BAD WEATHER FACT SHEET
Everybody Plays at Hillfoot’s – whatever the weather!!
Summary
- Waterproofs for all sessions – even if not always worn
- Warm layers advised – they can always take some off and put in tent
- Dry change of clothes – key to change into after a wet/cold session
- A good breakfast – provides fuel for energy and keeping warm
To help all parents, this factsheet details the club’s recommendations for junior players regarding bad weather, which everyone knows we get in Scotland!! Small children get cold extremely quickly – twice as fast as an adult – so warm clothing is really important. If children get cold and/or wet, they can get very dispirited and quickly lose interest in playing rugby. Our coaches are very aware of this and therefore do everything they can to keep the children very active and warm on bad weather days. But you can play your part by ensuring the following:
- 1. Waterproof clothing
Considering the amount of rainfall Scotland has, it is amazing how many kids do not have waterproof clothing with them!! When it is wet, we strongly recommend that your child brings both a waterproof jacket and over trousers to wear.
The club has a stock of waterproof training gear, which costs £28 for the jacket and top, and has the Hillfoots logo and team name on them – these are ideal for such conditions, and are on sale at every home training session. Any other waterproof clothing that they already have will do just as well, however.
- 2. Other appropriate clothing
Besides waterproof gear for when it is wet, the other big problem is cold weather. 2 or 3 thinner layers are the key to keeping warm – they can of course always take something off if they get too hot!
Many children wear an additional layer of a thermal top under their actual rugby shirt as well in cold conditions – these are ideal. A fleece hat is also great at keeping kids warm – we’re getting some Hillfoots ones! Try to bring tracksuit trousers for your child to wear over their shorts too, so that they do not start off being cold.
Gloves are not ideal in rugby terms, but for the Micro’s players of P1-P3 gloves that are the tight, fingerless ones which provide some warmth but still allow them to grip and handle the ball correctly are fine. For P4 and above players, ideally we’d like to discourage the use of any sort of gloves.
- 3. Changes of clothing
On really bad days, bringing a change of clothing for your child is a good idea for a number of reasons. First, if they get cold and wet during a session, it can sometimes help to change into another dry shirt instead, part way through the training. Second, they can quickly get out of their wet and cold clothing at the end of the session, rather than waiting until they get home.
The club has changing rooms and hot showers which all junior members are welcome to use and the clubhouse will always be open to allow players to use these during home training sessions. Similar facilities are almost always available at our away clubs venues.
- 4. A good breakfast!
A good breakfast provides the fuel for a child to not only run around and play rugby, but also keep their body temperature up. As well as all the usual cereals, don’t forget the original and best Scottish breakfast of porridge – absolutely ideal!
We often get asked “Is training on this week, as it’s raining/windy/frosty/snowing?”
… and the answer is, almost always, YES!
Unless the weather is exceptionally bad, we always try to run our home training sessions. Examples of exceptionally bad are if the ground is so hard that it is not safe to play contact on, has snow lying, is flooded, or if it is too windy to pass the ball. In a typical season, we only have to cancel 2 or 3 sessions, so this is quite rare.
Sometimes, the conditions are marginal, e.g. the ground is very hard now, but the sun is coming up and it may improve in the short term. The coaches try to get to the ground half an hour before the session starts to check the pitches and the conditions, so please understand that there may be situations where we get there, and after some debate, make a decision that the conditions are not safe, and therefore cancel training at the last minute.
We fully understand how frustrating this is if you have already left home, but please understand that the coaching team has the safety of your children as its highest priority and will therefore try to avoid doing this unless deemed absolutely necessary. The club has also made use of the Alva Academy indoor sports hall to use during bad weather, so that the kids can still train and play.
We will shortly be using a web based team system called Teamer to send both an email and a text message to all players, which we will use to alert everyone quickly, in bulk, if a session has to be called off. So:
a) Please look out for these messages on a Sunday morning therefore;
b) Please do not just drop your child off at the club and then disappear, when the weather is doubtful! (in case we have to cancel at the last minute)
c) Likewise, please turn up before the end of the session to collect your children, in case we choose to finish early e.g. if kids are getting very cold.
Our experience is that the kids love having the parents around at the end of the sessions anyway, when we present each weeks prizes so why not come down early and support them by cheering them on!
