School of Hard Knocks - end of the road
It's all over!
Filming for the School of Hard Knocks series finished on Sunday with a fantastic match against an invitational Wooden Spoon team who included players from last year's series (many of them are still playing a good level of rugby for East London RFC) - and the utterly delightful Welsh legend Colin Charvis (right).
As I write this, I am still a bit croaky from excessive touchline screaming - and my physio bag is distinctly depleted, an empty shadow of its former self!
Oli, the Sky Sports director, is adamant that I can't tell you the score; but it was unbelievably exciting and emotional. There was a pretty good crowd, both in the stand and on the touchline, and commentary from the British Lions double-act of Scott Quinnell and Will Greenwood. And, following the most testosterone-fuelled, fire-and-brimstone pre-match pep talk that I've ever heard from Scott, the boys were awesome - incredible commitment to the cause, putting their bodies on the line to help each other out. There were some superb tackles, a couple of brilliant tries and several outstanding individual efforts. I couldn't be prouder of them.
After the match had finished, Streatham and Croydon RFC (or "Stroydon", as SQ accidentally rechristened them) hosted a party in their clubhouse bar, giving some of the boys their first real experience of a rugby club social. Hard Tackle (the SOHK boyband, consisting of Michael, Adam and Alex, right) gave their best rendition of a Take That classic, with Alex in particular really giving it his all, and the assembled crowd joining in the chorus, before gradually everyone headed home.
It's been a superb few weeks and a real bonding experience for a lot of the boys. It's been impressive to watch the way that they have matured and come together as a team. Some of them have definitely found a strength, drive and commitment that they didn't know they possessed - hopefully this will show on the TV series, which will form part of Thursday night's Rugby Club from March 2011. I really hope they continue to play rugby and that they make use of the contacts and skills they have acquired over the course of the series.
Boys, it's been an honour and a privilege to be a part of this. Do stay in touch!
Buzzing with Victory
What a week this was for the School of Hard Knocks boys!
Every week, we film on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, with one day tending to be mainly run by the (world-class) coaches: Scott Quinnell, Andy Gomarsall and Will Greenwood, under the directorship of Chris Chudleigh; and the other day holding something a bit different (so far these have included visits to Mark Prince, David Haye and the Ultimate Training Centre; and visits from Jason Leonard and The Apprentice winner Lee McQueen, which I missed).
This week was an exception.
This week, we spent Tuesday at the London Wasps' training ground where the back row forwards were singled out for teaching by French legend Serge Betsen (pictured being tackled by SOHK boys Adam, Brad and Chris). Then, after a hot meal (unlike the weekly diet of sandwiches from Gregg's!) former Lieutenant-Colonel turned leadership coach Farren Drury MBE inspired them with his talk on goal-setting (did you know that the 95% of the population who don't set themselves written goals, often end up working for the 5% who do?)
Then, on Wednesday, we had a visit from none other than Boris Johnson, who took time out from running London to pop down to Streatham and Croydon Rugby Club to meet the boys, and to help them to prepare for the afternoon's debate (this house believes that having a job is dependent on having a university education). As you'd imagine, he was great fun, mixing inspiring rhetoric with bumbling self-deprecation - plus (according to Greenwood) a 30-metre spiral kick. I missed that bit. But I was impressed with the way he learned the boys' names, and singled out Derek, Nathaniel and Aaron for particular praise at the end of his visit, as they had shown both skill and enthusiasm.
This coming week is the boys' final week of training, as their actual match is on - gulp - Sunday! I'm not sure what's on the timetable for this week, but I am really looking forward to finding out...
Fight for Victory
In a total change of pace, last week I went from a sedate back school in Cornwall to a testosterone-filled Fight Club in Birmingham, as the School of Hard Knocks boys visited the Ultimate Training Centre to learn some cage fighting skills! Led by centre manager Stuart Crowther, members of the UTC's fight team - including Caged Nine welterweight champion Leon Edwards and bantamweight Vaughan Lee (pictured) - put the boys through their paces with an extremely testing circuit of weights, punches, kicks and choke-holds before teaching them some mixed martial arts moves and then letting them loose in the cage to test out what they had learned on each other.
Amusingly, Stuart told me in a quiet moment that his fight staff had been a bit worried about the presence of the Sky Sports cameras and that at least one of them had threatened to call in sick. However, they had - fortunately - caved when he threatened to sack them if they didn't turn up, and after the first couple of minutes, they really got stuck in and the cameras seemed to be the last thing on their mind.
I'm not sure whether head coach Chris Chudleigh saw the Birmingham trip as a way for the boys to learn some transferable skills, such as hand-offs, how to fall and how to avoid tackles; or a method of teaching them that aggression isn't always the best way to react to provocation (after all, the man provoking you might just turn out to be the small-but-lethal Vaughan Lee) - or just an excuse to hurt them legitimately.
As team physio, I was certainly kept busy during the day, providing ice and tape - plus the usual lack of sympathy for anyone trying to wimp out of training!
All in all, though, we had a brilliant day - despite Scott Quinnell managing to split his cauliflower ear open again during the cage session, causing him to bleed over everyone again! Big thanks to Stuart and the team for your fantastic hospitality - and good luck to the team for your next fights.
Forward to victory
If you wanted to learn to scrummage, who would be your dream coach? Someone who's proved themselves in the international arena, maybe?
Last week, the lucky School of Hard Knocks boys were given their first scrummaging lesson, by not just one, but two former British Lions legends: Scott Quinnell, who has been with the programme from day one, and Jason Leonard, the world's most capped forward (114 caps for England, since you ask). It really doesn't get better than that. Here, they're demonstrating how to bind on in the front row, and the optimal body positions to adopt, in order to get maximum power into the scrum.
After the scrummaging lesson, they learned about lineout play, and participants Adam and Derek experienced being lifted in the lineout for the first time, which I think they quite enjoyed.
At the end of the day, the boys played a conditioned match against a team from Streatham and Croydon Rugby Club, where we've been filming.
I can't tell you the result - you'll have to watch the programme to find out - but it was unbelievably exciting, with much screaming and dancing around from me and the coaches. And I don't think I'll be in too much trouble with Sky if I reveal the result of the post-match drinking competition, which ended in a narrow victory for the School of Hard Knocks boys!
After all the excitement, I managed to catch up with Scott and Jason, and (after some grown-up discussion of the boys' injury status etc) I asked Jason for a picture, which he kindly agreed to. I've been a big fan of his since I was fairly small - and yes, he was one of my teenage crushes, which naturally I didn't mention! So this is a photo of Jason Leonard and me, taken on my phone by Scott Quinnell. Did I say the boys were lucky? I think I win!
Heavyweight victory
Today was a pretty exciting day for the boys at School of Hard Knocks: we took a trip to Vauxhall to visit a gym belonging to WBA World Heavyweight Champion David "Hayemaker" Haye, who is only 4 weeks away from his next fight against Audley Harrison at the MEN Arena.
David himself is a South London boy (I figure I can call him a boy: he is still 29 until tomorrow, but happy birthday David for then!) who has clearly done extremely well. He spoke passionately to the SOHK participants about how he has achieved so much, about the importance of hard work, discipline, and above all self-belief. He then asked his protege, Commonwealth super-middleweight champion George Groves, to demonstrate his awesome footwork and punching power.
And then he laid down a challenge. The SOHK boys were split into four teams, each working for a short period with David himself, George Groves, David's trainer, and David's strength-and-conditioning coach. Each of the "staff" took a different type of fitness (power, endurance, abdominal toughening and ring-based punching and footwork) and tested each group in turn. The prize was a Hayemaker tracksuit and a ticket to the big fight.
It was really impressive to see the boys - including Will Greenwood, Scott Quinnell and Andy Gomarsall - get stuck in. You'll have to watch the series to see who won the prize, but they worked really hard and were duly rewarded. Nobody was sick (despite some pretty serious punishment from George, who worked the boys over with punches and 10kg medicine balls to the abdomen) and nobody slacked, despite suffering at times with cramp and extreme lactic acid build-up.
And at the end it was time for photographs... hence Will showing off his six-pack again!
Core stability and efficiency
This morning, as part of the School of Hard Knocks course, I went with the boys to a youth club in Thornton Heath. Chris had organised a session with Mark Prince. Mark is a former professional boxer who won 19 of his 20 fights at light heavyweight. After his 15-year-old son Kiyan, a promising footballer with QPR, was murdered in 2006, Mark founded the Kiyan Prince Foundation and has dedicated his life to educating people about the consequences of the knife and gun culture, and inspiring young people to "believe and achieve".
The first thing that struck me about Mark was his incredible physique. Seriously, he has muscles on muscles, and his skin-tight top wasn't doing anything to hide them. But lots of gym bunnies have big muscles and massive muscle imbalance, with tight chest muscles pulling their shoulders too far forward; what made Mark stand out was his posture and the efficiency of his movement.
Mark started the session with 80 minutes of boxing-style training, pushing the SOHK boys to their physical and mental limits with sets of shadow jabs and hooks, star jumps, press-ups, skipping movements, lunge walking, burpees and jump squats. Throughout the session he was constantly in their faces, encouraging them to stick together, to work as a team, to buddy up and get each other through the pain - and to move as precisely as he did.
I took several pictures of the session, but this one demonstrated the difference between someone with strength, and someone with stability. Mark - facing towards the camera, in light grey - has maintained superb control of his spinal movement, so that his movements are precise and efficient, despite being fast and powerful. Michael - in the foreground, with navy t-shirt and white shorts - works out a lot and has strong shoulders, but you can see from the camera blur that his pelvis wagged up and down throughout the exercise. As a result, his movements were less controlled and efficient than Mark's, and he wasted a lot of energy - as well as putting himself at risk of a lower back injury from all the uneven movement.
So, how do you get control like Mark's? Lots of core and balance work! Mark uses a Vew-Do board, which gives an incredibly tough workout; but for beginners, any unstable surface will do. I really like Sit-Fit cushions (stand on one, and work at standing on the air - when that's easy, try shutting your eyes) and, if you're injury free, you can try exercising with a fit ball.
Victory on Sky Sports One
We're going to be on the telly!
Victory has been asked to provide medical cover for the rugby-based Sky Sports One series The School of Hard Knocks. This is a fantastic programme which uses rugby to teach unemployed young men important values and lessons that will enable them to take steps towards employment. When they're not on the rugby pitch, they receive lessons in motivation, controlling aggression, enterprise - and also learn how to write effective CVs and search for jobs. But of course there's also a lot of emphasis on physical fitness, teamwork and rugby skills - because at the end of the series, the participants will have the chance to play rugby against a proper, experienced team.
Of course, learning about rugby and learning about injuries goes hand-in-hand. It would be pretty unusual for a rugby player to go through three months of training without any sort of injury or niggle. So one of the things I'd like to do from the outset is to teach all the lads the basics of first aid for sports injuries, and how to look after their bodies so that they recover from training sessions as quickly as possible.
One of the big advantages I have is that I've worked with some of the Rugby Performance team before. When I worked with the Army Rugby Academy, Rugby Performance's head coach Chris Chudleigh was one of the backs coaches, and physical trainer Ryan Walsh was the gobby little scrum-half who bossed the pack through sheer force of personality - and a wide vocabulary of four-letter words! I have a lot of respect for their rugby knowledge, and I know they have full confidence in my physio skills, so I think it's a collaboration that should work well.
We start filming on 28 September - watch this space! I'll be adding regular updates and discussing any interesting injury situations here.
In the mean time, please feel free to make any comments and ask any questions below.
Blog for Victory
Hi, I'm Nell Mead. I'm a former Army physiotherapist and I specialise in sports medicine and back pain. This is my blog, where I write about issues that are on my mind. Some of these are about issues that are specific to particular injuries or medical conditions but I will also be updating you on events occurring inside Victory and in the wider world of medical rehabilitation. I also publish guest posts by Victory's other therapists whenever I can persuade them to sit still for long enough to write something!
When we're not writing, we're offering appointments at The Foundry in Liverpool Street. We'd love to see your comments on our posts - and we'd love to meet you even more, so do pop by and meet the team.