Brenley Kroeker’s Post

The land of maple syrup, hockey, and the most polite apologies. Let's paint the town red and white 🤪 Joyful Canada Day! Be sure to grab a beaver tail and embrace that true north strong and free spirit!! 🌄🌊🌳 #CanadaDay #CanadianPride #SteadfastSocialMedia #DigitalMarketing

As we go into the second weekend of a thrilling Six Nations, here’s a really timely story about the unintended benefits of lowering the tackle height (from shoulder height to sternum) in schools and across much of amateur Rugby Union. This was a controversial change. A year ago traditionalists were up in arms. Many feared it would ruin the sport as they knew it. In reality it has proved to do the opposite. While it’s too early to conclusively say that it has lowered the incidence of concussion, the anecdotal evidence is that there has been a significant improvement. And it has had another unintended consequence - because the rule leads to fewer two-on-one tackles, the ball-carrier can often offload the ball to a team mate. So as well as improving safety, rugby is getting faster and more enjoyable to watch, with fewer set-piece interruptions. Those of us in positions of influence in the game should take heart from this example. * Increasing player safety doesn’t have to come at the expense of the sporting spectacle. * Innovation is critical to the future of the sport. See you at Murrayfield. Come on Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 https://lnkd.in/eeBsRhR2

A new Rugby Local Plan Issues and Options report is going to Cabinet next week. Link below: https://lnkd.in/eJAp_juU   Key headlines:   -       8 week consultation starting October 30th to December 22nd -       Consultation includes a call for sites -       Plan period to 2041 or 2050 – to be determined -       In terms of employment land, no additional supply needed to 2041, but 40ha to 2050. This however excludes strategic warehousing and offices.  -       In terms of housing land, no additional supply needed to 2041 based on standard method (but 3,114 based on HEDNA), 795 dwellings needed to 2050 based on standard method or 8,1010 based on HEDNA.  -       Safeguarded land is identified at SW Rugby as potential employment or housing site. -       Updated LDS with Preferred Options July 2024, Pre-Submission January 2025, Submission June 2025, Adopt 2026

Injuries happen. Nothing you can really plan for. Newly injured and recovering player joined us today to address some issues. Session went very well. Amazing how important confidence is for a player as they prepare for that RTP date. The best ability: AVAILABILITY. John McGill On Ice Rehab®️ onicerehab@gmail.com Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) Glasgow Clan Belfast Giants #injuryrecovery #injurymanagement #injuryprevention #concussionrecovery #confidencebuilder #roster #playyourteam #rostercontinuity

Concise and rational…..

Love this post from David Clancy ☘️about athlete availability. In my years of working in high performance sport, and trying to push the boundaries of human performance through marginal gains and innovation, I always felt very grounded by the fact that above all else, an athlete who is available to train with the quality, frequency and consistency that has been prescribed by their programme, will be seven times more likely to reach their goal. Physical and psychological availability are like gold dust in sport. And that's why it's so interesting to me that we are still rubbish at quantifying and doing something about the impact that menstrual cycle symptoms have on availability of athletes. We've got pretty good at reporting that it's a real issue. The data is so consistent in every research paper that describes the proportion of active women and athletes whose quality or quantity of training is impacted by physical or psychological symptoms of their cycle. Another paper landed in my inbox today confirming (again) what we already know... that in a sample of 300 female athletes, 74% had physical symptoms and 63% had psychological symptoms related to their menstrual cycle. Follow up interviews found these symptoms decreased performance of these athletes, both in competition and training (Bugaevsky, 2023. J Clin Anesth & Res). Given that three quarters of athletes will have availability impacted by the menstrual cycle, and we know availability is key to successful performance (as brilliantly described by David below), what are we doing about it? Are we doing enough? Are we doing the right things (lots of below-par attempts to collect menstrual cycle data from athletes but do nothing useful with it)? Of course, it's complex. If availability was easy, every athlete would have nailed it by now. But it's affected by so many bio, psycho and social factors, some of which are unpredictable, that it's an ever present challenge in sport. But when it comes to the menstrual cycle, we know enough - we know symptoms are impacting availability, we know there are things we can do to help manage symptoms (if you don't, go buy our book!), and we have good tools to monitor the impact of interventions. So what's the problem? Again, it's complex. Some athletes are afraid to report symptoms for fear of judgement or selection consequences. Some are supported by coaches who are uncomfortable talking about the topic. Trainers and practitioners haven't historically had access to good information about how to help their athletes manage symptoms. And there is a deep rooted acceptance of suffering being a normal part of having a female reproductive system that we also have to undo. But for now, I believe we can all do better. We know the issue. We have solutions. We can measure their effectiveness. By helping athletes manage symptoms we can improve their availability, which in turn will improve their performance. What are we waiting for? #femaleathletehealth

Where do professional Rugby players come from? You probably think that the Premiership clubs and private schools provide them. But most start out at their local club. Grassroots rugby is the seedbed for rugby talent, and trust me, they don't turn up with all the skills on day one.   Rugby is a sport that you grow into physically, mentally and emotionally. If the right environment exists then the players will develop and go as far as they chose. At our club we put the focus on inclusion, retention and attendance, not try’s, trophies and medals. Hearing Ben Stokes say England Cricket isn't results focused is fantastic for young sports people, although he has been wildly mis-understood. If the focus is on contribution, development and performance, then results should take care of themselves. Too many factors are out of the individual player’s control.   Our coaching teams focus on contribution, development and enjoyment for the players. The players can take their contribution to the professional level or into our senior teams, it is their choice. We are proud of them all. #rugby #development #contribution #grassrootssport #englandrugby https://lnkd.in/e6_XCacq

Well worth a read. Working in sport and law at the highest level

  Rugby – Who Do We Think We Are?   With so much focus on rugby in the coming weeks it’s good to remind ourselves of where fans hail from in Ireland. To listen to a lot of media commentary, it would appear that Dublin is the bastion of the game. However, that’s wrong.      In fact, engagement with rugby (as a hobby, club member or supporter) is much stronger outside of Dublin (36% Dublin v 48% Country). That’s according to a new piece of research titled “Who Do We Think We Are?” commissioned by IRS+ and conducted by @Empathy Research. No one has looked at this area before properly and now IRS+ have evidence that shows that Dubliners and people from the country are NOT the same.   The findings cast an entirely new light about what Dubliners and people from the rest of the Country REALLY think of one another. Are the Myths true? Do they stack up against the facts?  Or is it all just caricature and lazy stereotypes?   Examining attitudes from Rugby and GAA to Spending and Social Media habits, some of the results confirm long held views but are more likely to explode myths (and show how, sometimes, we’re surprisingly similar). However, differences remain, and they’re fascinating.   The topic was certainly a popular talking point in the tabloids and radio stations in Dublin and throughout the country. Just as an FYI - the online poll of 1,343 adults, 18+ has a margin of error of +/- 3%. To learn more about the findings click here: http://irsplus.ie/insight/  #rugby #ireland #rwc2023