Gigantic 10 Year Old Kid

[Chris McCracken]

I didn't know where to put this, but Schoolboy Rugby is about as good a spot as anywhere.

Yesterday morning, I saw this photo on Reddit and thought it looked familiar. It is a kid I coached as a 15 year old . Here, he's playing under 10s League in 2006. It's going absolutely viral on the internet at the moment and even turned up in the IRB's Instagram feed overnight.

http://instagram.com/p/xy94e8JVjD/?modal=true

 

[I like to watch]

Good to see him wearing headgear.
He might have been injured without it!

 

[Wazza2013]

I didn't know where to put this, but Schoolboy Rugby is about as good a spot as anywhere.

Yesterday morning, I saw this photo on Reddit and thought it looked familiar. It is a kid I coached as a 15 year old . Here, he's playing under 10s League in 2006. It's going absolutely viral on the internet at the moment and even turned up in the IRB's Instagram feed overnight.

http://instagram.com/p/xy94e8JVjD/?modal=true

You can imagine whats going through the young blokes mind that he is running at.

.... I wish I had taken up tennis instead ....

 

[sarcophilus]

whether it's League or union u10-u13 throws out a few lads of this dimension every season, head to the public schools state carnival, a team will be carried through to finals based on having these guys three passes of the ruck.

I do like the expression on the little bloke from the same team as the ball carrier
something like the expression on the face of ricky fitts when he finds lester burnham dead (Kevin Spacey smiling ) on the kitchen table in American Beauty

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Fuckin crazy Aussies, don't you have bloody weight grades over there??

I do like the expression on the little bloke from the same team as the ball carrier
something like the expression on the face of ricky fitts when he finds lester burnham dead (Kevin Spacey smiling ) on the kitchen table in American Beauty

haha, saying to himself in his Ralph Wiggum voice, "that looks unpossible."

http://photos-e.AK (Andrew Kellaway).instagram.com/hphotos-AK (Andrew Kellaway)-xfa1/t51.2885-15/10914548_1515777745350548_630625268_n.jpg

 

[Marcelo]

I didn't know where to put this, but Schoolboy Rugby is about as good a spot as anywhere.

Yesterday morning, I saw this photo on Reddit and thought it looked familiar. It is a kid I coached as a 15 year old . Here, he's playing under 10s League in 2006. It's going absolutely viral on the internet at the moment and even turned up in the IRB's Instagram feed overnight.

http://instagram.com/p/xy94e8JVjD/?modal=true

Were you a League coach?

 

[Chris McCracken]

Were you a League coach?

No. He played both.

 

[sarcophilus]

So he was u 18 last year
How did that go

 

[Chris McCracken]

He stopped playing for personal reasons a while ago. I suspect one of the personal reasons may have been the direct and indirect abuse he took from opposition parents. That's despite the kid himself being very cognizant of giving a fair go to the other team and coming up with ways to do that.

He'd limit his own game time, restrict his carries per game and even just plain pass the ball rather than run. He even played for the other team on occasion when we had to loan players to other teams to play 15 on 15. That was character-building.

Oddly, at that time, a lot of kids had caught up a bit. It was the fact that people were so used to making a fuss about it that they kept doing it. In fact, I remember one coach, after an outburst that kids that size should be banned, having to be reminded he had two kids in his team who were actually taller and heavier.

 

[Chris McCracken]

Fuckin crazy Aussies, don't you have bloody weight grades over there??


haha, saying to himself in his Ralph Wiggum voice, "that looks unpossible."

http://photos-e.AK (Andrew Kellaway).instagram.com/hphotos-AK (Andrew Kellaway)-xfa1/t51.2885-15/10914548_1515777745350548_630625268_n.jpg

Not sure about League. We can play them up/down an age grade based on weight, but there is also a skill standard, too.

Druss did play in the 17s when he was 15 once he could pass that requirement.

 

[Pfitzy]

Fuckin crazy Aussies, don't you have bloody weight grades over there??

Not enough juniors to make it work.

 

[sarcophilus]

I am not sure when we swapped over, I have seen pictures of weight teams from the 1960 and maybe '70s
I also remember hearing an interview with Malcom Johnston (the Jockey) describing playing weight class football
the advantages and disadvantages are a little more subtle but still exist
as a 16 year old Johnston was playing amongst a lot of 10 and 11 year olds, a clear advantage in co-ordination and game perception as well as hardness and muscle development.
in the system as described this lad would have been playing amongst 16 year olds and probably would not have participated as much, and may have withdrawn from the game even earlier

I don't believe there is a lack of numbers to make the system work and as described the competition does have the flexibility for players to play up or even down age groups if suitable and can be backed with the right evidence.

I have seen plenty of lads double in mass between 11 and 15 (40-80kg)and not all of them go at the same time. That flexibility should be used a little more often to even or improve the competition. unfortunately wining becomes a little to easy when you have go-to players like this

 

[Chris McCracken]

The system works fine for the most part and most zones/districts have a system that works to some extent. Like all of the issues people have a strong opinion on, more goes into it.

Mostly, it's about playing with their friends. I had a player in my 17s team this year who weighs 40kg. Good scrumhalf. But, if you made him play with the younger kids, he'd walk. We had another kid a couple of years before who wanted to play up. When we wouldn't sign him off, he walked. He just wanted to play with his mates.

Even in NZ, where they do have weight divisions, they only do it up until u13s. Then, they have a system like ours.

http://www.aucklandrugby.co.nz/Weights-and-Ages-Chart.aspx

This system stops the issues with that come with weight class football, as well. Aside from that, if we had teams where everyone is the same weight, who would be the props and who would be the scrummie?

 

[I like to watch]

It would be easy to bring back weight divisions.
All that is needed,is to allow very small or very large players to go up or down a maximum of 2 years.
So in this scenario this kid would have played in the 12's,with possibly only the odd very small 14 yo's being his opponents.
He would still be bigger than the opposition,but not to the unsafe level shown in the photo.

 

[Chris McCracken]

It would be easy to bring back weight divisions.
All that is needed,is to allow very small or very large players to go up or down a maximum of 2 years.
So in this scenario this kid would have played in the 12's,with possibly only the odd very small 14 yo's being his opponents.
He would still be bigger than the opposition,but not to the unsafe level shown in the photo.

That is exactly what happens now.

EDIT: What I wrote originally sounded unintentionally rude.

 

[I like to watch]

Really?
I thought the system allowed very small kids a dispensation to play one age group down,not two.
I didn't realise there was a system in place to obligate huge kids to play in older age groups?

 

[Chris McCracken]

Where we are, one age group is two years. Each zone or district does it slightly differently for the smaller kids to play down. I am led to believe ours is the same way SJRU does it.

As I mentioned in a post above, large kids can be made to play up provided they meet a minimum skill level as well. He can play one year up automatically and more than that if he is signed off as competent by a level two coach. Playing a kid up if he's incapable is just as bad as allowing him to play with smaller kids. In fact, from a legal standpoint, it may even be worse.

Our insurance is structured based on age, not weight. And that has to be a primary driver, as well.

Either way, I think having a policy which applies across the board may be better than every zone doing their own thing. However, there are some good solutions around.

In the case of the kid in the photo, he was handled very well when playing Rugby Union. I know a couple of his League coaches, as well. They handled him similarly. I'm afraid there is no system that can accommodate a 6'3", 120kg 10-year old. There's always going to have to be a creative solution for that.