During the 1990s Chris started at the Wasps Academy, playing alongside the likes of Joe Worsley and Josh Lewsey, until a series of injuries and operations brought his profesional career to an early end in 1999.

After a brief stint coaching at Leeds Met University (before it became Carnegie and yes he is that old), Chris returned to amateur rugby in 2003 with Sevenoaks RFC where he remained until 2008. During his time at Sevenoaks, Chris spent 2 years coaching the Academy side until he decided to move up the leagues and returned to the scene of his last professional injury by rejoining Richmond Rugby Club.

Again a serious concussion ended his playing career so he moved into coaching and managing the Richmond Development Squad (3rd team). During the course of the next 3 years, he tranformed a team of also-rans into title-winners in the Shield Division 2 League, beating National 2 & 3 second teams in the process. Chris stepped down from the role at the end of the 2011/12 season to focus on developing the Saxons Sevens team.

Over the last few years the Saxons have grown to become one of the country's most recognised Elite Sevens teams with both a men and a women section.

Chris is a Level 2 coach working towards gaining his Level 3 next year.

Brett Taylor - Community Coaching Coordinator

Securing the services of Brett has proven to be a master stroke. Brett's coaching credentials are nothing short of impressive.
A former professional rugby, with Northampton Saints where he played over 100 1st XV games and then moved into coaching for the Academy that produced over 40 players that played 1st XV rugby in a 6 year period. This included 6 full internationals and 2 RWC world cup winners.

The aim given to him by the Director of Rugby was simple...."produce players that can play 1st XV rugby and it is my job to make them capable of playing international rugby"
Brett then moved on to coaching international rugby with the USA Eagles as an assistant coach at the 2003 World Cup.
Brett's coaching career saw him lead first Richmond RFC from National 3 to National 2 and then London Scottish from National 2 into the Championship

Brett is a RFU qualified Level 4 coach, with wide ranging experience in coaching and managing at all levels of sport.

Trevor Young

Trevor joins us from local club Westcombe Park RFC where he was the lead coach of their Academy system. Again Trevor has a proven track record of coaching and has the added plus of actually being one of the club’s old boys and it is fantastic that we can welcome him back into the fold.

Thomas Whitehurst

Thomas is one of our community coaches and will also be involved with coaching the senior squad on Monday evenings. Thomas is a previous product of Chris’ coaching regime and with Chris help he has gone on to sign a first team contract with Esher for the 2014 – 15 season. He recently became a qualified Level 2 coach.

Bob Dean

It is really important that with the new coaching set up come in, that we retain that connection to the club heritage and we are just as excited that Bob has agreed to continue as a coach and has agreed to achieve Level 2 coaching status by the end of the season.

Mel Healy

Mel has a fantastic track record as an athlete and is a very highly rated and recognized sports therapist/ physiotherapist. Her knowledge and abilities in this area are astounding and she will be carrying on her great work from last season, in patching up all the boys and occasionally members to ensure that everybody is fit and healthy. Mel will be running the community fitness session every Thursday in June on behalf of Streatham – Croydon and it is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to get fit to come along.

Mel will also be working with the club’s new Strength and Conditioning Coach who is yet to be confirmed but we believe we are in the final throes of agreeing terms with an individual who we revealed yesterday but for discretion purposes we won’t reveal until the deal is done.

Behaviours

Chris Calloway

Now some might ask, why having behaviours as part of your season planning is even relevant, it's a game of rugby and you coach to win. Well from my perspective it all depends on where you are coaching and the demands of the club that you will be coaching at.

We make no bones about this. Streatham - Croydon RFC are a level 11 club in Surrey 3, the wrong time of ambition will not do this club any good. If we are truly to live and breathe our future self as a really developed and engaged community club, then we need to start to create the environment we want in 5 years time now. It doesn't change overnight, it takes time and patience. And so we have to create the bedrock and foundations that will bring this club and its community together. Within that we have created five very simple coaching practices that we want to become behaviours that enrich our club. And they are:

1. Always look for the positive
Far too often as a player I found that there was often to much focus on things not working and we looked at them from a negative point of view. From where S-C are starting, we are already at the bottom of the English rugby leagues. That doesn’t mean we have worse players in the league, and I am sure there are all reasons that could be mentioned for why they are where they are. If we change the way that we look at things and understand that as coaches we aren’t working with players who have years of top flight training most of whom were part of Premiership Academies, and we look to understand that we aren’t working with players from those lofted educated rugby backgrounds and we change our approach to be one of encouragement. And therein lies we will always try and view the positive in each situation and focus on that element rather than the negative pieces.

2. Look to develop understanding first
Again we aren’t dealing with players from an educated rugby background. This means that sometimes we are going to have to break down exactly what we are asking the players to do, where, why and how it may occur during a game and how we want them to react. If we approach every query with this mantra then we will bring a level of rugby education that all coaches should be looking to bring into their coaching. It’s not just about getting on with the drill. Sometimes they just need to understand what it is we are asking.

3. Analytical not critical
More often that not when we feed back to player we tend to be critical of what they have done wrong rather than trying to analyse what it was that was happening that made it go wrong. Sometimes when a player continuously over runs a pass, there is something that is happening that is making it happen, and if we worked with the player to review what is happening and going through his mind, we will often get a better deeper understanding of the situation and how the player is assessing his options and then his decision making. Once we know that we can then work with the player to improve his understanding, assessment of the situation and then his decision making. If we do this well and the players buy into this process then we should see some really significant results quite quickly.

4. Keep it interesting
I’d hate to be one of the those coaches that delivered the same out of the box coaching week in week out. My players need to feel that when they walk off the training paddock that we haven’t just gone through the motions. They have to feel that we have challenged them through out the session.

5. Keep it fun
This really should be self explanatory, but in some cases maybe not. None of my players are playing because they have lofty aspirations of being the next Joe Marler or Danny Care. No, they play for fun, they play because they want to enjoy the experience. So with that in mind I want us to make our coaching and the style of play we bring fun. I want us as coaches to enjoy ourselves and challenge ourselves as much as I want the players to enjoy themselves.

Paramount to all of this must be the understanding that this season is only the first step of the journey that Streatham - Croydon RFC. With everything that the likes of Jeff Greeleaf and the committee are doing for this club, this is only the beginning of what promises to be a very exciting time for this little club in South London.

Earlier this summer we had the first coaches meeting regarding the new 15s season that we are in the planning phase of. This is a new coaching team assembled from a series of very experienced coaches from a range of levels. I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of the detail:

Our season goals:

1. We want to position ourselves as a Development Club
This means that we are offering any player the opportunity to come to our club and improve and develop as a player. In exchange for a year's playing service we will do this and we will then help you secure a position at a playing level that you the player and we the coaches agree you are capable of playing at. This will be done because of the quality of coaches we have at our disposal and because the core focus of what we will be doing is skill development.

2. We want to create a Happy Club
This might sound a bit juvenile but the atmosphere at a club is critical to club's ability to draw in players and also sets the tone for how the club behave on the field.

3. We want to build a true Community Club
Through all the work being put in to secure funding this is already in place and we have the coaches ready to deliver into the schools. This is happening already, now we just need to build it to a level where it is considered successful. Again under the leadership of the coaching coordinator we have in place we really think this will become a significant program in our area.

4. Coach Development Centre
Now there is absolutely no compulsion to do this but because of the nature of the club and the nature of the funding we secure it is critical that we continue to stay one step ahead of the game. As such we have set ourselves some simple tasks, every senior coach within the club must get their level 2 coaching badge, and we have decided to set a policy that every club in the minis and juniors should be a level 1 coach by the end of the season. This sounds simple enough but to ensure we achieve this we are working with the RFU to secure Rugby Ready and Level 1 courses at the club supported by 10 CPDs held at the club to teach the various components of the game.

On top of this our community coaching coordinator and myself will be running monthly coach the coaches session to ensure that the message being passed down to the minis is the same that we are delivering to the senior section.

5. We are creating a Jobs Board
It is critical to the development of the club that we are able to provide employment opportunities to players interested in playing at the club. We have already placed a couple of players into this program and we are always keen to get more involved. If you are a player and you need some help please get in touch. We only ask for a season of your commitment to the playing side of our club.

6. Visible player pathway into the first team
Given that three of the coaches involved at the club were previously head coaches of development or academy teams, there is an under riding need to ensure that we have that same development pathway for all individuals arriving at the club.

We are very excited about the new season and are deep into pre-season training now. If you would be interested in joining us you would be most welcome! Training takes place every Monday and Thursday 7:30pm - 9pm and all are welcome be it experienced players or beginners.

For further information please contact us: streatham-croydon@hotmail.com