Kamp
Andrew jimson , james roberts , peter cray, taisen smith, Chris Harkin blonfoe, Aiden Chaffe nked one, darrem mcdonalds, David Johnston stinky,Christopher Townsend,
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domingo, 26 de dezembro de 2010
Naked Springboks tested at camp
Naked Springboks tested at camp
South Africans are agonising over their defeat by New Zealand
South African rugby players were subjected to naked toughening-up exercises at a gruelling boot camp before the World Cup in Australia.
Some South Africans doubt the wisdom of sending the Springboks to "Camp Steel Wire" in light of their 29-9 quarter-final defeat by New Zealand.
South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper reports that players had to strip and pump up rugby balls in a freezing lake.
The three-day "bonding" also involved crawling naked across gravel.
Despite being sworn to secrecy, two players revealed some of the military-style exercises they endured at the camp - reportedly the brainchild of security consultant Adriaan Heijns, who employed former police task force veterans.
According to the newspaper report, players who tried to get out of the freezing lake - including Springboks captain Corne Krige - were ordered back in at gunpoint.
Without each other there was no way you could make it through
Corne Krige
The players were also abandoned in the bush at night with only an egg, a chicken and a match. They were asked to cook a meal, but not allowed to eat it.
When they were finally given a chance to sleep, they were woken every 15 minutes by gunfire.
They were also told to strip and climb into a hole, where recordings of the English national anthem and New Zealand's haka, or war-chant, were played. From time to time ice-cold water was poured over their heads.
Krige said he would not recommend some parts of the camp for future rugby training, but he added that a lot of it was really good team spirit.
The exercises were held at a location north of Pretoria in September, the paper reported.
But Ken Jennings, a South African sports psychologist, said he was "quite horrified" to learn of the activities, describing them as "a drive towards conformity and total rigidity that is based on the fear factor".
Celebration or decimation? Inappropriate motivational techniques have swung the spotlight back onto South African rugby, and coach Rudolf Straeuli has again been targeted by critics (Photo: Die Burger)
The Springbok rugby squad must be wondering where it is all going to end. First, a race row over shared accommo-dation. Second, an outcry over their mediocre sixth place at the Rugby World Cup. And, finally, a media brouhaha over the demeaning Kamp Staaldraad, news of which sent South African rugby officials scurrying to crisis talks late last week.
"Are we saying sport is war?"
It's a terse question that UCT sports psychologist Dr Helgo Schomer asks over the phone. He seems to bristle with indignation over the wire.
Schomer, who has worked with elite international athletes and, recently, a top soccer team, honing their mental strengths to complement their physical prowess, is appalled by the boot camp.
"Are rugby players soldiers? Are we preparing men to be degraded, to survive under duress and capture in the field?" There is a brief silence before he continues. "Sport is not war. It is a celebration of human excellence. Why break them down, demean them and humiliate them?"
For Schomer, the pit episode reflects deeper problems; problems understanding the psyche of top athletes. The rabbit-out-of-a-hat approach is wrong, he says.
"It takes a lifetime to build character and fitness. Thoughts change reluctantly. You can't break and rebuild a player in a weekend. You have to work with the existing building blocks established by parents, schools, society … Mental training is a long-term process, not a weekend camp. They tried to create a mental pill, a mental injection. It just doesn't exist."
Schomer is voluble in his damning of what he calls a "ridiculous and shameful" practice. Under mounting pressure from an unforgiving public, one can perhaps understand the necessity of training in harsh, isolated terrain.
But in a pit? And naked?
Over the phone, you can almost see Schomer shake his head.
"It's an extreme sort of sexual harassment. And then they publish pictures of the naked rugby players for the whole world to see. What about their wives, girlfriends and children? How do we explain it? They're great athletes. They have great bodies. But please, treat them as mensch."
Schomer would also like to know where in the squad's contracts there was mention of training naked while enduring physical privation.
South African rugby has reverted to old, outdated motivational techniques, ones the sport psychologist believes are wholly inappropriate anyway. The pit episode is also part of broader malaise, Schomer believes, a gap in our national approach to sport, an "unintelligent" kragdadige style that too easily eschews modern psychological methods of honing athletes to perform at their best.
"They're in a time warp with antiquated ideas."
And though South African rugby axes coaches faster than Stuart Dickinson can blow his whistle, Schomer believes there are good coaches in South Africa. "They just have to choose one that breaks the mould of the 'old boys' club', the powerful, dictatorial inner circle controlling rugby."
But it will have to be an enlightened coach. The England team, for example, certainly thought more about brain than brawn in their preparation for the RWC. After a recce of expertise, they called in a UCT graduate (nogal) to improve their players' eye co-ordination and reaction time. It was Dr Sherylle Calder that England coach Clive Woodward employed as the squad's full-time visual awareness coach.
Calder, who got her PhD from the department of physiology under the supervision of Professor Tim Noakes in 1999, had been with the Sports Science Institute of South African (SSISA) in Newlands at a company called Acuvue Sports Vision Centre. She is the only person in the country with a formal PhD in sports vision training, skills that would surely have served the Boks better than time in a hole.
But one can't help wondering: is the will to win driving players and coaches to desperate measures? And is the folly being fuelled by the unrealistic expectations of die-hard Bok fans and even rugby administrators with more to lose than just face?
"The glory of competition is that moment of reckoning," Schomer says. "Under pressure, we revert to our most practiced behaviour."
Another to question the value of the Kamp Staaldraad sojourn is Associate Professor Mike Lambert of the MRC/UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (ESSM), based at the SSISA. "It's very hard to find the link between sitting in a pit in a gruelling situation and what you're trying to do on a rugby field," noted Lambert, who also serves on the SARFU scientific committee.
Squad members had been regulars at the SSISA's Discovery Health High Performance Centre (HPC) until July, and had in their run-up to the RWC called on the services of analysts at the Sports Technology Centre at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), clothing designers at Nike, and a cavalcade of fitness coaches, doctors and dietitians. How this cerebral take to training unravelled and ended up in a military-style grilling is unclear, noted Lambert.
There are plenty of good things happening in rugby coaching, Lambert pointed out. For one, he is running a longitudinal study - bankrolled by the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) - with Craven Week players to learn why so many promising talents are not breaking into the next level of the game.
"The structures were in place for the Springboks," he said. "They just weren't put to their best use."
In a recent piece on M-Net's Carte Blanche, a number of players - notably skipper Corné Krige, scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen and full-back Ricardo Laubscher - came out in vocal defence of the "rugby boot camp".
"One of the positive things was that we learnt to stand together," said Laubscher on the programme. "We learnt to help each other, because in times like those it was difficult, so one doesn't have a choice."
So - antiquated or not - did the camp not do the job? Even if the Boks did not win the World Cup, did they not go into the event mentally charged and unified?
"I think it's the general consensus that it's not the appropriate way to prepare athletes for a major competition in the 21st century," counters Tim Noakes. "Or certainly not in the last month before a major competition."
Schomer believes, however, the "bizarre and ludicrous" incident can work positively for rugby. "It provides an opportunity for a clean sweep. 'Out, all of you'."
Once over his disbelief and anger, one thing still intrigues Schomer: who was clever enough to sell this idea to the Bok team?
"I want to meet him. He must be a helluva salesman," the sports psychologist muses.
Kamp Staaldraad (Afrikaans words, translated idiomatically as Camp Barbed Wire) was a military-style "boot camp" organized as a "team building" exercise for the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks (or Boks), during their preparation for the 2003 Rugby World Cup (RWC). When the details of the camp emerged in the South African media, it ignited a firestorm of protest that quickly consumed much of the upper administrative levels of South African rugby.
Soon after the naming of the Springboks World Cup team in September 2003, Boks coach Rudolph Straeuli arranged for the team to go to a police camp in the South African bush, near the town of Thabazimbi. He delegated much of the responsibility for running the team camp to his staff. After the controversy over the camp broke, several staffers indicated that it was intended to banish all traces of individuality from the players.
Soon after the Boks were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup, a South African newspaper reported that before the RWC, the Boks had been sent to a boot camp where players had allegedly been ordered into a freezing lake naked to pump up rugby balls underwater. The story also alleged that players who tried to get out of the lake, including Boks captain Corné Krige, were forced back in at gunpoint. Within days, several South African newspapers ran pictures leaked from the camp, showing players standing naked in the lake and holding rugby balls in front of their private parts, and shivering Boks players huddled naked in a pit. The whistleblower emerged as Boks video analyst Dale McDermott.[1]
In the days that followed, the media reported other details from the camp:[2]
The team was ordered to climb into a foxhole naked and sing the national anthem while ice-cold water was poured over their heads. During their time in the hole, recordings of God Save the Queen (used as England's national anthem) and the New Zealand All Blacks haka were played at full volume.
It was confirmed that firearms were present at the camp, although reports varied as to whether they were ever pointed at anyone.
The players were forced to crawl naked across gravel.
They also were ordered to spend a night in the bush, during which they were to kill and cook chickens, but not eat them.
South Africans almost universally condemned Kamp Staaldraad. The country's military agreed; a spokesman for the South African National Defence Force pointedly told the Cape Times newspaper that the force never trained its recruits naked, and he knew of no military organization in the world that did so. Many rugby observers also pointed out that trying to eliminate all individuality from a team could be counterproductive, as there are many times during a rugby match when individual initiative can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Straeuli attempted to defend the camp as detail after detail became public; he eventually succumbed to pressure and resigned.[3] Higher-ups in the country's rugby establishment initially refused to distance themselves from Kamp Staaldraad; many of them were purged at the same time as Straeuli. The Boks' disappointing results in 2003 (early exit from the RWC; record losses to France, England, Scotland, and New Zealand; a last-minute win over Argentina) were enough by themselves to threaten the jobs of Straeuli and many rugby executives. However, their attempts to defend Kamp Staaldraad apparently were the last straw for many South African rugby supporters, and for many within the rugby establishment who saw the need for a dramatic change in direction.
In a tragic postscript to the story, McDermott was found dead from a bullet wound to the head at his home in Durban on 9 January 2005.[4] His death was eventually determined to be a suicide; no foul play had been suspected. McDermott's mother reported that he had suffered extreme clinical depression in the months leading to his death. After supplying the images that led to the controversy, he was forced to leave his job at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (from which he had been contracted out to the Boks) and returned to teaching at Durban High School. Jake White, who took over as Boks coach after the forced resignation of Straeuli, tried to bring McDermott back into the Boks staff, but SA Rugby vetoed the re-appointment.
[edit]References
robe urged in 'naked Boks' row
South Africa was crushed in the quarter-final by New Zealand
South Africa's sports minister has called for urgent talks with rugby chiefs over reports of the Springboks' "unorthodox" World Cup preparations.
Ngconde Balfour's request came after local media printed pictures of the players, naked, at "Camp Steel Wire".
The photos appeared to back up earlier reports that the players had been told to crawl naked through the bush and stand in a freezing lake at gunpoint.
The Springboks team manager had earlier denied the media reports.
Oath of silence
"Reports emerging from the Sprinbok camp oblige South African Rugby and the South African Rugby Football Union to act immediately and decisively," Mr Balfour said in a statement on Sunday.
Captain Krige would not recommend some parts of the training
The minister added that the public must know "complete details" of what "appears to have been rather extraordinarily unorthodox team preparations".
"I have already requested administrators to meet me this week and will extend the request to members of the team as well if I deem necessary."
The minister also said the Sprinbok players' oaths of silence about what took place at the "Kamp Staaldraad" in September should be "lifted without the fear of reprisals against them".
'Gunfire' training
Last week, South African newspapers reported that the players were told to climb into a foxhole, where recordings of the English national anthem and New Zealand's haka, or war-chant, were played.
Ice-cold water was also poured over their heads.
The players were also abandoned in the bush at night with only an egg, a chicken and a match. They were told to cook a meal, but not allowed to eat it.
When they were finally given a chance to sleep, they were woken every 15 minutes by gunfire.
Captain Corne Krige said he would not recommend some parts of the camp for future rugby training but added that lot of elements were good for team spirit.
The exercises were held at a location north of Pretoria, the newspapers reported.
However, the intensive preparations, organised by a former special services operative for the South African police, failed to bring results on the pitch.
The Springboks were beaten by England in the group stages and eventually lost 29-9 to New Zealand in the quarter-finals.
SOUTH AFRICA players were forced to strip naked and were ordered around at gunpoint in preparation for the World Cup, according to newspaper reports.
“Despite being sworn to secrecy, two players have talked about the three-day ‘Camp Staaldraad’ (Camp Steel Wire) . . . some two hours’ drive north of Pretoria in September,” the Johannesburg Sunday Times said. “On arrival, the players were made to strip naked and leopard-crawl across gravel before getting dressed and repeating the exercise,” it said.
One unnamed player said that squad members were taken into the African bush, where they had to do physical labour, carrying tyres, poles and bags, all branded with England and New Zealand flags. “Later, the players were ordered naked into a freezing lake to pump up rugby balls under water. Players who tried to get out, among them Corne Krige, the captain, were allegedly pointed back at gunpoint,” the newspaper said.
On their last night, players were dropped off in the bush to spend the night on their own, given half a match and an egg and told to cook it.
Springbok great Bakkies Botha has added to the controversy over Martin Johnson’s England regime by claiming that his management style has instilled a fear of failure in his stuttering Six Nations squad.
Botha, the giant lock who played a big part in South Africa’s defeat of England in the 2007 World Cup final, believes Johnson’s squad are suffering from the same attitude problem that beset the Spingboks in the run-up to the 2003 World Cup.
No nonsense approach: England coach Martin Johnson
Then, Botha and his fellow Springboks were sent by coach Rudolph Straueli for a controversial squad-bonding session at Kamp Staaldraad, a police training camp in the South African bush.
The South African stars were forced to take part in rituals such as standing naked in freezing lakes in a misguided attempt to remove any individuality within the squad and create a united front.
But Botha says the plan back-fired and just made the players frightened of upsetting their coaches.
Now he claims the style of management imposed by fellow World Cup winner Johnson has made England’s players similarly unwilling to take responsibility for bringing their own individual flair to the way the team play.
Botha, who has followed the Six Nations campaign closely, said: ‘The players are frightened of making mistakes. It was exactly the same feeling we had back in 2003 after being in Kamp Staaldraad. We were frightened to do anything that we thought might upset the coach.
‘The Kamp enforced the team mentality to such an extent that it removed any thoughts of individual flair. Martin needs to give his players more leverage. That’s what happened when Jake White and a new regime came in. Three years later, we were world champions.’
Botha’s criticism, voiced at the Laureus World Sport awards, follows the fears expressed by England stars Simon Shaw and Riki Flutey in the build-up to what has been, for Johnson’s squad, an increasingly disappointing championship — and one that only a victory last night over the rampant French in Paris could cast in an optimistic light as next year’s World Cup looms.
Harsh words: South Africa's Bakkies Botha (left) says the England players are scared of upsetting their coach
While not criticising Johnson directly, both Shaw and Flutey stressed the need for England’s players to take more responsibility for the way they performed during matches and not hide behind the coaches’ game-plan.
Lock forward Shaw said in January: ‘They (the team) need to know that if an individual takes a chance he has the backing of both the players and the management. Right now everyone’s too worried about getting the win and not about the process. It’s strangling the management and the players.’
Three weeks later, Flutey added: ‘The last thing I want as a player is for a coach to tell me this is what I have to do within a structure. That takes away my vision and my flair.’
Botha insists that he does not intend his comments to imply any personal criticism of Johnson. But the Springbok fears that his fellow lock’s massive reputation as the man who lifted the World Cup for England places huge pressure on his ability to make the leap from player to management.
Team bonding: The infamous Springbok trip to Kamp Staaldraad backfired
‘England are definitely struggling,’ said Botha. ‘Martin was a great player and leader. But when you are a youngster and being told what to do by a man of Martin’s stature, it is hard not to fall into the trap of wanting to please all the time.
‘That’s what happened to us in 2003 after going through the Kamp. The end result was the opposite to what the management were trying to create and the results didn’t come.
‘On paper the England team are full of world-class players, but they are not playing like that in Test matches. They don’t seem prepared to back themselves.’
Botha, who has watched all England’s games on TV in South Africa, also questions why England’s players — including Jonny Wilkinson, who was dropped from the starting line-up against France — appear to be playing better rugby for their clubs than for their country.
‘England are a better team than they are appearing right now,’ said Botha. ‘But the players seem to be playing their best rugby for their clubs and that suggests something’s wrong with England.
‘Of course, it is a step up from club to Test level, but the confidence the players are showing for their clubs is not in evidence when they put on the white jersey.
‘Whatever happens, Martin must stick with his players and beliefs because we are only 18 months away from the next World Cup. What has to change, however, is the players’ attitude.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-1259467/Springbok-Botha-claims-Englands-rugby-stars-haunted-Martin-Johnsons-regime-fear.html#ixzz19DP9xCFv
Before we set out, I got some advice from a mate of mine from Durban who was friendly with one of the instructors running the camp.
He said that one of the drills required you to bury an egg and cook it underground, underneath a fire, and urinate on the egg so that the moisture cooked it. He told me we would only get one match, so I should smuggle in a lighter, which I did, lodged in the inside of my cap.
After about two-and-a-half hours in the bus, we were nearing Warmbaths (now Bela-Bela) when we were told to put on blindfolds. About 20 minutes later the bus stopped, and we were told to take the blindfolds off and get off the bus. It was pitch black and we were in the middle of nowhere. Then the shouting started.
Instructors, dressed in khaki, screamed at us to get into a formation, but none of us had been to the army, so it was a complete mess. Eventually we got into some kind of formation, while these guys laughed their heads off at us. They then told us to get onto a truck that would normally transport cattle or sheep.
Before we climbed on, we were searched for contraband, and I thought to myself, "Holy shit, I've got the Bic lighter on the inside of my cap."
There we were, 30 okes standing naked and being searched, basically spreading our cheeks and opening our arms. The instructors started going through all our clothes, but somehow they missed the lighter strapped inside my cap.
After 10 minutes of marching down the road in the dark, we were stopped alongside a bunch of poles at the side of the road. What followed was horrible. There were two guys to a pole and off we went down the road. Every now and again the instructors would tell us to swap partners - "Poles down, swap!" Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha would just find another pole, because they are the same height and they wanted to stay together, but the instructors spotted their little trick and our punishment was to leopard-crawl through the fire brush.
It was ridiculous, but typical army stuff about everyone paying the price if individuals stepped out of line.
At that stage we were surprised at what was going on, and obviously knew it was no joke, but no one had a clue how long it was going to go on for.
About an hour-and-a-half after that, we entered a little enclosure in the bush. Dawn was breaking and Rudolf (Straeuli) was now on the scene (up until then we had only been with the instructors). He sat on a little ledge, and on the ground before us were boxing headgear and gloves.
"Form a circle," he said. "Ja, we need to get to know each other. There are a lot of rivalries here, and in the World Cup only certain guys can start. Players will be competing for the same positions. We need to understand the dynamics of that, so we must fight."
First up was Thinus Delport against Werner Greeff. Now, Werner, who can be a difficult fellow at the best of times, had just thrown his toys, and his sense of humour was gone. He's a good but tough guy who's had a lot of personal upheaval in his life and doesn't take any shit. We could see he wasn't impressed with this camp at all, and now the first fight was between the fullbacks.
Werner wasn't really interested in fighting at first, but then he took a few shots from Thinus and realised, "OK, I'm not really proving anything, I'm just getting a klap." He got angry and that's when the fight really started.
Jaws dropped. Selborne Boome, our quiet intellectual, thought he was in a time warp. He went to De Wet Barry and asked, "Is this for real?"
That was the typical type of match-up, but there were also some strange ones. There was the uncalled-for bill between Corné Krige, the captain, and Schalk Burger, the 20-year-old.
In another fight, Derick Hougaard got punched in the nose by Breyton Paulse. He came out of the ring yelling, "My neus is af (my nose is broken)! My neus is af." Rudolf threw him back into the circle and said, "Keep on fighting, your three minutes are not up."
None of the 15 fights were uncontested. In each of them, the guys got stuck in - you had to fight. The instructors were egging everyone on like mad. They were loving it. That's why I say I wasn't traumatised by Staaldraad, as I learnt a heck of a lot about myself and about the individuals around me. None of it helped me or South Africa in the 2003 World Cup, but would I do it over again? Yes, I probably would, because I had never done something remotely like it. I realised that you can go without food for three days - as long as you have got water, which we always had access to - and that you can function without sleep.
For me, Staaldraad was an educational experience and I quite enjoyed the challenge. Look, it wasn't pleasant. My fight with Christo Bezuidenhout was like a Clash of the Titans. All the fights between the big boys were.
Apart from the heavyweight clashes, there were the athletic match-ups where a guy like Gcobani Bobo, throwing jabs, knocked Louis Koen out twice.
On the first night, the winners of the tug-of-war had been promised food. Our group won and they brought a box which contained two live chickens.
"There's your supper, there's the fire, do whatever you want," said Rudolf.
The Afrikaans guys said: "Lekker, we can sort this out and share the meat."
But Rudolf said: "No, no, no! Joe (van Niekerk), you must kill the first chicken."
Now, Joe was the type of guy who thought chickens came from Nando's. He had never considered how they got there, so he started to panic and hyperventilate. "No, I can't kill a chicken!" he said.
"Joe, kill the chicken, just wring its fucking neck," Rudolf replied. Joe had never killed anything in his life, and wrenched the poor creature's neck, without too much conviction. I can't explain how horrific it was. We all stood there like bloody barbarians watching poor Joe hyperventilate and reluctantly torture the unfortunate fowl. He just didn't want to do it and didn't know how. Eventually Joost van der Westhuizen had to intervene by grabbing the chicken and putting it out of its misery.
The instructors then took us to a dam, and it was off with our kit again and into the water. We had to wade in up to our chins. It was the coldest water I had ever experienced, and I had never felt so frozen in my life.
We were given a drill where we were each handed a rugby ball that had to be pumped full of water, and when all the balls were full, we could come out. You had to find the ball in the water that had your number on it - there were no names on this camp, each guy had a number, as this was about taking your identity away and then building you up again as a team.
We were never ever going to pump our balls up with water. We had bike pumps with little nozzles, and you had to suck the water into the pump and then push it into the ball. The nozzles broke after two minutes.
We had been in for an hour- and-a-half when I saw that Stefan Terblanche was turning blue. His jaw was clattering and he looked as if he was about to freeze solid.
It was a bit easier for us big boys, because we have got some insulation, but I hated every second of it. I have still got real hassles with cold water, and I hate ice baths to this day because of that futile exercise.
While we were freezing our bollocks off, Rudolf and the instructors were having a braai in front of the dam, making boerewors rolls with tomato sauce and mustard, and drinking beers. The guys were gatvol, and began to talk about a rebellion. Corné came to me and asked me what I thought.
I replied: "Whatever we do, we've got to do it together because if we're disjointed ... Maybe they actually want us to make a stand together."
We started walking out of the water, but one guy stayed in. Faan Rautenbach is one of the most decent okes you will ever meet, and it's not in him to challenge authority. Faan just stayed there, chin deep, not budging while the instructors went mad. "Julle is nie 'n fokken span nie, klim terug in die water (You are not a fucking team, get back into the water)!" Then they shot two rounds past us into the water. We shat ourselves. And so we got back in ... After an eternity, the command came: "Out of the water, line up."
We always had to march in a formation of three and had to sing as we marched. The big singers were Louis Koen, De Wet, Corne and myself.
The guys were really tired - we hadn't slept for 40 hours - so we didn't give a flying continental about being self-conscious about whose member was hanging out or shrivelled up. We also didn't know we were being filmed because Dale McDermott, our technical analyst, was a part of the team and always had a video camera with him, as he did at the camp.
Eventually we were told to put our kit on. It was nearly dusk, and the next challenge was to stay awake through the second night.
The instructors told us they were going to drop each of us off on our own in the bush. We would have one match to make a fire, and then we would have to do the egg thing (as described earlier) and cook a drumstick. But we weren't allowed to eat the food when it had been cooked.
It was late winter on the Highveld and really cold. They told us that if our fires went out, we couldn't get help from anyone else, and if they found tracks from us walking away from our camps, the team would pay.
Rudolf was going from camp to camp asking each of us what we thought about the World Cup - this was his one-on-one time with us.
In the morning we got picked up one by one. We all smelt like braai smoke and hadn't really slept, but we were happy to see each other after being on our own for 12 hours. The instructors lined us up in a formation and we had to put our egg, wood and drumstick in front of us for inspection. "Is your drumstick cooked?" they asked. "Very nice, eat it. Egg? Cooked?"
They tested the egg by banging it on your forehead, and if yours wasn't cooked, you literally got egg on your face. If you had got it right, you could peel it and chow it. My egg was half done, so I got half the egg down my face and I chowed the rest.
That night the staggering troops were told that the next exercise would be staying awake.
The instructors lined us up and we had to lie lepel (spoon) to keep each other warm and retain body heat. So there we were, 30 okes in lepel formation watching the stars, with the instructors (who were taking hourly shifts) telling us about the stars and other boring stories in order to try and make us fall asleep. Our job was to keep each other awake.
We all made it through the night, though, and the next morning they told us we had a fun day ahead.
They said we were going to go abseiling and jump out of helicopters into the water, but we had to get to the top of the mountain first. The grand finale saw us all flown out in a big army chopper and dropped into the water. However, each group had one or two guys who couldn't swim, so we had to make sure there were enough swimmers in the water to catch them and guide them through the water.
We were then given materials to make rafts in groups of seven or eight, and told we had to use them to go across the dam and back. We had 20 minutes to build the raft, which had to be done in the nude in the water. Afterwards, an instructor's whistle went and we were back in formation. We marched and did push-ups. We were thinking to ourselves, "Holy shit, is this it? Is the camp over?" But then they marched us all the way to the middle of the bush, gave us GPS navigators and said: "Here are the co-ordinates, you guys get yourselves back to base."
We had been left in the middle of nowhere and it was getting dark and cold. We wanted to make a fire but our allocation of matches had been used up the previous night. I had my Bic and I wanted to pull it out, but I knew the instructors would then wonder how we started the fire.
Then the instructors said: "OK, you've got 30 seconds to fall asleep in that tent. It was probably a 15-man tent, so we had to pack in like sardines. I promise you, I was lying on my back, the one half of my body was on someone else's half and his half was on mine. We were told to sleep, which wasn't a problem. We slept for about an hour-and-a-half before the instructors woke us up with gunshots and told us to get into formation.
"Congratulations," they said. "It's all over and there's a braai on the go for you." We all tucked into lamb chops and guzzled beers - it was the best braai I have ever had. There was an immense sense of relief. We were alive! These okes had nearly killed us, they had broken us, and here we were having beers with them.
The vibe was really good on the bus. The guys had a feeling of togetherness and felt a sense of achievement. Rugby was the last thing on our minds because we were just so amazed at ourselves and were talking and telling "army" stories.
We talk and laugh about Sta
OPINION: CRICKET FOLLOWERS may have already absorbed the news involving England's preparations for the Ashes, the biggest series on the international calendar. Yet to bowl a ball, the holders already have two frontline pacemen injured, James Anderson and Chris Tremlett. Anderson is viewed as a key part of any defence of the urn; Tremlett is clawing his way back after last playing a test in 2007. Each faces the most important few months of his career.
How were they hurt? It would be nice to report they were casualties of a gruelling season in England; a fielding accident, a torn hamstring while running between the wickets, even an ungainly fall while trotting down the pavilion steps. But, no. The pair suffered rib injuries while boxing during a recent "boot camp" in Germany. Anderson is racing to be fit for the first test; Tremlett's prospects are better though his preparation has still been hampered.
The time has come, surely, to question the value of such exercises. England's players convened for five days in Bavaria, where they were compelled to hike, abseil down cliffs, spar against each other, and visit the Dachau concentration camp. Quite what they might be expecting in Australia is unclear, but if there's ever a need to escape out hotel windows, or fight through angry mobs and run to the ground, they'll certainly be having the last laugh.
How the boot camp might benefit England's cricket, however, is another story. Coach Andy Flower seems to think it might help his players deal with the hostility of Aussie conditions, particularly the crowds. Skipper Andrew Strauss likes the idea of building character and developing togetherness. The phrase "team-bonding" has been mentioned a few hundred times if it has been mentioned once. It's as if everyone's supposed to forget that it's just a contrived Boy Scout outing.
It's hard not to imagine that, by the time the opening Ashes test rolls around on November 25, the Germany experience will be irrelevant to England. When reputations are on the line, tests are to be won or lost and there's not a safety harness in sight, the memory of hiking through the forest is unlikely to be of much comfort. When Mitchell Johnson starts reversing it at 150km/h, the abseiling lessons may no longer seem that important.
As Dan Jones of the London Evening Standard asked recently, "when did the cult of corporate claptrap get so drilled down into sport? It used to be that sport itself was a form of team-building; an ipso facto motivating tool, as recognised by public schools, the armed forces and pink-shirted Masters of the Universe in the City. Now it seems we have to team-build the [sports] teams, with no motivational speaker too silly; no outward-bound group-hug hogwash too embarrassing."
What also feels a bit cringe-worthy is the recent trend towards taking sports teams to major battlefields, as if to emphasise some sort of similarity between war and competitive pursuits. Sport can be nationalistic enough these days, as we saw earlier this month when a bunch of maniacal Serbian supporters forced the abandonment of their team's Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy. At a time when it's important to keep things in perspective, the war parallels can be quite unhelpful.
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To be fair to the England cricketers, though, they are far from the worst example. South African rugby supporters are still embarrassed by the antics of their pre-world cup squad in 2003 and the infamous "Kamp Staldraad" exposure, where the players were forced, amongst other indignities, to climb into foxholes naked and sing the national anthem while ice-cold water was poured over their heads. Cue renditions of God Save the Queen and the All Blacks haka.
Ahead of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, England coach Brian Ashton enlisted the help of the Royal Marines to put his players through a variety of irrelevant exercises, including entering the darkened, smoke-filled hull of a ship to rescue pretend passengers. Ashton was so taken with the drills he even took the Marines' player assessments into account when he finalised his tournament squad. In the end? They fell at the very hurdle they'd aimed to clear. The final one.
Australia have also dabbled in the practice, notably ahead of the 2006 Ashes campaign when John Buchanan organised an outback camp that included such cricket-worthy pastimes as pushing cars uphill. Stuart MacGill was injured during the camp; Shane Warne was quoted later as saying, "after a bit I just turned to the coach and said: `I'm as weak as piss, I hate your guts and I want to go home. You're a dickhead'." And for once, he had a point.
Neither have New Zealand been immune to the lure of such quackery. John Hart hauled his All Blacks off to Hobsonville once where they were unfortunate enough to not only endure another meaningless military style training camp, but also to make the acquaintance of "Colonel" Andrew Martin, who would soon become their manager. On a slightly different note, Gilbert Enoka once took the New Zealand cricketers sailing before a series-clinching defeat against Sri Lanka.
Call me old fashioned, but the idea of the England cricketers going out and playing toy soldiers immediately ahead of such a high-profile event makes about as much sense as an inflatable dartboard. It's yet another example of how sports psychology can cause more harm than good if not closely monitored, along with those nonsense peer assessment, and leadership programmes. It's true, though, that England are confident that no serious damage has been inflicted. But e
This is exclusive footage of the Springbok rugby team's 'Kamp Staaldraad' described variously as a 'boot camp' and a motivational camp. The Boks spent three days and four nights here, a month before the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Corné Krige: 'I knew it was going to be tough but I didn't know just how tough it was really going to be.'
Ricardo: 'There were many times when you felt like giving up.'
The nation woke up to big headlines last Sunday morning... 'Boks Trained at Gunpoint' ... 'Naked Players Forced into Freezing Lake'. The reports set off a countrywide debate that's been raging throughout the week. But what really happened at the camp?
Immediately after the Springbok World Cup squad was announced, the 30-man team was whisked off to a remote farm near Thabazimbi, north of Pretoria. Only some of the senior players like veteran scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen had an inkling of what lay ahead.
Joost van der Westhuizen (Springbok scrumhalf): 'I knew it was going to happen; we just didn't know when. And the only players that knew was myself and Corné.'
But they couldn't have anticipated what was waiting for them when they arrived. For three days the Springboks endured physically and mentally grueling exercises, with minimal sleep, hardly any food, basic water rations and exposure to the elements.
Team manager Gideon Sam believes that because the game is about toughness and discipline, this type of camp plays a role in the team's overall training.
Gideon Sam (Springbok Manager): 'I would say that's mild if you compare it to what blacks for instance go through in terms of what their cultures do in initiation. It is a tough, tough process...'
Ruda: 'So you have no problem with this?'
Gideon: 'I have no problem. I would actually - if there are any teams that would like to build spirit amongst their members - I would recommend it.'
With a relatively young and inexperienced squad, it was important to find a way to make the team 'gel' - according to coach Rudolf Straeuli.
Rudolf Straeuli (Springbok coach): 'Most of it was team building, the rest was also based fitness-wise, where we had a consultation with our fitness coach and we were in a conditioning stage at that time when we did that camp and also to toughen them up mentally as well as physically.'
Gideon: 'There are two things in my mind that I brought across to management. I said, 'Guys, one of the things that we [have] really need to be very strong on is the whole question of discipline'. Secondly was the whole question of physically being fit and it has been proven. We were the fittest team at the World Cup.'
Joost: 'It took away the cultural differences. It took away the provincial differences. It took away the age differences. We were all on the same level and that is the only way we could have gone into that World Cup.'
Management did not turn to the traditional sources when they decided to include this training module. Instead, they used Adriaan Heijns, an ex-member of the police Task Force who has been working with South African rugby as a security consultant since 1995.
Adriaan spent ten years in the Task Force, during which time he was involved in selection and training of potential Task Force members. He brought the video footage to Carte Blanche to clear up misconceptions he says were created by inaccurate press reports. Photographs had also been leaked to the papers by other sources. Adriaan explained the rationale behind some of the methods used.
Ruda: 'Why did they have to take their clothes off?'
Adriaan Heijns (Security Consultant):'When you're naked, all your pretences sort of fall away a little bit. So when everybody is naked it sort of leveled the playing field. The basis of the camp and the aim of the camp was first of all to instill discipline in the team. The second reason was to remove all prejudice and different cultural background and racism, if there were any, and thirdly to try and stimulate the national pride and passion to be a Springbok.'
South African rugby has been heading deeper into crisis over the last few years, with record defeats, allegations of racism and a string of coaches being hired and fired. With the World Cup looming, was management desperately grasping at straws?
Rudolph: 'You've got to look at it in perspective. We started with planning for the World Cup already last year. We did also involve the Sport Science Institute. We involved a lot of professionals and consultants and the need was there for the players to do team bonding and team building. And that was only four days in the whole year of World Cup
preparation.'
Joost: 'In three days you learn a lot more about your mind than I have learned in the first four or five years of my career.'
Ruda: 'You keep referring to the impact this can have on your mental strength. But, if one looks at it, it looks so very physical.'
Joost: 'There's a difference between carrying tar poles this size between ten of you - which happened in the first game -than sitting in a dam where it's cold and you are not physically busy. What are you going to do when you start to shiver? Are you going to relax, keep your body cold, or are you going to talk to each other by saying, 'Don't worry, maybe just five minutes, let's go, let's stick. Let's stick together.' Whereas when you carry a tar pole like this and you have two kilometres to carry this thing and it's done. With this sense you don't know how long you are going to stay there. So it's all about the mind.'
Adriaan: 'Throughout this whole camp, every single one of them struggled at some or other point and the team pulled them through.'
In this exercise the Springboks stood naked in an ice-cold lake and had to pump rugby balls full of water. This was to unbalance the ball and test their co-ordination and communication skills.
Joost: 'And we struggled with the pumps because the one pin broke and then another broke and then they said, 'The moment the rugby balls are pumped up we can leave. We can get out of it.' '
Captain Corné Krige decided to take the lead.
Corné Krige (Springbok Captain): 'A few of the guys sort of winked to me to go over to their side and they said, 'We have got to get out of this water or we are going to freeze to death.' So I had a look around and saw that a lot of the guys were quite sore and I made a decision and said, 'That's it. We are going out.' And one thing with these camps that I have experienced before - I have been close to this, but not as tough at Saldanha - if you make a decision, you make a decision as a team, and you back - even if it's the wrong one - you go for it. And I said to the guys, 'Let's go', and we started walking out. And they were very upset and sent us back in.'
Joost: 'The instructors said, 'No, get back into the water'. And the guys said, 'But it's cold.' And they said, 'No, get back into the water, there is a reason for doing this.' And they went back into the water.'
]
Ruda: 'No threats with guns?'
Joost: 'Not at all. There was pointing of fingers but not guns, definitely not guns.'
Ruda: 'Was a gun ever pointed at anyone?'
Joost: 'No. There were two times that guns were fired. The one was as a starting signal for the guys to go into the water. The second one was on our last day we were allowed to have a nap and we were woken up by gunshots.'
Ruda: 'Were you woken up every fifteen minutes, as was reported?'
Joost: 'How can you be woken every 15 minutes if we didn't have sleep for three days?'
Ricardo: 'In all honesty, I never had a gun held to my head, nor was I told, 'You must do it'. I wanted to do it. And I believe the rest of the team wanted to do it because the goal of the camp was to become a unit.'
Fullback Ricardo Laubscher admits that the lake was freezing but that it wasn't very different from normal training when they have to sit in ice water for rehabilitation. For him, the benefits of this sort of drill far outweighed any discomfort.
Ricardo Loubscher (Springbok Fullback): 'One of the positive things was that we learnt to stand together. We learnt to help each other, because in times like those it was difficult, so one doesn't have a choice. We had to support each other. If I could have done something like this ten years ago, I would have because I always wanted to go through this sort of process.'
Another allegation leveled at the camp was the stripping of their dignity by making them leopard crawl naked, and humiliating them into submission.
Corné: 'Some of the guys were chafing from all the walking and being wet and then being dry and sand between your legs, and some of the guys were chafing very badly. So one or two of the big guys said, 'Can we please take our pants off?' And they said, 'Yes you are welcome, but if one takes it off ... one for all ... everybody takes it off.' So we all took our clothes off, and what happens when somebody does something wrong is that you get punished for it. It's like if you make a mistake on the field; if one person makes a mistake then it affects the whole team. So we made a mistake and we had to crawl and nobody had their pants on, so everybody decided very quickly to put their pants back on. So that is why we were crawling around naked, it wasn't said, 'Take off your kit and then crawl.' '
Ricardo: 'It was done, but it wasn't done to humiliate us or anything.'
Joost: 'I saw it as a laugh. It was fun, but sore.'
Critics have called it old method thinking, a throwback to the old South Africa, enforced discipline at the cost of individual creativity.
'Instead, there is over-emphasis on controlled aggression', says sports psychologist Andre Roux.
Andre Roux (Sports Psychologist): 'Nowadays in peak performance in elite athletes and winning teams you need the flair and creativity of each player. You need energy to flow. Now that stalls the energy, if you are under fear all the time.'
Joost: 'For a city guy to go and cook an egg in the bush, that's fun. 'What am I going to do?' It's creative. 'How am I going to build my fire?' We had a little piece of match like this... and now we have to make a fire. You are in the bush alone and you have never made a fire before now. 'Okay how am I going to build this fire? This is what I am going to do. How am I going to cook my egg? What piece of wood am I going to use to cook my chicken?' Isn't that creative?'
After a night out in the cold with just a chicken drumstick and an egg that they had to cook but were not allowed to eat, the squad was re-united - tired and hungry. Whose egg had mysteriously gone missing? Who ate their chicken
before the time? The players were put to the test.
Ruda: 'This looks so childish and unnecessary. Why?'
Adriaan: 'In making small things important and attention to detail, that is also directly linked to sport and to rugby. Because they were instructed right from the beginning how to cook these things and if they listened, the guys that listened had food the next day. The guys that didn't listen had egg on their face.'
And punishment was served. The five offenders were put through the notorious, back breaking chocolate box and beertjie exercises, while the rest of the team were made to watch.
Corné: 'They gave us a big metal ball that is tied to a short piece of railway track. And there is also a little chocolate box - which is an ammunition box that is filled with cement but it's quite heavy. But the fantastic thing about that was the other 25 guys stood and watched. And when we finished they approached one of the guys who had driven us around and said, 'Listen, we want to do it. We want to do the same'. And I never expected them to do it because it was very tough. But they said that if we had to go through it then they will go through it. But then we had to stand there and sing the national anthem. The guys were so tired. You are really more tired than you have ever been on the field. When you do get tired on the field you think,' Well, I have been here and I have been past this much worse.' '
These situations are intended to translate to real scenarios on the rugby field.
Corné: 'That is exactly what we learnt at the camp, that we spoke about and that every guy must give his everything for the team. That if he's ill-treated and he is given the yellow card, and he is in the sin bin for ten minutes and he is watching from the sidelines like he watched at the camp. He is watching how we struggle with 14 men against 15.'
But these tough-guy tactics are unnecessary in any type of sports training, according to Andre.
Andre: 'I'd say they were trying to experiment to see if such a thing can work, but it's to the extreme because it's based on fear and its based on breaking the person down. You break the person down by putting him under a lot of stress. You break him down by taking away his integrity; meaning walking around naked or doing the things they did. So what you are basically doing is you are brainwashing firstly by taking away everything that he believes is his own and then build him up your way. That is the typical military way and you do it by instilling a lot of fear. And if you can then learn to face your fears and you can live through it, of course you are going to be more mentally tough. And you are going to be more disciplined. But did it make them win? No. Is it applicable to an elite team? No. Is it applicable to any team that maybe want to go and kill other people? Yes.'
Adriaan: 'We gave them numbers and those numbers were their communication method.
So we took their identity away in a big way. A lot of critics will say that goes for military conformity. That was the idea because first you have to be gelled as a team and then you get your personal identity back then you can have all your creativity and stuff like that.'
Rudolf: 'This exercise has been done before. It was not a trial and error kind of situation and, like I said, there were no injuries and they basically came out of that camp physically fitter and tougher. And mentally much harder.'
According to Piet Heymans, CEO of the South African Rugby Players Association, other top rugby playing nations told him that in the professional arena places like 'Kamp Staaldraad' would never be entertained.
Rudolph: 'English did the same kind of training with the SAS. In the past the national team did other exercises.'
Sports psychologists argue that players need to master the mind in order to master the body. Techniques are used to replace failure thought patterns with success thought patterns.
Andre: 'Anybody that suffered together is going to feel close together. Does that really mean that it's team cohesion? You might have team members saying, 'Yes, we feel good together as a team. Yes we have achieved what we wanted. We feel team spirit.' Of course, it's because they have suffered together. You might as well take two people who suffered in a township together - they also have team spirit. But that is not the team spirit that you need for peak performance.'
No doubt the Springboks did suffer together on several occasions during the camp. One night all 30 of them were crammed into a pit covered with a tarpaulin. A recording of 'The Haka' was played intermittently during the night and they were doused with cold water to keep them awake. By many people's standards this was considered barbaric.
Corné: 'It's probably mentally the toughest part of the camp, that we were put in this hole and originally we were just put in there and it was dark and you couldn't see each other. And I tell you what - it sorted out huge problems in that hole because every guy spoke from the heart, because at that point we were really tired. Ashwin spoke from a black player's point of view about things that bothered him and he was honest and the guys agreed and said, 'This is the way we have to go and from today we are brothers and nobody can ever separate us.' It was a good exercise.'
Ricardo: 'For me, that was one of the times that I felt I had reached breaking point, where I could just pack my stuff and go. But then you look around and you see how many guys are struggling and that just made you more determined to push through.'
Corné: 'And now and then the Haka would play and the Haka sort of upset the guys quite a bit and they started singing our national anthem. And every time the Haka played we would sing so loud that we would block out the Haka. It was quite an emotionally charged time in the hole.'
Joost: 'That's why we sang the anthem in the last game against New Zealand. When they sang the Haka, when we heard the Haka we started to sing the national anthem. And that is the connection we made, and that was the pact we made.'
Corné: 'People are going to look at the camp and try to find an excuse for why we didn't do well at the World Cup. Look at our players, look at what we did on the field and don't look at a camp that happened a month before and that had more positive spin-offs for us as a team and bonded us more as a team than we could ever have imagined. And that is why this team stuck together and we will be world champions.'
valvala16 às 03:05
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domingo, 26 de dezembro de 2010
Rugby
Kamp Staaldraad (Afrikaans palavras, traduzidas idiomatically como Arame farpado do acampamento) era um militar-estilo “acampamento do carregador“organizado como”edifício da equipe“exercício para Africano sul nacional união do rugby equipe, Springboks (ou Boks), durante sua preparação para Copo 2003 do mundo do Rugby (RWC). Quando os detalhes do acampamento emergiram nos meios do africano sul, inflamou um firestorm do protesto que consumisse rapidamente muito dos níveis administrativos superiores do rugby do africano sul.
Logo após nomear da equipe do copo do mundo dos Springboks em setembro 2003, ônibus de Boks Rudolph Straeuli arranjado para que a equipe vá ao as polícias acampam no arbusto do africano sul, perto da cidade de Thabazimbi. Delegou muita da responsabilidade para funcionar o acampamento da equipe a sua equipe de funcionários. Depois que a controvérsia sobre o acampamento quebrou, diversos staffers indicaram que se pretendeu banish todos os traços do individuality dos jogadores.
Logo depois que o Boks foi eliminado nos quarterfinals do copo do mundo do Rugby, um jornal do africano sul relatou que antes do RWC, o Boks tinha sido emitido a um acampamento do carregador onde os jogadores fossem requisitados alegada em um lago se congelando despido bombear debaixo d'água acima das esferas do rugby. A história alegou também que os jogadores que tentaram sair do lago, including o capitão de Boks Corné Krige, foram forçados para trás dentro no gunpoint. Dentro dos dias, diversos jornais do africano sul funcionaram os retratos escapados do acampamento, mostrando os jogadores que estão despidos no lago e que prendem esferas do rugby na frente de suas peças confidenciais, e os jogadores tiritando de Boks huddled despido em um poço. whistleblower emerso como o Dale video McDermott do analista de Boks.[1]
Nos dias que seguiu, os meios relataram outros detalhes do acampamento:[2]
A equipe foi requisitada escalar em a foxhole despido e cante anthem nacional quando ice-cold a água foi derramada sobre suas cabeças. Durante seu tempo no furo, gravações de O deus conserva a rainha (usado como Inglaterra'anthem nacional de s) e Nova Zelândia Todos os pretos haka foram jogados no volume cheio.
Confirmou-se que os firearms estavam atuais no acampamento, embora os relatórios variassem a respeito de se eram sempre pointed em qualquer um.
Os jogadores foram forçados a rastejar despido através do cascalho.
Foram requisitados também gastar uma noite no arbusto, durante que deviam matar e cozinhar galinhas, mas não as comer.
Os africanos sul condemned quase universal Kamp Staaldraad. As forças armadas do país concordaram; um spokesman para Força da defesa nacional de africano sul disse pointedly Tempos do Cape o jornal que a força nunca treinou seus recrutas despidos, e souberam de nenhuma organização militar no mundo que assim. Muitos observadores do rugby indicaram também que tentar eliminar todo o individuality de uma equipe poderia ser counterproductive, porque há muitas vezes durante um fósforo do rugby quando a iniciativa individual pode fazer a diferença entre a vitória e a derrota.
Straeuli tentou defender o acampamento enquanto o detalhe após o detalhe se tornou público; eventualmente succumbed à pressão e renunciou.[3] Elevado-levanta no estabelecimento do rugby do país recusado inicialmente distance de Kamp Staaldraad; muitos deles foram removidos ao mesmo tempo que Straeuli. Os resultados decepcionantes do Boks em 2003 (saída adiantada do RWC; perdas record a France, Inglaterra, Scotland, e Nova Zelândia; uma vitória last-minute sobre Argentina) eram bastantes por se para ameaçar os trabalhos de Straeuli e de muitos executivos do rugby. Entretanto, suas tentativas de defender Kamp Staaldraad eram aparentemente a última palha para muitos supporters do rugby do africano sul, e para muitos dentro do estabelecimento do rugby que viu a necessidade para uma mudança dramática no sentido.
Em um postscript trágico à história, McDermott foi encontrado inoperante de uma bala ferida à cabeça em seu repouso dentro Durban em 9 janeiro 2005.[4] Sua morte foi determinada eventualmente ser a suicide; nenhum jogo sujo tinha sido suspeitado. A mãe de McDermott relatou que tinha sofrido o extremo depression clínico nos meses que conduzem a sua morte. Após ter fornecido as imagens isso conduziu à controvérsia, foi forçado a deixar seu trabalho no conselho do africano sul para a pesquisa científica e industrial (de qual tinha sido contraído para fora ao Boks) e a retornar a ensinar em a High School de Durban. Branco de Jake, que fêz exame sobre como o ônibus de Boks após a renúncia forçada de Straeuli, tentou trazer para trás McDermott na equipe de funcionários de Boks, mas Rugby do SA vetoed a re-nomeação.
Kamp Staaldraad (Afrikaans words, translated idiomatically as Camp Barbed Wire) was a military-style "boot camp" organized as a "team building" exercise for the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks (or Boks), during their preparation for the 2003 Rugby World Cup (RWC). When the details of the camp emerged in the South African media, it ignited a firestorm of protest that quickly consumed much of the upper administrative levels of South African rugby.
Soon after the naming of the Springboks World Cup team in September 2003, Boks coach Rudolph Straeuli arranged for the team to go to a police camp in the South African bush, near the town of Thabazimbi. He delegated much of the responsibility for running the team camp to his staff. After the controversy over the camp broke, several staffers indicated that it was intended to banish all traces of individuality from the players.
Soon after the Boks were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup, a South African newspaper reported that before the RWC, the Boks had been sent to a boot camp where players had allegedly been ordered into a freezing lake naked to pump up rugby balls underwater. The story also alleged that players who tried to get out of the lake, including Boks captain Corné Krige, were forced back in at gunpoint. Within days, several South African newspapers ran pictures leaked from the camp, showing players standing naked in the lake and holding rugby balls in front of their private parts, and shivering Boks players huddled naked in a pit. The whistleblower emerged as Boks video analyst Dale McDermott.[1]
In the days that followed, the media reported other details from the camp:[2]
The team was ordered to climb into a foxhole naked and sing the national anthem while ice-cold water was poured over their heads. During their time in the hole, recordings of God Save the Queen (used as England's national anthem) and the New Zealand All Blacks haka were played at full volume.
It was confirmed that firearms were present at the camp, although reports varied as to whether they were ever pointed at anyone.
The players were forced to crawl naked across gravel.
They also were ordered to spend a night in the bush, during which they were to kill and cook chickens, but not eat them.
South Africans almost universally condemned Kamp Staaldraad. The country's military agreed; a spokesman for the South African National Defence Force pointedly told the Cape Times newspaper that the force never trained its recruits naked, and he knew of no military organization in the world that did so. Many rugby observers also pointed out that trying to eliminate all individuality from a team could be counterproductive, as there are many times during a rugby match when individual initiative can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Straeuli attempted to defend the camp as detail after detail became public; he eventually succumbed to pressure and resigned.[3] Higher-ups in the country's rugby establishment initially refused to distance themselves from Kamp Staaldraad; many of them were purged at the same time as Straeuli. The Boks' disappointing results in 2003 (early exit from the RWC; record losses to France, England, Scotland, and New Zealand; a last-minute win over Argentina) were enough by themselves to threaten the jobs of Straeuli and many rugby executives. However, their attempts to defend Kamp Staaldraad apparently were the last straw for many South African rugby supporters, and for many within the rugby establishment who saw the need for a dramatic change in direction.
In a tragic postscript to the story, McDermott was found dead from a bullet wound to the head at his home in Durban on 9 January 2005.[4] His death was eventually determined to be a suicide; no foul play had been suspected. McDermott's mother reported that he had suffered extreme clinical depression in the months leading to his death. After supplying the images that led to the controversy, he was forced to leave his job at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (from which he had been contracted out to the Boks) and returned to teaching at Durban High School. Jake White, who took over as Boks coach after the forced resignation of Straeuli, tried to bring McDermott back into the Boks staff, but SA Rugby vetoed the re-appointment.
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domingo, 26 de dezembro de 2010
Rugby
NN) -- Crawling naked across gravel, being threatened at gunpoint, starved, frozen and humiliated – welcome to rugby training South African style.
Members of the national Springbok rugby team, which bowed out of the Rugby World Cup in the quarterfinals, have broken ranks and revealed the extreme measures team management took to mentally prepare the players.
Details of the bizarre training tactics were contained in a front-page article in the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times newspaper.
Two players, whose identities were not revealed, have talked about the three-day "Kamp Staaldraad" (Camp Steel Wire) that took place shortly after the World Cup squad was named in September.
According to the newspaper, on arriving at the camp the players were met by former SA Police Services Task Force members and made to strip naked and leopard-crawl across gravel before getting dressed and repeating the exercise.
They were then made to work through the night carrying tyres, poles and bags branded with England and New Zealand flags. Only those who excelled were allowed food the next morning.
Later, the players were ordered naked into a freezing lake to pump up rugby balls underwater. Players who tried to get out, among them captain Corné Krige, were allegedly pointed back in at gunpoint, the paper said.
On the second night of the camp, players were dropped off individually in the bush to spend the night on their own.
They were each given a chicken, an egg and half a match with which to prepare a meal, which they were told not to eat. The next morning the eggs were broken on players' heads to test if they were cooked.
Raised eyebrows
The Springboks were also crammed naked into a hole and subjected to the English anthem and New Zealand haka repeatedly as well as being doused with icy water.
Earlier revelations about the strict and Spartan conditions the South Africans endured once they made it to Australia for the tournament had already raised eyebrows in rugby circles.
But these details will further cast doubt on the South African rugby management's decisions, particularly in the light of the team's early departure at the hands of the New Zealand All Blacks.
Without divulging details of the camp, Krige told the newspaper earlier that there were certain parts of the camp that he would recommend not be included for future rugby training.
"It was trial and error. You go through certain things and decide 'these are good and maybe these aren't so good'. Most of the stuff was really good for team spirit," Krige said.
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quinta-feira, 22 de julho de 2010
Part II - Documentation and Other Embarrassments
Part II - Documentation and Other Embarrassments
After lunch, my name was called out by the Documentation clerk, an expressionless fellow who went through the routine of asking me a lot of questions, like naming my next of kin, my religious denomination, sports I played, musical instruments I was skilled at, my hobbies, how much education I had, and a lot of other questions long since forgotten. Though I'd never gone to church except to funerals, I knew I'd been baptized Roman Catholic, so that's what I told the man I was. Okay, the next question was, "What sports did I play?" I named all the sandlot sports, but I told the clerk that football was the one I was best at. As for music - nothing, except maybe my being able to wield drum-sticks and come up with a recognizable marching beat. As for hobbies, I had none to speak of, except if you could call playing with chemicals in a makeshift chemical laboratory as a hobby (it was more of an interest rather than a hobby). As for the Corps of the Army I'd like to join, I told him Chemical Warfare. My second choice was the infantry. I knew my chances were pretty slim, if non-existent, to get into Chemical Warfare because I simply didn't have the required educational credentials, like a B.S.C., M.S. or a PH.D. I mentioned Chemical Warfare anyway just because my mother was hoping I'd go in that direction, not as an ordinary soldier where there was too much of a chance of me getting killed. I'd said to her a couple of days later that the only way for me to get into the Chemical Warfare Labs up in Ottawa was that I'd have to join the Permanent Force. I could see though, she wasn't all that convinced over my explanation. Ma didn't want me to go 'Active' because she knew I'd end up as cannon-fodder. You can't fool mothers.
I might mention here, that some ten or so years after the war, when involved in a pension claim, I somehow came into possession of a transcript of my attestation papers, and couldn't get over that part of the papers where it
said, 'description of soldier'. A clerk, a product of the times, had typed, "a Polish lad of average foreign appearance." I couldn't believe my eyes. Average foreign appearance? How in bloody hell do you average out a foreigner's looks? And I wasn't a foreigner anyway - I was born in Canada. Did I have the sharper features and darker complexion of the Italians, or did I have the higher cheekbones of a Hungarian? Were my eyes slightly slanted like the Chinese? Was there a strong resemblance to the Slavic people? Or was I blend of all these? What was a Polish boy like me supposed to look like? I most certainly wasn't handsome, but yet I knew there were a lot of Polish boys who were blessed with Hollywood good looks. Average foreign appearance be damned! What a stupid way to describe a person! But I guess that's the way things were in those days for anyone of European blood; we were all lumped together under the derogatory title of 'wops' even when most of us had been born over here.
Once we were through with documentation we were directed across the street to the mess hall where we took an I.Q. test. The army called it an 'M' test. It was supposed to determine the inductee's intelligence quotient, presumably so that the army could determine how and where they could best employ the man, and whether the man had leadership capabilities or not. I harboured an unreasonable nagging doubt that I might fail the test, and so might be rejected from service. Why I should have been so unsure of myself I really don't know. After all, I had been smart enough to go through grade school in the top third of my class, and I must have had enough to get as
far as the 4th year in Secondary school. I really had no reason at all to fear that I might fail. As might be predicted, my fears or doubts turned out to be groundless. Although we weren't given our scores, I did learn through the copies of the attestation papers that came into my hands after the war, as mentioned above, that my 'M' test indicated I had Senior N.C.O. potential. It's too bad I wasn't told this in Advanced Infantry Training or I might have asserted myself a lot more than I did. As it was, I drifted along with the common throng, firm in the belief that I was just an ordinary guy, content to go along with the crowd, do what was asked or demanded of me, but not beyond. As for taking on stripes, I couldn't see myself giving orders as a Sergeant or Corporal. It just wasn't in me. I was two people, a sort of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, too timid most of the time, but when someone got my goat a little too much, I'd unload whether that man in front of me was a Private or another NCO - it didn't matter - I'd whack him one. You just can't do that in the army, and that's why I remained a Private
all through the war even though I had a couple of chances to move up.
The Medical Nightmare
The next step in my transition to soldier was a medical examination by army medical officers, obviously a double-check on the civilian doctors to make sure the new recruits were free of any hidden medical problem the civvy doctors had somehow missed. I found myself in a long line-up of fellows in various stages of undress, a good many of them, like myself, showing signs of being ill-at-ease. There was no valid reason why I should have felt this way since I had showered so many times in the company of a lot of other naked bodies (male, of course) after football practises and games. I was just too damn modest for my own good.
Taking showers with a lot of other guys was one thing, but an examination, from head to foot, of every orifice on my body was another matter altogether. Worst of all, there was no privacy whatsoever. You stood there stark naked in full view of other naked bodies while the M.O. took a close look at your genitals, probing about the pubic hair in search of crabs and other species of parasites. And then, horror of horrors, you had to bend over and pull your buttock cheeks apart while he scrutinized your rectum for piles. I was never so embarrassed in all my life, especially with the other guys standing there looking on while waiting their turn. Bent over and with my cheeks apart I fought back the strong urge to ask the doctor, partly in jest and partly as an insult, if he could see the midnight train coming. It was somewhat of a traumatic experience, something I hoped I'd never have to go through again; little did I know but that there were many more such intrusions into my modesty awaiting in the three and a half years ahead.
As for the above examination, a story swept through the barracks concerning a certain local yokel from somewhere out in the county who was so dumb, that when the M.O. asked him to bend over and pull his cheeks apart he did as he was instructed, but instead of pulling his buttocks apart he pulled on the cheeks of his face. He was rejected right then and there as mentally unfit. At the time, I actually believed it really did happen. It did
not. Just another one of the many unlikely stories that made the rounds every so often.
I came out of the final medical exam with an A1 category. From here on in I figured everything would be clear sailing. I was wrong. There was still one more embarrassing hurdle to make, and that was the short-arm inspection. Even up until the final moments before the humbling moment, I still believed that a short-arm inspection was nothing but a figment of some wise guy's wild imagination, a myth, a joke played on all young and naive fellows like myself. If there was anybody more gullible than me, I hadn't yet come across him. I'd always thought of short-arm inspections as falling in the class of the kind of trick played on a guy where you send him for a left-handed monkey wrench, or a sky hook, or a bucket of steam, stuff like that. But now I was about to learn the awful truth. No such prank. Very shortly, somebody in a white coat would be handling my genitals to see if I had V.D.
So there I was, standing in another long line-up, and I asked the guy behind me what this one was all about, since we had just had our medical examination. "Short-arm inspection," he replied. "Short-arm inspection!" I
exclaimed with rising panic. "Oh my God! No, it can't be!" But it was, as I was soon to find out. The line of loose-trousered men shuffled slowly along the dusty hallway on the top floor to enter an opening in the wallboard
partition. As I rounded the corner I beheld a long table behind which three Medical Corpsmen, a Captain, a Sergeant and a Corporal were doing just what I was afraid they'd be doing. They were handling the genitals of every man in the long line-up, skinning them back as they scrutinized the organ for signs of V.D. I broke into a sweat and damn near keeled over in a dead faint.
I knew I had nothing like 'blue balls' or clap or syph, or for that matter, crabs, so why I should I be so uptight? The only thing I had to be concerned about was getting one of those involuntary erections young and virile lads like me were prone to when you least wanted one. I had to think about anything that would take my mind off what was about to take place. I let my mind flit between funerals, church services, old people, trains, cows, anything at all that would take my mind off what I was about to have to face. And then, there I was, at the point where I had to drop my trousers and expose my privates. Gritting my teeth, I stood there praying the damn thing between my legs wouldn't start rising, and before I knew it, it was all over. What a relief!
More Fun & Games
It occurred to me at this point that every move I had made thus far was something in the nature of a minor crisis. This next move was to the Dental Office certainly, and as far as I was concerned it was one of the greater crises. Anything to do with my teeth, and my muscles wilted away into what was more like jelly. In other words, when it came to an appointment with the dentist I was nothing short of a coward. Dentists I feared with an unholy terror. I'd much rather face an operation, even without anaesthesia, than have a dentist drill or pull my teeth. The phobia I had about dental work started way back in Grade Five when I had to visit old Doc Biehn at John Campbell School, who we all suspected was a sadist of the worst kind, judging from the screams and wails that every now and then echoed through the hall on the second floor whenever he was at work. He and his successor, Doctor Deans, did more to plant the fear of dentists in a generation of kids than any doctor or strap-inclined teacher ever did. So it was only natural that on my second or third day in the army when I was motioned to the throne of pain, I had to call on every last shred of courage that was in me to walk those dozen or so steps. I was scared shitless. I couldn't back out of it, so I put on a false front to the others behind me as I sat in the padded chair to face the tortures of the damned. After a few highly tensed moments in the chair, merely an examination, as it turned out, no greater sigh of relief had ever escaped my lips as it did right then. All the dentist did was mark on a chart repairs that would be needed to bring my teeth to accepted standards.
Now with the worrisome part of my budding army service over and done with, I hiked on down to the Quartermaster stores to pick up my clothing issue, webbing, packs, gas-mask, etc., and of course, the steel helmet. I'd never felt prouder as I did then, my arms full of army issue, hurrying up the creaky staircase to my assigned cot. I dumped the heap on the bed and after taking off my civvy wear, began dressing in the raiment known as khaki. And what a hilarious session it turned out to be! With two hundred or more other guys doing the same, the third floor bay was a funhouse of laughter and good-natured kidding. Never had I heard such shrieks and uproarious guffaws as we slowly transformed ourselves into reasonable facsimiles of what should be soldiers.
Putting the uniform on was a 'snap'. Getting the webbing together, however, was another matter. You'd think it was a Chinese puzzle by the way we struggled with it, watching the successful ones to see how they did it. Once we got everything together and our uniforms on, we couldn't help but feel somewhat self-conscious. Though all of us were strangers to each other, it didn't matter, we all laughed at each other, made rude but good-natured
comments as though we'd known each other all our lives.
The only negative aspect of my first days in the army, as I had said earlier, was the poor quality of food served in the mess-hall. Every time the bugler blew, "Come to the cookhouse door, boys, come to the cookhouse door", I didn't respond with the same degree of enthusiasm as I did a month or so along in my training. By that time I'd become pretty well adjusted to what the cooks served us - the quality and the menu had vastly improved (or so it seemed). Four hours of intensive physical exertions in the course of training can do wonders to a man's appetite, and one doesn't become as choosy or critical of what's set before him at the mess table. We were invariably as hungry as bears and would have eaten anything set in front of us.
The first night spent in barracks was an especially memorable moment in my three and a half years in the army, even as insignificant as it really was. It was almost as funny as a Stan Laurel/Oliver Hardy comedy. A three-hour laugh session, no less. From the moment we started to put our new issue uniforms on I hadn't heard so many
quaint expressions and all 'round silly banter in my life. And when the lights were turned off you'd swear you were in the children's ward at a hospital. More guys could imitate crying babies than I had ever thought possible. It was a howler! And then you'd hear the plaintive cry of what sounded like a little boy calling out, "I want my Mummy! I want to go home!" , stuff like that. I couldn't stop chuckling. This kept up for almost a half hour after 'lights out' until a Sergeant poked his head into the bay and shouted, "Okay, okay, drop it, enough of this nonsense, knock it off, knock it off, let's hear no more!". I finally drifted off to sleep, pleased with the way things had gone. A good introduction to army life!
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sábado, 30 de outubro de 2010
Casos exames
wearing one at school for pe,having to take off my boxer...
Guest 3 октября 2009 г. 06:30:06
wearing one at school for pe,having to take off my boxer shorts and slipping it on,got me hard to,but was ok,it was visible through my white nylon pe shorts,could see each others under shorts.we had to wear it for cricket with a box.caused a bulge in the jock.still wear one now.
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Guest 26 октября 2009 г. 09:12:36 [ permanent link ]
i had to wear a jockstrap for pe,football and a cricket jock and box for cricket,it was white,large waistband and was visible through my white nylon shorts,i liked wearing one and sometimes had an erection putting it on,causing a bulge in my shorts especially when had my box in,pe teacher checked we had our jocks on in the locker room before we put our shorts on.otherwise i wore boxer shorts/boxer trunks,still wear a jock now for sports and boxers for underwear.
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Guest 19 ноября 2009 г. 07:49:00 [ permanent link ]
jocks are comfy and good to wear for pe and cricket with a box,also football,then my white nylon pe shorts.my school made it compulsory but had an erection sometimes putting it on.nylon pe shorts did the same for me worn solo.:-)
had to wear one this year because i went out for freshman football. I hate it.. Its uncomfortable and the straps keep creepin in my butt cheeks..lol..but really I hate it.
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Guest 14 декабря 2009 г. 00:15:47 [ permanent link ]
1st time was freshman year. i needed one for pe.
never put it on till that day... had a boner the entire time.
and thats how i also met my husband (we {censored} with them on)
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Guest 23 декабря 2009 г. 02:50:32 [ permanent link ]
I had to have one for PE class. I had to try it on in front of my dad and brother. Got a boner, and have had one almost every time i put one on. Love them.
i started to wear a jockstrap at 14,for pe,football and for cricket with a box,worn under my white nylon shorts,was visible through my shorts, but we all had them so we could see each others jocks.i liked wearing one ,good support and protection,better than boxer shorts.the shorts were cool to wear,soft and shiny.sometimes wore them solo to in bed or as casual wear.
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Guest 3 января 2010 г. 17:22:01 [ permanent link ]
At my school in the UK in the 1980s there wasn't any rule about underwear under PE shorts, but our shorts were white nylon and see-through, even when they were dry.
I still like wearing PE kits, and I bought a jock strap after leaving school, just to see what it was like. I have to say that it is very comfortable to wear, and totally visible through white nylon shorts.
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Guest 9 января 2010 г. 06:50:22 [ permanent link ]
in seventh grade in 1977 a friend let me in onthe right of passage idea into manhood. i looked at th muscular trim sport guys at that timeand thought jocks showed off a power and
sexy figure. never turned back since.
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Guest 19 февраля 2010 г. 17:07:47 [ permanent link ]
Just a few years back I got one in 6th grade for martial arts class. The first day we sparred I was paired up with a 15-year old girl who after 4 minutes or so gave me a swift kick in between the legs.This being my first time wearing the thing I didn't know that we were supposed to wear them under and mine was on top of my pants so it hurt like hell! Till my last day of martial arts I wore a cup and jock even on days when we didn't have to.
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Guest 17 сентября 2010 г. 03:06:54 [ permanent link ]
We have to wear one for p.e. I swear I wearing it wrong. I don't think it should be THAT uncomfortable. Gives me the biggest wedgie in the world everytime I wear it. 8-|starting next semester all boys have to wear a jockstrap for gym class and any sports. i only seen one once and it looks really wierd, funny and embarasssing, any of you guys know anything about them at all???
y that's actually good that they are requiring that in your school. I wear a jockstrap for gym class but almost no on else does, but it really does help to keep things together and give you some protection. Almost all the guys do wear them for sports in my school. They actually are pretty comfortable if you get the right size.
we gotta show the coach our waistband or something to show we got one on
It was supposedly for purposes of hygiene that Balboa Middle School, in Southern California, required P.E. students to wear a jock strap.
We were subject to spot inspections. The coach would walk down the numbered aisles and ask each student, in turn, to pull the rubber strap down his thigh to show proof of properly wearing one. I blew one of the inspections and had to spend an hour after school for it.
Has anyone at other schools ever been subjected to a policy like this, or was my school just really strange?
posted by Kirklander to education (27 comments total)
Went to public middle school in the early '80s in SoCal. Never was required to wear a jock strap in P.E., never had any type of inspection.
posted by Mountain Goatse at 6:14 PM on November 14, 2009
23 now, so middle school was in the late 90's for me (and in South Carolina). The only inspections I ever had were the "Are you wearing your PE uniform?" inspection and the very unofficial "Did you know someone was going to pull down your pants?" inspection by the less mature other students.
Not sure how wearing a cup would help with hygiene, personal safety maybe. Besides, by the time I was there someone probably would have sued for sexual harassment if they tried that.
posted by theichibun at 6:17 PM on November 14, 2009
I went to school in Northern Virginia at roughly the same time (graduated high school in '91). Had to wear a jock strap, too, and had the same inspection, though IIRC all the boys had to do it every day. I can't remember exactly which years I had to do it, but I remember doing it.
posted by cerebus19 at 6:21 PM on November 14, 2009 [1 favorite]
Public middle school in GA, mid 80s. As ichibun mentioned above, there was no jockstrap requirement. There was a mandatory PE uniform, but that was about it.
posted by jquinby at 6:23 PM on November 14, 2009
Public middle school in South Florida. No jock strap requirements or inspections (creepy!), but showers were mandatory.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:31 PM on November 14, 2009
In Jr. High in the early 80s in Northern California, jockstraps were required in the sense that at the beginning of the year we got a note to parents telling them they had to buy jockstraps as part of the PE uniform. But there were never inspections or the threat of inspections. That's just creepy.
posted by birdherder at 6:39 PM on November 14, 2009
I know we had inspections when I was in middle school football (and in Tae Kwon Do), but these inspections consisted of knocking on the cup to prove you were wearing one, not a visual inspection. Oh, Western Iowa if it matters.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:47 PM on November 14, 2009
Graduated high school in 1991 in northern Colorado... I do not recall any requirement for jockstraps (optional = sure.... requirement?.. No)
posted by jmnugent at 6:49 PM on November 14, 2009
I'm 32. Had to wear a cup for contact sports. "CUP CHECK!" would be yelled followed by your friend punching you in the junk. If you didn't fall over, screaming in pain, you passed.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 6:51 PM on November 14, 2009 [4 favorites]
Central California, in the '80s, we had 'strap inspections at the beginning of PE at the second Jr. High I went to, with the same inspection technique you had. No such inspection at my first Jr. High.
posted by lekvar at 6:59 PM on November 14, 2009
Northern CA middle school/high school '89-'96: no jock straps, no showers, just the PE uniform.
posted by puritycontrol at 7:10 PM on November 14, 2009
Junior High 91-93. Toronto, Canada. No jock straps. No jock strap checks (what would the point be? kid wants to risk getting hit in the nuts, let him risk it). The changeroom had showers but no one ever used them. We had to wear a plain white t-shirt and shorts for gym, but the choice of shorts and shirt were up to us.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:47 PM on November 14, 2009
I graduated high school in, what, 1989? I've never worn a jock strap in my life, and was never told to wear one for gym class. My father told me that he had to wear them, and he was surprised that in my modern gym classes jocks were no longer required, so there was clearly a change in the intervening years.
posted by Forktine at 7:53 PM on November 14, 2009
Wisconsin, HS class of '82, so this was about 1976. We didn't have jock strap inspections that I recall, but we did have cup inspections for things like baseball. The inspections were performed by student assistants, not the coaches. My memory is that it involved us all lining up wearing nothing but and filing past.
Oh, and people got demerits if they tried to skip the showers.
At the old city central high school, swimming was naked (possibly until the building was retired in the 1960s). I think there's been an AskMe or two about that topic, as well.
posted by dhartung at 8:10 PM on November 14, 2009
Graduated high school in 1994, never had to wear one.
posted by dfriedman at 8:25 PM on November 14, 2009
Canada. Rec league softball for girls - late 80s. They required you to wear one, but I don't know that they did more than visual checks with your clothes on. Yes, jocks for girls.
posted by acoutu at 8:33 PM on November 14, 2009
In my upstate New York public high school, late 90s, the school rules handbook informed us that for males in phys ed, it was state law that we wear protection in gym class. I can find no record of this law online (seriously, baked goods and mix CDs for the first person to find it).
I intentionally broke "state law" for 4 years, and nobody ever checked.
posted by knile at 8:35 PM on November 14, 2009
I was in middle school '95 to '97. Female, so I can't say what was going on in the boys' locker room, but as far as actual PE class went there were no jockstrap spot-checks nor was I aware of any requirements for the boys to wear them. Sports may have been a different story, but all I ever played was girls' volleyball.
posted by asciident at 8:54 PM on November 14, 2009
Just asked my husband (1989 grad of a private high school in Utah), and he said there was no requirement that they wear a strap/cup in high school. "That's stupid" were his exact words. He did, however, voluntarily wear a cup for contact sports in high school and college, because not doing so would also, in his words, be stupid.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 9:41 PM on November 14, 2009
Class of '89. When I played baseball in grade school, I can recall lots of cup checks and pottymouthed jock talk. Punking your friends with "I got a new bike!"* after a trip to Big 5 Sporting Goods with your mom.
*Bike brand cup
posted by porn in the woods at 9:52 PM on November 14, 2009
I went to school in the Bay area. No requirement for a jock strap, but we did have to have complete change of clothes for PE, preferably the "uniform", including underwear or jock strap. It was required to take a shower and change clothes afterward. Nobody ever "inspected," but it was considered gross to do otherwise, so the rule was pretty much followed. I did have to have a cup for baseball, which pretty much means you need a jockstrap. That also was never inspected, because it's pretty much an eventual self-correcting error to not have a cup when you should.
I'm guessing that's what the jockstrap thing is about? So people have to change for PE?
posted by ctmf at 10:12 PM on November 14, 2009
Upstate New York, late 80's.
No Jock Strap.
No required uniform.
No required shower.
My school apparently didn't give a crap.
posted by madajb at 11:08 PM on November 14, 2009
New York City, early 80s - no cup or jock required, or showers available, although there was a mandatory gym uniform.
posted by deadmessenger at 11:55 PM on November 14, 2009
Eastern PA, late 90's
Jock strap required with random spot checks
Had to purchase t-shirt and shorts for uniform
Had to pay $10 per year shower and towel fee
For two years, the showers were broken
Towels were rarely available
posted by K5 at 4:45 AM on November 15, 2009
Didn't have to have one for PE, but we had an ancient coach for Jr. High basketball who mandated them for the team. In the mid-90s.
posted by the christopher hundreds at 7:48 AM on November 15, 2009
I remember when my brother entered junior high school (suburban Detroit, late 1970s) he brought home a list of required equipment for PE class (athletic supporter, white cotton socks, mouth guard if you had braces, etc). I just phoned my bro and asked him if his gym teacher ever had a jock inspection (and isn't that a weird question to get out of the blue from your sister on a lazy Sunday?) and he said the teacher never questioned whether they were wearing the proper "equipment" or not.
By the way, in girls' gym when I went to school we had to undergo a foot inspection twice per year - the teacher was checking for plantar warts. Anyone else in MeFi land have a similar experience? Were plantar warts some sort of 70s hazard, like blasting caps?
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:21 AM on November 15, 2009
Jr High in Suburban MD, mid-1960s. Required to wear a jockstrap (but no cup, that was only for guys on teams) and no inspection. Sometimes certain gym teachers really got carried away with their machismo posturing, eh?
posted by Rash at 8:34 AM on November 16, 2009
Ummm,,,,kinda dont get it. I don't think jocks are gay, but there are so many other choices. In HS wore a jock w/cup for baseball/ftball wrestling wore a jock brief, which is like a jockstrap but with a back, for pe compression shorts were required. I supposed in the old days choices were limited, but compression shorts are the most comfortable.
As for being nude I don't get that either, I mean you are nude when you shower, but any other time seems weird. The only time I was required to shower was after wrestling. other sports were optional, but most guys did, some did not & no one cared. PE was optional, sometimes I did if I was really sweaty but mosty did not.
I cant believe I am spending even this much time thinking about it. LOL
Centuries ago when I was a "junior" 7/8 approximatly my mother said that when I went into senior school we'd not be able to wear underpants under our shorts (and she told me how she knew!). Back then underpants were huge thick cotton affairs with apen flies you had to get through to pee. This was onceyou got through several buttons on the (usually grey flannel)shorts. Not wearing underpants meant your family were poor, and my best friend was in that category. As often as possible I avoided underpants, then silly vests with arms on. Sure enough when 11 P.E. reacher ruled no underpants. He explained we would sweat in the gym nd even outside and as we got older we'd sweat more. Underwear kept on could result in soreness and chaffing. He treatened a check from time to time but never did to classes I was in. Sweden around the same time supposedly encouraged students to do P.E. nude, and I remember a couple of exchange students visiting and our interest in if they looked different inthe showes or would do P.E. naked.It seemed they did the same as us.
Shorts got shorter and shorter so by the 70's boys began to wear swimming trunk/briefs under them,until shorts with built in liners avoided the need. Most Brits wore and wear a "box" playing cricket, and some seem to wear athletic supports. I doubt personally the usual reasons given for devices such as pressure shorts, though it may help long term to reduce the population. As for being "gay" I suspect sportsmen around the world use them, so perhaps you might like to tell the next pro boxer, footballer (soccer or gridiron), or wrestler your opinion if that's what you believe! I assume this is another passing fad of the young, kicking ass of their elders. Like we avoided underwear in the 50's, ran barefoot in the 60's, etc.etc.
find it interesting that no one commenting on this question attributed the reduction in the use of jock straps to simple evolution of the equipment. From Wikipedia: compression shorts, "...help keep the muscles warm to prevent muscle strain, chafing and rashes, fatigue, and to wick sweat away from the body. In addition, there is some evidence that compression shorts may enhance athletic performance." Did you all really think that jock straps would last forever?
At my school in the UK in the 1980s there wasn't any rule about underwear under PE shorts, but our shorts were white nylon and see-through, even when they were dry.
I do not recall any boy wearing a jock-strap, but many wore tight briefs or Speedos under their shorts. There were no rules about what to wear under our shorts, the punishment was that everyone had the humiliation of their underwear being visible during PE, athletics and cross country.
It seems that jock straps were originally used as they gave more support than saggy cotton underpants. When tighter briefs and Speedos came in during the 1970s, boys probably wore them instead of jock straps. When boxers came into fashion, compression shorts started to become popular, though these were not at first allowed in schools, and swimming trunks were encouraged. Now boys sometimes wear compression shorts on their own, which of course leave nothing to the imagination!
I still like wearing PE kits, and I do own a jock strap, which I bought just to see what it was like. I have to say that it is very comfortable to wear, and totally visible under white nylon shorts.
Jock straps seem to be a good support for most sports. As to whether the jock strap is gay, it is no more gay than nylon shorts, wearing Speedos for support, or compression shorts with a large bulge. They are gay if those things turn you on, but many sportsmen seem to treat them as just another piece of performance-enhancing equipment.
ockstraps were designed for a reason, to be minimally bothersome, yet provide strong support in the front. The back doesn't need it, hence only the straps. Jocks are light, and feel great under mesh shorts when you are running or playing sports. I personally don't care if a guy (gay or not) glances at my bare ass. Who cares?? Granted, the reason they have fallen out of fashion is because young guys who are homophobic are terrified that if their 'buddies' saw them in one, they might be considered 'gay.' What a crock.
ock straps are hot on guys, I had to wear a jock stap in PE class aswell, my coach did jockstap inspections. tight football pants show off a guys assits, a jockstrap enhances those assits.
do not think that Jockstraps have become a primarily gay garment.
They were invented to address a certain problem with male genitals and sports and were adopted by almost every sport. Yes homosexuals have found a likeing to them however homosexuals are rewriting many definitions of society. What has happened is the break down in teaching and mentoring of males.Jockstraps serve many purpose, lifting the scrotum into a secure place that dose help prevent and heal hyrenias, bringing a tighter secure fit to the entire cock area, helping to heal after vascectomies, and providing a free range of motion for mant athletic performances. Yes in the 1980's compresention shorts became top notch inventions and popular, however teaching males in the home and family also dropped significant. Boys were subject to uncarring stepfather or even uninvovled mom's boyfriend.Coaches also dropped important parenting skills. Now we are left with a culture of college and professional athletes that are being arrested at an alarming rate and even killed at a greater rate. SO JOCKS ARE STILL IN SOCIETY IS NOT. Let's get back to teaching, training and proper mentoring.
By the way I was subject to 2 jock checks from 7-10grade and they were done professionally and with explanation of health concerns.
In our P.E. Class; most dudes wear compression shorts. There are a couple of guys that still wear a jock strap. Myself? I think the compression shorts are a little more comfortable than having those 2 straps running under your butt cheeks. As far as guys checking each other out....you can see more of a shape in compression shorts than in a jock strap. Unless you are really into showing off your pimply butt cheeks (which no one wants to see); I think you get better support from the shorts. Now if you have a nice smooth ass and think guys want it....show it. just don't get too upset when you get jumped in locker room by a bunch of horny guys. ha ha ha ha And don't bend over to pick up the soap when you are in the shower or LOOKOUT!!!!!! ha ha ha ha
I don't think jockstraps are gay, though many gay men will wear them. I like them for workouts and running errands. I prefer the widebands as they give more support. Many places that used to sell them no longer do, but many sporting good stores have gone out of business. ow compression shorts are popular and I've heard of something else called compression briefs. Anyone know anything about compression briefs? Are they extremely tight underwear likes briefs or something? read about the jockstrap checks on the internet. I kind of wonder if that got started by someone with homoerotic fantasies. That's like a male (or lesbian) coach doing a bra check so he can check out all the hooters on the chicks each time they dress out. I think many men (including straight ones) have homoerotic fantasies to some degree even if it's only latent or subconscious. I have often wondered if the creater of the jockstrap was gay. Many clothes designers are. When you think of the jockstrap check you think of a horny coach who's getting his rocks off by checking out the ass of every athletic guy in the lockerroom. The same analogy applies to what I've read about all males being required to swim nude at YMCA pools. I bet the swim instructors did a lot of checking out. I'm not going to lie I wish I could go back in a time machine and check out all the hot guys swimming nude. And before anyone jumps on my case about that I guarantee you if females were required to swim nude there'd be a lot of straight guys trying to get a sneak peek.
n 6th grade I forgot my gym bag on the bus and the gym teacher made do gym in my underwear and the worst part was i always everyone always nade fun of another kid named Ian that always forgot his stuff and everytime he was in only underwear so it was really embarrissing when it happened to me.
t has been a while but in the school system in the U.S. where I went to school, we only used special clothes for PE in junior high and high school. The high school was relatively new then and they had an absolute fetish about not wearing "street shoes" on the gym floor. For occasions other than sports events or gym classes, the floor was usually covered in canvas.
Reading over this thread and remembering others, I wonder when gym classes in school became common? And when it became common to wear a special PE uniform for those classes? As I mentioned above, in elementary school there were no special clothes worn and no showers to be taken. For some gym activities you took off your shoes but other than that I don't remember that much about it. We also had outdoor activities as well in regular clothes but grade school kids could wear jeans, which weren't allowed in the higher grades.
e never had to wear underwear if we forgot our kit. We got to sit PE out the first time, but if you forgot again you would get something like 100 lines. Our PE kit consisted of white shorts and top and we always had to go barefooted which was okay in summer but the floor was freezing cold in winter.
I remember when i was infant school we all did pe in our underpants, it was really embarising for me because i was made to pe in my nappy! It was only when i was in junior school we had a pe kit! I still believe that infant school children do sometimes do pe in their underwear with them mostly being boys which it was when i was in infants!
Just by chance come across this thread and surprised at a lot of the comments. Somehow some people were traumatised by doing pe in their bare feet! Enough to write about it years later?
Maybe being an insensitive male I missed the point somehow but with all the knocks and bangs these people are going to face in their lives I wonder how they are going to cope with life without having a complete mental meltdown. Suggest you bring this up in counselling. My two children, male and female, all did pe in their underwear in their early years at junior school. Mixed classes -- never a hint that they felt embarrassed and why should they? Is that us adults projecting our own hangups? As our bodies have hardly evolved from our caveman and women ancestors, we are not meant to stand or sit all day. Exercise is essential for a fit and healthy longer life. Naked same sex showers. All the way through secondary school, after PE\games we boys all had to have a shower. I have pleasant memories of standing in a hot shower after doing say, a winter cross country run. We were all naked and never really gave much thought to our classmates being naked also, after all they were boys. Occasionally a male pe teacher may have looked in to make sure that all was okay and us to get a move on for the next lesson. I am sure that we are would have picked up if there was an unhealthy interest in us naked boys but there wasn't. All my adult life I have done sport, squash, seven a side football, rowing, swimming and nearly always afterwards we all have a shower -- naked and never much thought given to it. Of course any sexual abuse of youngsters is completely wrong but are we in danger of b
had phys ed, also called gym, in grade school as well as in junior high and high school. Yet in grade school there was no uniform or special clothes (I think we took off our shoes in the gym, though) and certainly no showers. In the upper grades, we wore shorts and t-shirts and took showers-nude.
Did we sweat more in junior high and high school? At the time the custom in my home was simply a bath once a week. Where did this idea that you have to take a shower every day come from? Did our cavemen ancestors take daily baths? Did they shave?
hen I was at school (UK), in the late eightes to mid nineties, if you forgot your speedo's (all baggy swimming shorts were banned for hygiene reasons) for male swimming class, you were still made to go into the pool and do the swim class naked... I had to once with mucho embarrassment entering, diving and exiting the pool, most of the other lads felt sorry for me, others just laughed. The teacher didn't care.The following week we all went on protest and deliberately forgot our swimwear for a dare to see what the head PE teacher (ex army) would do. The entite boys class was made to shower, swim and do physical PE (including the climbing wall), entirely nude.. that teacher should have been sacked..
Same for PE kit, forget your kit, and there was no duckout excuse. One of the lads at the time had to wear just his underwear (and no shirt) as an example... the poor lad had to play tennis in boxers only... not funny..went home with no underwear on under his trousers as they were sweat soaked..
You wouldn't get away either of these things now, as schools have to respect your privacy.. which is a good thing.
orgot to add that the head PE teacher would ensure that we had a shower (it was one of his duties at the time, and he wanted to stay on schedule for the next activity), cos he made us, and checked that we all nude before entering the showers. He used to get a row if boys went to their next class smelly for not taking a shower.
No wonder kids are shy nowaways about being seen. They wouldn't have been if they had my PE teacher..
was rather a long time ago, i.e. 1950s UK, but I have no memory of kids doing PE in either underwear or the nude. My PE experience falls roughly into three categories, representing three different schools' approach to the issue.
Primary School: age 5 - 10
There was no special kit (this was not many years after WW2 when clothing was rationed) and we generally did PE in whatever we had on at the time. This was generally cotton (summer) or woollen (winter) vest (singlet for non-UK English speakers) and fly-front underpants, topped with grey flannel shorts and grey shirt, with a woollen jumper in cold weather. I remember one Summer afternooon, just before I left primary school, the PE master made us (boys at least, I can't remember if we did PE mixed or not) strip to the waist for PE in the sun in the playground. I remember confiding in this episode with my younger sister, but for some reason I was reluctant to tell my parents, probably because the prospect of kids going about without a vest on, even in summertime, was rather revolutionary in our household at that time.
Secondary School 1: age 11 - 16
Specified PE kit was white shorts and PE vest; on economy grounds, those of us who regularly wore underwear vests, i.e. virtually all of us, got into the habit of substituting our normal everyday vest for the latter item. After I had been at this school for a couple of years, the PE staff decided that it would be healthier for us to do PE topless and took a vote among us on the matter. Not surprisingly, toplessness got a 100% vote. Although we were expected to wear vests between the changing room and the gym, this rule was honoured more in the breach than the observance and we soon got into the habit of "forgetting" to put our vests back on under our shirts after PE. As we had PE every day of the week, generally in the mornings, we ended up minus our vests for much of the school week and soon most of us didn't bother coming to school in a vest at all, much to the concern of most of our parents, who felt that all children should wear vests all the year round, regardless of climate. There was no prohibition on the wearing of underwear, although for the first couple of years, most of us freeballed. At one point, probably when we were 12 or 13 and one lad got accidentally kicked in the "privates", the PE master advised us that we should think about wearing some form of support, and mentioned a thing called a "jock-strap". I don't think any of us had ever heard of this item of clothing, and i don't think any of us took the trouble to obtain one, but most of us took the hint, and from then on we tended to keep our underpants on for PE.
Secondary School 2: age 16 - 18
Specified PE kit was rather more conservative, white T-shirt and black rugby shorts, and no exceptions. Despite a persistent campaign by myself and a few others who arrived from schools where topless PE was customary, full kit was the inflexible rule, except for the beginning and end of term weigh-in, when for some reason we would strip down to our shorts. Since the shorts weighed rather more than the T-shirts, the logic behind this still escapes me. There were no underwear rules, or even recommendations, but for comfort and safety we generally all wore some form of support, principally swimming trunks (Speedo type) or, increasingly, jock-straps, which we preferred once we had tried them out. This was where I got my first jock-straps, which I still find the ideal mimimal male undergarment, and which I generally regularly wear, particularly at week-ends.
ly time in living memory I forgot my PE kit I was given a choice between a filthy dirty pair of gym shorts the PE teacher had lying around or the slipper. I chose the slipper.
In my day PE kit comprised of a pair of shorts and shirtless with no underear and communal nude showers afterwards.
There was a story in my local paper many years ago where two pubescent schoolboys on a trip to the local pool for a swimming lesson forgot their swimwear and the teacher made the boys walk around the pool naked as a punishment in fron of horrified members of the public. True story.
Nowadays he would have been taken to court and sacked if the parents had not got hold of him first.
ys in navy blue pe knickers and skirt if you wanted to and boys in white shorts and the slipper if you got it wrong .then the shower rooms one for us and one for boys and water cold and teacher made sure you showerd by checking towel damp .i got caught wet towel not me cause hair to dry so i got slipper ouch it hurt
s a 7 year old kid back in 1976 I forgot my games kit.It was summer,very hot and I went to school with my shorts and T-shirt on,thinking I was being clever as it would cover for being my games kit as well.But when the lesson came round,my teacher was having none of it,and asked me where my proper kit clothes were.I had not got them with me,and to my horror I was in the school hall where the lesson was about to take place,with all my friends and class of boys and girls sitting cross legged waiting to start,when my teacher,who I detest to this day,literally shouted at me to take my stuff off immediately.I became instantly confused,remember I am only 7 years old.I wasn't sure what to take off,what not to,and where to put it.I recall being a shaking mess,wanting to cry.
Still holding up the class,and not having yet taken anything off,I got shouted at again.Before I knew it she was pulling my T shirt over my head and telling me to take my shoes and socks off,which mortified me.Then I was told to take my shorts off and do it in just my underpants.But I had not got any underpants on under my shorts,as they were more comfy without them and my mum sent me to school in this particular pair without any underwear as the shorts were tight fitting,but usual kind of 1976 kids shorts.When I said "I can't take them off" she said "You Can".I remember saying I can't a few times and her saying you can,before I said I had no pants on.She simply refused to believe me for a moment.Com ing over to me I had my shorts pulled down by her,and when she saw I was telling the truth,instead of lifting them back up,she just told me that I would have to do her lesson without any clothes at all then and be naked.I do not remember any sounds of laughter or sniggering from any of my friends and class.I think they had been frozen in some kind of fear of this woman.
And so I did an entire one hour games lesson in the school hall aged 7,naked,while all my class were dressed.I never told my mother,and to this day I would never say a word to her,I'd be so embarrassed.I managed to do the lesson,naked without crying,but it was hard,climbing on frames,on ropes,beams and apparatus in that state of undress and mind at 7 years old.
A few weeks later she had a boy in the same class as me doing the lesson in just his pants for forgetting his kit.I remember him constantly snivelling throughout much of the lesson,and he had his pants on.
I've subsequently always been self conscious about my body into adulthood,and this could be a big reason why.
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Naked Springboks tested at camp
Naked Springboks tested at camp
South Africans are agonising over their defeat by New Zealand
South African rugby players were subjected to naked toughening-up exercises at a gruelling boot camp before the World Cup in Australia.
Some South Africans doubt the wisdom of sending the Springboks to "Camp Steel Wire" in light of their 29-9 quarter-final defeat by New Zealand.
South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper reports that players had to strip and pump up rugby balls in a freezing lake.
The three-day "bonding" also involved crawling naked across gravel.
Despite being sworn to secrecy, two players revealed some of the military-style exercises they endured at the camp - reportedly the brainchild of security consultant Adriaan Heijns, who employed former police task force veterans.
According to the newspaper report, players who tried to get out of the freezing lake - including Springboks captain Corne Krige - were ordered back in at gunpoint.
Without each other there was no way you could make it through
Corne Krige
The players were also abandoned in the bush at night with only an egg, a chicken and a match. They were asked to cook a meal, but not allowed to eat it.
When they were finally given a chance to sleep, they were woken every 15 minutes by gunfire.
They were also told to strip and climb into a hole, where recordings of the English national anthem and New Zealand's haka, or war-chant, were played. From time to time ice-cold water was poured over their heads.
Krige said he would not recommend some parts of the camp for future rugby training, but he added that a lot of it was really good team spirit.
The exercises were held at a location north of Pretoria in September, the paper reported.
But Ken Jennings, a South African sports psychologist, said he was "quite horrified" to learn of the activities, describing them as "a drive towards conformity and total rigidity that is based on the fear factor".
Celebration or decimation? Inappropriate motivational techniques have swung the spotlight back onto South African rugby, and coach Rudolf Straeuli has again been targeted by critics (Photo: Die Burger)
The Springbok rugby squad must be wondering where it is all going to end. First, a race row over shared accommo-dation. Second, an outcry over their mediocre sixth place at the Rugby World Cup. And, finally, a media brouhaha over the demeaning Kamp Staaldraad, news of which sent South African rugby officials scurrying to crisis talks late last week.
"Are we saying sport is war?"
It's a terse question that UCT sports psychologist Dr Helgo Schomer asks over the phone. He seems to bristle with indignation over the wire.
Schomer, who has worked with elite international athletes and, recently, a top soccer team, honing their mental strengths to complement their physical prowess, is appalled by the boot camp.
"Are rugby players soldiers? Are we preparing men to be degraded, to survive under duress and capture in the field?" There is a brief silence before he continues. "Sport is not war. It is a celebration of human excellence. Why break them down, demean them and humiliate them?"
For Schomer, the pit episode reflects deeper problems; problems understanding the psyche of top athletes. The rabbit-out-of-a-hat approach is wrong, he says.
"It takes a lifetime to build character and fitness. Thoughts change reluctantly. You can't break and rebuild a player in a weekend. You have to work with the existing building blocks established by parents, schools, society … Mental training is a long-term process, not a weekend camp. They tried to create a mental pill, a mental injection. It just doesn't exist."
Schomer is voluble in his damning of what he calls a "ridiculous and shameful" practice. Under mounting pressure from an unforgiving public, one can perhaps understand the necessity of training in harsh, isolated terrain.
But in a pit? And naked?
Over the phone, you can almost see Schomer shake his head.
"It's an extreme sort of sexual harassment. And then they publish pictures of the naked rugby players for the whole world to see. What about their wives, girlfriends and children? How do we explain it? They're great athletes. They have great bodies. But please, treat them as mensch."
Schomer would also like to know where in the squad's contracts there was mention of training naked while enduring physical privation.
South African rugby has reverted to old, outdated motivational techniques, ones the sport psychologist believes are wholly inappropriate anyway. The pit episode is also part of broader malaise, Schomer believes, a gap in our national approach to sport, an "unintelligent" kragdadige style that too easily eschews modern psychological methods of honing athletes to perform at their best.
"They're in a time warp with antiquated ideas."
And though South African rugby axes coaches faster than Stuart Dickinson can blow his whistle, Schomer believes there are good coaches in South Africa. "They just have to choose one that breaks the mould of the 'old boys' club', the powerful, dictatorial inner circle controlling rugby."
But it will have to be an enlightened coach. The England team, for example, certainly thought more about brain than brawn in their preparation for the RWC. After a recce of expertise, they called in a UCT graduate (nogal) to improve their players' eye co-ordination and reaction time. It was Dr Sherylle Calder that England coach Clive Woodward employed as the squad's full-time visual awareness coach.
Calder, who got her PhD from the department of physiology under the supervision of Professor Tim Noakes in 1999, had been with the Sports Science Institute of South African (SSISA) in Newlands at a company called Acuvue Sports Vision Centre. She is the only person in the country with a formal PhD in sports vision training, skills that would surely have served the Boks better than time in a hole.
But one can't help wondering: is the will to win driving players and coaches to desperate measures? And is the folly being fuelled by the unrealistic expectations of die-hard Bok fans and even rugby administrators with more to lose than just face?
"The glory of competition is that moment of reckoning," Schomer says. "Under pressure, we revert to our most practiced behaviour."
Another to question the value of the Kamp Staaldraad sojourn is Associate Professor Mike Lambert of the MRC/UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (ESSM), based at the SSISA. "It's very hard to find the link between sitting in a pit in a gruelling situation and what you're trying to do on a rugby field," noted Lambert, who also serves on the SARFU scientific committee.
Squad members had been regulars at the SSISA's Discovery Health High Performance Centre (HPC) until July, and had in their run-up to the RWC called on the services of analysts at the Sports Technology Centre at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), clothing designers at Nike, and a cavalcade of fitness coaches, doctors and dietitians. How this cerebral take to training unravelled and ended up in a military-style grilling is unclear, noted Lambert.
There are plenty of good things happening in rugby coaching, Lambert pointed out. For one, he is running a longitudinal study - bankrolled by the South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) - with Craven Week players to learn why so many promising talents are not breaking into the next level of the game.
"The structures were in place for the Springboks," he said. "They just weren't put to their best use."
In a recent piece on M-Net's Carte Blanche, a number of players - notably skipper Corné Krige, scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen and full-back Ricardo Laubscher - came out in vocal defence of the "rugby boot camp".
"One of the positive things was that we learnt to stand together," said Laubscher on the programme. "We learnt to help each other, because in times like those it was difficult, so one doesn't have a choice."
So - antiquated or not - did the camp not do the job? Even if the Boks did not win the World Cup, did they not go into the event mentally charged and unified?
"I think it's the general consensus that it's not the appropriate way to prepare athletes for a major competition in the 21st century," counters Tim Noakes. "Or certainly not in the last month before a major competition."
Schomer believes, however, the "bizarre and ludicrous" incident can work positively for rugby. "It provides an opportunity for a clean sweep. 'Out, all of you'."
Once over his disbelief and anger, one thing still intrigues Schomer: who was clever enough to sell this idea to the Bok team?
"I want to meet him. He must be a helluva salesman," the sports psychologist muses.
Kamp Staaldraad (Afrikaans words, translated idiomatically as Camp Barbed Wire) was a military-style "boot camp" organized as a "team building" exercise for the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks (or Boks), during their preparation for the 2003 Rugby World Cup (RWC). When the details of the camp emerged in the South African media, it ignited a firestorm of protest that quickly consumed much of the upper administrative levels of South African rugby.
Soon after the naming of the Springboks World Cup team in September 2003, Boks coach Rudolph Straeuli arranged for the team to go to a police camp in the South African bush, near the town of Thabazimbi. He delegated much of the responsibility for running the team camp to his staff. After the controversy over the camp broke, several staffers indicated that it was intended to banish all traces of individuality from the players.
Soon after the Boks were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup, a South African newspaper reported that before the RWC, the Boks had been sent to a boot camp where players had allegedly been ordered into a freezing lake naked to pump up rugby balls underwater. The story also alleged that players who tried to get out of the lake, including Boks captain Corné Krige, were forced back in at gunpoint. Within days, several South African newspapers ran pictures leaked from the camp, showing players standing naked in the lake and holding rugby balls in front of their private parts, and shivering Boks players huddled naked in a pit. The whistleblower emerged as Boks video analyst Dale McDermott.[1]
In the days that followed, the media reported other details from the camp:[2]
The team was ordered to climb into a foxhole naked and sing the national anthem while ice-cold water was poured over their heads. During their time in the hole, recordings of God Save the Queen (used as England's national anthem) and the New Zealand All Blacks haka were played at full volume.
It was confirmed that firearms were present at the camp, although reports varied as to whether they were ever pointed at anyone.
The players were forced to crawl naked across gravel.
They also were ordered to spend a night in the bush, during which they were to kill and cook chickens, but not eat them.
South Africans almost universally condemned Kamp Staaldraad. The country's military agreed; a spokesman for the South African National Defence Force pointedly told the Cape Times newspaper that the force never trained its recruits naked, and he knew of no military organization in the world that did so. Many rugby observers also pointed out that trying to eliminate all individuality from a team could be counterproductive, as there are many times during a rugby match when individual initiative can make the difference between victory and defeat.
Straeuli attempted to defend the camp as detail after detail became public; he eventually succumbed to pressure and resigned.[3] Higher-ups in the country's rugby establishment initially refused to distance themselves from Kamp Staaldraad; many of them were purged at the same time as Straeuli. The Boks' disappointing results in 2003 (early exit from the RWC; record losses to France, England, Scotland, and New Zealand; a last-minute win over Argentina) were enough by themselves to threaten the jobs of Straeuli and many rugby executives. However, their attempts to defend Kamp Staaldraad apparently were the last straw for many South African rugby supporters, and for many within the rugby establishment who saw the need for a dramatic change in direction.
In a tragic postscript to the story, McDermott was found dead from a bullet wound to the head at his home in Durban on 9 January 2005.[4] His death was eventually determined to be a suicide; no foul play had been suspected. McDermott's mother reported that he had suffered extreme clinical depression in the months leading to his death. After supplying the images that led to the controversy, he was forced to leave his job at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (from which he had been contracted out to the Boks) and returned to teaching at Durban High School. Jake White, who took over as Boks coach after the forced resignation of Straeuli, tried to bring McDermott back into the Boks staff, but SA Rugby vetoed the re-appointment.
[edit]References
robe urged in 'naked Boks' row
South Africa was crushed in the quarter-final by New Zealand
South Africa's sports minister has called for urgent talks with rugby chiefs over reports of the Springboks' "unorthodox" World Cup preparations.
Ngconde Balfour's request came after local media printed pictures of the players, naked, at "Camp Steel Wire".
The photos appeared to back up earlier reports that the players had been told to crawl naked through the bush and stand in a freezing lake at gunpoint.
The Springboks team manager had earlier denied the media reports.
Oath of silence
"Reports emerging from the Sprinbok camp oblige South African Rugby and the South African Rugby Football Union to act immediately and decisively," Mr Balfour said in a statement on Sunday.
Captain Krige would not recommend some parts of the training
The minister added that the public must know "complete details" of what "appears to have been rather extraordinarily unorthodox team preparations".
"I have already requested administrators to meet me this week and will extend the request to members of the team as well if I deem necessary."
The minister also said the Sprinbok players' oaths of silence about what took place at the "Kamp Staaldraad" in September should be "lifted without the fear of reprisals against them".
'Gunfire' training
Last week, South African newspapers reported that the players were told to climb into a foxhole, where recordings of the English national anthem and New Zealand's haka, or war-chant, were played.
Ice-cold water was also poured over their heads.
The players were also abandoned in the bush at night with only an egg, a chicken and a match. They were told to cook a meal, but not allowed to eat it.
When they were finally given a chance to sleep, they were woken every 15 minutes by gunfire.
Captain Corne Krige said he would not recommend some parts of the camp for future rugby training but added that lot of elements were good for team spirit.
The exercises were held at a location north of Pretoria, the newspapers reported.
However, the intensive preparations, organised by a former special services operative for the South African police, failed to bring results on the pitch.
The Springboks were beaten by England in the group stages and eventually lost 29-9 to New Zealand in the quarter-finals.
SOUTH AFRICA players were forced to strip naked and were ordered around at gunpoint in preparation for the World Cup, according to newspaper reports.
“Despite being sworn to secrecy, two players have talked about the three-day ‘Camp Staaldraad’ (Camp Steel Wire) . . . some two hours’ drive north of Pretoria in September,” the Johannesburg Sunday Times said. “On arrival, the players were made to strip naked and leopard-crawl across gravel before getting dressed and repeating the exercise,” it said.
One unnamed player said that squad members were taken into the African bush, where they had to do physical labour, carrying tyres, poles and bags, all branded with England and New Zealand flags. “Later, the players were ordered naked into a freezing lake to pump up rugby balls under water. Players who tried to get out, among them Corne Krige, the captain, were allegedly pointed back at gunpoint,” the newspaper said.
On their last night, players were dropped off in the bush to spend the night on their own, given half a match and an egg and told to cook it.
Springbok great Bakkies Botha has added to the controversy over Martin Johnson’s England regime by claiming that his management style has instilled a fear of failure in his stuttering Six Nations squad.
Botha, the giant lock who played a big part in South Africa’s defeat of England in the 2007 World Cup final, believes Johnson’s squad are suffering from the same attitude problem that beset the Spingboks in the run-up to the 2003 World Cup.
No nonsense approach: England coach Martin Johnson
Then, Botha and his fellow Springboks were sent by coach Rudolph Straueli for a controversial squad-bonding session at Kamp Staaldraad, a police training camp in the South African bush.
The South African stars were forced to take part in rituals such as standing naked in freezing lakes in a misguided attempt to remove any individuality within the squad and create a united front.
But Botha says the plan back-fired and just made the players frightened of upsetting their coaches.
Now he claims the style of management imposed by fellow World Cup winner Johnson has made England’s players similarly unwilling to take responsibility for bringing their own individual flair to the way the team play.
Botha, who has followed the Six Nations campaign closely, said: ‘The players are frightened of making mistakes. It was exactly the same feeling we had back in 2003 after being in Kamp Staaldraad. We were frightened to do anything that we thought might upset the coach.
‘The Kamp enforced the team mentality to such an extent that it removed any thoughts of individual flair. Martin needs to give his players more leverage. That’s what happened when Jake White and a new regime came in. Three years later, we were world champions.’
Botha’s criticism, voiced at the Laureus World Sport awards, follows the fears expressed by England stars Simon Shaw and Riki Flutey in the build-up to what has been, for Johnson’s squad, an increasingly disappointing championship — and one that only a victory last night over the rampant French in Paris could cast in an optimistic light as next year’s World Cup looms.
Harsh words: South Africa's Bakkies Botha (left) says the England players are scared of upsetting their coach
While not criticising Johnson directly, both Shaw and Flutey stressed the need for England’s players to take more responsibility for the way they performed during matches and not hide behind the coaches’ game-plan.
Lock forward Shaw said in January: ‘They (the team) need to know that if an individual takes a chance he has the backing of both the players and the management. Right now everyone’s too worried about getting the win and not about the process. It’s strangling the management and the players.’
Three weeks later, Flutey added: ‘The last thing I want as a player is for a coach to tell me this is what I have to do within a structure. That takes away my vision and my flair.’
Botha insists that he does not intend his comments to imply any personal criticism of Johnson. But the Springbok fears that his fellow lock’s massive reputation as the man who lifted the World Cup for England places huge pressure on his ability to make the leap from player to management.
Team bonding: The infamous Springbok trip to Kamp Staaldraad backfired
‘England are definitely struggling,’ said Botha. ‘Martin was a great player and leader. But when you are a youngster and being told what to do by a man of Martin’s stature, it is hard not to fall into the trap of wanting to please all the time.
‘That’s what happened to us in 2003 after going through the Kamp. The end result was the opposite to what the management were trying to create and the results didn’t come.
‘On paper the England team are full of world-class players, but they are not playing like that in Test matches. They don’t seem prepared to back themselves.’
Botha, who has watched all England’s games on TV in South Africa, also questions why England’s players — including Jonny Wilkinson, who was dropped from the starting line-up against France — appear to be playing better rugby for their clubs than for their country.
‘England are a better team than they are appearing right now,’ said Botha. ‘But the players seem to be playing their best rugby for their clubs and that suggests something’s wrong with England.
‘Of course, it is a step up from club to Test level, but the confidence the players are showing for their clubs is not in evidence when they put on the white jersey.
‘Whatever happens, Martin must stick with his players and beliefs because we are only 18 months away from the next World Cup. What has to change, however, is the players’ attitude.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-1259467/Springbok-Botha-claims-Englands-rugby-stars-haunted-Martin-Johnsons-regime-fear.html#ixzz19DP9xCFv
Before we set out, I got some advice from a mate of mine from Durban who was friendly with one of the instructors running the camp.
He said that one of the drills required you to bury an egg and cook it underground, underneath a fire, and urinate on the egg so that the moisture cooked it. He told me we would only get one match, so I should smuggle in a lighter, which I did, lodged in the inside of my cap.
After about two-and-a-half hours in the bus, we were nearing Warmbaths (now Bela-Bela) when we were told to put on blindfolds. About 20 minutes later the bus stopped, and we were told to take the blindfolds off and get off the bus. It was pitch black and we were in the middle of nowhere. Then the shouting started.
Instructors, dressed in khaki, screamed at us to get into a formation, but none of us had been to the army, so it was a complete mess. Eventually we got into some kind of formation, while these guys laughed their heads off at us. They then told us to get onto a truck that would normally transport cattle or sheep.
Before we climbed on, we were searched for contraband, and I thought to myself, "Holy shit, I've got the Bic lighter on the inside of my cap."
There we were, 30 okes standing naked and being searched, basically spreading our cheeks and opening our arms. The instructors started going through all our clothes, but somehow they missed the lighter strapped inside my cap.
After 10 minutes of marching down the road in the dark, we were stopped alongside a bunch of poles at the side of the road. What followed was horrible. There were two guys to a pole and off we went down the road. Every now and again the instructors would tell us to swap partners - "Poles down, swap!" Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha would just find another pole, because they are the same height and they wanted to stay together, but the instructors spotted their little trick and our punishment was to leopard-crawl through the fire brush.
It was ridiculous, but typical army stuff about everyone paying the price if individuals stepped out of line.
At that stage we were surprised at what was going on, and obviously knew it was no joke, but no one had a clue how long it was going to go on for.
About an hour-and-a-half after that, we entered a little enclosure in the bush. Dawn was breaking and Rudolf (Straeuli) was now on the scene (up until then we had only been with the instructors). He sat on a little ledge, and on the ground before us were boxing headgear and gloves.
"Form a circle," he said. "Ja, we need to get to know each other. There are a lot of rivalries here, and in the World Cup only certain guys can start. Players will be competing for the same positions. We need to understand the dynamics of that, so we must fight."
First up was Thinus Delport against Werner Greeff. Now, Werner, who can be a difficult fellow at the best of times, had just thrown his toys, and his sense of humour was gone. He's a good but tough guy who's had a lot of personal upheaval in his life and doesn't take any shit. We could see he wasn't impressed with this camp at all, and now the first fight was between the fullbacks.
Werner wasn't really interested in fighting at first, but then he took a few shots from Thinus and realised, "OK, I'm not really proving anything, I'm just getting a klap." He got angry and that's when the fight really started.
Jaws dropped. Selborne Boome, our quiet intellectual, thought he was in a time warp. He went to De Wet Barry and asked, "Is this for real?"
That was the typical type of match-up, but there were also some strange ones. There was the uncalled-for bill between Corné Krige, the captain, and Schalk Burger, the 20-year-old.
In another fight, Derick Hougaard got punched in the nose by Breyton Paulse. He came out of the ring yelling, "My neus is af (my nose is broken)! My neus is af." Rudolf threw him back into the circle and said, "Keep on fighting, your three minutes are not up."
None of the 15 fights were uncontested. In each of them, the guys got stuck in - you had to fight. The instructors were egging everyone on like mad. They were loving it. That's why I say I wasn't traumatised by Staaldraad, as I learnt a heck of a lot about myself and about the individuals around me. None of it helped me or South Africa in the 2003 World Cup, but would I do it over again? Yes, I probably would, because I had never done something remotely like it. I realised that you can go without food for three days - as long as you have got water, which we always had access to - and that you can function without sleep.
For me, Staaldraad was an educational experience and I quite enjoyed the challenge. Look, it wasn't pleasant. My fight with Christo Bezuidenhout was like a Clash of the Titans. All the fights between the big boys were.
Apart from the heavyweight clashes, there were the athletic match-ups where a guy like Gcobani Bobo, throwing jabs, knocked Louis Koen out twice.
On the first night, the winners of the tug-of-war had been promised food. Our group won and they brought a box which contained two live chickens.
"There's your supper, there's the fire, do whatever you want," said Rudolf.
The Afrikaans guys said: "Lekker, we can sort this out and share the meat."
But Rudolf said: "No, no, no! Joe (van Niekerk), you must kill the first chicken."
Now, Joe was the type of guy who thought chickens came from Nando's. He had never considered how they got there, so he started to panic and hyperventilate. "No, I can't kill a chicken!" he said.
"Joe, kill the chicken, just wring its fucking neck," Rudolf replied. Joe had never killed anything in his life, and wrenched the poor creature's neck, without too much conviction. I can't explain how horrific it was. We all stood there like bloody barbarians watching poor Joe hyperventilate and reluctantly torture the unfortunate fowl. He just didn't want to do it and didn't know how. Eventually Joost van der Westhuizen had to intervene by grabbing the chicken and putting it out of its misery.
The instructors then took us to a dam, and it was off with our kit again and into the water. We had to wade in up to our chins. It was the coldest water I had ever experienced, and I had never felt so frozen in my life.
We were given a drill where we were each handed a rugby ball that had to be pumped full of water, and when all the balls were full, we could come out. You had to find the ball in the water that had your number on it - there were no names on this camp, each guy had a number, as this was about taking your identity away and then building you up again as a team.
We were never ever going to pump our balls up with water. We had bike pumps with little nozzles, and you had to suck the water into the pump and then push it into the ball. The nozzles broke after two minutes.
We had been in for an hour- and-a-half when I saw that Stefan Terblanche was turning blue. His jaw was clattering and he looked as if he was about to freeze solid.
It was a bit easier for us big boys, because we have got some insulation, but I hated every second of it. I have still got real hassles with cold water, and I hate ice baths to this day because of that futile exercise.
While we were freezing our bollocks off, Rudolf and the instructors were having a braai in front of the dam, making boerewors rolls with tomato sauce and mustard, and drinking beers. The guys were gatvol, and began to talk about a rebellion. Corné came to me and asked me what I thought.
I replied: "Whatever we do, we've got to do it together because if we're disjointed ... Maybe they actually want us to make a stand together."
We started walking out of the water, but one guy stayed in. Faan Rautenbach is one of the most decent okes you will ever meet, and it's not in him to challenge authority. Faan just stayed there, chin deep, not budging while the instructors went mad. "Julle is nie 'n fokken span nie, klim terug in die water (You are not a fucking team, get back into the water)!" Then they shot two rounds past us into the water. We shat ourselves. And so we got back in ... After an eternity, the command came: "Out of the water, line up."
We always had to march in a formation of three and had to sing as we marched. The big singers were Louis Koen, De Wet, Corne and myself.
The guys were really tired - we hadn't slept for 40 hours - so we didn't give a flying continental about being self-conscious about whose member was hanging out or shrivelled up. We also didn't know we were being filmed because Dale McDermott, our technical analyst, was a part of the team and always had a video camera with him, as he did at the camp.
Eventually we were told to put our kit on. It was nearly dusk, and the next challenge was to stay awake through the second night.
The instructors told us they were going to drop each of us off on our own in the bush. We would have one match to make a fire, and then we would have to do the egg thing (as described earlier) and cook a drumstick. But we weren't allowed to eat the food when it had been cooked.
It was late winter on the Highveld and really cold. They told us that if our fires went out, we couldn't get help from anyone else, and if they found tracks from us walking away from our camps, the team would pay.
Rudolf was going from camp to camp asking each of us what we thought about the World Cup - this was his one-on-one time with us.
In the morning we got picked up one by one. We all smelt like braai smoke and hadn't really slept, but we were happy to see each other after being on our own for 12 hours. The instructors lined us up in a formation and we had to put our egg, wood and drumstick in front of us for inspection. "Is your drumstick cooked?" they asked. "Very nice, eat it. Egg? Cooked?"
They tested the egg by banging it on your forehead, and if yours wasn't cooked, you literally got egg on your face. If you had got it right, you could peel it and chow it. My egg was half done, so I got half the egg down my face and I chowed the rest.
That night the staggering troops were told that the next exercise would be staying awake.
The instructors lined us up and we had to lie lepel (spoon) to keep each other warm and retain body heat. So there we were, 30 okes in lepel formation watching the stars, with the instructors (who were taking hourly shifts) telling us about the stars and other boring stories in order to try and make us fall asleep. Our job was to keep each other awake.
We all made it through the night, though, and the next morning they told us we had a fun day ahead.
They said we were going to go abseiling and jump out of helicopters into the water, but we had to get to the top of the mountain first. The grand finale saw us all flown out in a big army chopper and dropped into the water. However, each group had one or two guys who couldn't swim, so we had to make sure there were enough swimmers in the water to catch them and guide them through the water.
We were then given materials to make rafts in groups of seven or eight, and told we had to use them to go across the dam and back. We had 20 minutes to build the raft, which had to be done in the nude in the water. Afterwards, an instructor's whistle went and we were back in formation. We marched and did push-ups. We were thinking to ourselves, "Holy shit, is this it? Is the camp over?" But then they marched us all the way to the middle of the bush, gave us GPS navigators and said: "Here are the co-ordinates, you guys get yourselves back to base."
We had been left in the middle of nowhere and it was getting dark and cold. We wanted to make a fire but our allocation of matches had been used up the previous night. I had my Bic and I wanted to pull it out, but I knew the instructors would then wonder how we started the fire.
Then the instructors said: "OK, you've got 30 seconds to fall asleep in that tent. It was probably a 15-man tent, so we had to pack in like sardines. I promise you, I was lying on my back, the one half of my body was on someone else's half and his half was on mine. We were told to sleep, which wasn't a problem. We slept for about an hour-and-a-half before the instructors woke us up with gunshots and told us to get into formation.
"Congratulations," they said. "It's all over and there's a braai on the go for you." We all tucked into lamb chops and guzzled beers - it was the best braai I have ever had. There was an immense sense of relief. We were alive! These okes had nearly killed us, they had broken us, and here we were having beers with them.
The vibe was really good on the bus. The guys had a feeling of togetherness and felt a sense of achievement. Rugby was the last thing on our minds because we were just so amazed at ourselves and were talking and telling "army" stories.
We talk and laugh about Sta
OPINION: CRICKET FOLLOWERS may have already absorbed the news involving England's preparations for the Ashes, the biggest series on the international calendar. Yet to bowl a ball, the holders already have two frontline pacemen injured, James Anderson and Chris Tremlett. Anderson is viewed as a key part of any defence of the urn; Tremlett is clawing his way back after last playing a test in 2007. Each faces the most important few months of his career.
How were they hurt? It would be nice to report they were casualties of a gruelling season in England; a fielding accident, a torn hamstring while running between the wickets, even an ungainly fall while trotting down the pavilion steps. But, no. The pair suffered rib injuries while boxing during a recent "boot camp" in Germany. Anderson is racing to be fit for the first test; Tremlett's prospects are better though his preparation has still been hampered.
The time has come, surely, to question the value of such exercises. England's players convened for five days in Bavaria, where they were compelled to hike, abseil down cliffs, spar against each other, and visit the Dachau concentration camp. Quite what they might be expecting in Australia is unclear, but if there's ever a need to escape out hotel windows, or fight through angry mobs and run to the ground, they'll certainly be having the last laugh.
How the boot camp might benefit England's cricket, however, is another story. Coach Andy Flower seems to think it might help his players deal with the hostility of Aussie conditions, particularly the crowds. Skipper Andrew Strauss likes the idea of building character and developing togetherness. The phrase "team-bonding" has been mentioned a few hundred times if it has been mentioned once. It's as if everyone's supposed to forget that it's just a contrived Boy Scout outing.
It's hard not to imagine that, by the time the opening Ashes test rolls around on November 25, the Germany experience will be irrelevant to England. When reputations are on the line, tests are to be won or lost and there's not a safety harness in sight, the memory of hiking through the forest is unlikely to be of much comfort. When Mitchell Johnson starts reversing it at 150km/h, the abseiling lessons may no longer seem that important.
As Dan Jones of the London Evening Standard asked recently, "when did the cult of corporate claptrap get so drilled down into sport? It used to be that sport itself was a form of team-building; an ipso facto motivating tool, as recognised by public schools, the armed forces and pink-shirted Masters of the Universe in the City. Now it seems we have to team-build the [sports] teams, with no motivational speaker too silly; no outward-bound group-hug hogwash too embarrassing."
What also feels a bit cringe-worthy is the recent trend towards taking sports teams to major battlefields, as if to emphasise some sort of similarity between war and competitive pursuits. Sport can be nationalistic enough these days, as we saw earlier this month when a bunch of maniacal Serbian supporters forced the abandonment of their team's Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy. At a time when it's important to keep things in perspective, the war parallels can be quite unhelpful.
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To be fair to the England cricketers, though, they are far from the worst example. South African rugby supporters are still embarrassed by the antics of their pre-world cup squad in 2003 and the infamous "Kamp Staldraad" exposure, where the players were forced, amongst other indignities, to climb into foxholes naked and sing the national anthem while ice-cold water was poured over their heads. Cue renditions of God Save the Queen and the All Blacks haka.
Ahead of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, England coach Brian Ashton enlisted the help of the Royal Marines to put his players through a variety of irrelevant exercises, including entering the darkened, smoke-filled hull of a ship to rescue pretend passengers. Ashton was so taken with the drills he even took the Marines' player assessments into account when he finalised his tournament squad. In the end? They fell at the very hurdle they'd aimed to clear. The final one.
Australia have also dabbled in the practice, notably ahead of the 2006 Ashes campaign when John Buchanan organised an outback camp that included such cricket-worthy pastimes as pushing cars uphill. Stuart MacGill was injured during the camp; Shane Warne was quoted later as saying, "after a bit I just turned to the coach and said: `I'm as weak as piss, I hate your guts and I want to go home. You're a dickhead'." And for once, he had a point.
Neither have New Zealand been immune to the lure of such quackery. John Hart hauled his All Blacks off to Hobsonville once where they were unfortunate enough to not only endure another meaningless military style training camp, but also to make the acquaintance of "Colonel" Andrew Martin, who would soon become their manager. On a slightly different note, Gilbert Enoka once took the New Zealand cricketers sailing before a series-clinching defeat against Sri Lanka.
Call me old fashioned, but the idea of the England cricketers going out and playing toy soldiers immediately ahead of such a high-profile event makes about as much sense as an inflatable dartboard. It's yet another example of how sports psychology can cause more harm than good if not closely monitored, along with those nonsense peer assessment, and leadership programmes. It's true, though, that England are confident that no serious damage has been inflicted. But e
This is exclusive footage of the Springbok rugby team's 'Kamp Staaldraad' described variously as a 'boot camp' and a motivational camp. The Boks spent three days and four nights here, a month before the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Corné Krige: 'I knew it was going to be tough but I didn't know just how tough it was really going to be.'
Ricardo: 'There were many times when you felt like giving up.'
The nation woke up to big headlines last Sunday morning... 'Boks Trained at Gunpoint' ... 'Naked Players Forced into Freezing Lake'. The reports set off a countrywide debate that's been raging throughout the week. But what really happened at the camp?
Immediately after the Springbok World Cup squad was announced, the 30-man team was whisked off to a remote farm near Thabazimbi, north of Pretoria. Only some of the senior players like veteran scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen had an inkling of what lay ahead.
Joost van der Westhuizen (Springbok scrumhalf): 'I knew it was going to happen; we just didn't know when. And the only players that knew was myself and Corné.'
But they couldn't have anticipated what was waiting for them when they arrived. For three days the Springboks endured physically and mentally grueling exercises, with minimal sleep, hardly any food, basic water rations and exposure to the elements.
Team manager Gideon Sam believes that because the game is about toughness and discipline, this type of camp plays a role in the team's overall training.
Gideon Sam (Springbok Manager): 'I would say that's mild if you compare it to what blacks for instance go through in terms of what their cultures do in initiation. It is a tough, tough process...'
Ruda: 'So you have no problem with this?'
Gideon: 'I have no problem. I would actually - if there are any teams that would like to build spirit amongst their members - I would recommend it.'
With a relatively young and inexperienced squad, it was important to find a way to make the team 'gel' - according to coach Rudolf Straeuli.
Rudolf Straeuli (Springbok coach): 'Most of it was team building, the rest was also based fitness-wise, where we had a consultation with our fitness coach and we were in a conditioning stage at that time when we did that camp and also to toughen them up mentally as well as physically.'
Gideon: 'There are two things in my mind that I brought across to management. I said, 'Guys, one of the things that we [have] really need to be very strong on is the whole question of discipline'. Secondly was the whole question of physically being fit and it has been proven. We were the fittest team at the World Cup.'
Joost: 'It took away the cultural differences. It took away the provincial differences. It took away the age differences. We were all on the same level and that is the only way we could have gone into that World Cup.'
Management did not turn to the traditional sources when they decided to include this training module. Instead, they used Adriaan Heijns, an ex-member of the police Task Force who has been working with South African rugby as a security consultant since 1995.
Adriaan spent ten years in the Task Force, during which time he was involved in selection and training of potential Task Force members. He brought the video footage to Carte Blanche to clear up misconceptions he says were created by inaccurate press reports. Photographs had also been leaked to the papers by other sources. Adriaan explained the rationale behind some of the methods used.
Ruda: 'Why did they have to take their clothes off?'
Adriaan Heijns (Security Consultant):'When you're naked, all your pretences sort of fall away a little bit. So when everybody is naked it sort of leveled the playing field. The basis of the camp and the aim of the camp was first of all to instill discipline in the team. The second reason was to remove all prejudice and different cultural background and racism, if there were any, and thirdly to try and stimulate the national pride and passion to be a Springbok.'
South African rugby has been heading deeper into crisis over the last few years, with record defeats, allegations of racism and a string of coaches being hired and fired. With the World Cup looming, was management desperately grasping at straws?
Rudolph: 'You've got to look at it in perspective. We started with planning for the World Cup already last year. We did also involve the Sport Science Institute. We involved a lot of professionals and consultants and the need was there for the players to do team bonding and team building. And that was only four days in the whole year of World Cup
preparation.'
Joost: 'In three days you learn a lot more about your mind than I have learned in the first four or five years of my career.'
Ruda: 'You keep referring to the impact this can have on your mental strength. But, if one looks at it, it looks so very physical.'
Joost: 'There's a difference between carrying tar poles this size between ten of you - which happened in the first game -than sitting in a dam where it's cold and you are not physically busy. What are you going to do when you start to shiver? Are you going to relax, keep your body cold, or are you going to talk to each other by saying, 'Don't worry, maybe just five minutes, let's go, let's stick. Let's stick together.' Whereas when you carry a tar pole like this and you have two kilometres to carry this thing and it's done. With this sense you don't know how long you are going to stay there. So it's all about the mind.'
Adriaan: 'Throughout this whole camp, every single one of them struggled at some or other point and the team pulled them through.'
In this exercise the Springboks stood naked in an ice-cold lake and had to pump rugby balls full of water. This was to unbalance the ball and test their co-ordination and communication skills.
Joost: 'And we struggled with the pumps because the one pin broke and then another broke and then they said, 'The moment the rugby balls are pumped up we can leave. We can get out of it.' '
Captain Corné Krige decided to take the lead.
Corné Krige (Springbok Captain): 'A few of the guys sort of winked to me to go over to their side and they said, 'We have got to get out of this water or we are going to freeze to death.' So I had a look around and saw that a lot of the guys were quite sore and I made a decision and said, 'That's it. We are going out.' And one thing with these camps that I have experienced before - I have been close to this, but not as tough at Saldanha - if you make a decision, you make a decision as a team, and you back - even if it's the wrong one - you go for it. And I said to the guys, 'Let's go', and we started walking out. And they were very upset and sent us back in.'
Joost: 'The instructors said, 'No, get back into the water'. And the guys said, 'But it's cold.' And they said, 'No, get back into the water, there is a reason for doing this.' And they went back into the water.'
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Ruda: 'No threats with guns?'
Joost: 'Not at all. There was pointing of fingers but not guns, definitely not guns.'
Ruda: 'Was a gun ever pointed at anyone?'
Joost: 'No. There were two times that guns were fired. The one was as a starting signal for the guys to go into the water. The second one was on our last day we were allowed to have a nap and we were woken up by gunshots.'
Ruda: 'Were you woken up every fifteen minutes, as was reported?'
Joost: 'How can you be woken every 15 minutes if we didn't have sleep for three days?'
Ricardo: 'In all honesty, I never had a gun held to my head, nor was I told, 'You must do it'. I wanted to do it. And I believe the rest of the team wanted to do it because the goal of the camp was to become a unit.'
Fullback Ricardo Laubscher admits that the lake was freezing but that it wasn't very different from normal training when they have to sit in ice water for rehabilitation. For him, the benefits of this sort of drill far outweighed any discomfort.
Ricardo Loubscher (Springbok Fullback): 'One of the positive things was that we learnt to stand together. We learnt to help each other, because in times like those it was difficult, so one doesn't have a choice. We had to support each other. If I could have done something like this ten years ago, I would have because I always wanted to go through this sort of process.'
Another allegation leveled at the camp was the stripping of their dignity by making them leopard crawl naked, and humiliating them into submission.
Corné: 'Some of the guys were chafing from all the walking and being wet and then being dry and sand between your legs, and some of the guys were chafing very badly. So one or two of the big guys said, 'Can we please take our pants off?' And they said, 'Yes you are welcome, but if one takes it off ... one for all ... everybody takes it off.' So we all took our clothes off, and what happens when somebody does something wrong is that you get punished for it. It's like if you make a mistake on the field; if one person makes a mistake then it affects the whole team. So we made a mistake and we had to crawl and nobody had their pants on, so everybody decided very quickly to put their pants back on. So that is why we were crawling around naked, it wasn't said, 'Take off your kit and then crawl.' '
Ricardo: 'It was done, but it wasn't done to humiliate us or anything.'
Joost: 'I saw it as a laugh. It was fun, but sore.'
Critics have called it old method thinking, a throwback to the old South Africa, enforced discipline at the cost of individual creativity.
'Instead, there is over-emphasis on controlled aggression', says sports psychologist Andre Roux.
Andre Roux (Sports Psychologist): 'Nowadays in peak performance in elite athletes and winning teams you need the flair and creativity of each player. You need energy to flow. Now that stalls the energy, if you are under fear all the time.'
Joost: 'For a city guy to go and cook an egg in the bush, that's fun. 'What am I going to do?' It's creative. 'How am I going to build my fire?' We had a little piece of match like this... and now we have to make a fire. You are in the bush alone and you have never made a fire before now. 'Okay how am I going to build this fire? This is what I am going to do. How am I going to cook my egg? What piece of wood am I going to use to cook my chicken?' Isn't that creative?'
After a night out in the cold with just a chicken drumstick and an egg that they had to cook but were not allowed to eat, the squad was re-united - tired and hungry. Whose egg had mysteriously gone missing? Who ate their chicken
before the time? The players were put to the test.
Ruda: 'This looks so childish and unnecessary. Why?'
Adriaan: 'In making small things important and attention to detail, that is also directly linked to sport and to rugby. Because they were instructed right from the beginning how to cook these things and if they listened, the guys that listened had food the next day. The guys that didn't listen had egg on their face.'
And punishment was served. The five offenders were put through the notorious, back breaking chocolate box and beertjie exercises, while the rest of the team were made to watch.
Corné: 'They gave us a big metal ball that is tied to a short piece of railway track. And there is also a little chocolate box - which is an ammunition box that is filled with cement but it's quite heavy. But the fantastic thing about that was the other 25 guys stood and watched. And when we finished they approached one of the guys who had driven us around and said, 'Listen, we want to do it. We want to do the same'. And I never expected them to do it because it was very tough. But they said that if we had to go through it then they will go through it. But then we had to stand there and sing the national anthem. The guys were so tired. You are really more tired than you have ever been on the field. When you do get tired on the field you think,' Well, I have been here and I have been past this much worse.' '
These situations are intended to translate to real scenarios on the rugby field.
Corné: 'That is exactly what we learnt at the camp, that we spoke about and that every guy must give his everything for the team. That if he's ill-treated and he is given the yellow card, and he is in the sin bin for ten minutes and he is watching from the sidelines like he watched at the camp. He is watching how we struggle with 14 men against 15.'
But these tough-guy tactics are unnecessary in any type of sports training, according to Andre.
Andre: 'I'd say they were trying to experiment to see if such a thing can work, but it's to the extreme because it's based on fear and its based on breaking the person down. You break the person down by putting him under a lot of stress. You break him down by taking away his integrity; meaning walking around naked or doing the things they did. So what you are basically doing is you are brainwashing firstly by taking away everything that he believes is his own and then build him up your way. That is the typical military way and you do it by instilling a lot of fear. And if you can then learn to face your fears and you can live through it, of course you are going to be more mentally tough. And you are going to be more disciplined. But did it make them win? No. Is it applicable to an elite team? No. Is it applicable to any team that maybe want to go and kill other people? Yes.'
Adriaan: 'We gave them numbers and those numbers were their communication method.
So we took their identity away in a big way. A lot of critics will say that goes for military conformity. That was the idea because first you have to be gelled as a team and then you get your personal identity back then you can have all your creativity and stuff like that.'
Rudolf: 'This exercise has been done before. It was not a trial and error kind of situation and, like I said, there were no injuries and they basically came out of that camp physically fitter and tougher. And mentally much harder.'
According to Piet Heymans, CEO of the South African Rugby Players Association, other top rugby playing nations told him that in the professional arena places like 'Kamp Staaldraad' would never be entertained.
Rudolph: 'English did the same kind of training with the SAS. In the past the national team did other exercises.'
Sports psychologists argue that players need to master the mind in order to master the body. Techniques are used to replace failure thought patterns with success thought patterns.
Andre: 'Anybody that suffered together is going to feel close together. Does that really mean that it's team cohesion? You might have team members saying, 'Yes, we feel good together as a team. Yes we have achieved what we wanted. We feel team spirit.' Of course, it's because they have suffered together. You might as well take two people who suffered in a township together - they also have team spirit. But that is not the team spirit that you need for peak performance.'
No doubt the Springboks did suffer together on several occasions during the camp. One night all 30 of them were crammed into a pit covered with a tarpaulin. A recording of 'The Haka' was played intermittently during the night and they were doused with cold water to keep them awake. By many people's standards this was considered barbaric.
Corné: 'It's probably mentally the toughest part of the camp, that we were put in this hole and originally we were just put in there and it was dark and you couldn't see each other. And I tell you what - it sorted out huge problems in that hole because every guy spoke from the heart, because at that point we were really tired. Ashwin spoke from a black player's point of view about things that bothered him and he was honest and the guys agreed and said, 'This is the way we have to go and from today we are brothers and nobody can ever separate us.' It was a good exercise.'
Ricardo: 'For me, that was one of the times that I felt I had reached breaking point, where I could just pack my stuff and go. But then you look around and you see how many guys are struggling and that just made you more determined to push through.'
Corné: 'And now and then the Haka would play and the Haka sort of upset the guys quite a bit and they started singing our national anthem. And every time the Haka played we would sing so loud that we would block out the Haka. It was quite an emotionally charged time in the hole.'
Joost: 'That's why we sang the anthem in the last game against New Zealand. When they sang the Haka, when we heard the Haka we started to sing the national anthem. And that is the connection we made, and that was the pact we made.'
Corné: 'People are going to look at the camp and try to find an excuse for why we didn't do well at the World Cup. Look at our players, look at what we did on the field and don't look at a camp that happened a month before and that had more positive spin-offs for us as a team and bonded us more as a team than we could ever have imagined. And that is why this team stuck together and we will be world champions.'
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