Posts Tagged ‘rugby world’

Rugby Laws The Basics

The basics of rugby

Whilst living in Germany and starting this very website a number of Germans I spoke to did not understand rugby at all. They suggested that I should write a post explaining the the basics of rugby. So for those people out there that can’t really get into watching a game of rugby because you don’t know what is happening here is a brief introduction to the game of Rugby Union.

Whilst this video is a nice introduction there is much more to learn, however the next time you are watching a game hopefully your understanding will be a little better.

How To Get The Winning Mentality and Visualize Your Goals

It is my belief that talent is overrated when evaluating what is required to be successful in any sport. Every sports club up and down the country have naturally talented players that are not fulfilling their potential. On the Other hand you will see less naturally talented players achieving much greater success. The reason for this is, mindset. If you get your mindset right then you can achieve anything you want.

Sebastien Chabal

You Can If You Think You Can!

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will.
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But soon or late the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can.
~ C. W. Longenecker ~

To be successful you have to believe in yourself, have goals and be capable of visualizing and feeling success in your mind. If you learn to control of your mind and thoughts there is nothing that you cannot achieve.

The winning mentality

Success in any sport or indeed in any sphere of life requires one to have a positive mental attitude and for you to take full responsibility for your life. If you are one of those people that blame people or other external factors for your lack of success then this could be what is stopping you “making it”. Not taking responsibility for your own destiny and blaming others for your lack of success for example “the coach does not like me” or “they only pick their friends”, can be a very damaging way to go through life.

In the above situation players can give up playing completely or they may even leave your club and look for another club where they believe they will have a more favourable environment for them to succeed. However the problem is often not with the club at all. The problem is often with the player and his or her mindset. People with this type of thinking will not make it in any area of there life unless they change their mindset, this change is very possible if you want it to be.  Please read on and maybe this will help you reach your goals or maybe give you that edge you are looking for.

Successful people with a winning mentality in any field are active and always looking for ways to improve themselves. They see failure and rejection as temporary obstacles that must be overcome, not as career ending events. When confronted by a challenge, winners immediately start to devise plans for overcoming them. People with a losing mentality will often stop in their tracks and look for someone or something to blame, they will often try to justify their attitude with various excuses, it is always someone else’s fault and not their own. In reality you can achieve anything you want in any given game if you want it bad enough. I honestly believe this to be true and it only takes a slight change in the way you think. By seeing problems or obstacles as challenges that must be overcome will give you the impetus to try harder and work harder to overcome these minor setbacks.

Visualize your goals

Visualize success

A powerful tool that can be used to improve your game is visualization. Before a big game or training vizualise (intend) what outcome you want and step into how it feels.

If your game is rugby then visualize yourself scoring a try or making those big hits and most of all visualize yourself playing the best game you could ever play or  remember a time when you had your best game ever and try and remember how that felt. While visualizing these scenarios, you should try to imagine the detail and the way it feels to perform in the desired way and how you felt afterwards.

How Vizualisation Can Help You

Mentally Prepared
Being in the right state of mind at game time is crucial. The ability to focus and block out everything going on in the world outside of your game can mean the difference a mediocre performance and a great performance.

Improve Skills

Spending time visualizing yourself learning a new skill, or improving current ones can help you to perfect your skills.
Review Your Game

Reviewing how you play in your position and how you would like to improve can help you perform better.

Rehearsal strategy

Mentally going over possible situations that may come up and imagining your strategies can help you be more relaxed and confident doing your game.

Get a winning attitude

After being dropped from your team or losing a few games, you often lose some your hard earned confidence. This can have a negative effect on your game. Using visualization to “see” yourself as a playing in the next game or as the winner can break through a negative attitude.

A video containing some great tips on using visualization.

Positive thinking and talking about yourself

Positive self-talk during competition is crucial for optimun performance. Talking negatively about yourself and doubting your skills will set you back both emotionally and techinically. Focus on what you are in control of right now.

Do not compare yourself to others. Try and focus on what are your strengths and play to these strengths. Do not worry about making mistakes as everyone at every level of the game can make the occasional mistake, never let it make you lose sight of your goals and objectives during training or in a game. Nervousness and anxiety is a natural response and if used correctly can be used to your advantage. Never let anxiety or nervousness get the better of you.

Never look for excuses

Trying to justify your mistakes is always a bad idea. When you make a mistake in a game or training just let it go and concentrate on your game. Try not try to blame teammates or external factors that you are not in control of, especially during a match. When you are a part of the team, you must share both responsibility and rewards. If you have to point out a mistake to a teammate, try and be constructive and keep it positive. Even more importantly please remember to give positive feedback whenever you can.

These days players not only have to be physically trained to win, they must be mentally trained also. A positive mental attitude and the ability to use Visualization can give you that extra edge coupled with a positive attitude and belief could make you irresitable.

Multi-cultural event points way ahead for Bolton Rugby Football Club

Having been to many rugby clubs across the country it is apparent that ethnic communities are under represented in the make up of Rugby Clubs, even in areas that have a big ethnic populations. Bolton is one such area and they stand to gain a lot from inviting them into their club and making the them aware of what the rugby club stands for.

Bolton RFC earned plenty of points for thinking ‘outside the box’ recently when they staged a bumper programme of music, dance and family entertainment entitled the Halliwell Cultural Festival at their Avenue Street headquarters.

The event, designed to bring local people together in a celebration of food, music and dance that represented all the different cultures of the community, ran from 10.30am until 1am the following day, with a kaleidoscope of free activities and entertainment which helped to introduce the club to a hugely cosmopolitan audience from across the district, many of whom were visiting the rugby club for the first time.

The whole event was aimed at families with children and comprised such diverse groups as a Caribbean steel band, morris dancers, a gymnastics team, a rapper, a folk band, a Somali dance group, a bouncy castle, birds of prey, a climbing wall, tug of war, krishna temple bollywood dancing, food from different cultural groups, a live radio outside broadcast and a Bolton Wanderers FC display and stand.

The rugby elements focused on showcasing the club and its facilities via a social event which flagged up the ambition and resource of Bolton RFC by demonstrating the enthusiasm and imagination to put together an event which brought well over 2,000 visitors to Avenue Street.

“We have raised our profile in both Halliwell and the wider Bolton area which will hopefully bring wide ranging benefits in the years to come,” said Chairman Mark Brocklehurst.

“While we operate as an independent club it is not possible for us to survive and prosper on internal funding alone. Being a community focused club is therefore very important when it comes to looking for future revenue streams, as well as the obvious player recruitment that can be gleaned from the Halliwell area.

“The Greater Manchester Police Deputy Chief Constable, Simon Byrne, who came down on the day said, that in 22 years of policing it was the best, most organised and community friendly event he had ever attended, praise indeed from a man who spends his life visiting shows and festivals.”

The ethnic communities are on the whole untapped from a rugby point of view and anything to encourage the participation in both playing and being a part of the club should be encouraged.

Rugby In India and the Delhi Hurricanes Rugby Football Club

Delhi Hurricanes

Some of you out there may be surprised to hear that Rugby is in fact a huge sport in India and is growing fast. India has long been associated with cricket, wrestling and Kabaddi (cross between wrestling and rugby without the ball). There are numerous rugby tournaments, across India for many all ages groups and for both the mens rugby and womans rugby. All the major cities will have at least one rugby club and many of these cities will have a number of rugby Clubs and the capital city of India Delhi is one such City.

The earliest trace of Rugby Football in India dates back to a scratch match or two played in Calcutta and Madras during the visit of H.M.S. Galatea in 1871. The teak goal posts used on the occasion of the Calcutta Match were afterwards used by the C.F.C. up to at least 1886. The first recorded match was played on Christmas day 1872, at CFC in Calcutta, it was played between England and a combined team of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The game caught on and had to be repeated within the week.

In 1877 saw rugby’s popularity wane and it almost died out completely, leaving behind a full coffer. The wise G.A.J. Rothney, who had been acting as Captain, Hon. Secretary and Treasurer of the Club at that time, proposed that the funds should be devoted to the purchase of a cup of Indian workmanship to be offered to the Rugby Football Union- the parent body of the game worldwide. The withdrawal of these monies was done in the form of silver coins which were then melted to craft the exquisite Calcutta Cup.

The Calcutta International Challenge Cup was to be played for annually by England and Scotland, the Cup remaining the property of the Rugby Football Union. This cup is being keenly contested annually between England and Scotland for the last 122 years. After a few years the game saw resurgence and regular matches were conducted with several new clubs having been formed. Hearing of the popularity of the sport in India, the R.F.U. decided to reciprocate the earlier Indian gesture. In 1924 they presented to the C.F.C. an exact replica of the Calcutta Cup. This cup was then titled ‘The All India & South Asia Rugby Cup.’

The recent history of rugby in India is an exciting one. Rapid growth over the past several years since the formation of The Indian Rugby Football Union in 1968 and it subsequent membership to the sport’s international governing body the International Rugby Board (IRB) in April 1999 has seen numbers of clubs and players increase dramatically in all versions of the game – 15s, 7,s and Touch rugby. The adoption of the sport within the Armed Forces and Police means that the game has strong growth potential. To this end in 2008 the IRB committed the resources of a full time overseas Development Manager to assist the IRFU develop the game throughout India.

The current Indian national rugby union team is ranked 85th in the world (as of 9 March 2010 IRB Rankings). Their captain is Nasser Hussain, and they are currently being coached by South Africans Norman Laker and Henry Marnitz. There are, in total, 17,200 registered rugby players in India. They were admitted to the IRB in 2001, but it took three years before India got there first win – beating Pakistan 56-3 in the third tier competition of the Asian Biennial tournament.

Having visited India on a number occasions, I never quite made the connection between Rugby and India. However in future I will be making sure I visit a few clubs in India and watch some games and learn more about the rugby culture in India especially Delhi.

Boom

I would like to thank my good friend Kuldeep Singh Bist for providing me with information for his club Delhi Hurricanes Rugby Football Club for whom he is a player/coach. Kuldeep took retirement from International Rugby in the year 2003. He repersented India on several occasions including the first ever Indian rugby team who toured Singapore in 1998 for Asian Rugby Championship.

Delhi Hurricanes Rugby Football Club was formed in July, 2004 and is affiliated to the North India RFU, which is in turn affiliated to the Indian RFU. Delhi Hurricanes have already developed eleven players that have gone onto represent the Indian National Team. They are hopeful that at this pace, they will provide many more players in the future who will represent the India in the future. The Delhi State team won a Bronze medal in the Guwahati National Games-2007 (7 a side) & 4 players from Delhi Hurricanes RFC were part of this team and have already qualified for Jharkhand National Games, 2009. Currently two Hurricane’s players are in New Zealand with the Indian National Team for a rugby camp and practice matches. Hurricanes won Callaghan Cup in Oct.’ 2009. Five players currently in Commonwealth Games Squads.

Delhi Hurricanes Rugby match in India

IRFU has taken the initiative to introduce Rugby in schools curriculum & lots of schools have started to play Rugby in the recent years. Delhi Hurricanes RFC are actively involved in expanding Rugby across Delhi and other parts of North India and specially among school. Delhi Government is considering to include Rugby in their curriculum in near future, which bodes well for rugby in India.

Recently rugby has seen rapid growth in India and is set to grow even more with more and more children being introduced to the game at schools. Delhi Hurricanes have some great plans in place and its clubs like these that will be the driving force behind the growth of Rugby in India. Also a noteworthy point is that woman’s rugby in India is probably growing just as fast as the men’s game as the Indian ladies have taken to the game in a big way. Who knows maybe one day rugby will be competing with cricket as the most popular sport in India, though this is a while off yet but we can hope we can then welcome another billion supporters into the beautiful game.

Delhi Hurricanes website

http://www.delhihurricanes.com/