Weighted Rugby Balls

GerryRyan

Ok, so I need to work on passing - increasing distance being a priority.
What's everyones thoughts on the heavy/weighted rugby balls?

I was looking into buying one of these.
"Power Ball weighs 3 1/2 times standard ball. Sizes 4 & 5"

Or am I better off just practising more with the standard ones ?

Ginger

They are handy for practicing passing, and getting strength into your forearms and wrists and getting faster passes.

Just dont kick with them.. The only thing is once you are used to the weight, its a bit weird going back to normal weight balls, you tend to fly them a bit higher..

Campo he used bricks for the same scenario to build up the muscles for his spin passes..

I have the Addidas one and use it during the summer months, along with Tag just to keep it going

Snickers Man

Here's an idea.

Let'smake those balls the standard balls to play the game with. We might see more tries.

The blight of the game of rugby is that kicked points are becoming more and more important. They account for a greater percentage of scoring now, in international games, than they did way back in the days when a try was worth 3 pts and a drop goal was worth 4.

Make the balls heavier. That will sort out those kickers and force more running and passing.

Ginger

Snickersman, if we used leather balls and soaked them in water it would be the same

Ideally, when you are training with these pass development balls, its a good idea to have a training routine rather than say pass it about for a while and see does it help

RuggieBear

Snickers Man wrote:

Here's an idea.

Let'smake those balls the standard balls to play the game with. We might see more tries.

The blight of the game of rugby is that kicked points are becoming more and more important. They account for a greater percentage of scoring now, in international games, than they did way back in the days when a try was worth 3 pts and a drop goal was worth 4.

Make the balls heavier. That will sort out those kickers and force more running and passing.

the problem is tho if you make it harder to score penalties, teams will give more of them away to stop the opposition scoring tries.

Did you see on Sat that South Afica scored 10 penaties to beat the "rest of the "world selection"

Snickers Man

RuggieBear wrote:

the problem is tho if you make it harder to score penalties, teams will give more of them away to stop the opposition scoring tries.

That's a fair point but you can counter act that shennanigans by giving territorial penalties ie marching them back 10 m instead of awarding a kick like they do in American football, and also by judicious use of the yellow card.

It's just an idea, but 30 years of Southern Hemisphere inspired 'innovations' to make the game more 'open' have just turned Union into League, and the concurrent development of plastic balls with better aerodynamic capabilities and water resistance have just meant that kickers go on getting more accurate in all conditions.

So there are more points scored per game than ever before but the majority of those points are accounted for by kicks.

make it harder to kick the ball and you will see more running open play.

aoa321

change the scoring system - make it like American Football, 6 points for a try 1 for the conversion - almost guarantees the prospect of more teams going for tries. Conversions matter less, until you miss them !!

Snickers Man

aoa321 wrote:

change the scoring system - make it like American Football, 6 points for a try 1 for the conversion - almost guarantees the prospect of more teams going for tries. Conversions matter less, until you miss them !!

Hasn't worked. 70 years ago a try was worth 3 points and a dropped goal 4. Most of the points in those days were accounted for by tries.

Nowadays it's the ease with which you can score kicked points (light dry aerodynamic balls, enclosed stadia, better on-field drainage) that skews the points acquisition in favour of the kicker.

Same reason there are more points scored in GAA than goals.

GerryRyan

Ok, this went completely off topic ... anywho.

Went out and got a weighted ball. Something to keep me occupied for the summer. Passes aren't too bad - aim is good, but range is short starting off.

I'll keep ye posted.

aoa321

ThatGuy wrote:

Ok, this went completely off topic ... anywho.

Went out and got a weighted ball. Something to keep me occupied for the summer. Passes aren't too bad - aim is good, but range is short starting off.

I'll keep ye posted.

Oi, we hijacked this thread first ... stop tryting to hijack it back ... sheez ... some people !!!

GerryRyan

*slowly backs away*

Snickers Man

Ah come on. It wasn't that far off topic.

We were still talking about weighted balls. Have you tried kicking it yet?

Could you land a conversion from the 22?

daveirl

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Snickers Man

daveirl wrote:

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Sliding rapidly down the ramp to talking about lacrosse if we're not careful.

RuggieBear

i'd love to play lacrosse...looks like a mixture of my two favourite field sports hockey and rugby

daveirl

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RuggieBear

daveirl wrote:

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just what are you implying.....?!

daveirl

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RuggieBear

ah...never knew that. you learn something new every day....

my sum knowledge of Lacrosse come from the American pie movies:rolleyes:

GerryRyan

Snickers Man wrote:

We were still talking about weighted balls. Have you tried kicking it yet?

Kicked, no. Grubber kicked, yes. Twas a bad idea.
*coming back on topic*

shoutman

I know its too late now but for future reference you could buy a powerball to build up the wrist and forarm muscles.