#3 Inquiry

Intro

How can we ensure that rugby best caters to young athletes? This question is thought about all over the world, especially in New Zealand. The age between 13-14 is when injuries start to happen so having ways of prevention can support the concept that rugby best caters for young athletes. Mitchell and I are both rugby players and this inquiry can help us ensure that rugby is the best for us and our future. In this inquiry, Mitchell and I are going to show you solutions for this problem and show some ways of getting people into rugby.

What are some of the skills you can learn by playing rugby?

Playing rugby can be a good way to learn new skills such as teamwork, resilience, communication, respect, discipline, passion, commitment and confidence. Another skill is learning to lose and understanding you cannot always win. These to me are the main life skills that rugby gives you to help you with the rest of your life. Some people learn how to kick conversions, after a try is scored, which becomes really important later on in the business end of a season. As you can see there are many skills you learn from playing the sport of rugby. Personally, we think the biggest life skills you can take away from rugby is fighting through the pain of an injury. If you get injured, and you are passionate for the sport, rugby teaches you to get back on your feet and carry on just like in life.

What is rugby?

Rugby is an awesome sport with many different aspects. Rugby is a game of two halves with two 15 a side teams who battle it out for 80 minutes trying to get the most tries. For younger age levels there are smaller numbers in teams, smaller fields and other modifications to make the game relevant for that age group. Some of those modifications include playing rippa rugby, modifying the time, modifying the weight classes, modifying the size and length of the field and modifying the weight classes to your age which is great.

The New Zealand Rugby Union have made it so that there are different time lengths of games relative to the players age and physical and mental ability as different ages have different abilities. Other adjustments are the size of the rugby balls, such as u6s and u7s use a size 3 ball and the u13s use a size 4 ball. It is a physically and mentally challenging game. Rugby was accidentally invented by a man named William Webb Ellis . He was a pupil at Rugby School in England. He was playing soccer and picked up the ball and ran it to the other line and placed the ball down for a try. It is the responsibility of all players, coaches and parents that a positive, enjoyable and a safe environment is created so that all players reach their full potential.

What are some positive effects of playing rugby?

We think the biggest positive effects from playing rugby are the health benefits, such as fitness, strength, agility, development of ball skills plus many more. Rugby is a game of many positive benefits. Some of those include increase in bone density, and it also reduces stress. Mental well -being is one of the key attributes you get from rugby. Research says that playing rugby reduces type 2 diabetes and colon cancer by 50%! We did some research and found that a lot of professional players, referees and coaches suffer from some form of mental issue. The best solution they found was to ask for help.

What are some negative effects of playing rugby?

Unfortunately rugby is a game of many negative effects as well. Concussion is one of the biggest problems in rugby as it can last long and can have a big impact later on in life. 21% (7,350 per year) of all head injuries in New Zealand are sustained through sport related activity. ACC only receive claims for 6,250 of those sports related concussion injuries suggesting that 1,100 currently go untreated which is not great.

What do young athletes want from sport?

Some young athletes are being pushed too hard, and hate having the stress of running around to so many training’s each week just to play one game. Some parents are just too over the top when it comes to their kids playing a sport. Parents can get very hyped up when kids win and so disappointed when they lose. All parents need to chill out and watch their kids have an awesome time and enjoy the game with their mates. Kids just want to wake up and go to their sports game excited not miserable, all they really want is to have fun. (What do young athletes want from sport?)We posed the question to 25 people in our class asking if they wanted a career from sport. Of the 25 only 20 people responded. Our survey showed that out of 20 responses 30% want a career from sport. We do understand that to get a better representation of students in their decision making we could survey a much greater number, Example: Survey all year 9 to year 13 students.

How do we make young athletes enjoy rugby more?

Research says to allow them to be a kid, make training fun and enjoyable, have skill-based games and do fitness but make it fun. Rugby is one of the world’s fastest growing sports and it’s most likely to be New Zealand’s national game. There has been a considerable increase in the number of females playing rugby as well which is awesome. The best part about rugby is there’s a form of rugby for everyone, no matter what your gender, experience level, size or shape there is a place for you. Almost every community in New Zealand has a rugby club to join. Playing rugby isn’t just increasing your fitness and staying healthy, you’re joining a community of players, coaches and referees across the country. New Zealand Rugby is providing local Unions and Clubs with help about protecting children and young people involved in rugby.

Are coaches too hard now on young athletes?

According to Psychology Today, some coaches dishearten and bully young athletes. The best coaches are ones that help and explain, not yelling and bullying them. By being pushed to their limits, the athlete's grades can go down and are more likely to sustain a serious injury which wouldn’t be good. One example, was a olympic road cyclist, named Maria Hassan , who chose to think that legendary athletes ate little. Initially, it was a great idea as she was winning races. She was faster but she started to lose weight and that was bad in the long term. That was because she was pushed way too hard.

What are some solutions for injury prevention?

Some good solutions are warming up and cooling down before and after the game. Using tackling equipment, developing your skills, using the correct technique when making contact and lastly enforcing and playing by the game rules. It is very important to strengthen muscles relative to the players age by a Coach or trainer who is qualified to give the right advice. You need to wear a mouthguard and both pre and post season ensure correct conditioning exercises are carried out. Stretching your muscles is also very important when warm to avoid injuries. It is also important to take rest periods during games and training because that can reduce injuries and prevent heat illness. Do not play through pain!

Why are junior rugby players dropping out of rugby?

Rugby is a very physical game as most junior players drop out just because of injuries. In New Zealand there are Pacific Islanders who mature earlier than other races which means they are bigger and taller by comparison. This can mean less confident smaller children don't want to play anymore, as they fear of getting hurt. Mitchell and I did some research and found out that in New Zealand most 12-13 year have a cell phone or wireless device. Also, research shows ages between 13 and 17, that 92 percent of teenagers are actively on their phones every day and 24 percent are constantly on their device 24/7. Therefore in this circumstance, most teens prefer socializing on their phones than being outside playing sport which is not good. According to a survey from the National Alliance from Young Sports, kids stop playing sports because “it’s just not fun anymore”. Another example was that a 12-year-old named Zachary Hallah got tackled by a boy twice his size in his game of Rugby, and he was hurt. There was nothing wrong with the tackle it was just because he was twice his size. That is one of the main reasons people drop out of rugby. One of the parents on the sideline saw that about 10 of the opposition were as big as a grown man, also she said it was very obvious that some of them were well over 15 years old!

Conclusion

In conclusion, rugby is a great sport as it gives you all of these great life skills to help you with the rest of your life. In this report, we talked about solutions to minimise injury and how coaches can make sport a whole lot more interesting. In summary the New Zealand rugby union has provided a pathway for all players, girls and boys,by modifying the game to suit the needs of all players.

Own inquiry #3

Reflection

Weekly Reflections

Since I was in Napier for rugby for two days I was a bit behind in work. But luckily I had a really good buddy ( Mitchell ) who caught up with the work. This week I have achieved more than I expected as I wasn’t here for most of the time. I think Mitchell and I are on track as we have basically finished our report on time. I think Mitchell and I next week have to just focus more and not get distracted by other people. I am really enjoying this inquiry program as I think this suits me as we find cool facts and write a cool report on it. I would definitely work with Mitchell again.

This week Mitchell and I completed heaps as we got our final draft finished and checked. Mitchell and I worked really well this week together. I think Mitchell and I are on track or even ahead. I think Mitchell and I worked on not getting distracted by people as we just kept going. I am still enjoying this inquiry program as my writing skills are getting better and better also I find it really interesting how you can find a problem and try solve it. The only thing I would change in this inquiry program would be doing a bit more math as it is one of my weakest subjects.

How I did

In this pick our own inquiry Mitchell and I choose to do how can we ensure that rugby best caters to young athletes. As I said in my weekly reflections Mitchell and I worked really well together for example in the report we had a structure of who is doing which paragraphs and when we finished our paragraphs we read over each others. I would definitely work with Mitchell again. In our comment from Mr Corny gave us a pretty good grade as I think Mitchell and I worked really hard on this inquiry. I was happy with our comment as we had a well structured report and we provided great description. Before I came into inquiry my writing could of been a lot better, and now since we have done of a couple of inquiries, my writing structure has got a lot better.