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Forum Guru
 
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| With the advent of referees missing crooked feeds at the scrum and the calls prior to engagement, has the art of hooking been lost. The hooker no longer seems to be in control of when the ball is feed to the scrum.The hooker just seems to making up the numbers with the emphasis on a scrummaging No2. I recently spoke to a vets player who turns out occasionally for the 3rd and 4th xvs and he derives much enjoyment from striking against the head against youthful opponents. As a contest it resembles more of a rugby league scrum. I've also noticed little channel 1 ball. Is this because of the new scrummaging mindset or the body position of modern hookers. Any thoughts would be very useful.
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Supreme Being
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I suspect in many ways it is, and certainly if crooked feeds etc are as prolific as alleged there seems little opportunity to really strike as a hooker with channeling a skill, or indeed to be able to strike against the head.
But the question remains then in the past when it wasn't such allegedly a lost art, how much hooking training went on? How many coaches set time aside to work with a hooker's strike? The example provided in Jim Greenwood's books, of using a dining chair to stabilise on while striking a ball into a specific area behind for example... how many coaches did that (or similar) and certainly within the community game. How many do now - I do on occasion, when asked or if I see it as pertinent. But I have no faith that having spent that time with that hooker they actually go away and practice it - in the same way how many hookers really practice their throwing?
didds
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| Indeed when I first played at hooker I basically had to teach myself, a painful and unpleasant experience. That was many summers ago. When I joined the coaching team within my son's age group I asked why no hooker could hook the ball. I received not one response. When I asked the players they told me no one had taught them. I broke down the skill into its component parts and encouraged them to practice,the chair method is a good one. Throwing in is another skill not properly taught.When the hookers starting doing their jobs I was told by the head coach that the practice was disrupting the scrum half who fed the 2nd row. The scrum-half is his son. Many coaches seem to deal well in concepts rather than specific skills training which to me questions the whole notion of what a coach is, particularly at the junior age grades.We have a shortage of players wishing to play in the front row, if they are continually de-valued then why should anyone wish to play there. With much talk of structures and game management some essentials seem to be lost, indeed they come under the category of specialist coaching these days.
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Supreme Being
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| crooked, this is an issue dear to my heart. There are several reasons that front row skills (not just the hooker) are under taught. 1. The hookers actions have been curtailed for safety reasons. No more 'swinging', etc. 2. Some youth levels the scrums are uncontested so skill is not required. 3. Fewer scrums per match so scrums less important? Not sure if this is true but it seems that way. The contest at contact is where the game is won or lost so that becomes the focus. 4. Feeding eliminates the contest. 5. Here is the main reason: As youth rugby becomes more organized and competetive the focus shifts more to winning matches, less on teaching the individual. This means more time on tactical team play, less time on skills. I'm a U-13 thru U-19 coach in the USA. Here players come to the game with zero rugby skills. I have to focus on skills development but in the context of the game. That is the challenge. The special positional skills, such as hooker, get included but it ain't always easy!
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| Clearly since the advent of professionalism and concerns over the 'quality of the product' from a tv perspective some skills are clearly no longer seen as relevant. It is possible to hook the ball in safe manner without swinging but if the trend continues then there will be some body shapes lost to the game, one of rugby's traditional qualities. The honest route therefore is to remove any notion of a contest at scrum time which in future could include the lineout. With regards the conceptual/tactical approach to coaching I've sat in coaching meetings where players have been criticized for failure to grasp such tactics or not having the skills to meet such an approach, all, in my opinion, failings on behalf of the coaching team.
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Supreme Being
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Marauder (24/08/2010)
3. Fewer scrums per match so scrums less important? Not sure if this is true but it seems that way. The contest at contact is where the game is won or lost so that becomes the focus.
Hmmm... there's an argument though that in modern rugby with defences so well organised that 1st phase ball is one of the few times when backlines will actually have more space to attack in so generally speaking scrummaging is MORE important as to lose the head, or end up with poor ball wastes a great opportunity.
didds
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didds (23/08/2010)
The example provided in Jim Greenwood's books, of using a dining chair to stabilise on while striking a ball into a specific area behind for example... diddsDo you have a link to this or any other individual exercises for hookers - more for hooking than throwing in - or can you briefly explain it..or is it just what it sounds like? Cheers
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| The Irish RFU site has an illustrated training exercise. Click on Coaching then Skills-Drills then hooking, hope it helps.
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crookedfeed (30/08/2010)
The Irish RFU site has an illustrated training exercise. Click on Coaching then Skills-Drills then hooking, hope it helps.That's the one, thanks
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