Post Game Progression

Methinks that these next few posts (including the two before this) are gonna get a little preachy/sports psychology-esque, but let's roll with it.
...or ruck over it, if you will.
We lost our first game of the season yesterday but the framing and the attitude drawn from it is what's really going to carry us far. I think that the way the team played was an exact indication of the benefits that can result from having a hard working team all around - related to the previous post, this team is so lucky to have a hard working yet accepting culture. We don't have any of those slacker starters or veterans that feel immunity or priority over other players. Everyone clearly works hard together and is on the same page.
It was a great combination to see starters/veterans setting the bar high then having rookies filter in and meet that standard. Who knows how different it would've gone if there was a "fuck it" vibe amongst the veterans, or in the other extreme if there was an overly critical vibe. Mistakes were embraced and tackled head on, one by one. This is so important because many rugby teams can get so caught up in their spirit of the game that they actually lose sight of what's really the goal.

Which segways right into the main theme of this post.....GOAL SETTING!

On individual and team levels, goal setting is so incredibly important.
NOTE: In this post, and many following this one, I am drawing directly from a book called Focused for Rugby: A proven approach for peak performance by Adam R. Nicholls and Jon Callard. It's a pretty easy read to order online and I highly recommend it! If you're interested in learning more about a certain topic that I discuss from this book let me know and I will make you a copy of the chapter :)

There is such a variety of goals that you can set for yourself and your team that it's insane, sometimes overwhelming. Especially if you're a new player or a new team, it can be daunting to figure out what to do in terms of goal setting because it seems like EVERYTHING needs improvement.
But narrowing down on a time frame and content will help you go further. It's as if you're about to clean the White House after someone threw a Fourth of July rager - you'll get it done faster and more effectively if you clean one room at a time rather than trying to sweep over every single space.
...............what the hell was that analogy?

Work with meh here.

In my social work realm, we always used the acronym SMART to remember all the important aspects of setting a goal. However, in this book they take it a step further and make SMARTER goals. Here's how:

Specific - no vague shit. "I will do my best" is not a goal, that should be a given. Making better tackles is a common rugby goal, however it may also be beneficial to take that a little further, such as "I will drive through my tackles." The more specifics the better, especially because if you start with an extremely specific goal it shouldn't take long to accomplish it and move on to the next one.

Measurable - for all the peeps into numerical data and logic, this will work well for you. Keeping numbers on your goals is one of the most concrete ways to see your own progress. Timing your mile each week or keeping track of your weight selections when lifting are a few ways you can continue to move forward yet also look back on your data and congratulate yourself. Even aiming to drop one less pass in game can be beneficial.

Action oriented - THIS IS IMPORTANT. Now that you have started the works of creating a goal, HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO ACHIEVE IT? Hypothesize your goals all day but in the end if you can't figure out how reach it, then that's all they are - goals. La dee freakin' da.

Realistic - Find the balance between realistic yet also challenging. Breaking through every single tackle on attack is not realistic. You cannot aim for perfection because NOBODY'S PERFECT! Know where you're at and set the bar from there.

Timed - Set a deadline. Short, medium, and long-term goals all have their own benefits but they're also drastically different. It's important to utilize all three types of timed goals because where one is beneficial, it is also lacking in something else. Long term goals are great because it's a lot of time for you to keep tabs on yourself and measure your progress, however they can also get lost and forgotten very easily. Short term goals are great because you will have quick results however certain things just take longer to develop.

Elastic - Give yourself some flexibility. Similar to the realistic aspect of goal setting, cut yourself some slack. Don't expect to be an All Black overnight. Even in the measuring of your goals, you can add a range rather than aiming for a specific number. "I will make 5 or more tackles in my next game" is better than aiming to make 8 tackles.

Repeatability - This is an interesting one. After you have achieved a goal, don't throw it out the fucking window. Keep it in your back pocket. I think that as a team we have struggled with this at practices, because we will achieve a goal of learning a new skill yet completely forget about it moments later when we have moved on to something else. Your goals are useless if you don't make them permanent factors in your playing. Similar to attack in rugby, the purpose of goals is to be continuously moving forward and making progress.

There are also two types of goal setting styles: performance oriented and success oriented. When setting performance goals, they're usually geared towards self improvement however they can also be used for team purposes. The primary focus is improvement as players. Success goals involve more comparison and competition, usually can involve benchmarking via social comparison.

HERE'S A HINT: CREATE PERFORMANCE ORIENTED GOALS.
Success oriented goals leave a lot of room for fluctuation because they depend too much on exterior factors. Of course it's okay to want to win and succeed as a player and/or team, but looking internally rather than externally will get you there more effectively. Focus on your own shit. We sometimes get too caught up in measuring our own success based off of where everyone else is. Either we're too hard on ourselves because everyone seems to be playing at a higher level or we're too lazy/easy on ourselves because everyone's playing at a lower level. Especially if you struggle with confidence and believing in yourself (*hand shoots up in the air*) comparisons to others can be extremely self destructive.

Personal life example: at crossfit a few weeks ago, we did a mile run after a workout. I benchmarked my progress off of how far ahead someone else was from me and immediately started getting down on myself because I thought they got too far ahead. However, in the end when I heard the time I ran a mile in, it was one of the fastest times I've ever had. If I had never found out that time, I would've continued going on under the impression that I had failed and made no progress simply because I wasn't as fast as someone else. But in reality, that was a huge accomplishment!

It's also not a bad thing to want to increase your own playing time or even work towards getting into a starting line up, both things that are natural and acceptable goals. But it gets hurtful when you begin comparing yourself to other teammates, and start working towards "beating them" for the position. THAT is a selfish way to reach your goal and can actually set you back in other areas. If you want to work towards starting in a game or even playing A-side at all, just focus more on what you can do to improve as a player and CALL IT A DAY.

Here's a great table listing questions about your goals and giving you space to physically write out the answers. Sounds childish, but keeps it clear cut and concrete (I know the image cuts off, but if you click on it then you can save this table and even print it for your own use!):

The way I see it - what harm can be done? Clearly if you are looking to progress and improve, there are resources out there for you. So give it a shot! What do you have to lose?

FRANTIC.

Let's all just get out our nerves real quick:

Okay! No more heebie jeebies.
When we were preparing at practice for our first game tomorrow, that's what we all acted like while playing.....which is ridiculous because we were doing pretty much exactly what we have been doing at practice for at least the past month!
Nerves can REALLY turn your rugby world upside down. It can be a realllll rugby buzz kill if you let them take over. But sometimes it may seem so freakin' hard to control them - even just sitting here typing this I've got sparks running through me and my heart is pumping like the commuter rail because I'm so excited for the game tomorrow!
....and THAT'S OKAY. 
It's NORMAL to be nervous on a rugby field, because there's so much going on around you and there's no other time where you have to make that much decision making that quickly unless you happen to be performing heart surgery. So now that you can give yourself a soothing pat on the back for realizing you're normal for being nervous, the real question is:
HOW DO YOU CONTROL IT?How do you slow yourself down in the midst of a high pressure/tempo environment? I believe that all of the best players you see on tv or even on your own respectable team have figured out some sort of technique in their own way to handle this above anything else. Above learning how to pass, tackle, ruck, kick, tie their cleats, breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide....I think great rugby players have learned how to literally "keep calm and carry on" in the middle of chaos. They have learned how to sit with being nervous and cultivate it into an advantage.
SELF TALK PEOPLE....IT WORKS WONDERS. IT'S NOT JUST A COUNSELING TECHNIQUE. The more you immerse yourself in this chaotic environment the more comfortable you will become in it. So if you are a new player - PATIENCE, grasshopper. Just drink it in while you're on the field and learn via experience. YES - YOU'RE GOING TO FUCK UP. But we all are going to fuck up, that's part of the game.

If you've been playing for a while and still find yourself nervous before a game or even when you're about to step onto the field: draw on previous experiences. Try your best to think rationally - what about the last game you played in made you really nervous? What could've gone differently for you to react better? What will you do this time when you encounter THE SAME SITUATION (your rugby fears ain't goin' nowhere! so conquer them meow!!) in this game?! What can you sincerely be proud of yourself for and what have you done really well to contribute to the team's success in the past?
...that last one is a biggie - you need to ALWAYS remember that you are capable of wondrous things. You may remember a lot of things you have done wrong or can still do better, but there is always SOMETHING that you have done right.....even if it's just showing up to practice or cheering on a teammate. Every-little-thing-counts.
And forget about whatever trust issues you may have in your life - whether it's in a relationship with a person or with what's in your Wonder Ball - because in the end no matter what your teammates are there to support you and you're all working towards the same common goal. There may even be some players that you don't like, or some players that seem like a showboat that want to always be in the spotlight, but in the end NO ONE GETS ANYWHERE WITHOUT WORKING WITH THE REST OF THE TEAM.

I never thought about my thoughts....

At practices we have begun to move into attack (attacking the attack, if you will...) discussions and the variety of options presented to you when moving the ball. What was really pointed out was that while it is so heavily emphasized that when attacking you need to move the ball forward (still true) and run straight, it's crazy how many angles are actually involved. This fact is already present through running switches (when you catch a pop pass specifically from a very sharp angle) and other various strategies, however it can be overlooked that simply running at an angle on your own can be effective.
This was demonstrated well through thinking about how defenders line up and (generally) oppose an attacking team. Many times we find ourselves matching up with whomever is across from us and firing up straight in a flat line (obviously nothing is wrong with any of this but it is generally what happens). Here's a mini diagram to make it that obvious:

Pretty simple...makes sense and it's not that complicated to defend.

So anyways, when running at an angle on attack, then that COMPLETELY wipes out the whole matching up/staying in your zone or lane defensive tactic. The defense be like:

I picked up on it as a defender myself when we scrimmaged against each other - when someone ran at an angle it completely made me question whether or not I should be tackling her or someone else that is in her lane....or that other person who is now in her lane.....or that other other person now in her lane.....etc.
However, it's important to stress that this angle we practiced running at is 45 DEGREES - you are NOT running horizontally.

You're still moving forward!

NOTE: When defending this, part of the solution to almost any problem in rugby is COMMUNICATION. So communicating who is making the tackle and who is in support is very important.
...I feel like the words communication and support appear in almost every single one of my posts.....not a coincidence..........

We also discussed many specifics about going into contact and offloading. Very similar to Indian sprints, we did a drill where in a single file line we ran laps around the field. We would rotate through these positions, but the person in the front of the line would run out a few steps and be a defender against the second person in line (not full on defense....just a wrap to get the ball carrier tangled up). The ball carrier would practice that quick pop pass right off the hip and with a flick of the wrists while the next person in line would burst onto the pop pass, running tightly off the ball carrier's hip. Then that person would start the drill all over again by placing the ball on the ground and becoming the next defender. We rotated through that for a little while and then tried to implement it into game play. While still playing a touch scrimmage, the rule was added that the ball carrier was granted a 2 second window of opportunity to pass the ball after being tagged. We were able to practice running onto the ball and getting quick pop passes off, however it's also clear that when you are put under pressure, you can be much more susceptible to making bad choices....like I did a few times. With everything around you going so freakin' fast, it can be really hard to slow your mind down and give yourself the time to think through a decision. Especially when you're in the process of going into contact yet you see a bunch of your teammates around you all wanting the ball at the same time, it just makes you feel like AGH!

JESUS TAKE THE RUGBY BALL!
Soo there were a few times where I attempted to offload the ball whilst in the middle of being tackled and FAILED MISERABLY. I was feeling pretty bummed about it and frustrated because my mind kept telling me "YOU KNOW BETTER! YOU KNOW THAT'S WRONG!"...but then my coach asked me to explain my thought process about where I go and what I do when I'm on attack, and then explain my decision making to someone else who was inquiring about things to do on attack.....

AND THAT'S WHEN I REALIZED I HAVE NO FREAKIN' IDEA WHAT GOES THROUGH MY HEAD WHEN I'M ON THE RUGBY FIELD.
But once I took the time to actually pay attention to my thought process, I figured it out.
First of all: whenever setting up in a line for attack, my mind immediately gravitates to CINGULAR BARS.


....you get it. If not YouTube the commercials.

I always try and figure out where I am in that progression based on how far away I am from the ball carrier and who is behind me. If I'm at the end of a line and there is not enough room for me to continue progressing deeper then I'm not going to keep backing up all the way into the try zone or out of bounds because clearly that's not logical. However, I will hesitate/stay active in that one spot right until that opportune moment comes where I am at the appropriate amount of depth for me to burst onto the ball.
It's a tough thing to time right, but in order to ensure you're running full speed onto a pass/offload from your teammate it helps to get your mind into that feeling of "OH SHIT I'M NOT GONNA MAKE IT!" except don't make the situation too much of a close call.
But sometimes you've just gotta filter yourself into the line; it's not always an option to go all the way to the end of the line either. Whenever I think the area surrounding the ball carrier looks way too crowded, I'll take a step back and find a gap that I can filter myself into so I can still be used as an asset in the upcoming cycles of play. I may not see any action or I may find myself with the ball sooner than expected, but stepping back from the action can sometimes be a pretty important thing to do or attacking teams can end up like this:



















Jinkies!
....however, that Scooby Doo crew looks like they could run a pretty supportive banger/crash ball...

Another reason why I was mentally kicking myself for making some ridiculous offload passes right before being fully tackled is because I personally have a golden rule that I constantly follow when I am running with the ball. Of course whenever anyone is running with the ball they are trying to gain meters and make it closer to scoring, but I am constantly thinking about getting to the ground with the ball safely presented towards my teammates (at the right time and place, of course. I'm not exactly thinking that if by some sort of miracle make it into a fast break).
Any type of pass or offload is an ADDED BONUS, and clearly scoring off a run is a legit bonus. But whenever I receive the ball I do not expect any of those things to happen. If I were to estimate, I would say anything besides going to ground and presenting the ball to my teammates happens only about 20% of the time when running. Of course it's fantastic if there is an opportunity to offload or score, but I'd say 8 times out of 10 I will not risk losing possession to achieve one of those things. They will come eventually as long as we are able to hold onto the ball, so that's really the simple goal of attack.....along with moving forward, of course.

So then there's also those times where you're sorta close to the ruck but there's already a bunch of people in there and everyone else is already lined up ready for attack and you are just STUCK in a crazy no man's land. Personally I'd look towards the ruck first since I love rucking and would selfishly check to see if there's a chance for me to enter. If it looks like we're teetering on losing, READY OR NOT HERE I COME. If it looks pretty stable then I will recycle to behind the attack line and either filter in where there's a discrepancy in the cingular bars or prepare to support the next round of ball carriers. If the ruck looks like we're going to lose possession (like there's no chance of salvation) then I will communicate that to the rest of the team and POST.

In the end, shit happens. All the time. LITERALLY, all the time in rugby. You and I are both going to throw some absolutely shitty passes...and I don't care if you are reading this before trying out for the All Blacks. We're all going to lose the ball at some point, or do something that literally makes us question how we are even smart enough to tie our laces.

But I think in order to be good at rugby, you have to be able to handle the times that you're bad and make mistakes, because IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. As my coach touched on tonight at practice, you don't really learn anything unless you make mistakes. YOU HAVE TO! You don't become a great rugby player through miraculously doing everything right your first time around. You become a great rugby player through analyzing where you can improve or potentially try something different that will give you a better outcome next time. Rugby is all about being perfectly imperfect. Rugby doesn't want you to do everything right, otherwise it wouldn't be FUN! Part of the FUN in rugby is the crazy rollercoaster of shit hitting the fan and seeing how you and your teammates can handle it....that's all rugby really is! Of course there's a lot of strategy and tactic that occurs behind the scenes, but those are all basically so you can have a back pocket full of tools for when SHIT HAPPENS.
So HUZZAH! Embrace the wild and the unknown! Just fuck it and go with the flow, you'll figure it out! And GET YOUR ASS OUT ON THAT FIELD because there is no better tool in your pocket than practice and game experience itself.

Why are there cleats in the back seat?

Soo yesterday my mother gave me quite a grilling over finding cleats in the back seat of our car...and here's why: first off she thought it stank up the entire car (which, when I went into the car, I was actually expecting it to smell bad but it was actually one of my most FAVORITE scents....grass......aka a rugby field), and second because I'M ON PROBATION FROM RUGBY. She put me on probation from rugby because currently we don't have any health insurance.

...well....I'm supposed to be on probation and not playing. If my mother or someone who will snitch to my mother is in your vicinity kindly CLOSE THIS SHIT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE SHE HAS NO IDEA THAT I'M STILL PLAYING ANYWAYS.

And I get it that clearly tackling people and being pummeled left and right are not exactly activities you should be doing when you don't have health insurance, but running drills? passing? playing touch scrimmages? All of those are about as hazardous as going to the gym, going for a run, walking across the street..........you get it. It's BOGUS.
And telling me I can't play rugby?

Rugby is what gets me through the week, through the day....through ANYTHING. Literally any type of trouble I am faced with, or even any type of accomplishment I have, I can relate it back to rugby. Every time I step onto a rugby field it's just FIREWORKS IN MY LIFE

It makes me sad that I really have to limit and even hide my passion for rugby since I know it will make people in my family angry, annoyed, or bored. Sometimes I honestly feel like when I ramble about rugby with the majority of people in my life (outside of the rugby realm itself, of course) I'm uber excited while I get this blank look in return:

It's literally as if I'm an alien.


Anyways, I'm SO glad that I made the executive choice on my own to continue playing through my insurance drought because (obviously) I haven't gotten injured and we have been doing some GREAT stuff at practice that I am really benefiting from. I hope that I am able to motivate myself to get my ass on here and write a post (as opposed to getting sucked into the black hole of BUZZFEED) every time we have a practice so I can share with everyone else the great drills and things we learn while also making sure I remember all of this important information. The more you retain all this shit, the more it will display itself on the playing field. Rugby is SUCH a book smart sport, so strategic and intelligent in so many ways.

Over the past few weeks, we have been focusing a lot on defense. We have been practicing defense SO much that anything about attack has been put on the back burner (for the time being). I think this philosophy is SO important for a variety of reasons:

• a breakaway and almost any type of scoring can happen in less than a second
• at the same time, any type of turnover can happen in less than a second...you can suddenly find yourself on attack or [more importantly] defense before you even realized what happened
• if you are able to perform defense well as a team, this type of pressure can make the opposition put their tail between their legs and raise the white flag in a heartbeat....this type of insecurity can be lethal
• mistakes on attack happen literally all the time and are much easier to fix than mistakes on defense; chronic defensive mistakes mean that there are some fundamental issues that cause major road blocks for any team of any skill level

I COULD GO ON AND ON.

To start off practice, we played a really fun yet practical game called snakes and mongoose (I'm sure there's a variety of names for this game). It was really simple yet taught a lot of great lessons about playing defense.
Easy rules to follow: Set up cones in a grid/box/rectangle that limits the space of play. The defending team's objective is to eliminate all the opposing players via tagging each player with a rugby ball. However, opposition must be tagged with the ball and a defender is not allowed to move when they have possession of the ball. So, this forces the defense to practice a variety of skills:

1. Spacing - supporting one another and setting up as a team was extremely important in being able to tag anyone. When defenders ran off to try and cover people on their own, it never worked....even if you were matched up perfectly with an opposing player, you would be passed the ball and watch the opposition run by you while you could only stand there frozen (since you wouldn't be able to move). When defenders set themselves up to trap oppositional players and cut off gaps, then the sparks started to fly.
2. Communication - Like every other aspect of rugby, players had to communicate with one another in order to be on the same page. Designating one oppositional player at a time for the defense to focus on tagging was effective. With everyone working towards the same goal, there were many times where it was practically unstoppable. Even telling the other defenders where you are, where the ball is going, etc. are all very important and effective uses of communication. 
3. Proximity - obviously this is similar/practically identical to spacing, but I'm separating this skill by using it to refer to invading someone's hoop (circle of proximity around them) when going in for a tackle. From the rule that you cannot move once you are holding the ball, you're forced to be in extremely close proximity with an offender in order to be able to tag them. Many times we find ourselves tackling via clotheslines (arms out, body away) or tugging at clothing/hair because we have not entered that area of personal space that allows us to be more in control of the tackle.

GET IN THAT HOOP!

We then moved on to some more practicing with tracking. This skill involves an important set of paces that you need to move at:
FAST-SLOW-FAST

FAST: press forward to take away space, not allow the opposition to gain meters, and put pressure on the attack. Meet the opposition at the middle of the space separating you from them. 

SLOW: Once you have quickly made it to the middle and taken away that space, slow up in order to position yourself for a tackle. Although I'm saying "slow up" that's not really what it implies.....it's more as if you're not moving forward but you're keeping your feet active and shuffling in order to be able to change direction at any given moment. When shuffling, you want to line up with the offender so that you are square with their hips (your hips and theirs are literally parallel to each other, so you may not even be necessarily facing straight forward on the field) and you are positioned on their inside shoulder so they cannot quickly step back into open space.
Important mistake I keep making: Due to my defensive basketball shuffling background, I have a terrible tendency to keep my stance wide (it's practically an unconscious movement...I have to constantly tell myself in my head to stay in tighter). But you really want to shuffle with small steps close together because this gives you more availability and freedom to move in any direction. A wide stance forces you to pause for an extra unnecessary second in order to switch movements.

FAST: Once you've entered their hoop and set yourself up for a hit, BOOM! Plow on forward! Cheek(your face)-to-cheek(their buttocks)! It's extremely important to remember to drive so that you are not bulldozered over and so you are more able to make a positive tackle - one that gains meters for the defense and pushes the opposition backwards.

Tracking drills: we set up cones in a grid/box to simulate defending someone who has a touch line (out of bounds) on one side of them. A defender would stand across from an opposing player running with a ball and perform the fast-slow-fast technique before ending with a tag on the runner's hips. This was a pretty small space so the defender was really forced to do this sequence quickly. When defenders were picking up on pressing forward, shuffling, and being aligned on the opposition's inside shoulder, then we progressed to giving runners the option of cutting back/changing direction in order to make sure no defenders cheated/overestimated on defense positioning.
Because as a team we experienced some difficulties here and there with these drills, we did another tracking drill as well to break it down even more. We practiced the fast-slow-fast paces without opposition that just involved running, shuffling, and then quickly picking a direction to move in. It is very important to remember when shuffling to keep your feet/legs in tight so that you are able to change direction and move quicker!

Another defensive drill we did reminded me of something like Mighty Ducks meets foosball. Four different ball carriers lined up behind one another so a line of defense would start out lying on the ground and run up to meet each one in a flat line. Two defensive players started on the ground next to each other and then on the outsides two other defenders started about 5 meters back (and, thus, they look like "flying V" formation from the Mighty Ducks). When the ball carrier in front of them picked up the ball off the ground, all four defenders would fire up off the ground and press towards the ball carrier. A couple of communication skills were practiced through this. First, the two players on the outside had to let the players on the inside know they were in support/coming up to meet them by yelling "I'm here, I'm here!" OR even make it known they weren't with them yet. After the defensive line was all set then it had to be someone's responsibility to call the tackle and burst forward to wrap the ball carrier. In a way, it's like a team version of fast-slow-fast because if the defenders press up together without aligning in a flat line then they turn into THE GAP OUTLET (hah...see what I did there?). After this was completed, the defenders would get back on the ground in the same formation and repeat the same drill with the next ball carrier in line. 

FUN FO' DAYZ.

I could go on and on, which I plan to do very very soon since there's great drills galore we've done so far, but I know this post is already about as long as the Torah so I'm cutting myself off here....
...and am probably just going to start another post very soon after this.