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I recognize this is anecdata, but the first concussion I got was playing Rugby - the first day I went out - not all the years I spent playing American Football
by poulsbohemian 3y ago
I recognize this is anecdata, but the first concussion I got was playing Rugby - the first day I went out - not all the years I spent playing American Football up to that point. American Football is a far more controlled game, and the bodies are spread out over more of the field. I believe both of these points are important differences to understand injury risk. With Rugby, the pace is non-stop and the bodies are massed closer together. The lack of protective gear is also a factor.
In terms of perception - American Football is simply better known. I bet if you stood on a street corner and asked 50 people to tell you something about Rugby, they would describe it as soccer but you get to carry the ball.
- dylan604 3y ago>they would describe it as soccer but you get to carry the ball. that's an interesting bet/theory. i would never have expected that as a description. like, even after hearing the description, i can't imagine how it could have come to be.
- hotnfresh 3y agoI think I have about an average knowledge of Rugby for an American. So, not much. My attempt at a succinct explanation would be “football (American) but they start plays all bunched up instead of in lines”. I’m sure it’s very wrong. Cricket would be “baseball, but the home plate umpire is made of sticks”.
- dylan604 3y agowhich is a succinct example of why "X like Y, but different" type of descriptions are horrible. the "Uber of ______" type of elevator pitches are just so lame and uninspired, really benefit no one.
- wizofaus 3y agoAre you suggesting that in baseball pitchers actually aim to hit the "home plate umpire"?
- hotnfresh 3y agoNo, but their main (but not only!) activity is judging balls and strikes (whether a pitch that was not hit passed through an imaginary rectangle defined by the height of the batter’s knees and armpits, and the sides of home plate) and in Cricket the pitcher (?) wants to hit the wicket (?) such that you don’t need to judge that (the sticks do, by getting knocked over, or not getting knocked over)
- dylan604 3y ago>in Cricket the pitcher (?) in Cricket, the Bowler
- hotnfresh 3y agoThere we go. Thank you. I usually learn rules and terminology to sports I’ve played little or not at all, by playing sports video games. I’ve yet to find ones for rugby or cricket that I liked, so continue to barely understand them.
- wizofaus 3y agoFWIW in Australia we have reasonable exposure to baseball (and/or softball and even "rounders", both of which we got to play at school a few times), so much of the terminology and the basic rules are well enough known. I wouldn't say the same for gridiron though, which I've never seen played here at all. Do you even see people playing cricket anywhere in the US? Surely in areas with large subcontinental populations (SV?) there'd be some uptake?
- hotnfresh 3y ago> Do you even see people playing cricket anywhere in the US It’s not impossible to find, and exactly where you’d expect: the closer you are to a major population center, and the larger & more internationally-prestigious the nearest university, the more like you are to see it in the wild. But over most of the US, yeah, you could easily go your whole life and never even see a cricket bat in person, let alone a match being played. Rugby seems to be a significantly more popular than cricket, though still uncommon, considered over the whole geography of the country.
- pmontra 3y agoMaybe because rugby is a flowing game like soccer, minutes of play before a referee blows the whistle. Football is stop and go, only a few seconds before a play is over, by design. It's paced like baseball. Rugby and soccer are like basketball. Volleyball is somewhere in between.
- poulsbohemian 3y agoYes - that's exactly what I had in mind when I made that suggestion.