Page 30 - All Shapes & Zebras From Treorchy

“It really is the measure of a committed player who puts in the extra hours, long after the training floodlights have been turned off. ”
A strange inclusion, some might say, for an alphabetical journey through amateur rugby. But it’s a sign of the times that today, a significant number of amateur rugby players will spend time regularly at the gym to complement their rugby sessions.
Whether we like it or not, gyms have changed the face of amateur rugby, and the shape of amateur rugby players, for good. Before the dawn of professionalism in 1995, very few amateur rugby players would be found in the gym. Since then though, with the advent of personal training and the explosion of social media fuelling the health-kick boom, thousands of amateur players now put in long hours lifting iron, pounding treadmills and getting to grips with rowing and cycling machines.
The result? Bigger, stronger, faster and healthier players, but the perennial debates that rage in the professional game are felt at amateur level too. Some argue that the emphasis of gym work and weights has led to a preference of size over skill, with a tedious (at least for the losing teams) reliance on collisions rather than space in the lower leagues too.
But it’s a fine line to be walked. You cannot criticise players for wanting to improve themselves physically, and there are hordes of honest, hardworking players who supplement their rugby training with long runs and torturous gym sessions, striving to increase their strength and stamina for when that Saturday whistle comes. In a game not for the faint hearted, and a game that is increasingly coming to rely on strength and brute force over skill, the problems that this presents are self-evident. Players from decades ago, considered imposing individuals in professional forward packs, would now find themselves well at home amongst amateur teams’ backlines, such has been the blurring of lines in terms of player size and builds.
28 ALL SHAPES & ZEBRAS FROM TREORCHY