Orca Rugby
What is Rugby?
RUGBY IS THE SECOND MOST POPULAR SPORT IN
THE WORLD
Rugby football is wildly popular around the planet.
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was viewed by over 4 billion
people world wide. Only the FIFA soccer world cup and the summer
Olympics have more viewers.
Rugby is popular because it takes an age-old game (keep away) with just
a few rules (each team stays on their side of the ball and no forward
throws) which results in a rough, fast moving game that involves every
player and requires good strategy for victory. Some Americans say
rugby combines the best of soccer, wrestling, and American football.
However, American football is an offspring of rugby football. Both
Stanford and UC Berkeley, for example, had rugby teams decades before they had
American football teams!
RUGBY IS AN OLYMPIC SPORT
Did you know the USA has been the reigning Olympic rugby
gold medal champion since beating France in the 1924 Olympics held in
Paris, France? Okay, so rugby took a 92 year hiatus from the
Olympics, but will return to the Olympics in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
RUGBY IS EXCELLENT TRAINING FOR LIFE
Rugby is excellent training in many ways. The physical benefits
are obvious: developing endurance and agility from open field sprints back-to-back as
well as the explosive power needed for tackling and wrestling for the
ball. The mental benefits are less obvious, but far more valuable
and long-term: developing self-confidence from accomplishing
something very difficult, learning teamwork, developing quick thinking
skills, handling pain, taking responsibility, and learning to act with
control (discipline) while under pressure. Finally, rugby builds
good character: rugby players learn to compliment opposing players
and teammates for a job well done, rugby players learn that hard work is
the best way to accomplish a difficult task, rugby players learn that
self-sacrifice is sometimes required for the team's benefit, and rugby
players learn to keep going and never quit.
RUGBY IS EXCELLENT TRAINING FOR OTHER
SPORTS
If you already enjoy American football, you will love
rugby because rugby has MORE of what makes football so fun: more
tackling, more playing time for every player, more strategy, more
adrenaline, more passing, more running, more dodging, more wrestling for
the ball, more teamwork, more thinking, more camaraderie with opposing
players, everyone plays the ball, and anyone can be a hero. Rugby
also has LESS than American football: less bench time for players,
less specialization, less waiting around, less equipment, less expense,
less substitution, and less animosity toward opposing players.
If you play soccer, rugby will come naturally to you and help your
soccer game. The rugby ball can be played on the ground in any
direction at any time with feet, just like a soccer ball, which gives
soccer players a little advantage in rugby. In World Cup matches,
quite often most of the points are scored by kicks, not runs.
Rugby will improve your soccer game by keeping you fit and agile, and
helping you "look for open space," a concept identical in soccer and
rugby and essential to a good offensive or defensive game.
If you wrestle or train in martial arts, rugby will improve your balance
and ability to "read" your opponent's body for direction, speed,
position and evasive tactics ("jukes"). Wrestling, judo and other
grappling martial arts, and rugby are especially mutually beneficial
because the enormous amount of tackling involved in rugby works the
upper body and develops good body position for intercepting (or evading)
your opponent.
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