Rugby Foundations

For a few years I have been talking about getting back involved in rugby as a player or as a coach. Since I stopped playing team sports at university about 15 years ago I have been increasingly running for exercise, sometimes cycling and often exercising in the gym. A couple of years ago I got a personal trainer to get my fitness up to scratch and do some boxing at the same time. It worked for my fitness but not my playing confidence. I have not gone back to playing and when a ball hits the tip of my fingers, as it did at the park with dogs and wife in attendance, six weeks later it still has not healed properly.

When I was playing it took two or three weeks. As I discovered at Rugby Foundations on the weekend, my tackling confidence and ability in uncontested, kneeling scrums, for coaching technique you see, is maybe as good as than 13-14 year olds also in attendance. The memories of being twisted and wheeled in the scrum, unavoidable when playing hooker in seniors, even the humble, lower grades, came flooding back with a shock. And a day later, my shoulder and neck hurts, my groin strain has returned, muscles I had forgotten ache, yet I did run 6 km at the gym on Friday and am probably stronger than I have ever been.

The coaching of technique is far advanced over my earlier experience. I learned more about basic skills in a day with Brendan and Anthony, coaching and refereeing managers of Rugby WA, than in my entire playing days. When I played at high school and at university, we were neither taught how to tackle, ruck, maul or throw properly. Only slightly tongue in cheek, it may not have helped much because the techniques then used were not very good.

The emphasis on early-stage learning or skill, progressing through drills and finally to autonomous learning is familiar with anyone involved in teaching or coaching in other fields. In Karate, the fundamental punches and kicks are taught through Kihon, repetitive sequences are drilled in one and three-step attack-defence patterns and in longer patterns called Kata, leading to Kumite, where the individual exhibits autonomy in free fighting. Piaget's early stages of cognitive development, B.F. Skinner's precision learning and positive reinforcement, individual attainment, individualism and existentialism. The choice becomes our own and learning is an active process.

Each of the key areas covered in the foundation course was in turn demonstrated from a coaching and referee perspective. Repetition is a great way to learn and physical sports, practiced on the field, give a feeling of achievement even if only for the kinesthetic learning through repetition. As a foundation course leading onto accreditation in either or both of coaching and refereeing I throughly enjoyed myself. The camaraderie between former players and juniors was there even through the age and experience gap. Shared experience tends to draw like-minded people together in spite of other differences.

I experienced an epiphany of sorts insofar as I now consider refereeing as a possibility. Before the course I could not reconcile the thought of managing the game of rugby under pressure from players, coaches and spectators with my enjoyment of the game. Through his knowledge and enthusiasm, Anthony O'Shea has demonstrated otherwise and I have an inkling to referee, thankless job though it is.

Both coach and referee are filling management roles at different times for the same goal. The coach is in a preparatory, strategic and tactical position of shaping his players, team for each game, the season and for individual development of the players. The referee is either in the background or in the spotlight, continually under pressure to make decisions, often with limited information, and a responsibility to preserve the contest and continuity of the game under his direction, the integrity of the game of rugby in general, and the safety and well-being of the players involved.

It may be wonderful to be involved in any sport as a player or spectator but it is something special to give something back to other players, the community and the game they play in heaven.