no past examples are available, prompt them to consider how they might use the content in the future and what impact they believe it could have on a young person.
Slide 12 & 13, Better Conversations
Support parents with conversation ideas
Slide 15 , Code of Conduct
Raise Awareness of the Club Code of Conduct
This resource is designed for parents to refer to. Encourage parents to incorporate these topics into their regular conversations. Using open-ended questions works best, and follow-up questions show their young person that they are actively listening.
Share your club's code of conduct and ensure parents/guardians are aware of the expected standards. Raise awareness of these guidelines to promote understanding and alignment with the club’s values.
Post-Workshop: Gather all feedback from the workshop and incorporate relevant details into the slides, with a focus on slide 7 and the actions the team agreed on to align with the club's values. This will shape your team's culture. Share the updated content with players and parents, and schedule regular team check-ins using the slides to ensure that the values and culture of rugby and your club are consistently upheld.