Tackling deterrents

I think rugby is one of the few sports that terrifies beginners so much that they don’t try it.

They have an inkling of an inclination that they might like to play the sport but they convince themselves out of it.

The biggest deterrent I believe is the tackling.

The beginners are most likely watching professional games where the players have muscles on muscles on muscles and launch themselves at each other with the savagery of Lions.

So the beginners see that and think:

‘Nope! Let’s squash this notion here and now, I am not playing rugby!’

This happens so often that there’s a rule of thumb for beginners.

‘Just get tackled a few times, then make your decision’

This advice works because the beginner quickly realises that other beginners don’t hit as hard as professionals do.

In fact a tackle isn’t that painful.

Your body doesn’t break upon impact and you’re actually more resilient than you thought.

Now there are exceptions to this rule (as with any good rule) where someone broke their leg in their first tackle but for the majority the rule remains – the fear of the tackle is worse than the tackle itself.