A groundbreaking rugby training initiative is giving a group of young men in East London a second chance. The British reality show, School Of Hard Knocks, is taking a group of young men who found themselves in trouble, and trying to turn them into a viable rugby team.
According to Beyond Sport, rugby legends Will Greenwood and Scott Quinnell led the charge: “The group contained the serial unemployed, habitual offenders, drug users, the homeless and the very, very angry.” The goal was to see if rugby could excite a group of kids from London’s most unforgiving areas, a group most people had given up on. More often than not, these players were just young kids who had taken a wrong turn and were trapped in a destructive cycle.
For eight weeks, rugby was the way of getting through to this group, a way to teach the value of working as a team, dedicating themselves to hard work, looking after each other and trusting fellow players. In an effort to prove that rugby truly can be used as a tool to create change, School of Hard Knocks takes the “tough love” approach. Or, as Quinnell said in the first episode, they go “really, really hard” on these guys from day one.
The players are also taught life skills by the coaches who provide players with advice on how to compile a resume, how get a job interview and set up classes about nutrition and anger management. The light at the end of the tunnel for these kids is a game against a proper team on a real playing field and a chance to put into practice all the things they learned during this amazing program. On the first day of the program, Greenwood conducted a social experiment: “I asked the guys to hug each other. They were embarrassed and did it quickly to get it over with. Come game day, I asked them to repeat the process. I was overwhelmed. In that changing room there was genuine love and affection. Without exception, they were ready to do battle for each other. There was warmth, passion, friendship and tears.”
This season of School of Hard Knocks has just kicked off in the UK. These teammates were forced to work together and push themselves to their physical and mental limits but, on the flip side, they were able to find some of the things that had been missing from their lives.
The first episode can be seen on the Sky Sports website.
Photo by Zoonbar.