Galland said it\u2019s more important than ever for young male players to develop skills and nurture identities within their lives to help differentiate between their \u201cplaying world\u201d and their \u201coutside world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Crusaders Academy manager Paul Galland says the levels of vulnerability shown ultimately rest with the individual.<\/p>\n
He said this was less of an issue in the amateur era, when playing rugby was just one part of the identity of a player who also had to hold down a job. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe try and stress to them that you are more than just a rugby player \u2013 you\u2019re a person, you\u2019re a brother, a father or whatever that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dangers of young players not affirming identities outside of the sport can be \u201cone of the biggest destabilisers\u201d they can face, University of Canterbury (UC) M\u0101ori and Indigenous Studies senior lecturer and Canterbury Rugby League CEO Dr Phil Borell said.<\/p>\n
Borell, who has published work on the politics and education of sport in New Zealand, said there are too many \u201chorror stories\u201d of young men becoming lost once their sporting careers end, because they lack understanding of who they are off the field.<\/p>\n
It is a major reason why Borell, who has worked with Crusaders Academy players who study at UC, is a massive advocate for professional sport to be a player\u2019s \u201cplan B\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so important that you are you, and finding a way to be who you are [and] having passions and interests outside of sport,\u201d Borrell said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGuys that I\u2019ve spoken to that have strong identities off the field tend to be the ones that are most likely to remain stable … [Conversely,] a lot of guys will isolate themselves because they\u2019re so focused on the career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Phil Borell is a believer in the term: “I play sport, I am not sport.”<\/p>\n
Lincoln University sports sociologist Dr Tom Kavanagh said the pressures on players to perform can lead to traditional masculine traits of not showing emotion or asking for help when it is needed.<\/p>\n
He said these traits manifested early, such as in First XV schools competitions, which were increasingly viewed as a pathway to professional sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some situations, they\u2019re more likely to be sacrificing their body [and] not reaching out for help … because they feel like this is their one shot,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to think that things have changed or are slowly changing over time, but I think rugby still is one of those environments where those kinds of traits are able to embed themselves in the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professionalism at younger ages is an \u201cunavoidable reality\u201d, according to Borell.<\/p>\n
He said while there\u2019s been progress in professional spaces to create conversations about identity and vulnerability, he questions its effectiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are they doing for the guys that are in their care? Are they doing that to the extent that they portray that they do it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said former athletes are typically the ones doing positive work alongside young men starting out, as they understand the mental toll being a professional can take.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most common thing for men is \u2018well, now that I\u2019m out of that environment, I can talk about it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a national scale, young rugby players building identities off the field is \u201chugely important\u201d according to the New Zealand Rugby Player Association\u2019s (NZRPA) general manager of people development, Nikita Hall. <\/p>\n
She said a professional rugby career, at best, only equates to 16% of a player\u2019s life. It\u2019s why, under the Collective Employment Agreement (CEA), players have a half-day each week \u2013 on top of their rostered day off \u2013 for their personal development, protected hours outside of scheduled rugby activities and a Personal Development Programme installed in every provincial union and Super Rugby Pacific club. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe firmly believe a well-rounded, balanced person off the field makes a better contributor on it,\u201d Hall said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the greatest disservices we can do to our young people is to let them equate their worth solely with achievement in a single area, allowing them to opt out of developing their minds and talents more broadly.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hall pointed to how rugby can give individuals soft skills such as \u201cintelligence, resilience and a growth mindset\u201d to grow beyond the game. <\/p>\n
There are plenty of examples of that, ranging from Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant being a qualified lawyer to All Blacks Christian Lio-Willie and Will Jordan having qualifications in dentistry and commerce, respectively. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s no coincidence,\u201d Hall said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt reflects the breadth of identity and capability our players build beyond the game that enables them to succeed at the highest level,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players who sustain the longest careers, and then transition successfully into fulfilling lives beyond rugby, are those who treat rugby as their job, while also building a strong identity, competence and confidence in themselves as people.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Galland said it\u2019s more important than ever for young male players to develop skills and nurture identities within…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3225,2046,4527,30271,5269,1360,53904,18558,2205,185,3605,117,111,139,69,3111,2170,10702,12886,53903,6327,53902,2022,213,666,102,4576,4741,80,2963],"class_list":["post-66839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-according","tag-career","tag-doesnt","tag-figures","tag-game","tag-having","tag-hurting","tag-identity","tag-involved","tag-is","tag-men","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-plan","tag-players","tag-professional","tag-professionalism","tag-rugby","tag-rugbys","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-struggling","tag-with","tag-work","tag-young","tag-zealand","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}