Helmets and Pads
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Helmets and Pads
Rugby Predjudice
I have played and coached both Rugby and Gridiron for many years. In particualr I have taught hundreds of Rugby Players to play Gridiron Defense. I advocate using Gridiron Kit For teaching Tackling to Rugby Players!
Most Rugby Coaches, that I have met, can’t stand this concept. They view Gridiron as a competitive sport and that we would somehow corrupt the purity of Rugby. I guess these were the same guys that were against Titanium Golf Clubs. Even though they have never so much as pulled on a set of Kit, they have a predjudice against it. They can see that you must use a Barbell over a Pushup to build upper body strength, but struggle to see why you must augment tackling practice with equipment. How do you tackle at 100% and not get hurt? How do you teach a kid who closes his eyes at contact to keep them open? A HELMET AND PADS IS THE ONLY WAY OF SIMULATIING THE TACKLING ACTION AT FULL INTENSITY WITHOUT HURTING YOURSELF.
The truth of the matter is that very few of these nay sayers have actually ever Put on a Set of Gridiron Kit. Very few Rugby Coaches that I have met have a soid methodology to teach tackling. I have trained hundreds of Rugby players to learn to use Kit. Its is a satisfying concept as a coach to watch players that have almost no tackling ability turn into fearsome hitters. Very few of them that have managed this route will not come out of a months training - better hitters.
Training in Kit is not a deceision that you can take lightly. Kit is expensive aound $300 per player. It takes about a month to learn to use the kit, but then, you can advance and learn how to "Hit" rather than how to "Tackle".
Our coaching staff have a long history with Gridiron and have been applying these Iron Rugby techniques to defensive Rugby movements. Great Defense is built with Extreme preseason strength training, regular season maintenance, intense repetitive practice right up to 2 days before the game.
Gridiron Kit has developed over the last 80 years, primarily as a response to head injuries incurred in the mid 20th century. It is today a Billion Dollar Business, with very high research expenditures.
What has this got to do with Rugby? Primarily it is that if you leave your head out of the tackle you are diminishing your ability to transmit energy into the Hit by as much as 50%. We need a means to train players to develop this high intensity contact, without injuring themselves.
The Gridiron Kit takes about 8 session to learn to use (Say one month). This is similar to teaching a Rugby player the basics of Olympic Lifting. He is never going to be a great lifter, but the lifting will make him stronger for Rugby. We are not going to teach your players to be Gridiron Players, we are going to put them into high contact situations and the kit will protect them from injury. The Kit will help him to develop Neck muscles and to gain the confidence to put his head into the tackle and inflict a hit on the opponents.
WE ARE NOT ADVOCATING LEADING WITH YOUR HEAD OR "SPEARING". This would be dangerous to yourself and to other players.
Intense Practice
Now Rugby tends to go really soft inpractice. Soft thursday practice. Nobody gets hurt at a Thursday practice. Its all very well, but the problem is that you take girls into the game. Our expereience is, lose a couple guys along the way at thursday practice, but take men into the game.
The only way that you can train sport specific movement like Tackling (say 30 times hard in a night -you only make 10 tackles max in a game), is to use Gridiron Helmet and Pads. I have tried all types gear like Boxing gear and Hockey gear, but only Gridoron Kit gives you the ability to take it to a really intense level.
Now the crux. Last thing you do before a match is not some Paffy Captains practice running up and down the field passing the ball to each other and telling stories about girls you met, but snot hard hitting each other till you bleed.
We give the guys who do did not make the starting lineup one last chance to rearrange the coach’s choice.
If you don’t do this, you go into the game soft.
Injuries
Detractors of the equipment may point to the number of concussions in the American game being equal to the those experienced in rugby, however the number of head to head collisions and head first contact into the opponents body in Football outnumber those in rugby by a large margin. I would hazard a guess that in a single game of NFL football these sorts of collision with the head would out number the same collisions in half a season of rugby. Concussion statistic and other injury statistics need to be evaluated carefully in the context of the sport. Further more the protection of the face, nose and eyes and cervical spine offered by the football kit reduce the number and risk of head injuries and allow the player the confidence to use good posture with proper spinal and head position to maximise the drive through the opposition in contact (blood bins are few and far between in football)
Players who pull their heads away from contact change the stance and leverage of their body and are unable to use the leg strength to drive their bodies through the opponent and will in all likely hood be knocked over or driven backwards.
The contact is almost like a bow and arrow shot at a target. The legs are the bow the body the arrow that drives through the opponent. This requires a good strong bow (leg strength) a straight arrow (good spinal and neck posture) and a strong bow string to shoot the arrow (strong mid section and core that allows the leg force to transfer to the upper body). The hit, wrap, drive up and through and twist defensive technique not only drives the person backwards, reduces the tendency to spear tackle and places he ball carrier in a less than ideal position relative to the ball on landing. All this is only possible if correct hitting posture is taught and learned and in our opinion this is only possible if the players learn with gridiron equipment, learn to overcome the innate fear of contact learned in primary school.
