Jersey #9: Kentucky's Journey

It was just over two years ago that I had really become serious about rugby. All within that span of time I had picked up my first rugby ball, played my first game, tried out for U19's, toured England and Wales, received 1 cap at #20 and 2 caps at #9, and made the Midwest U23's. Most of this (all except making the Midwest U23's) actually happened within my first year. After having returned home from the U.K. after three of the best-worst weeks of my life I was feeling a little tired and overwelmed, but excited to get back to my club team in a few weeks to start the fall season as a seasoned veteran. Just before school started though, I learned that all of the u19 players had been invited to tryout for the U23 National Team. My best friend, flyhalf, and U19 teammate had already decided not to make the 5 hour trip down to Atlanta. She may have been burnt out, and really just wanted to focus on school and club rugby for a while. Up to this point I hadn't done anything without her and by the time I got my invite (due to email glitches) I only had a day's time to let them know whether I was coming or not. I declined.



This turned out to be one of the biggest regrets of my rugby career. I supposed I didn't truly realize how hard those invites were to come by. True, I likely would not have made it, and may have been in over my head. But the experience would have been invaluable, and the opportunity is one you just don't pass up. It didn't take me too long after having declined to realize this. About 6 months later I began to print of rosters of U23 players and highlight the names of scrumhalves and of other players my age or younger who had made the team. I began to lift and train with more determination, and looked into the possibility of overseas developement. I almost went on a rugby study abroad in New Zealand, seriously considered the Varsity athlete path at Eastern Illinois University (disaster), before finally deciding to transfer elsewhere...eventually settling on the Univ. of Northern Iowa. It was at this time that I realized I was sacrificing a lot to play rugby. Not only was I giving up a near full academic ride at Kentucky, but I was moving to place where there's not much more than corn, hogs, and pubs. If I was going to do this - I wanted to do it right.

I decided in order to become an Eagle, I would need to train like an Eagle, and having found a lifting/running schedule on the womeneagles.com website, I wanted to follow it to the letter. However, there was one problem: How the hell do you do a snatch?!? There were hang cleans, power cleans, front squats, push presses, split jerks, snatches and all kinds of other weird exercises that I hadn't had much experience with. My coach had already introduced me to cleans and a version of the push press, but I wanted to know more. On a whim, I found the USA Weightlifting website, looked up the Kentucky contact, and sent an email out detailing my situation. I was a rugby player looking to push myself to the National level, and had found out that learning how to do Olympic lifts would really help me out. I never expected the response I would get. Suddenly I was given a coach who was a grad student training varsity athletes at UK. Once a week, for a little over an hour, I was given a crash course in how to perform cleans, jerks, presses, and snatches CORRECTLY, in the most explosive possible way. In the few lessons I was able to receive before leaving for Iowa, I was able to learn a lot Olympic lifts, and began integrating everything I learned into my normal training. I would have loved to learn more, but like I said, I had to move....

Cut to the present...

Well it turns out that the man who had found me my temporary coach was a legend himself. He is a neurosurgeon in Kentucky, on the USA Weightlifting board of directors, and travels all over the world coaching and running competitions. Over the last few years I have kept in contact with him via email as a thanks for his help. Since he'd played some rugby many years ago, he understood what I was trying to do. I would send him updates of my successes and the occassional picture from a game. However, it wasn't until this past weekend that I had ever had the chance to meet with him. After letting him know that I would be in the lexington area on saturday, he immediately jumped into our training plans. He advised me to be at the gym at 9:30am to watch his regulars train for about an hour and a half, and that we would begin work at around 11:00. Then a few days later he sent me another email telling me to "Prepare for my rebirth as an athlete". Needless to say, I was a little intimidated, and curious as to what kind of magic would happen at this little training session.

Well, saturday has come and gone, and it's fair to say that some sort of rebirth definitely occurred. Having arrived at around 9:15am, and beginning real training at about 11am, we didn't finish up until about 4pm. There was a whole lot of talking and adjustment mixed in with actual movement of weight (and a vast majority of the work actually involved the movement of a stick rather than a bar) but it was worth it. Having thought long and hard about what movement would be most beneficial to a rugby player, and especially to one who was in desperate need of added speed and explosivity, Doc chose the split-jerk as our focus. Watching the regulars throw nearly 130 Kilos (1 kilo = 2.2 lbs) was a little daunting, but I was eagar to learn. I spent a lot of frustrating time just practicing the movement with a stick before I was finally allowed to try the bar. After a few successful tries with the bar, 20 kilos were added, and well...lets just say I wasn't able to do. Doc, though, was not convinced. We went down to 30 kilos and I was able to do that easy enough, then 35 kilos...then suddenly, when I was again up against 40 kilos, the weight just went right up. Determined to push me farther, and little more weight was added...45 kilos. I was stoked. But just then Doc took all the weight off the bar and then threw on the 15 kilo weights - he wanted me to split-jerk 5o kilos (that's about 110 lbs, only 15 lbs shy of my body weight). And I did. Twice.



It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It wasn't that I had "gotten stronger" as Doc would say, it was all about my technique, my explosivity, confidence, and most of all, balance. All of which could translate to plenty of added power on the field. If every jump, every tackle, every pass, and every sprint could be done with the explosiveness, balance, and confidence with which I was able to do these lifts, then I could only imagine what kind of rugby player I could become. Where most people think of lifting weights as only how strong you are, Doc taught me that my body was far stronger than the amount of weight I was lifting, and that it was only waiting for my technique to catch up. Likewise, I can think of my body as a giant question mark of potential - How much speed can my arms put into my pass? How much faster can my legs actually go if they know HOW to run? How much more powerful can my tackles be if I'm in balance????

For anyone out there looking to truly put themselves ahead of the pack, I see Olympic lifting as a significant platform. If you can, find someone who can help you learn the correct way to do things, because you can't imagine the things you might learn. You might just experience a rebirth as an athlete....I know I did.

"Okay, New Zealand is on the horizon. Can you see it out there? Keep focusing and you will see it."


-Doc