Zeno´s Matchrapport: Exiles-SRK (20-7)

7 maj 2012 2 kommentarer

I have been reading a book. Its name is ' Outliers ' and it's written by a guy named Malcom Gladwell, who is based in New York, just like Wez, our team-manager, was. Unlike Wez, Malcom never bumped into a Swedish woman in Central Park, and certainly never married her, so he never came to Sweden. In fact Malcom Gladwell became staff writer of the New York Magazine and has published several books. In his book ' Outliers ' he focusses on success stories and devotes an interesting chapter that I kept thinking about before and after our tough game against the Exiles B. The chapter is named : The 10.000 hour rule.

The 10.000 hour rule states that if you have an certain amount of talent, you need 10.000 hours of practise to become proficient. The people that reach these 10.000 hours early, become extremely successful, the others considerably less. It is the practise that is needed, after a certain minimum talent, it is not talent that counts when it is there. So from real evidence it has been found that looking back at a group of 200 very talented musicians (violin players) that started at age 5, the few elite performers had put in 10.000 hours at the age of 20, the good performers 8000, and the ones that found themselves back as music-teacher 6000 hours by the age of 20.

Right......., I hear you say. Why did Södertälje loose again? What's wrong? Stop talking about violins, and make some tackles next time. Please, I understand your feelings but read on.

The typical Exiles player comes from a Commonwealth Country and has started playing rugby for a club, age 8. In his school however, rugby also started seriously at 8. These are men that like rugby, (they are even trying it in Sweden), so they have never missed a practise. In a 40-week season they train at the club 4 hours a week, at school 4 hours a week and 2 hours in the weekend. When they are 14 they become fanatic and train double. When they come home, talk is about rugby, and let's face it, there's not many other serious team sports that the Commonwealth's are any good at. So their fathers support them and to the tactical talks. What I am saying is that aged 24 (and a half) these young men hit the 10.000 hours!

Now consider a typical Södertälje-kid that is strong enough to resist the attractions of innebandy or curling. This guy joins a rugby club at the age of 15 and trains the two nights during the 30 (I am very generous here) week season and plays 2 hours a weekend. Aged 24 he has assembled 1620 hours. His father washes the shirts, no problem, but rugby-tactics?

Now. I really hope you are still with me because what happened today? The Södertälje team missed several touch-kicks. It missed an easy penalty at the beginning of the game, and furthermore the line-out became unstuck when we reached the Exiles try-line, or their 10 meter line in general. These are three examples that Malcom Gladwell does not care about, but I do! I am fighting a flanker- nr 8 battle with a guy named Hamish, out there. We are over 90 together (40.000 hours and counting) and beautifully seconded by 18 year olds. Beautifully but not yet masterfully. When the stress hits the field. The mistakes creep in, mostly in my team.

So now for the good news. Rugby is a team sport, where a certain synchronizing of players can lead to improved results. Enstad and Jocke inspired the whole team today. Ante at 12 really is an exceptional player and it will not take long before we start using him better. Another difference between violin players and rugby players is -in my experience- the muscle, speed, fitness and grid involved. If you supply that, like Bill, you can go a long way. If you supply it in abundance, all 8 in a synchronized matter, or all 15, or all 21.....Then you can win games. Even if you have less experience. When you are about the same level, I think like today, you are going to struggle against experience.

One more note. If you drop a ball, like we did a couple of times today. Just be happy it wasn't a Stradivarius.

Yours sincerely, Zeno