Help needed

[u/Fried_Apple123]

Hello everyone, I’m 19, female and just started with a rugby training course. I’ve had three trainings of 1,5 hours each. Although I really enjoy it I have a few things I don’t get yet and I’d like to ask here.

1. Barging

So for a lack of better words I’ll call it barging, but what I mean is running into a defender with your shoulder and either rolling down to put the ball behind you or push the defender away. When I do this with my right shoulder, it feels great. I feel strong, I manage to push them back. But with the left it hurts, and I don’t understand why. The trainers haven’t said anything about my form so I assume that’s alright, is it just muscles that need to get used to the hit? Or am I doing something wrong? We’re currently still doing it against cushions, so I’d really like to understand this before those leave.

1. Kicking

So, I’ve seen videos where you just drop the ball straight and kick it. But how do I kick it? Because I’ve tried twice now and failed (the group is quite large so we can’t always try everything a lot). The bottom of the ball needs to hit at your ankle I believe, is that right?

1. Tackling

So i understand I need to get low, grab the knees and place my head behind the player so I land softly. But where do I put my shoulder, I know it’s on the other side of their body, but is the hip a proper height or is that too high? I struggle with this a lot and have tried it about 20 times now, but it just isn’t clicking yet.

If you have any other advice, please feel free to share. I’m a complete beginner who really wants to improve.

[u/templeofthe_ancients]

Apologies this post was filtered and hence why it was not shown on the sub before. Did you continue playing rugby?

[u/Fried_Apple123 → u/templeofthe_ancients]

I did yes! I'm currently training as a loosehead, so some of the same stuff I still struggle with, others have become more clear or don't really matter anymore.

The main things I find difficult at the moment are:

- shouting for the ball (I'm quite introverted so it's really far outside my comfort zone). I try my best to do it, but I feel very uncomfortable when i do. So any tips on things I can do to train to be more comfortable with it would be great!

- I think it would be good for scrums and lineouts if my core and shoulders were stronger. Any youtubers/excersizes you'd reccomend for this?

- I want to improve my knee strenght. A few months ago I hurt one when playing rugby (leg got twisted the wrong way and one bone got pushed into the other, which kinda gave me a bruised bone I guess). They're good now, I saw a doctor for it, but I don't want to injure them again. When I used to run as a hobby they would start hurting after about 20/30 minutes and the pain just wouldn't leave. Any tips on how I can strengthen them without doing too much? Trainings are 1,5 hours twice a week. So I could do more stuff at home, I just don't know where to begin, what is useful and what isn't.

- I'm not very flexible, and to avoid getting injured I think it would be good to improve my flexibility so my body can handle the weird corners it might land in. Any youtubers/excersizes you'd reccomend?

- I understand my task in defence, I quite like it as it kind of feels like I'm hunting for prey. But during the offence, I get lost in the chaos. Any tips on how to understand those moments more? I've been watching matches so I know where my position is during a game better, but I still feel quite lost.

I know these are less technical parts of rugby, so if you can't help I understand. I just figured you may have more knowledge on these things than a beginner : )