Arm waving by the defence at the Play the Ball.

[- psycho -]

you will find when a player points in a certain direction they think the ball will be played that way. by pointing, they are indicating to players in the defensive line to make sure a man is marked because it could be out wide and only 1 or 2 men marking 3 or 4 players on the attacking team. so basically its for markers to mark people so to say.

[warrior till i die]

- psycho - posted:
you will find when a player points in a certain direction they think the ball will be played that way. by pointing, they are indicating to players in the defensive line to make sure a man is marked because it could be out wide and only 1 or 2 men marking 3 or 4 players on the attacking team. so basically its for markers to mark people so to say.

But Psycho the defensive line should have already numbered up accordingly to players on either side of the play the ball.

[warrior till i die]

- psycho - posted:
you will find when a player points in a certain direction they think the ball will be played that way. by pointing, they are indicating to players in the defensive line to make sure a man is marked because it could be out wide and only 1 or 2 men marking 3 or 4 players on the attacking team. so basically its for markers to mark people so to say.

But Psycho the defensive line should have already numbered up accordingly to players on either side of the play the ball.

[antonlevay]

Welski posted:

Matthew posted:

Welski posted:
Is this just some newly developed weird hysterical affliction, like boxers that roll their heads about at news conferences, or is there some valid reason for the recent increase in this?

Head movement is one of the key elements to a boxers defense. A strong neck also helps to absorb puches to the head. Most boxers do a fair amount of work on developing the neck.

Before a fight boxers will roll their necks as part of their warm up in preperation to fight. Facing the media and their opponent at press conference is a stressful time for a boxer (especially considering how many fights now break out at press conferences) and so sub-conciously they associate press conferences with the need to defend themselves - hence they start rolling their necks in preperation to fight; although I suspect that a lot of them do it without realising!

I totally agree. I just find it very amusing watching it spread, they will be doing it on "Strictly Come Dancing" next. You know, it's a bit like the post match 'you know' mantra that nearly all footballers use knowadays...you know.

but you know they nicked that off andy greg you know

[adrenalinxx]

There are all sorts of different signals that rugby teams the ones I have come across are:

- Point left or right at the play the ball to indicate which direction the first marker is going to run

- Captain raising hands while defending so that the rest of the team follow his pace not the pace of the fastest player, often at kicks.

- Players pointing in the defensive line, sometimes it they do it to make sure that they have the right numbers on each side, if there are two players pointing at the same player then there is a problem. Alternatively when I played rugby we used it to annoy the opposition by pointing at certain players as if we were targeting them.

- Kickers raising their hands at kick offs to show that they are perparing to kick then lowering it when they kick to keep the players onside.

- Players raising their hands to call for the ball