Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The props I follow and the prop I want to be
So if you know rugby in Australia you know that the Reds didn't shine this year. Finishing up towards the lower end of the table it was a disappointing season for me as I sat and watched in my replica jersey as the team I refuse to stop backing fell further and further. The irony I find is now the Wallabies props are both Reds players. Blake and Holmes being the props I followed all season and the guys whose feet I studied most intently trying to learn a thing or two to improve my technique. So with Blake and Holmes both taller than me and both heavier than me (though there was a time when I wayed a few kilos more than the 112Kg Holmes) I find myself asking the question. Am I too light to be a prop? Don't get me wrong this is the path I am taking and I'll gain 20 kilos eating lard if I have to. But is it necessary? I've discussed it at the club a few times. The basic consensus is... it helps. I'm not worried about being shorter, never heard of a prop who was too short.
This is just me sizing up what I want to do. I know I'll be gaining weight over the six months. But I don't want to just be a ball of fat (getting ladies is hard enough at the moment). Many of the props I know are...... well fat. And yeah the weight makes them a wrecking ball on the pitch, but they're not at every breakdown and they often don't make it in close to the ruck in defense where they are needed. So in that I find the fact that people think I'm a second rower with kankle legs because I do have speed at the moment. I look at the prop I most admire Carl Hayman, yeah he's a kiwi (I can admire the player without supporting team), and yeah once again he's a big bloke but he's not a mountain of fat either (neither are Holmes or Blake). So this points me a direction that the weight I need to gain has to be mostly muscle. Which, just to state the bloody obvious, is somewhat harder to get than fat. Maybe I shouldn't have thought about this and just gone to KFC and got two large orders of popcorn chicken like I was thinking of doing earlier.... damn.
This is just me sizing up what I want to do. I know I'll be gaining weight over the six months. But I don't want to just be a ball of fat (getting ladies is hard enough at the moment). Many of the props I know are...... well fat. And yeah the weight makes them a wrecking ball on the pitch, but they're not at every breakdown and they often don't make it in close to the ruck in defense where they are needed. So in that I find the fact that people think I'm a second rower with kankle legs because I do have speed at the moment. I look at the prop I most admire Carl Hayman, yeah he's a kiwi (I can admire the player without supporting team), and yeah once again he's a big bloke but he's not a mountain of fat either (neither are Holmes or Blake). So this points me a direction that the weight I need to gain has to be mostly muscle. Which, just to state the bloody obvious, is somewhat harder to get than fat. Maybe I shouldn't have thought about this and just gone to KFC and got two large orders of popcorn chicken like I was thinking of doing earlier.... damn.
# posted by aProp @ 7:26 PM 
