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I've been steadily working out at the gym for years now and decided I wanted to do something more social with my fitness. Today I went to a practice with a local adult rugby club. I've never played before, but it was fun, and I plan to return. However, nearly the whole team has way more experience than I do, having played in college or whatever. Everyone was really welcoming about the fact that I'm totally new, but I feel as though it'll be hard for me to ever catch up at all given the massive experience gap. What can I do outside practices to work toward bridging the gap? I can participate in all the conditioning, but obviously just the basic movements and thinking are foreign to me. The internet seems to mostly offer conditioning workouts or tips for coaching youth practices, but I'm wondering whether there are ways I can practice on my own to develop some of the basic skills. Also open to recommendations of resources that are better than "random blogs that turn up on google." e: should've specified from the start, talking about rugby union in the US k stone fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Aug 21, 2015 |
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Aug 19, 2015 04:36
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| # ? May 3, 2024 11:43 |
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k stone posted:I've been steadily working out at the gym for years now and decided I wanted to do something more social with my fitness. Today I went to a practice with a local adult rugby club. I've never played before, but it was fun, and I plan to return. However, nearly the whole team has way more experience than I do, having played in college or whatever. Everyone was really welcoming about the fact that I'm totally new, but I feel as though it'll be hard for me to ever catch up at all given the massive experience gap. What can I do outside practices to work toward bridging the gap? I can participate in all the conditioning, but obviously just the basic movements and thinking are foreign to me. The internet seems to mostly offer conditioning workouts or tips for coaching youth practices, but I'm wondering whether there are ways I can practice on my own to develop some of the basic skills. Also open to recommendations of resources that are better than "random blogs that turn up on google." Just like with any sport the best way to learn is to watch. Find local high school, college and TV games to watch and do so. Obviously watching on a computer is really nice if you can pause and rewind and rewatch. Watch how people move (even away from the ball). Watch where they go with the ball. Ask yourself, "Why did they do that?" and "What would I do there?" Try to predict what the players are going to do as you watch online...pause it and seriously ask what should be done next. I only played a bit in college, but switched to lacrosse instead because it fit my style a lot better, but my family all play rugby so I know the game. Just like with any sport knowing the mechanics and why is just as important as knowing how to tackle.
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Aug 19, 2015 15:09
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What country are you in, and rugby league, rugby union or aussie rules.
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Aug 20, 2015 13:23
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xutech posted:What country are you in, and rugby league, rugby union or aussie rules. aussie rules isn't rugby Also to the OP, there's plenty of excellent international games on Youtube, rugbydump.com has good clips, and the best thing to do is just keep going to practice. When your team plays just stick close to someone and ask about things you don't fully understand.
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Aug 20, 2015 16:50
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k stone posted:I've been steadily working out at the gym for years now and decided I wanted to do something more social with my fitness. Today I went to a practice with a local adult rugby club. I've never played before, but it was fun, and I plan to return. However, nearly the whole team has way more experience than I do, having played in college or whatever. Everyone was really welcoming about the fact that I'm totally new, but I feel as though it'll be hard for me to ever catch up at all given the massive experience gap. What can I do outside practices to work toward bridging the gap? I can participate in all the conditioning, but obviously just the basic movements and thinking are foreign to me. The internet seems to mostly offer conditioning workouts or tips for coaching youth practices, but I'm wondering whether there are ways I can practice on my own to develop some of the basic skills. Also open to recommendations of resources that are better than "random blogs that turn up on google." If you've got a friend or two (or if you can make one on the team) that's willing to go to the park and do basic line style passing drills with you, this will go a long way in improving your coordination, especially if ball sports are not really your bag. Every rugby player knows what I'm talking about I'd imagine, but in case it's unclear: simply find 1-4 people to line up in a staggered line (person 1 is furthest in front, 2 slightly further back, etc) to run while passing between yourselves. Once the ball has traveled all the way down the line, the last person to receive it should sprint out ahead (ex. person 4 is now furthest forward, 3 slightly further back, 1 farthest back) and repeat. You can do variations, where you toss from 3 to 1 and shuttle pass to 2 etc. but this basic framework will help develop basic coordination while training you to position yourself for the ball. The worse the team you're on, the less likely successive passes are to occur but it's still good to develop these skills, anyway. If you think you're going to wind up as a back (quick test to answer this question for adult leagues in the US: are you A) short? B) light? C) fast? If at least two, congratulations, you're a back!), I would start developing my footwork a little maybe. I doubt you'll ever assume kicking duties outright (there's likely gonna be a dude whose been playing since high school or something who will be kicking your penalties/extra points etc) but knowing how and when to kick the ball can save your team from getting scored on/reset field position to score on them. Kicking is sort of advanced and depending on your team could be outright discouraged so proceed with caution. Also, I know you said you're already training in the gym but really focus on your shoulders, core and quads because those are the areas that get really messed up in rugby. Especially if you're a forward (double especially if you're a prop or flanker). Anecdotal, but the way I played flanker was to (try) to be a really active tackler and very aggressive in the rucks, either running behind our more talented backs or trying to poach the ball after a tackle (and subsequently usually getting blown out by the opposing team's ruck), and occasionally when no one else was around I'd run the ball myself. Maybe 3-4 touches per game. Since I played blind side I tried to get a little faster around the corners of a scrum for scrumhalf "sacks" but those happen few and far between and probably aren't something you should concern yourself too much with if you wind up as a flanker. In fact I think some 6s will just drift to the back line in lieu of chasing the scrumhalf if the SH or the (usually) one back lined up on that side do not attempt to play the ball. Besides, the more valuable skill in that scenario is the ability to identify when the ball's out. The last thing if you're feeling really up to it would be to develop your anaerobic capacity for work. In between high bursts of speed and intensity you'll be jogging to your next burst of speed and intensity and the repetition of tackling/getting tackled all add up quickly to exhaust you. And you've still got 75 minutes of game time to go. I always liked stairs and interval (really short intervals, like 3-5 seconds of sprinting followed by 15-30 seconds of jogging) work for that. Lastly, if you joined a rugby team worth it's salt, I cannot stress that you should carb up and drink lots of water before game day since you're gonna be doing some binge drinking later that afternoon/night. I like pasta. e: A university team I played for in England also ran this one tackling drill that I think was good for technique/mental preparation/focus before games. You need at least one other person (works best with four) to line up adjacent to you and the idea is for both of you to perform your roles at around a 50% effort. So if you're running, you're jogging, if you're tackling, you're fully wrapping and taking the person down with as close to perfect technique as possible as opposed to trying to left and slam the poor bastard on the ground more similarly to what you'd do in a game. The execution of the tackle is similar (ideally), the release is just gentler. And as a quick note on tackling: square your shoulders, plant your feet just before tackling (always try and generate some forward momentum before the tackle. Although counter-intuitive, it's a lot more painful to take a tackle standing still) and make sure to keep your head up (watch the person's hips) until contact's been established. Once it has, try and position your head on the opposite side of where you intend to land the tackle lest you bring your opponent down on top of your own head and concuss yourself. rest his guts fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 19:00
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I started playing rugby in my sophomore year of college and I had no idea what I was doing when I started. Sounds kind of goony but playing a rugby video game really helped me learn the rules and basic strategy.
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Aug 20, 2015 21:17
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Thanks all, the advice so far has been really helpful and seems to square well with advice received from the team, especially re: watching lots of international matches and doing lots of passing practice. Went to my second practice today. My quads haven't been in this much pain since I first started doing squats. For more context, unless my whole-milk-and-peanutbutter diet finally magically puts 30lbs on me, I am sure I will end up as a back since I'm 5' 7" and currently weigh about 160lb. Part of the appeal of rugby to me was that my body type doesn't seem to be a deal-killer. Also should've been clear in the OP, I'm talking about rugby union. Might be an American-centric thing, but I was under the impression that the thing that people usually mean when they just say "rugby" is rugby union and people say "rugby league" in full when they're talking about that.
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Aug 21, 2015 05:08
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In England at least it depends on which form is dominant in the area. I'm on the south coast so Rugby is union as league is mostly played off season or not at all so when talking about it you call it Rugby League or just League. The opposite applies up north where the majority of rugby played is league. As for help learning the game. I would watch some videos explaining rucking and off side laws, during games with new players a really common mistake is to give away penalties for being offside from kicks or playing the ball illegally around rucks. It's also the start of the rugby world cup in September so you have some great games coming up to watch. Get down your clubhouse get drunk and get other drunk people to explain what's going on to you. I have tickets for USA v Samoa so I know that's on the 20th of September. Training wise just keep turning up and you will get it, chuck the ball round as much as possible with other players before training etc. If you can pass ok off both hands and make your tackles youre half way there and won't let the team down, the rest will come after a few games.
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Aug 21, 2015 09:59
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| # ? May 3, 2024 11:43 |
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Ok so you'll probably end up playing fullback or wing. On offense you can think of your team's passing as kind of like cracking a whip. You'll line up in a diagonal line with players closer to the sidelines (i.e. you) further back. As the ball moves from one player to the next the person receiving the pass will be moving faster and faster until it gets to you near the sideline. Ideally you should be at a dead sprint when you catch the ball on the wing and hopefully you are one on one against a flat footed defender. When coaches talk about pace this is what they mean, catching the ball with speed. Don't get tackled out of bounds or get tackled far away from your teammates - you'll lose possession. On defense the team will line up in a flat line with a couple players playing deeper to field kicks if necessary. You may be one of these deeper players once you know what you're doing, so practice fielding a variety of kicks and kicking yourself if you want to grow into that role (which is probably the best one for your body type).
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Aug 21, 2015 20:27
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