Category: Technical and Tactical Skill
Skill and the Philosophy of Play
Free-Kick
Asking the questions science has yet to answer.
When the term skill is mentioned, technical skills such passing, offloading in contact, kicking etc comes to mind. Within in a team sport like Rugby though, we are aware of mini-unit skills (set pieces) and the skill of executing tactics and strategy. Some evidence is now available for the most effective technical components of a skill, but not so much on mini-unit skills, unit skills, and the skill of executing tactics and strategy.
Throughout a player’s career or developmental pathway, emphasis and priority will be placed on certain skills over others, for example, contact skills vs non-contact skills, attack vs defence, technical over game strategy etc. This emphasis ratio or priority list is most likely governed by the team’s philosophy of play. This philosophy of play seems evident in the recent internationals, where teams are focussed on set-piece play and contact for example, compared to others teams who may run the ball more. Some teams also have a good balance. This philosophy of play is not only evident at the international level. I’m sure we all have an understanding of team’s philosophy of play within our respective local competitions.
So, what if we want to change the philosophy?
How do we go about this?
Is finding the right balance the way to go?
Are we negatively influencing a player’s development if we don’t get the balance right?
Do you have real life experience on how you changed the philosophy of play within a team? Please let us know your thoughts.
SH
Infographic by Steve den Hollander
Steve completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Sport Science. He is currently an Honours Student at the University of Cape Town, researching non-contact skills in Rugby Union.
Relationship between tackle frequency, injury risk and performance
The tackle is a physical contest between opposing players contending for territory and ball possession. During an 80 minute rugby union match, a player will physically engage in the tackle contest, whether as a ball-carrier or tackler, between 10 to 35 times depending on the position of the player (Deutsch et al., 2007; Quarrie and Hopkins, 2008). During a match, tight forwards (position numbers 1-5, who primarily compete in the set phases such scrums and lineouts) engage in the tackle approximately 10-25 times, loose forwards (position numbers 6-8, who mainly competes for possession of the ball at rucks and assist the tight forwards in set pieces) are involved in 25-35 tackles, inside backs (position numbers 9,10,12,13, whose key responsibility is to execute tactics and distribute the ball) competes in 20-25 tackles, and outside backs (position numbers 11,14,15, who are typically quicker and expected to run into open spaces to cross the advantage line and score points) engage in 10-15 tackles (Deutsch et al., 2007; Quarrie and Hopkins, 2008).
A player requires a high level of skill, physical tolerance and resistance to fatigue to repeatedly engage safely and effectively in the tackle, therefore understanding the physical demands of a tackle is important with many applications such as design and development of proper training drills and equipment, planning and management of training and recovery between training sessions and matches.
The biomechanics of injury risk can be explained by the event either resulting from an overload of the system’s tolerance levels, or a reduction in the system’s tolerance levels through micro trauma to a point where normal loads cannot be tolerated (McIntosh, 2005)
For the tackle, studies have shown a positive relationship between the number of tackles made during matches and markers of muscle damage (Smart et al., 2008; Takarada 2003). Also, repeated tackling decreases the amount of force produced by the tackler, which may be attributed to fatigue (Usman et al., 2011).
In rugby union and rugby league studies, the specific physical and technical requirements for safe and effective contact in the tackle have been highlight (summary of tackler below).
Based on this, we propose a theoretical model for the relationship between the number of tackles in which a player engages in (acute or chronic fatigue), magnitude of impact (energy load), markers of muscle damage (micro trauma) and how this relationship interacts with tackle injury risk (tolerance overload or reduction) and tackle performance (Hendricks and Lambert, 2014).
Players may have an upper limit for being able to endure repeated high energy impact tackles. If this upper limit is exceeded the risk of injury is substantially increased, and tackle performance is noticeably decreased (figure below). This upper limit is reached either through one or more very high-energy impact contact situations or, accumulates over a match or season following repetitive lower-energy impact situations. However, effective tackle skill training, proper physical conditioning, strength, power, equipment and attitude/motivation can offset this upper limit (McIntosh, 2005). For example, physically conditioned players with a high level of tackle skill may have the technical ability and physiological capacity to minimise the energy load on the body, thereby increasing their tolerance level for physical loads.
This paper was published in the Journal of Sport Science and Medicine. The full article can be found here http://www.jssm.org/letter.php?id=jssm-13-715.xml .
Sharief Hendricks
Rugby Science 