How dangerous is rugby, because I'm strongly considering taking it up, but I have my doubts because I strongly value my bodies health
Hey there, potential future rugger!
'How dangerous is rugby?' is probably one of the most common questions I've heard from new recruits, and with excellent reason. If you find raw statistics helpful, the women's soccer team at my college consistently incurs more injuries than the rugby team.
However, I firmly believe that statistics are usually misleading because they communicate results rather than reasons. Rugby isn’t inherently any more or less dangerous than soccer. A player’s mentality makes a huge difference in their safety, and while any sports psychologist worth their salt can tell you that isn’t unique to rugby, it is a contact sport and therefore approaching it with the wrong attitude puts you at greater physical risk than a non-contact sport.
Tentativeness actually makes playing more dangerous; if you’re going into rucks weakly, not tackling low/committing to your tackles, and tensing up or not falling properly, you’re going to hurt yourself. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to commit whole-heartedly, not only to the plays you make but also to refining your technique, consistently working at becoming physically stronger, and leaving everything you’ve got on the pitch so that when you walk away at the end of each match, you know you played your best.
Like any other sport, rugby has the potential to become incredibly aggressive, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of differentiating between playing aggressively and playing angrily. The best rugger I’ve ever had the privilege of playing with hurt herself on multiple occasions by failing to do so. Despite its reputation for brutality, rugby is a highly intelligent sport that demands self-awareness from its players; be honest with yourself about your abilities and your mentality, play with intelligence and calculation, and never ignore an injury, and you’ll run about the same risk you would in any other sport :)
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