Growing Popularity of Women in Rugby in America - Essay Example

Growth in women rugby Growth in women rugby Introduction A contact sport, involving strength, speed and strategy, rugby is a full contact body mostly played by men. Lately, however, domination of men faced challenge by the abrupt increase of women in the game. The game continually gains recognition and popularity in America, consequently the women embrace it enthusiastically. Women rugby continues to develop rapidly compared to other parts of the sport. The growth experienced between 1993 and 2007, was tremendous and baffling.

The size of women teams on the American campuses doubled to 280 from 125(Rawson, S & Nahman, N, 2005). Women rarely participated in contact sports. The chance availed itself and they streamed in large numbers to play the sport. The history of women rugby in America is colorful since it started in 1972, and underwent various changes and challenges but only popularized in 1993. Rugby enables women to play by the rules of men and display their physical strength just like men do. This is a property that endears women to the game.

It is common knowledge that rugby requires extreme physical strength due to the violence involved. Physical strength is associated with men. Females even at work places are offered light jobs that require little physical strength. Femininity is associated with physical weakness and minimal violence. As women play rugby, they display physical strength as they defend their territories by locking arms and elbows. Similar to male rugby players they take pride in their bruises and injuries incurred from the violence of the game.

This seems out of order because many women would prefer to remain unburies and scar less. Women normally played basket ball, soft ball and volley ball over the years. The sports require energy but not as much energy as rugby. The women therefore gained a sport which they use to stretch their physical abilities to the maximum (Brown, M., Growden, G., & Guthrie, P. (2011). There are few limitations on the physical abilities in rugby, the stronger the better. The physical ability however is not limited by the physical appearance of an individual.

The sport is ideal for any body type. After refining physical and technical prowess, there is a part for every person to fill in the team. This should also be accompanied with aggressiveness and violence, the nature of women is that they are good listeners and they pay attention to details. This aspect of femininity complements them a great deal. Trainers claim that women pay more attention during training compared to men (Rawson, S & Nahman, N, 2005). They are also very concern with the basics of rugby making them better players compared to men.

A large percentage of women enjoy watching rugby as the men show off their strength in the violence of the game. The game intrigues a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in its audience. This may be the reason as to why many women choose to play the game. There is thrill in showing of physical strength and toughness to others. Athletes playing this game sometimes display violence out of the field. This psychological effect may also affect the women players. Femininity contains very few strands of violence; however the frame of mind becomes more comfortable with violence due to routine.

Conclusion Motivation for growth of women’s rugby comes from many directions. For example, rugby rejoins the other Olympic sports in 2016 since 1924. The growth of rugby women proves the point that has continually be capabilities to undertake the task of a man.References Rawdon, S., & Nahman, N. S. (2005). Womens rugby: Coaching and playing the collegiate game. Terre Haute, Ind: Wish Pub.Brown, M., Growden, G., & Guthrie, P. (2011). Rugby for dummies. Mississauga, Ont: Wiley