Important News!

I have an announcement to make.

I'm moving to Missouri next week. I've resigned from Genesis Health Clubs, where I work as a personal trainer. Saturday is my last day.

I plan to live and work on a friend's farm for room and board, teach yoga in Jamesport (and anywhere else within driving distance that will have me), and train and coach private clients. I also hope to practice and compete with the Kansas City Jazz this year, and occasionally whore with the St. Louis Sabres (Sabres are Div I, Jazz are Div II, so I'm hoping there won't be a conflict of interest).

If you're a KC or St. Louis girl, get in touch! I'd love to get to know you!

If you know of cool places to work out/hang out in northern Missouri/Kansas City, let me know! I'm going to be totally clueless about the scene.

If you need a personal trainer/coach, or know someone who needs a personal trainer/coach, please contact me! I'm going to be re-building my client base from the ground up! I would like to have enough clients in Kansas City that I can justify driving up there once a week to train. I'd also be willing to do that in St. Louis, if there are enough people interested to warrant driving 4 hours each way. You're also welcome to come train with me in Jamesport, as soon as I get a studio up and going.

Thank you guys for reading. I appreciate all of you!

Windy!

It was really too windy to practice kicking yesterday . . .

But I did anyway.

I've progressed from dropkicks from 10 m directly in front of the goal posts to kicking from 10m slightly to the left and right of the goalposts. Sometimes I even make them!

IRB Law Changes (via YSC)

My Thoughts
I assume Law 4.2 helps to accommodate the growing Middle Eastern and Islamic contingent of international play. Many sects of Muslims proscribe that women be covered to the wrists and ankles, as well as their heads. You'll see Middle Eastern female track athletes in full-body skinsuits at the London Olympics this summer, I bet.
The amendment to the scrum cadence seems odd and unnecessary, to me. Seriously. Why change that? Here's a video that shows it in action. I guess it seems less odd in practice. Maybe this law change (like the "use it or lose it" change to Law 16.7) demonstrates that the IRB wants the game to move faster. UPDATE: Here's a more comprehensive article on the changes to the scrum.


Mostly, I think that a faster-moving game is a good thing, especially at the international level. It'll take some getting used to, especially with the new scrum cadence. Other thoughts?


(via Your Scrumhalf Connection)

Folks,


There are some Law changes that just came out (and I am sure most have seen something about them). Below are some explanatory comments.


Peter Watson
Chair, USA Rugby Laws sub-committee

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2012 IRB Law Changes
May 2012

This week the IRB issued a number of small changes in Law. Implementation dates vary – some go into effect now and others at the start of the next Fifteens season (September 1 or thereabouts). The exact wording of the new Laws is in the attached document.
These changes are on a Trial Basis. After some practical experience has been accumulated, the IRB will be soliciting Union opinions.


Effective immediately (actually went in last January 1)
Law 1 – The Ground
The two lines that delineate the beginning and end of lineouts – the five meter line and the fifteen meter line – are now to be dashed lines. Formerly they were dotted.


Effective June 1, 2012
Sevens Variations
Law 3.4 – Number of Players
A team may now nominate up to five replacements/substitutes and may use all of them.


Effective at or around September 1, 2012
These changes are not to be implemented in Sevens this summer. They may be used in pre-season matches preparing for the fall 2012 league seasons.
Law 4.2 – Special additional items of clothing for women
Female players may wear cotton blend long tights with single inside leg seam under their shorts and socks.
This is pretty clear…if you are not female, don’t wear tights. Please do not ask me the rationale for this as I am not a mind-reader.
Law 4.3 – Studs
In Law 4.4, single-toe replaceable studs are prohibited. The IRB has approved, on a trial basis, one particular configuration of single-toe studs. It is shown in the attached document. All other forms are still illegal.
Law 9.B.1 – Taking a Conversion Kick
When a try is scored, the scoring team now has one and a half minutes (90 seconds) FROM THE TIME THE TRY IS SCORED to take the conversion. This is playing time, so if there is an injured player who has to be treated or removed before the kick, time is off.
Law 12.1 – Outcome of a Knock-on or Throw Forward
If the ball is knocked-on or thrown forward into touch, the non-offending team may choose the lineout (where it crossed the touch line) or the scrum (where the knock occurred). If they take a quick throw-in, they have made their choice.
And someone has already asked about knocks that go into touch-in-goal (or across the dead ball line). That situation is covered by Law 12.1 (c) and this change is not applicable in that case.
Law 16.7 – Unsuccessful End to a Ruck
This puts a “use it or lose it” requirement on rucks. Once the ball is clearly won and available to be played, the referee will call “use it” after which the ball must be played within five seconds. If not, it is a turnover – scrum to the other team.
Law 19.2 – Quick Throw-In
This change alters where a quick throw can be taken. Currently a quick throw can be taken anywhere from the place the ball crossed the touch line back to the thrower’s goal line. The change allows a quick throw to be taken anywhere from the place of the lineout back to the thrower’s goal line. The gap that used to exist if the ball was kicked out on the fly from in front of the 22 is now gone. [I suspect this will have a bigger impact in Sevens than it will in Fifteens, but not this summer.]
Law 20.1 – Scrum Engagement
This is the biggie….a change to the process:
Referee says “crouch” and the teams crouch (or remain crouched if already down).
Referee says “touch” and the four props reach out and touch and then withdraw their arms.
When the referee is satisfied that the front rows appear ready to engage AND ARE STABLE, the referee says “set”. The front rows may then come together when ready. This is not a command. It is permission.
Law 21.4 – Penalty and Free Kick Options and Requirements
This change is only for free kicks and penalty kicks awarded at lineouts. A team that is awarded a kick may choose to have a lineout instead of the kick. And of course they may also choose a scrum in lieu of the kick.

(via Your Scrumhalf Connection)

Yoga for Ruggers: Body Awareness

No, that's not me.

I've written before about the most obvious benefits of yoga: strength and flexibility. But there are other benefits for athletes, and I plan to make a study of those, too. My first article on what yoga you should actually do (it's going to be about hips) is coming up soon; I'm just waiting for my gracious assistant to return from the National All-Stars Championship in Pittsburgh so she can model some poses.

In addition to flexibility, which is what you probably think of when you consider yoga, and strength, you also stand to gain body awareness. Not sure why that's important? I'll show you.

Some athletes evade tacklers with ease. They slip through holes in a defense like they're made out of silly putty. They're also likely to catch themselves in odd positions (they never fall, they only almost fall) and prevent breakable objects from shattering on the floor at the last instant. They are not what you would call clumsy. You may think of them as obnoxiously coordinated. They possess exceptional kinesthetic awareness. Body intelligence, you might call it.

Not all of us who love sports were born possessing that natural ease. Some of us grew up knocking things over and falling down. A lot. Some of us were klutzes. Some of us were clumsy. But kinesthetic awareness, body intelligence, can develop with time. How do you go about doing that? So glad you asked.

Yoga practice (at least the way I teach it, Iyengar style) requires you to align your body in very precise positions and then hold them. Initially, you get into the right position by looking at yourself in the mirror and (ideally) having a teacher who will keep adjusting you until you get the pose right. But the eventual goal is that you feel the proper position, and assume it without thought.

You know. Kind of like how you shouldn't have to think about which foot you're stepping with in a tackle, or what your body position is when you're passing.

As you practice yoga, as you learn the positions and (more importantly) learn in your muscles how each one feels, you'll become more aware of how your body moves in other contexts. I'll never forget the first time this happened to me; I was walking up the stairs, and for the first time felt my quadriceps actively contracting to extend my knee. I'd never connected with what it took for my body to move me around, before.

On the field, this will translate to you better using your body. As you become more aware of where your limbs are in space (this is called proprioception), you'll find that your body responds more quickly and precisely to what your brain wants to do. You might catch a bad pass that you couldn't have recovered previously. You may experience an improved ability to dodge a tackle, or to stay out of touch on a run up the sidelines. Yoga has the potential to give you those seemingly superhuman abilities.

Demigods.

And if your proprioception already borders on the demi-godlike? Practicing yoga will have you challenging Olympus.

(That means you'll be even more like the gods.)

We'll explore how next week, when we introduce yoga for your hips.