Medway Dragons is a brilliant example of what can be achieved when you have a group of people who all pull in the correct directions at junior levels. I was reading an article on them a while back and the ammount of time and money they have invested getting up to speed is a marvel.

You will note the words "vast majority", which denotes an acceptance that not all would fall into the category being referred to.
I agree, there are indeed some very good coaches at that level. However, in my experience they are few and far between, therefore, not enough kids get exposed to what they have to offer.

Accepted point, but what about in relation to my second point about super league coaching with the juniors?

The SL clubs, maybe via the RFL, should all take some responsibility for the standard of coaching at the amateur clubs in their catchment area. This should be part of the forthcoming franchises for 2012 onwards. Each club should have to employ a "Coaching Mentor" who is responsible for the development of coaching of the amateur game within their catchment area, running coaching sessions for amateur coaches, which are free for them to attend. The costs would be minimal, but the benefits could be significant if we could make it work.

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Rhinos and Giants are doing this (couldnt comment on other clubs)

Ever thought of running for Chief Executive? That is exactly what is required and has been since God only knows when.

See above

Not wishing to sound negative but, don't you think that, bearing in mind we have known about the need to improve coaching for twenty five years, the fact that you can only point to two clubs with certainty is poor? It should be an absolute requirement for all professional clubs.

Only reason ive pointed out 2 clubs is im involved at Leeds and know of the Giants set up. I would be pretty sure there are others

I applaud those clubs that have implemented such schemes; however, without an overall structure and strategy, general standards will not improve. As the man said, it needs to come from the top and there has to be minimum standards that must be achieved. Only then will we see the improvements in playing standards that are required.

Great news, and good on the clubs that are doing this, but it needs to be an RFL coordinated activity and must be compulsary as part of a SL Franchise license.

My eldest son has just started playing for his high school, having only gone there in September, and frankly the standard of coaching is abysmal. What makes it worse is that the bloke doing the coaching is actually a part time pro with a championship 1 club, so you could expect better. At a recent game of theirs I was talking to a coach of a local amateur team, and he wasn't actually that much better, so when you take this into account, we have light years to go in the overall coaching of simple skills and drills to get our kids into a position where in 10-15 years they would be capable of playing Test Rugby.

The biggest problem that the England team has, as witnessed by the latest squad selection, is a big enough talent pool, and this will never improve until we tackle the issue at junior level and provide the kids with the right structure and coaching to develop properly. We have got to get our kids into the right position to be able to learn the basic skills early and then the application in a game environment rather than the "go out and enjoy yourselves / kill the opposition" (whichever) opportunity that they are currently seeing.

We have (and will continue to produce) a decent pack of forwards, this is the bread and butter of our game and is a result of the nature of the kids who play, but the development of skills and just as importantly decision making ability is a million miles from where it should be if it is even coached at all.

i would also love to hear keith's opinions on this subject or any other subject for that matter whereby he has a possitive attitude to raising the standards at either the sl or the 4 nations level