Good question, Nelson Mandela, GOOD QUESTION!!!
So the practice I went to today was phe-no-men-al, and I am super pissed that about 90% of my team didn't come. What are the majority of college students doing from 10:30am - 3:30pm? Sleeping. And I know for a fact that at least some of the girls on my team were doing exactly that. I mean, obviously it's understandable that people may have other super important things to attend to and that they may need to choose those over rugby (especially because we're only a club team and we're technically not allowed to force anyone to do anything), but most of the people on the team literally just fell off the face of the Earth and I have no idea where they were. Not a single person came and talked to me saying whether or not they were coming, and that is what I'm most upset about. Obviously I have to be respectful and understanding if someone can't make something for rugby because of a different commitment, but there's absolutely no excuse for not notifying me ahead of time and explaining why something has to be missed.
This is so incredibly frustrating!! How can you make someone want something or put more effort into something that they just don't have any desire for (or at least it seems like they don't have any desire)? I know now that I would rather play with people who are absolutely horrible at rugby but have incredible heart and ambition for the sport on my team over any all star that is lazy and uncommitted. I'm not even mad about the fact that our team is not very skilled and not as dominating as we used to be; I am more mortified and upset about the fact that it seems like no one wants to put any effort in anymore! Not a single person! You cannot coach heart, or at least you cannot teach someone how to have it. You have to have that on your own.
The practice today was incredible though, and I am glad that at least I got so much out of it and I am very happy and satisfied with how I spent my saturday. People came from all sorts of teams, some that were even hours away and they drove through treacherous weather conditions to come to it (our school, on the other hand, is 15 minutes away). It started off with some classroom talk time, and although when I first heard we were doing that it obviously sounded super boring (I mean, class to almost anyone on a Saturday does not sound appetizing). But a class about rugby is actually one of the most awesome places to be! I forgot about one time when my friend and I were talking about how rugby should be a class you can take, and then escalated into how rugby should be a major of its own (how-sick-would-that-be?! Class schedule: Rucking 101, Drop kicking 304, Loose Play Philosophy 206....). I know now that a rugby major would be just as awesome as it sounds, because I sat in a classroom taking notes (on a paper towel from the bathroom...pffft) on rugby for over an hour and enjoyed every second of it!
After the classroom, we went to a basketball court where normally it would seem like not even close to enough room to accomplish any sort of rugby practice (which my team seems to believe) and where we actually practiced with some awesome and productive drills for at least two hours! I am so incredibly glad that I got to experience that, because now I am enlightened with a plethora of indoor rugby drills that my team can do, and never again will they have an excuse for cutting an indoor rugby practice short. And something that I really appreciated was that most of the drills also incorporated some fitness into them, or at least some movement. For some reason there are people who think that rugby drills for specific skills don't have time for fitness or cannot have fitness in them, but that doesn't even make sense because almost everything you're doing in rugby is while you're running or after you've just ran a ton. A passing drill that has no running? What? When do you ever pass a rugby ball in a game when you're not running?! Anyways, so we did drills on an incredible amount of things: line outs, poaching, decking, bangers, loose play in general, backs plays, passing lines, scrums, rucking, etc. Then we stopped for a quick lunch and diverged into the realm of defense and tackling in a wrestling room that had a padded floor. We went through every little detail about tackling until everyone was capable of doing a one on one tackling drill. Then from there it evolved into two on three, three on four, and six on eight, all of which were really fantastic and practiced so many different skills.
But something that's really been bugging me is that a ton of the drills we did at the camp were either similar or no different at all from drills we normally do at our own practices on the team. So why then are none of these drills successful and why aren't they as effective and productive as the ones at the camp? One theory that I am coming up with is that all the girls who went to the camp were extremely dedicated and putting in 100% effort into every single drill. There was not a single tackle that was half-assed and every single run was a full on sprint to the ball, and I think that these little things make all the difference in the world.
I've just got to figure out how to turn this team around, because obviously it is going in a steep downhill direction right now. I know that I'm supposed to lead by example, but what if I'm providing the example and nobody cares? What if it is still ineffective? I know I will never give up in being an example though, and even with all the split second influences where I feel like quitting this team and leaving them to fend for themselves I will still push everyone and myself as much as I possibly can. I just wish I could figure out how to do this more effectively, because obviously right now it's not enough...
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