More confident and happier Junior rugby league players
Dr Wayne Usher, a senior lecturer at the School of Education and Professional Studies with extensive experience in education and sport coaching, has worked closely with the National Rugby League to align the NRL ’s Player Development Framework with national and international junior sport models.
Dr Usher, in collaboration with NRL’s Game Development Officers, carried out a global study of best practice around participation of children and teenagers in sport and found a significant need to promote child-driven game development instead of traditional delivery of sport which was adult focused. The collaboration led to the 2019 launch of a suite of NRL initiatives that have built on the research findings.
The research demonstrated that sport environments set up for adults were not necessarily fun for juniors, and that training structures and the heavy focus on competitive sport needed to shift to a more child friendly type of approach which is fairer and safer, and with less pressure on the kids. The findings showed that a win-at-all-cost adult environment was pivotal to a fall-off in participation rates among junior players and made the NRL implement new initiatives which are already reversing this trend. Kids love the game of rugby league but pressure to win and physical mismatches were discouraging them from coming back to the sport. Parents would say, ‘I’m not going to let my 13-year-old get tackled across the field by a 100kg player of the same age because of weight differences’.
The NRL launched seven initiatives in response to Griffith’s research findings, including a weight related initiative, a tackle safe initiative, and an 18-month age-range policy. This policy allows for the maturation of young teens and helps to prevent young players coming up against others who are almost 12 months older. A further initiative is the RISE program which focuses on three key areas of player development, namely technical and tactical skill development, physical development, and socio-emotional development.
The NRL has highlighted the quality of the RISE program in developing young players so the right players are available to the NRL talent pool at the right time. The NRL management have pointed to the socio-emotional component of the program and its important role in ensuring teenagers are not set up for a fall. “You will have kids who maybe had the benefit early on of growth and maturation or whatever factors may have been in play, who have a perception of what the sport is to them, and then when things level out a bit, they get a bit disillusioned about where they see themselves in the sport.”
This view was also supported by the Queensland Rugby League welcoming Griffith University’s input into the socio-emotional aspects of the RISE program. “That really lifts the bar. It starts to shape the players’ resilience, their self-awareness, and their ability to be ready at those later ages when selection comes into it, to understand there is selection involved but also hopefully to better deal with it and maintain a healthy balance sheet in their life.”
Dr Usher examined the impact of the NRL initiatives and found 99% of participants in the RISE program had experienced an increase in confidence. There were also positive findings in relation to enjoyment, decisions by parents and children to continue their involvement in rugby league, and a willingness to recommend the initiatives to others.
Kids experienced increased confidence across all seven initiatives, and these created opportunities for kids to experience fun involving appropriate levels of challenge in a suitable skill-play environment. These experiences can increase participation levels while having positive effects in areas like self-esteem, physical literacy, and mental and social wellbeing.
Dr Usher’s research findings, combined with international research, have impacted the foundational principles of the NRL’s Player Development Framework and led to the embedding of three principles – known as the 3Ps – into the framework. The 3Ps refer to attracting and retaining participants, nurturing performance in terms of skills and technique, and fostering personal wellbeing and development. The RISE program, another great outcome of Griffith’s leading research in Education, is being rolled out across 22 locations in Queensland during 2022.
