Contact sports and cotton wool?
Comments
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Micky Boy, I saw the Rugby piece on the news this morning. I think it can't/shouldn't be banned(not that they said it would be) but I disagree with the point of 'all children' at certain schools expected to play. Any school going down the route of banning
contact in sports will suffer in the long term. The Boxing head guard thing is a backwards step.0 -
Could not the headguard be deployed in school rugby?
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I feel that if school age children want to play Rugby and join a Club..then fair enough, they ought to be allowed to play contact Rugby. However, I do feel that it is unacceptable to teach it in schools and expect ALL kids to 'have a go.' Some hate it -
there's plenty of alternatives to teach/play, and maybe all it achieves is putting some kids off sport for life. My son loves football, but quickly realised in Rugby lessons to get rid of the ball ASAP to avoid getting tackled and trampled on.0 -
I used to play rugby at school 35 years I enjoyed it but wasn't any good but one of the players in my team got kicked in the head in a ruck and suffered brain damage he really was never the same again, his personality changed. So although I love rugby
I can see the arguments.0 -
As I said in my acceptedly misdirected post under general chat, - if this is accepted, then do our children have to play cricket with a soft ball - perhaps a red dyed tennis ball? And learn to swim in a soft ball pool, instead of dangerous wet water?
You simply cannot take all danger out of young peoples sport. Life is dangerous anyway and to remove all risk from the learning process can increase the danger later.
TF
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As I said in my acceptedly misdirected post under general chat, - if this is accepted then do our children have to play cricket with a soft ball/ - perhaps a red dyed tennis ball? And learn to swim in a soft ball pool instead of dangerous wet water?
You simply cannot take all danger out of young peoples sport. Life is dangerous anyway and to remove all risk from the learning process can increase the danger later.
TF
...Totally agree
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It's my belief that PE is a vital part of education in schools and that children are introduced to as many sports and sports skills as possible in primary and secondary. These should be undertaken with as much of the dangers reduced without significantly
detracting from the core skills of the games as possible. Then, children can choose sports which they wish to focus on, ones which they just enjoy, or have a particular skill in. I was never brilliant at rugby, never learnt the game until university but played
most weekends until retirement from the game at 40+.I will add that I worried more about my daughter horse riding than my son who played both school and club rugby.
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Mickysf, And you were right to worry. when I was engaged in developing Police Air support in the late 80's and early 90's most of our calls to rural areas were due to riding accidents. Almost all to females. Sorry slightly off thread.
TF
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My son played and loved Rugby from a young age and apart from a broken bone, suffered no major injuries, being on the wing helped, but if they are taught how to tackle properly and that all regional and country players are heavily penalised for bad tackling
then hopefully this dangerous practise will stop and younsters can play the game as it should be played. Before long children will not be allowed to do anything unless they are wrapped in bubblewrap.0 -
I trained as a PE Teacher. Some sports are inherently dangerous, and carry a significant risk, especially if a contact sport. I don't agree with a ban on rugby, but I do think children, (and their parents), should be given the choice to take part, rather
than it being compulsory. There are far more dangerous activities, but many of these are not taught in schools and are undertaken by choice (e.g equestrian sports).I played hockey, lacrosse, netball, cricket, athletics, rounders, gymnastics at school, and was considered "hard, able to take care of myself during a game" I both received and gave some hard knocks, and had a couple of serious injuries. But I would never
have played rugby at school, the potential for life threatening/changing injuries is just too great. Taking it up as a hobby sport is different, that is choice. Just my personal view of course.0 -
Maybe we should do as they did in New Zealand where they had different versions/rules of the game according to child's weight and size.
The more advanced contact skills are introduced very slowly and appropriately.
In veteran's competitions they even have coloured shorts with the oldest 70+ group having purple shorts, if my memory serves me right. These players can only be lightly held and supported in the 'tackle'.
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TF
How voluntary would participation be at those schools can you see PE teachers happily being short of players or imagine the reaction of the bullies towards those who didnt want to play.
...but that can apply to all games and sports. My experience of bullies is that they didn't last too long in rugby, just totally against its core values! Must say that in all the sports I played the such as support, camourardary and respect was never found
like that in rugby.0 -
Appreciate the thoughts of others, and differing views, but no decent PE teacher would attempt to intimidate or use a child to make a team up, and usually teams are over subscribed. Same with bullying. Even if a child didn't want to participate in a given
sport, there would be some other achievement that would put them beyond the bullies hopefully. Sport shouldn't be the be all and end all. Bullies are usually poor at sport and don't get chosen very often as they tend not to be good in a team. Besides which,
as most are cowards, the chances of revenging oneself on the sports field are infinite! They are more likely to be in danger of "pushy" parents, over eager for their child to achieve. As a sports coach, I never had to deal with bullying, but did have to calm
down a few over enthusiastic parents!
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There is a version of rugby played by school children called 'Tag Rugby'. Instead of physically tackling which is inherently dangerous all players wear a belt to which 'tags' are velcroed on. A tackle is completed when the player with the ball has a tag
pulled/ripped off by an opponent. The player then has to stop and pass the ball, retrieve his/her tag and carry on. Much safer and you can teach skills rather than worry of consequences of 'bad' tackling.0 -
That is a shame AD, can put of children for life. I was very lucky and had inspirational sports teachers. Wasn't too fond of the music teacher though, hence I just used to hop through the window and do a double games lesson! I think it made sense to both
staff, I was good at sport, but detested music, at least what they were trying to teach me! My sister is the other extreme, very good musician, hopeless at most sports!Tag rugby sounds a great idea. I lost touch with Rugby teaching/coaching when I left school, but male PE Students at my college (all four of them!) used to go off to another campus to hone their teaching skills.
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My memories of PE and the teachers are exactly like that portrayed by Brian Glover in Kes .
Wasn't Kes based on a novel (A Kestrel For A Knave)? It's about as similar to modern school PE teachers as Emmerdale is to agriculture.
No PE teacher would dare to force unwilling students into playing rugby in these "sue first, ask questions later" days!
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I think the only voluntary bit is being a member of the teams that compete, children either want to or not. I remember some girls good at certain sports who were just not interested enough to want to be in a school team. They had to take part in the lessons,
but I don't recall anyone having to do anything dangerous, at least unless they were fooling about! It was a very sporty school I went to, so most girls did something, even if it was just cheering on from sides! It was all girls by the way, hence Rugby is
something I have never taken part in, but it certainly looks a dangerous team sport at times. Contested scrums seem to be a major hazard!0 -
One of our daughters was good at gymnastics, seeing her doing somersaults along a narrow beam used to be a bit heart stopping. So many sports have an element of danger, I can't see why anyone should single rugby out, hopefully it's their moment of fame till
commonsense comes to the surface.0 -
Its the usual problem with children of school age, I guess !
You can take any year at any reasonably sized
school and you will get children able to substitute for the Christmas Fairy along side others who could mimic the Incredible Hulk !And thats the major problem with Schools Sport -- the talent may be there but the discrepancy in size is all !! To misquote somebody or other ==> The Bigger They Are The Harder They Fall On You !
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