Thursday's Weather

Sorry, team, but that's the way it goes sometimes--I guess we should have practiced. Oh well. That's the price of being safe.

The parents meeting is moved to next Thursday.

See you next Tuesday evening.

Another Great Practice

Team:

Things are going well, and it looks like we'll have two full days this week to train--stay tuned for weather updates.

Theme
We introduced it last night--DRS. That's Discipline, Respect, and Safety. Have the discipline to stay quiet, listen, do as you're instructed, and keep your head in the game. Be respectful of your teammates, your opponents, officials, coaches, and property which does not belong to you. Be safe at all times, whether it's weather or contact drills and play.

WATER
It's getting hot--bring water to practice, and when the coaches call water break, make sure you drink some.

Touch
You guys are doing great, learning the basics. We're going to reinforce the scrum this week, and move on to lineouts, then the maul.

Tackle
For the experienced players it may seem like baby steps, but we are setting the standard for all players, using our basic contact drills so that it becomes second nature.
As Coach Roach said last night, the more mature you are, the more you pay attention, and the more you work on these drills and master them, the faster we can move on to more complex drills and play.
Bring your mouthpiece!

See you out there this afternoon.

Fort Hunt Rugby Night at Primo's

Well, we did okay for our very first Fort Hunt Rugby Night at Primo's. We could do better, but we've got three more chances this summer to work it out. I did see Alexandra G and her dad there, Patrick K and his dad, and David B and his dad, too. Good on ya, guys and gals, for supporting our biggest sponsor.

Next Fort Hunt Rugby Night at Primo will be on Sunday (they're always on Sundays), 27 June. See you there!

Refer first to our website for all questions.

Another excellent practice last night, with super turnout.

Paperwork: players won't get their jersey until all required paperwork is turned in:

• USA Rugby registration: this is the signed USA Rugby agreement/waiver, and your receipt with your CIPP number.
• Fort Hunt Registration: we have that already, so you don't need to bring it.
• Rugby VA waiver: we will have those at practice starting next week.
• Commwealth Games waiver: we'll have these at practice starting next week.

Players: bring water. This is your responsibility.

Tackle players: we started the basics of contact last night, with the intro to tackling. This drill is going to be a standard contact warmup for all practices, until it becomes second nature. We'll move this forward next week with the introduction of rucking pads, tackling dummies, and starting player-on-player contact drills. We'll also start getting into the scrum, ruck and maul.

Equipment: remember, take off all jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets, watches, earrings. This includes friendship strings, etc. Empty all pockets. This goes for tackle and touch players.

See you next Tuesday.

So We Begin, Summer 2010

Excellent practice last night, team, over 50 rugby-playing kids out there, learning about rugby. That's fantastic, hopefully on our way to 80+ kids, maybe even 100. Bring a buddy to practice, or two or three.

WATER: Bring water to practice. This is a player responsibility.

Jerseys are ordered, and will be in by approximately 10 June. You can't get your jersey until you are registered and have all required paperwork turned in.

Tackle Players: Take a look at the video of the week--also linked from the splash page of our website. This is how we are going to train in the basics of the tackle. Concentrate on these aspects

• Focus on the body core, not head, eyes, ball or feet
• Keep a light, moving, dancing stance
• Place the lead foot forward, with the lead hand to the center of the body core
• Keep the head up, eyes open, with the back straight
• Shoot the arms forward on both sides, and link up in back
• Take the ball carrier down, then immediately get up and go for the released ball