I believe I have roughly six seasons of rugby under my belt. I might be off in my estimation by a year or so, either way, but regardless of the exact duration of my career, I like to think I possess a wee bit of knowledge of the game and its rules.
By no means am I an expert, but I’ve gained quite a bit of knowledge over the years. There is a lot to know about this game.
My coach asked me and my teammates if any of us could help her out and fill in for her as coach for an under-14 7’s team. For anyone unaware, rugby 15’s involves 15 players on the pitch, whereas 7’s involves 7 players.
I went out of my comfort zone a little bit and offered to help coach, along with two of my teammates. I did a little bit of coaching after I graduated high school, but not nearly enough to consider myself an actual, legitimate coach.
I was nervous going into the practice, but once I arrived, as well as my teammates, things sort of fell into place. We did a warmup, ran some ball-handling drills, worked on passing technique, and finished with the fundamentals of tackling. I was somewhat figuring the kids wouldn’t take me seriously, or listen to a word I said for that matter, but I was pleasantly surprised by their attentiveness and openness to feedback.
I ended up having a great experience, and while I’m still certainly no coach, I think I will continue to volunteer to help out with coaching here and there to better my confidence with the task. Sometimes, it truly pays off to step outside of your comfort zone, and if we never do, there is a strong probability we are missing out on fantastic and fun experiences.
Photo by Thomas Serer on Unsplash
ontheedgeofeverything 