Could they have come from a background in Rugby League, American Football, Aussie Rules or are they copy-cat coaches who are killing our kids? SO WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?
I bumped into the great man himself, one of my sporting idols. The one guy I wanted to emulate, one of the greatest influences on me wanting to play this, once beautiful game of Rugby Union, BARRY JOHN. He was sitting with a group of friends with a glass of beer outside the Old Arcade Public House, in St John’s Square in Cardiff’s City Centre. He recognized me, called me over and said, “HEY RINGO, HAVE A GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME, ONCE? ……I DROPPED A F—ING BALL IN TRAINING”[/free]
I’ve used that line several times since but I can’t say it without mentioning that it was actually Barry, who I first heard it from and it is probably true!
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But it was not this 1-liner that struck me, rather something else he said about the game generally. He said “ALL MY RUGBY PLAYING LIFE I TRIED TO RUN AWAY FROM THE OPPOSITION, AND NOW ALL I SEE, ARE PLAYERS RUNNING INTO THEM!”
I was cycling with my 5 year old son, on a short trip across the local playing fields, to take him to play FOOTBALL! Luca and I, stopped to watch Cardiff Schools Under 11’s rugby team, warming up along with their opposition, Rhondda Schools.
Line-out, off the top, scrum-half to fly half, inside centre crash into the coach (holding the shield), 4 forwards into contact, pod-system, phases, (several of them), different areas of the field, scrum, No 8 picks up, smashes into the coach (holding the shield), ditto line-outs, more line-outs, more phase-plays. Outside centre, full back and wings are just running along not having touched the ball for 15 minutes and the game kicks off in 20 minutes!
Better have a quick look at the Rhondda Schools, exactly the same!
“Quick, Luca, jump on your bicycle, let’s get out of here before the actual match begins”
Where did the ‘End over End’ straight on top of the boot, safety-first punt into block F row 30 come from? It could not have been from Rugby League. Certainly not in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway because I once watched Scott Johnson teach Iestyn Harris to kick this way, on the Thursday, prior to a crucial, group stage European match before Cardiff Blues played Ulster……. It rained heavily on the day Iestyn was taking an age to sort the ball out with his hands, the ball was squirting off the side of his boot, he suffered 4 charge downs, including the last one which led to the winning try for Ulster!
I must emphasise, this is not to pour scorn on Scott Johnson as a coach because I genuinely believe he is the 1 coach, currently based in Wales, who has a clear vision and understanding as to which direction the game should be heading and the importance of improving skill levels and game management sufficiently, to take us there.
I believe one can chip and catch, punch a ball across field to another player, launch a Garryowen, drive a ball to touch or down the pitch, under the wind or statically kick to touch, close to the 5m zone for a driving line-out, ALL WITH THE IN-STEP! Simply adjust the shoulders for accuracy and balance.
SUBSCRIBERS MAY CONTACT ME FOR A GREATER INSIGHT INTO SOME OF THE SIMPLER TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE ONE’S KICKING FROM HAND or observe the coaching footage on Kicking from hand (TO BE UPLOADED SOON).
Perhaps the American Football coaches or Aussie Rules coaches poked their noses in but someone has to be accountable for influencing our game with unnatural habits like these because the knock-on effect is that all the copy-cat coaches (who also happen to be ‘nodding donkeys’ so as not to challenge their pay-masters) will ingrain these habits into our promising youngsters and effectively stifle their natural development!
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