Tackling can be one of the biggest barriers facing people interested in trying rugby or returning to the sport. Samantha Burelle, a 91亚色 PhD candidate, and Karl Erickson, an associate professor in the Faculty of Health, are partnering with Peterborough Rugby Club to change that.
Across Canada, rugby is becoming more popular, says Erickson. Historically, many people first encountered rugby in high school. Today, however, thriving youth programs introduce children to the sport much earlier, often beginning with non-contact versions of the game before progressing to contact rugby around age 12.
At the same time, the sport is attracting participants from a growing range of backgrounds and life stages. "Rugby is very intentionally positioning itself as a leader in inclusive participation," says Erickson, whose research focuses on coaching and youth sports.
Rugby clubs increasingly welcome newcomers, former players returning after years away, women and mothers looking to reconnect with the game and older adults seeking opportunities to stay active and connected to their communities. Many clubs offer mixed-ability and recreational programs, creating opportunities for people with different experience levels and abilities to participate. Some players continue taking the field well into their 70s and 80s.
One challenge continues to surface for newcomers and returning participants alike, however: tackling.
鈥淔or people who haven't played rugby before, it can look like a very aggressive sport,鈥 says Erickson. 鈥淪ome folks are reasonably a little worried about that.鈥
A new project led by Burelle and Erickson, and conducted in partnership with Peterborough Rugby Club, is exploring how players, coaches and families can be better supported when introducing or reintroducing contact in rugby. The work focuses on three areas: youth athletes learning contact rugby for the first time; participants in mixed-ability programs; and adults returning to contact rugby later in life.
Valuable resources already exist, one of the most widely used being Rugby Canada's TackleSMART program, which provides guidance on contact technique, physical safety considerations and player development. Yet, Burelle says conversations with coaches revealed an ongoing gap in education.
鈥淐oaches still experience challenges when teaching safe tackling and voiced the need for further support, especially when coaching players who are learning contact play for the first time or returning to it after time away,鈥 she says.
Burelle says the challenge extends beyond the physical aspects of tackling, something she and Erickson knew from their own experiences playing rugby. While athlete safety remains paramount, the researchers found that emotional, social and cultural factors also shaped how players experienced learning contact skills.
With funding from the Sport Information Resource Centre's Researcher Practitioner Partnership Grants program, Burelle and Erickson are drawing on the experiences of athletes, coaches and families at the local level to create tools that respond directly to their needs.
The work is being carried out in close collaboration with Peterborough Rugby Club, where Erickson is a member and where a need was identified for additional support around introducing and teaching tackling. Rather than developing broad recommendations from the outset, the researchers are working with the club to create resources tailored to its specific circumstances and experiences.
To ensure materials reflect real-world needs, the project's first phase involves interviews with athletes, coaches and parents about what helped, hindered or shaped their experiences of learning and teaching contact play.
That support is particularly important given the realities of community sport. Erickson notes that many youth coaches are parents who volunteer for only a few years before their children graduate out of a program, resulting in significant turnover and making it difficult to maintain consistency from one generation to the next.
The project's second phase aims develop practical tools and supports informed by those experiences, before returning them to participants for feedback and refinement.
Ultimately, Erickson hopes to create a common language around tackling that can be shared across an organization, making it easier for new coaches to get up to speed and promoting consistency across teams and age groups. As the project moves forward, they plan to speak with participants who have recently been introduced or reintroduced to tackling to ensure their perspectives continue to shape the final product.
"We really want to emphasize that the coaching resource not only fills the knowledge and competency gap for coaches but also reflects athletes' experiences and concerns around safe tackling," says Burelle.
The goal is to create materials that can be put to immediate use throughout the club, whether in policy manuals, on clubhouse walls or in the hands of coaches, athletes and families. By documenting what works and tailoring guidance to Peterborough Rugby Club's circumstances, the researchers hope to create practical tools that can be shared more widely.
"The whole point of the grant is to make something that is useful, right away at the end, for the club," says Erickson.
While the project is focused on Peterborough Rugby Club, the researchers hope for wider adoption. Rugby Ontario has already expressed interest in the work, creating opportunities for lessons learned at the local level to be shared more broadly across the sport.
For Erickson, the project also represents a different approach to connecting research and practice. Research often needs to be broad and generalizable, he says, which can make it difficult for organizations to determine how findings apply to their own circumstances. By working with Peterborough Rugby Club throughout the process, the researchers are instead developing solutions tailored to a specific community before considering how those lessons might be adapted elsewhere.
Ultimately, the researchers hope the work helps remove a barrier for people who might otherwise be interested in joining or returning to rugby. By addressing worries and anxieties around learning or re-learning tackling, they aim to create more welcoming pathways into a sport that prides itself on inclusive participation, community and social connection.
"While this work is aimed at addressing an issue at one club, we hope that the outcome and resources created from this project have a lasting impact on the sport of rugby as a whole," says Burelle. "We want to ensure the project is shared across clubs and continues to help support local volunteer coaches from coast to coast to coast."