Wallaby No. 737, James Holbeck will spearhead RUPA’s Player Development Program (PDP), after being appointed PDP Project Manager earlier this month.
Holbeck will oversee the roles of RUPA’s five Player Development Managers (PDMs), who are permanently stationed within each of Australia’s professional Rugby programs, unique to Rugby in Australia.
Having previously worked as a PDM for RUPA, Holbeck is tasked with continuing to develop strong relationships between PDMs and the high-performance departments of their Clubs, as well as shaping the direction of the PDP’s key pillars; Career and Education, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Cultural Awareness, Financial Management, Integrity and Obligations, and Toolkit of life.
He brings over 20 years of professional Rugby experience, on and off the field, to the position and has previously used his academic honours in psychology to promote wellbeing in numerous environments.
“It’s a great privilege to step into this role and be tasked with aligning our Player Development Program (PDP) with each of the professional Rugby programs,” Holbeck said.
“More recently, I have been working with the Classic Wallabies, enabling a more positive transition experience for newly retired Australian players. We’ve worked on building a program that demonstrates to players that Rugby cares about you as a person and honours your contribution to the game.
“It can be a big challenge moving into an unfamiliar world outside of Rugby circles, where things are done quite differently, and we want to ensure players are supported both before and during that shift.”
Having already worked with some of RUPA’s PDMs in years gone by, and recently spent time with the entire staff, Holbeck is excited by the potential for the program to continue to shine.
“We have some industry leaders in our existing PDP, and I’ll be using them to better understand their own contexts,” he said.
“Our PDP has achieved significant progress in preparing our players for the transition through Rugby performance; for example, over 80% of our current players are actively engaged with study at the moment. That’s a real reflection of our players wanting to invest in themselves off the field and the game investing in them.
“Our PDMs and I are actively aligning and working collaboratively towards common goals with each member Union and the Australian Rugby Sevens teams, and I really see that as crucial if we’re going to do an excellent job and be leaders amongst sport in this field.
“We will look to continue to build a collaborative approach with the High-Performance staff at each team, and I see that as one of the key aspects of my new role.”
Mental health and wellbeing will be a focus of the PDP, and Holbeck is passionate about ensuring the balance is right within each program.
“We’ve seen tragedies occur in both our sport and other sports, and we are working to create environments which best enable our players to perform their roles and have strong mental health and wellbeing.
“Players have developed a better language and education around mental health and are more open in speaking about what their mental health might look and sound like. We are finding better ways of understanding cultures which can be a place where players feel a level of psychological safety, whilst allowing them to be in a process that pushes them to become more developed and resilient players and people.”
Holbeck met the latest group of players entering professional programs at the RUPA Camp earlier this month, with 46 players from Super Rugby and Australian Rugby Sevens programs in attendance, and he was enthused with his experience.
“Having been to more than a dozen RUPA Camps in total, I would say that they keep getting better year on year. We have developed content to target what players are actually saying they need.
“Cultural diversity presentations, financial health checks, tax and superannuation assistance, media training, social media guidelines and understanding the integrity and obligations around professional athletic contracts were just some of the topics covered during the camp.”
Holbeck’s new role has seen him travelling frequently to spend time to witness each of the programs, and he’s excited to see what is being delivered and finding improvements that can be made.
“I think one of the keys for me is to be able to get around and spend time in front of the players, coaches and general managers, and understand their environments,” he said.
“It is very hard to centralise any program without understanding individual complexity, so I’m continuing to listen to their perspectives and work with PDMs to develop best practice and collaborative models to deliver world-class programs for our players – programs which protect them, and encourage them to continually grow as players and people.”
