[Ruck] Game Flow / Mental Clarity

[Guyseep]

I don't know about everyone else, but there are a few situations that sometimes muddy things up and get me off my game. I was wondering how others deal with the following scenario.

It usually happens around the 60 min mark, as teams(and myself) are getting fatigued, both mentally and physically. The game is getting a bit scrappy.

Typically at a ruck, there will be a big counter ruck that results in broken play. The ball pops out of the side, there is some confusion as to where the hind foot is. Players going for the ball as someone takes a kick at the ball. Neither team has solid possession, and the ball bounces between teams as someone tries to clean it up. There may even be hacking kick that leads to a charge down that confuses things even more. You may hear a few players protest, "Offside ref!", "That's knock on!"

I find when this happens I am extremely ball focused as its bouncing all over the place. I lose track of where the offside lines(if they exist) might be, or what phase of play we are in. Is this a charge down? That player just picked up the ball, but where was he in relation to the last of his team mates that picked it up? etc etc.

What I usually if there is an uncertainty is let out a loud "Play On!" even though something doesn't feel right, and I'm unsure if there is something I should be calling. I then hope for the first obvious infringement and whistle the ball dead. I let everyone catch their breath, give myself a moment to clear my head, and then restart the game.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dickie E]

I don't know about everyone else, but there are a few situations that sometimes muddy things up and get me off my game. I was wondering how others deal with the following scenario.

It usually happens around the 60 min mark, as teams(and myself) are getting fatigued, both mentally and physically. The game is getting a bit scrappy.

Typically at a ruck, there will be a big counter ruck that results in broken play. The ball pops out of the side, there is some confusion as to where the hind foot is. Players going for the ball as someone takes a kick at the ball. Neither team has solid possession, and the ball bounces between teams as someone tries to clean it up. There may even be hacking kick that leads to a charge down that confuses things even more. You may hear a few players protest, "Offside ref!", "That's knock on!"

I find when this happens I am extremely ball focused as its bouncing all over the place. I lose track of where the offside lines(if they exist) might be, or what phase of play we are in. Is this a charge down? That player just picked up the ball, but where was he in relation to the last of his team mates that picked it up? etc etc.

What I usually if there is an uncertainty is let out a loud "Play On!" even though something doesn't feel right, and I'm unsure if there is something I should be calling. I then hope for the first obvious infringement and whistle the ball dead. I let everyone catch their breath, give myself a moment to clear my head, and then restart the game.

Any thoughts?

Been there, done that ... on more occasions than I care to think about. Usually happens near the goal line too so lots of angst about scoring opportunity, which side of the goal line the charge down happened, etc

Only 2 suggestions:
1. consider fatigue minimisation techniques. Are you fit enough? Consider a banana or muesli bar at half time, having a chat to ARs, etc.
2. you might be positioning too close to the play. Step back a few paces and get a wider view

 

[Pegleg]

Spot on advice!

 

[Rich_NL]

I struggle with this too; one tip I've had and found useful when I've managed to put it into practice is to keep the breakdowns clean from the beginning - it takes a mental load off later in the game, and it's easier to sound confident in a "play on" if you haven't seen anything dubious going on in the ruck. I need to improve on not zooming in too much and instead to keep communicating, and situations like this are excellent practice for that; likewise positioning. If you're too close it's easy to get confused, too far away and you lack credibility making calls about complicated rucks.

 

[Christy]

H guy .
A lot of this could be down to fitness .
If you can manage ball popping from rucks in 1st half , or off side linex being managed in 1st half .
It sounds like you are alert & have good game free flow management .

If your strugling for last 20 mins & looking forward to blowing final whistle .
It will impede on your decision making .

Clearly i dont know you , but have an honest look at your fitness .
You might be actually over training & burnt out on match day .

 

[crossref]

Typically at a ruck, there will be a big counter ruck that results in broken play. The ball pops out of the side, there is some confusion as to where the hind foot is. Players going for the ball as someone takes a kick at the ball. Neither team has solid possession, and the ball bounces between teams as someone tries to clean it up. There may even be hacking kick that leads to a charge down that confuses things even more. You may hear a few players protest, "Offside ref!", "That's knock on!"

Yes, I had one of those in my game at the weekend. Very frenzied. One crumb of comfort -- in a situation like this, everyone else is confused as well, none of them knows exactly what happened, or whether there was an offence, or if there was, what the first offence is.

So no one is going to seriously complain at the decision - 'First knock on by white, blue scrum'. Or if all collapses - 'total chaos, pile-up, blue going forward, blue scrum' .

I think that half a banana a half time is a good idea. I wish I could remember to take a banana with me!

 

[CrouchTPEngage]

It happens rare enough not to be a significant issue - shouting "play on" and "nothing illegal!" at least lets the players know to play-on as some of them tend to stop, and look towards the ref , in expectation of a whistle.
I have seen refs blow up and award a scrum ( team moving forward ) and an honest shout if "Sorry fellas. Referee unsighted. Ruck not ended legally - both sides guilty." - and nobody complained about that at the time.

 

[Taff]

... Typically at a ruck, there will be a big counter ruck that results in broken play. The ball pops out of the side, there is some confusion as to where the hind foot is.

If it's "open play" the hindmost foot isn't relevant any more. "Open play. Play on".

... One crumb of comfort -- in a situation like this, everyone else is confused as well, none of them knows exactly what happened, or whether there was an offence, or if there was, what the first offence is. So no one is going to seriously complain at the decision - 'First knock on by white, blue scrum'. Or if all collapses - 'total chaos, pile-up, blue going forward, blue scrum'

Exactly. If the ball has been kicked and is ricocheting around like it's in a pin ball machine, you can almost guarantee that there's been an accidental offside somewhere. Scrum - let's restore some order.

 

[Guyseep]

H guy .
A lot of this could be down to fitness .
If you can manage ball popping from rucks in 1st half , or off side linex being managed in 1st half .
It sounds like you are alert & have good game free flow management .

If your strugling for last 20 mins & looking forward to blowing final whistle .
It will impede on your decision making .

Clearly i dont know you , but have an honest look at your fitness .
You might be actually over training & burnt out on match day .

My fitness is generally good. I'm not as fast as the quickest back, but I keep up with play fairly well.
It's more about the broken play with things changing so rapidly that throws me off.

 

[Phil E]

My fitness is generally good. I'm not as fast as the quickest back, but I keep up with play fairly well.
It's more about the broken play with things changing so rapidly that throws me off.

But if it happens at the 60+ minute mark (as posted) and not really before then (i.e. not in the first half); this sounds like mental fatigue.

As you get exhausted and dehydrated your mental alertness and ability to make fast decisions slows down. If you get totally exhausted you can find it almost impossible to make a decision or think straight. Many of us will have come across this in the last 10 minutes of a game where you are struggling physically. What you don't realise is that you are also struggling mentally.

Re-hydrate at every opportunity, take some energy on-board at half time. This could be jelly babies, jaffa cakes, gel sachet, etc.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

I try and rehydrate (have a drink where I come from) as often as possible during a game even if it's just a sip or two - invariably I get offered a drink at conversions. Some one interested in that sort of this told me 5% drop in hydration = 20% dip in performance. Don't know if it's true.

I try and drink on the way to the game but a litre of water, a 2 hour drive and a man in fifties wearing beige kex is a recipe for disaster.

I carry a few Haribos in my pocket if I remember.

I'm 10kg lighter than I was 18 months ago - that helps too. That overall improvement worked for me.

As for carrying a halftime banana in your pocket - well the possibilities are endless. epper:

 

[Rich_NL]

As for carrying a halftime banana in your pocket - well the possibilities are endless. epper:

A new meaning to "showing him a yellow"?

 

[SimonSmith]

I start hydrating on Friday. 1 coffee Saturday morning and then water. To be fair, around here, the temperatures and humidity around here mandate it.
A banana pre match and then glucose as necessary.

I refer to the things you're having issues with as "bangbang" plays. Two thoughts:
If these things are starting to happen at 60 minutes, and you've previously been coping with them, it's a fitness issue. Take better care of yourself at halftime, and take a conscious mental refresh part way through the second.

If it's a challenge throughout the match, then it's processing speed issue - like running a 386 in a Pentium world. The only way, I think, of getting better is getting more and more exposure to that speed of incident and breaking it down in your head to analyze it.

 

[irishref]

I don't know about everyone else, but there are a few situations that sometimes muddy things up and get me off my game. I was wondering how others deal with the following scenario.

It usually happens around the 60 min mark, as teams(and myself) are getting fatigued, both mentally and physically. The game is getting a bit scrappy.

Typically at a ruck, there will be a big counter ruck that results in broken play. The ball pops out of the side, there is some confusion as to where the hind foot is. Players going for the ball as someone takes a kick at the ball. Neither team has solid possession, and the ball bounces between teams as someone tries to clean it up. There may even be hacking kick that leads to a charge down that confuses things even more. You may hear a few players protest, "Offside ref!", "That's knock on!"

I find when this happens I am extremely ball focused as its bouncing all over the place. I lose track of where the offside lines(if they exist) might be, or what phase of play we are in. Is this a charge down? That player just picked up the ball, but where was he in relation to the last of his team mates that picked it up? etc etc.

What I usually if there is an uncertainty is let out a loud "Play On!" even though something doesn't feel right, and I'm unsure if there is something I should be calling. I then hope for the first obvious infringement and whistle the ball dead. I let everyone catch their breath, give myself a moment to clear my head, and then restart the game.

Any thoughts?

One of the best bits of advice I was given was to break the game up into segments. Have a mental checkpoint at certain points of the game (every 20 minutes for example). When you reach each checkpoint, have a quick recap of what your pre-game goals were and how you think you're doing vis-a-vis those goals.

Many times I've found myself telling myself to "up the tempo in the last 10 now" or "are you still aware of the (rough) penalty count".

Half time is a great opportunity to get sugars on board and don't refuse the offer of water from the guy bringing on the kicking tee too often, especially in the second half.

 

[winchesterref]

I've used brain training games alongside my fitness training. Lumosity or Peak.

I train hard and at high intensity for short periods, then crack out 60 second brain challenges, and then I do a series of them at the end of the training sessions. An n=1 study, but it seems to have helped me block out the task-switching mental challenges during a game, and it is far easier to step back in my mind to re-focus when I know I'm getting to that point in a match.