Innovative Football game plan

Randomness in football play calling is powerful.

Here's a link about a football coach who changed the paradigm of how the game was played. Great stuff, creative stuff....Asymmetric at every play.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95035232

New article on brain mapping

London cab drivers brain activity when planning routes.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/14/inside-a-london-cabd.html

Why concussions are serious: Kevin Higgins

This is an email I sent to Brian Vizard about my chance encounter with Kevin Higgins, it high lights how serious concussions are. Kevin took his life, his depression could have been a result of concussions. Our discussion should have brought back positive memories, but his damaged brain might have distorted them into a depressive spiral.

Seeing this story brings a very sad memory about how close the American rugby family is. I might have been the last rugby person to have talked to Kevin. He was working in the Big 5 in El Segundo. I ran in quick before practice to see if I could get a pair of cleats as I had forgotten mine at home. I looked a the selection and decided none were good enough even as back ups, the sales person tried to convince me that cleats were cleats. Kevin came out from the stock room asked what I needed the cleats for, I said rugby, which caused him to light up and introduce him self. He asked where I played--I said Belmont Shore, and his eyes lit up more, and he told me he played for OMBAC and we chatted briefly about rugby and perhaps the last epic OMBAC Belmont match. I was in a hurry to get to practice, and promised to stop in again and say high--he told me to say high to the Belmont players and I left thinking how neat it was to have a rugby legend working in the sporting goods store across the street from my work (I was very young and did not know how tragic it also was that a dedicated elite athlete athlete was selling shoes at Big 5). I told the Belmont guys who I had met, Dan Porter, and Rich Schurfeld both jumped out of their skins about knowing Kevin's where abouts-- they said he had kind of fallen off the map and that I should invite him to to come to Belmont and coach, or at least re-engage with rugby. As quickly as the next practice Dan had tried to contact him at the store and was told the bad news. Given the proximity of my meeting him and his passing I can't help but feel I must have triggered a downward spiral about glories past that contrasted with his current situation, and that he did not have a safety net or the ability to break out. It's sad to think that our reach out to a member of the rugby family was coming, but that it came too late (possible just hours too late). I've thought about that chance encounter often without a context to assimilate the randomness of the event, and without knowing the full biography of the greatness I had come into contact with. We should all be reminded of the seriousness of concussions. Thanks for honoring his memory, its filled a void in my life, that some how in a five minute meeting with a person I learned of a fantastically gifted, yet tragic hero. This award fills a longing I've carried for Kevin since that meeting, for him to be recognized by the American rugby community and remembered for the competitor he was. Please continue with your work on promoting rugby, this scholarship, and continue funding the studies on injury prevention and especially concussion awareness. A donation to the fund has been sent.

To donate
https://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Simple/Donor.asp?ievent=278187&en=5nIHIMOiGdLDIFNnFcLAJFPpEhIPJSMpHiLIJPPvGkKTK4I

Strategies for the new laws

New laws will cause referees to call more free kicks which leads to different strategies which we are already familiar with:
-quick tap to restart
-call for a scrum
-even kick for distance


Scrum, with 5 additional meters of space:
-need to focus on attention on scrum moves to attack quickly

Faster pace of the game (with more quick taps and fewer penalties) this will require:
-Fitness
-Quick decisions

Fewer penalties for defensive rucking will require:
-better ball handling skill to avoid contact
-better in contact skills to power step, and get around tacklers

The game will be more wide open, more fun to watch and advantage will go to the teams that adopt new strategies best. Turn on your brain and open up the attacks.

Advice when attending trial venues

I've coached and participated in a few select side events and the advice I would give you is the following:
-come prepared--have equipment, attitude, food water, and good attitude.
-be serious--all-star time is about performance and a chance to make midwest, and possibly all-american teams.
-keep your cool--select sides are difficult ego fest by players coaches and competition, be competitive but don't be an asshole, a coach will sometimes give the nod to the team player over the asshole even less talented.

Here is what selectors are looking for in the tournament:
-Fundamentals--a solid ability in all basic aspects of the game, passing, tackling running, kicking, rucking ect..
-Position specific dominance--great spin passes from scrum halves, decisions by fly halves, dominance at prop, winning lineouts for second rows, crunching tackles by flankers and centers, and great tries by wings ect...
-Explosive play--ability to make pancake tackle, explode through tackle on offense, quickness and speed.
-Speed, speed, speed at all positions--usually the fastest at every position will get serious points over slower but more fundamentally sound rivals.
-Game changers--big hitters, quick deciders, length of the field runners--great ruckers are expected, great passers are expected--but guys who make big plays are make all midwest and especially all american sides.

If you are going to commit the time, money and effort to trying out you need to do a serious pre-trial preparation. Those committing should consider the following speed and agility workout I found on the crossfit site. Seems like it covers all the basics for getting faster and quicker. Also include flexibiliy stretches I gave you in December, and hit a few crossfit workouts for general fitness on non-speed days.

I think 5-10 or you could make the midwest side, Jared is lobbying hard. I think one of two of you could be all-american possibilities with great performances.

Go for it. Make the club and the university proud.




Here's a workout I found on Crossfit that will help fine tune your body to make the team, and to be considered for All-American: http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=677&page=2
Over the course of 6 weeks, I decreased my 40 time from 4.92 to 4.71, while gaining 15 lbs. We focused on doing explosive high knee movements to strengthen the hip flexors and did plyos to get better get-off. We did all our sprints at a 10:1 rest to work ratio. This ensures that you are working at maximum output every sprint to increase your top speed. Many people get confused with maximum output and maximum effort. Maximum effort is key for developing endurance and mental toughness (vital for rugby), but to increase your top speed and explosiveness, you must be firing on all cylinders (not be fatigued).

To increase lateral quickness and movement, plyos as well as work on the agility ladder are beneficial. Lateral plyos are good for increasing the overall distance you can move side to side. Using the agility ladder makes your body able to manage that distance.

When it comes to all out speed, it is essential to get proper rest in between reps to really get results. However, when it comes to agility and fast foot movements in a confined space, maximum effort while moderately tired seems to get the best results. You just have to make sure your feet continue to move quickly.

This is what I do to get faster and improve my agility:

Speed Days:
Dynamic Warmup-
high knees run 2x10 yd
high knee skip, forward 2x10 yd
high knee skip, sideways 2x10 yd
high knee skip, backwards 2x10 yd
lunges (good stretch) 2x10 yd
butt kickers 2x10 yd
fire hydrants (on all fours, lifting leg laterally) 3x 10 reps
tin soldier (with leg locked out, kick leg up in walking motion to touch horizontally outstretched hand) 2x10 yd
high knee run (cycle your legs as many times as possible in the 10 yds) 2x10 yd
- this warmup is supposed to be tiring, so don't be suprised when it is. Also, don't take long rests in between sets or exercises.

Plyo- Here you can get creative. Pick two plyos that are running related such as broad jumps or high skips. Do 3 sets of not a lot of reps of each.

Sprints- Here we want at least 10:1 rest/ work ratio
Get offs: 6 reps of 4 to 5 hard steps

- Pair the following sprints in twos so that you alternate the two sprints for their sets

10's: 4 reps
40 yd build ups: 4 reps (accelerate so that you are going 100% at 40 yds. As soon as you hit 100% coast to a stop.)

20's: 4 reps
flying 10's: 4 reps (accelerate to 100% for 30 yds and sprint for 10 yds)

30's: 4 reps
flying 20's: 4 reps (like flying 10's but sprint for 20 yds)

40's: 4 reps (don't pair, rest well)

Hollow sprints: 2 reps (sprint 20, coast 20, sprint 20, coast 20, sprint 20) don't pair

Start out with reduced reps and work up to doing the workout as specified. This should take you about 45 min to an hour from start to finish. Do it once a week.

Agility:
Start with dynamic warmup.
Do a plyometric that has lateral movement associated with it (side to side leaps, zig zag leaps).
Do the agility ladder with an array of exercises. If you search online, you can come up with lots of movements that you can do. We did 4 times through the ladder for each movement and would do 3 movements total. Make sure that you keep your feet moving fast.
Do cone drills that make you start and stop in all sorts of ways. These you can find online as well. We would do two drills, with three reps in each direction (since most cone drills either have you start from the right or left).

We did one day of each workout a week. It is hard work, but the results were definite. When combining it with crossfit, the total fitness required for rugby will be achieved. If you have a choice, do the speed and agility workouts before the crossfit ones. You want to be fresh so that maximum output is achieved. Hopefully this helps you. Take some of the workout or all of it to fit your liking. Good luc

Some Science based rugby

1. Kicking form matters--read this link to see what they are saying about how Johnny Wilkinson's arm swing affect his accuracy.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071005213308.htm

2. Concussions---Rugby players suffer from concussions more than thought, and concussions are serious in the short term and in the long term.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011011065700.htm
--Injured players more likely to become concussed:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/09/000913205911.htm
--multiply concussed players my develop neurological problems later on:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051011000046.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/09/990910080015.htm
--If you get a concussion your are more likely to get another on:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/09/000913205911.htm

3.Better spinal chord safety awareness has reduces spinal chord injuries:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070518062358.htm

4. Weight lifting reduce sever injuries
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/10/971022155847.htm

5. Brain training improves fluid intelligence:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505075642.htm

Kaizen rugby

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Continuous change, the Kiazen concept--does not cause the flight or fight response that causes people resist changing. Small incremental changes help map the brain to new patterns and habits, this stuff increases intelligence, and permanently changes how your brain in mapped.

Division 2 scoring benchmarks

Sat, 19 Apr
Utah Valley	13	Final
East Carolina	11

Sat, 19 Apr
Middlebury	34	Final
Northern Colorado	12

Sat, 19 Apr
Coast Guard RFC	34	Final
Loyola	12

Sat, 19 Apr
Michigan	13	Final
Radford	48

Guys,
Here's some insight into how wide open Division 2 is and some benchmark scores. A good team will scores about 12 points in a game. Michigan is such a team. To win you need to be able to score about 40 a game, and hold you opponent to about 10.

Taking the leap from being a good team, to a dominate team will take just as much hard work in the coming year as we put in to the last year.

We've gotten to the point of holding a quality opponent to about 10 point a game. Now we need to stretch for the next bench mark scoring 30-40 points a game every game.



Toby

Benchmarks for team performance

Round 1 of division 1 national playoff results:
UC Berkeley Tennessee 102-3
San Diego State 32-15 Arkansas State:
Kutztown 27-23 Bowling Green:
BYU 48-22 Dartmouth:
St Mary’s 52-40 Air Force:
Cal Poly 51-27 Army:
Colorado Utah 31-30
Penn State Minnesota 52-24,

-Half the winners scored more than 50 points. Lowest winning score: 27.
-Midwest Union 0-2 in first round--BG lost to a relative minnow Kutztown, and Minnesota got blown out.
-Losing teams Minnesota, Utah, Dartmouth, and Army have paid semi-professional staffs, stadiums and every advantage a team could have.

This time next year we need to be capable of scoring more than 50 against a solid opponent or winning a close game against an equal opponent, or putting up a huge score against an inferior opponent with our b-side.

http://www.americanrugbynews.com/artman/publish/college/Ups_and_downs_of_the_Round_of_16.shtml

Will power goals and performance

Goal setting, goal directedness and goal achievement are the most important skills you will get from you rugby experience. Theses traits will set you on a path to success, get you better interviews, get you better jobs and make you more money.

This New York times article has some useful tips:
1. practice makes will power stronger and better
2. blood sugar affects your resolve
3. getting better on one area of you life will improve other areas.
4. spending energy in one area, reduces will in other areas

The article is short and full of references to real research results so read it, and if you are really interested track down the original sources.

Here's how we apply it to rugby.
-practice setting goals and attaining them, and you will get better.
-eat good food in the right quantities at the right time for performance, also focus on replenishing energy as needed--you'd be surprized how much energy you need to really perform.
-set and achieve rugby goals and your discipline for attaining other goals will increase.
-when concentrating on goals in one area, this may require setting aside other goals, for example if we are working hard for playoffs, we delay achievement in other areas--don't study for the MCAT's during the playoff push if we can control it.

Goal setting and achievement is another important self programming skill useful in rugby and in life.

A crystal clear example of a high performance team

I hate to keep harping on Cal, but they are the epitome. Read this article and see if there is anything magical about them that we cannot do ourselves. Its a matter of collectively getting up each morning and saying today I will be better than yesterday.

The Long Blue Line

Creating a high performance team

Creating a high performance team is really simple. Look at what other successful organizations do and emulate them. Here a short list off the top of my head.

-Use the best personal equipment possible. This means uniforms, balls, shorts, cleats, and pads. This applies to game and practices. You can't practice or play if you are wearing crap.

-Use the best practice equipment possible. Rucking bags, cones, whistles, scrum machines, agility ladders, tees, and balls. Good practice equipment makes practice meaningful, constructive and enjoyable. Good practice equipment teaches proper form and reduces injuries.

-Practice and play on the best field possible. A good level field is essential.

-Have plenty of water and sports fuel available. You simply cannot learn, exert, and excel if you do not rehydrate and refuel throughout practice. Every practice should have water, Gatorade, Accelerade, Endurox for recovery plus sports gels. Its not weakness to hydrate and fuel, its essential.

-Have structured, efficient practices that build skills, patterns and athletic abilities to a game plan.

Other broader high performance ingredients include:
-Have a set pre-season, in-season, and recovery training plan.

-Practice 4-5 days a week, goal is 10 to 1 practice to game ratio.

-Play meaningful games.

High performance teams prepare for games in the following ways:
-Organization-everything is taken care of so that players and coaches can focus 100% on performance.
-Nutrition-players prepare for competition with balanced, nutritious meals.
-Hydration-players begin hydration days before the match, and ensure they are hydrated before, during and after.
-Sleep-often overlooked, sleep patterns affect performance more than realized. This is related to travel strategies to game and the hotels the players stay in.
-Mental preparation-players use mental imagery, goal setting, relaxation, and focused pre-game arousal to prepare for competition.
-Physical preparation-teams use dynamic stretching to prevent injuries and prepare the body for explosions, contact and exertion.
-Strategy-each player knows the entire team strategy in each important game situation and their role in the strategy.

In watching high performance teams dominate outsiders might observe that they have better coaches, more money, better players or some other advantage. This is not true coaches coach better, players play better, and money is spent more efficiently if teams follow high performance strategies. Successful team cultures are build one high performance characteristic at a time. Stronger team cultures attract, develop and keep better coaches and players. Nothing is as attractive as success.

Expert performance

I like this article on the freakonomics blog about expert performance. It really gets to the heart of how to be great at sports or anything. Your college years are designed for you to focus on self improvement. The habits you set making your self a better rugby player will pay tremendous dividends later in life. The challenge of rugby in America is to find good models of the skills you need, and to find good feedback mechanisms to measure your attainment of skills.

Enjoy and keep working hard.




http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/how-did-a-rod-get-so-good/

What you do and how you do it changes your brain

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html

This article talks about how jazz players manipulation their brain activity to perform. Its something we as coaches and players should incorporate into our practices, game preparation and game plans.

Interesting read.

Crossfit workout for in season fitness

I hope many of you tried the Cal preseason workout. It was designed to give rugby specific conditioning. It provided strength, explosiveness, cardio and flexibility. I've done it a few times and had the Air Force Academy team do a similar workout. Unfortunately its an old school workout. Most top rugby programs now use different styles of training.

Belmont Shore, the most successful superleague team in America follows crossfit. Last December I talked to Josh Burgin a 2001 alum who plays for them about the fitness program. What he said is that the workouts are short, high intensity, highly varied and effective.

I've been doing crossfit since December and love the results, can't wait to see what the workout of the day is and can get in and out of the gym in under and hour most of the time.

I have recommended to Jared and Tim that they adopt elements of crossfit into your training. In a sense Jared's functional strength stuff, hippity hops, 400's and other things are crossfit.

I am strongly recommend you checkout crossfit.com and spend an hour reading about the program. Its a great site, the greatest thing about the site is the free workout of the day that you all can start doing right now. It also has great instructional videos for all exercises.

Start doing it now. I recommend you do crossfit on Sundays, and Wednesdays. Jared and Tim will give you crossfit like workouts in practice.

Most importantly start practicing it now so you can do it over spring break.

Two caveats about the program. First, its really intense and some exercises like hand stand push ups, and muscle ups are almost impossible. You need an internal goal to overcome this initial frustration. Beating OSU and IU would be mine. Making all-midwest, or all-american is another good goal. Second the workouts put stress on the groin, the squats, and olympic lifts take a period of time to get used to. Pay attention to this and skip of modify the workout of the day until you adapt to the new program.

There's no motivation like self motivation.


Toby

Mark Cuban played rugby at Indiana

This stuff rocks, it filled with insights in to Mark Cuban's mind. I've been quoting several Cubanisms for years. Next year how about we schedule a match against the Indiana mudsharks, which Cuban finances and beat their ass!

http://www.blogmaverick.com/

This article rocks

http://www.physorg.com/news118592975.html

10 Reasons to do the Cal offseason training

9 weeks is a hell of a long time to dedicate to off season training. I thoroughly recommend it. I've done the Cal work out twice in the last year and have thoroughly enjoyed the results. Link to workout is here: Cal pre-seaon workout. Here is why you should do it.

10. You will be a bad ass rugby player--check out the video of Cal playing 2007 National Championship The biggest difference from your level of play and their level of play is power and speed. Compare to you best game Miami vs. Michigan Fall 2007. Count the number of tackles you break of the number of 1 on 1's where you run over, around or through the opponent. There aren't that many. The Cal work out will give the the power, and explosiveness to dominate.

9. Women will dig you. You will be cut and ripped, you will not only play like a stud you will be a stud.

8. You will get a better job. You will look the recruiters in the eye your senior year and tell them yes you played rugby, no you didn't just party. You woke up at 7am to do your pre-season work out, you went to classes you at right, you slept right and you did it just because you wanted to be the best. You will prove self motivation, dedication, team work, and long term commitment. You will get a second interview every time.

7. You will change your body forever. You will increase muscle mass, increase bone density, reduce fat, increase neuro-muscular reaction, increase balance, and strengthen you heart. Your future middle-aged, and elderly self will thank you.

6. You will be smarter. Vigorous exercise increases blood flow to the brain, explosive movements change the patterns of your brains neurons and complex movements force your brain to work overtime to control your body.

5. You will be able to play a higher level of rugby. Miami as a team made tremendous strides to increase your level of play. The limiting factor is now your body, not your rugby skills, or the pattern of play.

4. You will get better grades. You will have to manage your time better to fit in a pre-season work out. If you commit to a 5 day a week work out you will skip class less, because classes will be on the way to or from the gym. To get to the gym you will have to get your ass out of bed, or get off the couch, or turn off the tv or put down the xbox remote, and therefore your brain will be actively working instead of passively absorbing during your work out. You will have to use a calendar and set a schedule to find time to get your workout in, and while you are doing this you will also figure out when to study.

3. You will establish a fitness and skill base for life long enjoyment of rugby. Men's rugby is awesome, and old boy's rugby is even better. The better you are now the better you will be later.

2. You will win individual rugby honors. Though not the point of rugby, it is nice to play select side rugby. Everyone on the team has the athletic potential to be all-Ohio, 5 or 6 players could be all Mid-west and one or two will have a chance to be all-Americans. Few of you have played up to your athletic potential because you do not have the explosiveness a pre-season work out will give you.

1. You will win a national championship. I guarantee it. Will you guarantee it to yourself.