I thought I’d kick things off slightly self-indulgently and update you on how my comeback to rugby is tracking.
Operation comeback got off to a rocky start when I experienced a hamstring tear a few weeks after resuming training with the team.
This was followed up by ankle surgery late in October, which further slowed my progress.
I admit that at times I’ve questioned the sanity of my decision to play again, but these moments quickly pass when I consider things in perspective.
Nothing invigorates the mind like challenge, and somewhat ironically, I’ve learned that it’s often the obstacles and hardships in life that give meaning to our conscious experience.
Happily, I’ve been running for a few weeks now in an attempt to make up some lost ground and I’m on track for the trial matches.
Though injuries are never welcome, I’ve been in good company over recent months due to a number of players recovering from surgery or other injuries sustained during training or carried over from the past season.
Brumbies Rugby has created a new staffing position in appointing a full-time rehabilitation specialist.
Given the unavoidable nature of injury in the modern game, this is a smart move that facilitates a players’ transition between initial treatment with the physiotherapists and training under the guidance of the athletic performance coaches.
Being part of the rehab group often seems like a “groundhog day” blur of boxing, rowing, gym, swimming and time spent in our newly acquired sandpit.
Getting properly fit is great, but every player wants out of rehab and back into full training as quickly as possible.
After all, rehab is for quitters.
Pre-season is as much a mental battle as a physical one.
A good friend of mine likes to quote Vince Lombardi when he says: “Those with the most invested are the last to surrender.”
Pre-season is where you invest so that you never roll over during the season proper. And the boys have invested well over the past few months.
Some serious gains have been made and I have no doubt we’re going to arrive well prepared come round one.
In one of my first columns for The Roar, I made the case for rugby to implement a league type interchange. The incredible injury tolls so many teams experienced during 2012 has only solidified my opinion.
I’m still waiting to hear a plausible solution to the growing injury problem in our sport.
In my mind, there exists only two reasonable ways to reduce injury in the modern game: either we must reduce the number of games, and/or training, or increase squad sizes to allow for a more aggressive rotational policy.
Given that it’s not commercially viable to reduce the total number of matches or significantly increase squad sizes, in the short-term we must turn our attention to training.
The reality is that rugby is increasing in its physicality, speed, and ball in play time.
This means that to properly prepare teams to be competitive for the duration of a season, players are pushed to the brink and often beyond that which the human body can tolerate.
An interchange rule would not wipe out injuries in rugby but it would allow training volume to be reduced.
If coaches know that they can replace a fatigued player with a fresh one, the simple reality is that players will be required to run less.
And running less in football boots on hard surfaces whilst often weighing well north of 100kg translates into less injuries.
Roarers, as this is my first column for 2013, I thought I’d ask for your assistance. Coming up with interesting topics to write on is a never-ending task, and though I’ll write on subject matters I’m most interested in, I would love to get some insight into what Roarers prefer to read about. At the least, I’d appreciate the ammunition in my duel with writers block! Please leave a note in the comments with some ideas for me to write about.
Max Kenney-Herbert
Roar Guru
amazing
Slowpoke
Guest
He's probably already seen Gregan's or Larkham's or Joe Roff's.
Bakkies
Guest
We don't want to see 47-45 scorelines regularly in Rugby or the touch football attack that is common in modern day league. Limited attack is down to the coaches and players being conservative not the laws and the number of players on the pitch.
Bakkies
Guest
The thing with smaller kids it's about technique and body height. With technique get it wrong the bigger player steamrolls you, body height incorrect they will suck you in to a maul situation (like when Genia got swamped by the Irish lads in 2011). We have won tightheads against bigger and fatter kids that have a false of security/awareness by getting in low. Coaches that just use the bigger kids to steamroll the opposition even out in the backs are just lazy.
mania
Guest
i have to agree here. when i coached i used to often get kids to coach that have been rejected from league and rugby because they're too small and were told to bulk up. i discourage this as bulking up usually ends up in an imbalance in the body and something has to give. see it a lot where other coaches just rely on using big kids. every one loses here because instead of developing skill or a mind set to unlock defenses its just relying on big kids taking it up. this is unfair to the big kids because they arent being developed and get a false sense that they can just steam roll over opponents until one day they come up against some smart kids who dont miss first tackles.
Katipo
Guest
When you say "we" don't want high scoring games you mean you don't want this. Many of us would enjoy a few long range tries in contrast to the one-off-the-ruck inch-by-inch they call attack nowadays. Think of the criticism the Wallabies have copped for their conservative playing style. Just sayin' I'm not alone. I also think this constant escalation of costs is bad management. Sanzar as a business is about as smart as Qantas! Glad those guys aren't involved in managing my business.
Bakkies
Guest
No. We don't want basketball scores in Rugby. We definitely need bigger squads. You can't go in to an extended Super Rugby season which requires a lot of travelling and conditioning with just 30 players. That's ridiculous and you have the extended squad on peanuts. Sanzar really needs a better tv deal to provide more money to the unions to distribute.
Katipo
Guest
Best of luck with the comeback Clyde. There is another option to alleviate the increase in player size and instance of injury. Rather than increase squad size how about reducing the number of players on the field. I'm not proposing rugby league - not going down that code war path - just saying rugby union rules with less players on the park: say 14 or 13. Still retain lineouts, breakdowns, mauls, scrums; no fundamental change to the rules except the number of players. It's not like 15 is a magic number nor does league own the number 13. They are only numbers. Let teams decide tactically how to split between backs and forwards to create a bit of interest. Might speed things up too. Worth a trial?
Bakkies
Guest
Re the Kings I think that was more to the fact that they weren't allowed to sign more foreign players. The Kings are in a difficult spot, only guaranteed one season so a lot of prospective players and ex Lions went to Europe which had more job security. Pretty sure that Argentina still has the Pampas squad in the Vodacom Cup which has seen players like Juan Imhoff graduate from a tier 4 Rugby winger in to a test player in a short space of time. He scored two quality tries for Racing Metro against Saracens last Saturday.
Dadiggle
Guest
The Kings wanted to sign more but they couldn't. Now why would Argentina a team playing in a Southern Hemisphere tournament want their players to play in Southern Hemisphere teams and are available when the Super Rugby season is over and 4 Nations started? They are so much better of playing at French clubs and having them unavailable every second international which lead to creating back alley treaties just to let them play in the TRC.
Bakkies
Guest
Pretty sure there was a gentlemen's agreement before Argentina got admitted to the 4 Nations that the Super Rugby teams wouldn't sign Argentinians. That's why the Rebels signed second rate NZers. The Kings have got a couple on their books.
Dadiggle
Guest
Argentina is a untapped Goldmine. So is the Pacific Islands. You just need better scouts than NZ in the Pacific Islands.
Dadiggle
Guest
So Mallory failed? Wonder what a bummer it must have been getting three quarters there then realize you need oxygen. Some clever people Writing about climbing is boring. I would rather go climbing. — Chuck Pratt.
Dadiggle
Guest
This time he can't run away to another country. Argentina and IRB made sure of that. Wonder if Jake shown him how a World Cup winners medal look like?
Bakkies
Guest
Star imports are expensive and not easy to get in Rugby for southern hemisphere teams. Players from Europe very rarely give up the chance to be eligible for test selection. The Welsh players are going to France where they still can get picked to play for Wales. Gareth Delve staying in Melbourne has killed his own test career. That's why I couldn't work out the point in him signing a new deal at the Rebels, which makes it very difficult for Gatland to pick him. Playing Super Rugby basically prevents you from playing 5 Six Nations tests which is a massive deal for players from the 6 participant unions. Cipriani went home for that reason. You have to be playing in England to get picked for English elite player squads. Steffon Armitage is playing the house down for Toulon but the England are selecting home based players ahead of him.
Jim
Guest
Functional strength and functional training is about training groups of muscles through movements that relate to real world activities. This means that as well as just building the big mover muscles, you are developing all the small control muscles,coordination, complimentary muscles groups, balance, etc. Building strength from a functional perspective is often done with olympic lifting, pull ups, kettlebells etc. Structural strength and structural training is more like what body builders and a lot of trainers that charge by the hour do. It focusses on one particular muscle group at a time. It means you have to do lots of different individual excercises to get strength and function for complex real world activities. THis means that it is easy to miss the little control muscles or to get muscles groups out of balance. Structural work often involves machines and excercises like inclined leg press, bicep curl, etc that isolate a single muscle group.
Bakkies
Guest
The kids I coach in Ireland are smaller then most of the rural teams they play (farmer boys). We quiet often beat them by using the backs, loose forwards winning turnovers, off loading, counter rucking which surprises them and using scrum halfs that link which provides an extra man in attack. When we get sucked in to a mauling game it becomes more difficult. Using the interchange is vital in a physical match when you have smaller kids.
Bakkies
Guest
When he isn't on the medical table.
eamon
Guest
Hi its really exciting that you are making a comeback. What a challenge. It made think of this guy who took on an even greater challenge. George Mallory, at the age of 38, and without oxygen, attempted to summit Mt Everest, nearly three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay in 1953. He wrote, “People ask me, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is of no use.'There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron... If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.” ― George Mallory, Climbing Everest: The Complete Writings of George Mallory No one knows for sure whether he reached the summit but he certainly died either climbing up or down from there.
Parra
Guest
Palu is a physical player too!