The Basic Premises

Prior to diving into the individual Personas I think it would be wise to make a general statement, and to establish some sort of Basic Premises, about kids in America playing Rugby.

As previously stated, we do not belong to a Rugby culture. Absolutely from exposure to the game and less obviously by the Cult of Personality so prevalent in the media's coverage of not only professional sport, but scholastic and amateur sport as well. This, I believe, is anathema to Rugby as a game and as a distinct sub-culture.

However, and most paradoxically, it does take an individual, to play Rugby. Focusing here in America, Rugby is not widely known and there are unfortunately many mis-conceptions of the game.

Entertainment media has portrayed the Rugby player as a neer-do-well lunkhead, al la Chris Farley's "Tommy Boy"to a rough interpretation of some sort of Gladiatorial match shown in the Heath Ledger film "The Three Feathers".

These opposing depictions could, in fact, not be any further from the truth. More on that in later posts.

So making the choice to step outside the comfortable and accepted norms of choice of sport, football, basketball, wrestling etc.; especially for players in their teen age years, requires a strong individual.

If there are four basic Personas in my thesis, than there must be some Basic Premises;
Those that choose to play are secure in their individuality.

This idea begs some sort of maturity level by already established criteria. Not so! Acting as an individual in no way establishes any level of maturity. Maturity has nothing to do with this Blog and my Premises on Personas.

What it does provide is a fundamental baseline for building player - coach rapport and providing the Coach with a jumping off point to more accurately identify the Persona and methods by which the positives of the present Personas can brought to the fore.

This bent toward individualtiy can be best "amplified" and directed to the benefit of the team and growth of the player towards an "Elite" Premise.

What does it truly mean to be Elite? The better question, for our purposes here is What does it mean to be Rugby Elite?

More on this Basic Premise in the next posting!