Answers to questions

This section includes answers to questions for:

Rugby, American Football and Baseball

Rugby


1. What are the main muscles you would train for rugby? 

As rugby is a game where you would benefit by being a good runner, you would need to train those muscles that are used in running. These muscles include your calf muscled (at the back of your lower leg) and your quadriceps (front thigh).

2. What parts of the world are good at rugby? Who plays in the rugby world cup?

England is one of the main players of Rugby.  Czech Republic, Denmark, England and Fiji are also one of the country participants.


3. What is the Haka and what does it have to do with Rugby?
Haka is a traditional war cry from New Zealand. 
 New Zealand team sports practice by performing Haka before their matches. This tradiotion hasbeeen carried in their rugby team since 1905 (Wikipedia, 2016). 

4. Explain the rules of rugby and where they come from.
Rugby is believed to originate in Greece or Rome. The game is played with a field a two teams. Each team has one end of the field after which is the goal of the opposing team. The rugby ball is kicked in the air and the game begins. The goal of the game is for you team to get a touch down at your opposing teams field area. Touchdown means that having the ball in your hand and touching the opposing teams 'territory'. You get a point for each touchdown.  You can pass the balls to other teammates but only if they are behind you. The opposing team can tackle you if you have the ball and then the ball is given to the other team. You can only be tackled thrice. 

Rugby and American football questions 

1. How are rugby and American football related? How are the sports similar and how are they different? 
American football and rugby originiates in the same place, resulting in share concepts including scoring.
American football may sometimes be a game between a few individuals as after the line of scrimage, the ball can only be passed to two people. After this, the person with the ball must run and get a touchdown unless they are tackled. A tackle or other mistake is known as a down where the line of scrimmage begins again. After a specific amounts of downs the ball is passed to the opposing team. There is a specific amount of passing you can do in American football while in rugby you can pass it as many times as you want. The ball however is the same in both games.
2. Why is it that American football players get so big? What is the point? How does their size help them or hurt them? 

It can be seen that american football players have wider upper body. This comes to an advantage as it is easier to run past people and being able to knock them down with your mass. You can also keep the ball tight into you, making it harder for the other team to get the ball.
3. Which sport (rugby or football) do you think is more physically demanding? 

I think American football is more physically demanding as you don't know whether the ball will be passed to you or not, if it is, you have to run, you can't just pass it to someone else. I think that is a good think though, as if you are afraid you won't be able to do it (such as scoring in basketball) you will most probably not try, but pass it to someone else. Whereas in american football you have to at least try. I tried, and I did it :)
4. How do you think you acted as a team today? What was your roll? What did you do?

As I mentioned earlier, if you are thrown the ball in american football, you cannot pass it. After the line of scrimmage, Vetle was the quarterback and I think he threw the ball somewhere random, not intending to pass it to me, somehow the ball landed in my hand. It didn't take me much effort to catch it. Then I realised I had to run to the opposing teams base. And I ran. It was kind of scary as although I may have been passed the ball in other games, I didn't normally try to score, but passed it on to somebody else. Now, I had to do it myself, I was quite pleased with my self as I just got a touchdown. A second late and I would have been tackled by Rolf. Unfortunately, this lesson was the last of american football and I wasn't able to try to score again.

Baseball 

Baseball (Week 1)

Baseball is a game played on a square field with two teams. One is the batting team while the other is their opponent (or the "catcher"). The four corner of the field are called the home base, first base, second base and third base. 

Rules for the batting team

The game starts at the home base for the batting team. Everybody lines up for their turn. Further ahead from the corner is where the pitcher stands. He/she will pitch the ball and the batter will have three attempts to touch it and/or bat it.Your (batter) attempts count if you actually attempted to bat the ball, otherwise you can decide whether or not you want to hit it. If you don't hit it within your three attempts, you are out. If you hit it, you must run to as many bases as you can. You start by running to the first base, either you stay there or you continue to the next bases. You cannot stop between two bases. If the other team has caught the ball and come to the base you were running to, before you,then you are out. If you remain at the base you were or are not out, it is the next player in the batting's turn. As the turn comes up for the next batter, the same rules apply. Although here, all the runner's at bases (except the home base) have to run. That means that the previous batter who is now at a different base must also run. Two people can not be at the same base at once (unless it is the homebase). If you finish one whole round, your team gets a homerun giving you a point. 

The batting team and the catcher's are swapped once the batting team gets three players out.

Rules for catchers

One of the catchers will be the pitcher for the batting team. All the other players of that team will be around the field, outside the field or beside a base. Their job is to catch the ball or get it and run to the base another player from the batting team is running to. If they arrive at that base before the other batter, then the batter is out. If not, the batter can continue moving. The catcher can get whoever they want to get out from the opposing team by running to the base and touching the base that picked batter is running for. For example, if a batter is at the second base and one is at the first, then the catching team can decide which one they want to get out. If they want to take out the person in the second base, the catchers have to catch the ball and run to the third base (as that is the base the batter will be running for) before the batter. 

The catchers can pass the ball by throwing it and will also have a baseball glove to wear on their non-dominant hand to help in catching.


Real baseballl games
After watching the beginning of a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5O9I0eOSV4) of a baseball game, I saw that there wasn't a lot of difference between how the players played, but a difference in some tricks. The pitcher would through the ball in much more force and perhaps trick throws that tricked the batter that it was going in a specific direction.

Goal
As I have played baseball before, I was quite familiar with the rules. This meant that I could go right into the game without thinking to much if I was playing correctly according to the rules. For next week, my goal would be to respond quicker to my surroundings. That would mean that I am more alert and I understand whether I should continue running to the next base or stay according to how far the ball has flown. My other goal is to be able to bat better, hitting the ball correctly and also catching the ball at least a bit better. There is one thing that can help with all of this and that is to increase my alertness and stay into the game at all times.

Training plan for a baseball player
To be better at baseball it is important to strengthen the muscles and parts of the body that is mainly involved in the game. This can be done through some exercises.

The core is one of the main parts of used in baseball. This part could be exercised through crunches and planks

Baseball

Baseball: What are the rules of baseball? Watch some baseball clips on youtube and tell me how it looked different than what we played in class. How did it look the same? Set a goal for next week... what do you want to do? How will you get better? What would be a good training plan for a baseball player? What would you have them do to prepare? What muscles did you feel like you worked?

REFERENCES
Wikipedia. (2016). Haka. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka [Accessed 10 May 2016].

YouTube. (2016).  Giants vs. Dodgers 04.04.2014 [Full Game HD]. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5O9I0eOSV4 [Accessed 24 May 2016].