Branding and Marketing Executive | Rugby coach and Ironman triathlete | Angel investor
EQUITY is a very important value in my life (more than EQUALITY, but that’s another post for another day). At last night’s Denver Barbarians Rugby Club training, we had a scrimmage against our “sister” rugby club, Colorado Gray Wolves. I used to coach a women's team back in New York, and many of my current players have played in co-ed touch rugby teams, but this was the first time any of us had played in a men vs women game. Specific aspects were adapted and controlled to maintain safety and security, but otherwise it was a regular scrimmage. In our sport, soft skills such as rugby IQ, spatial awareness, and communication are no less important than hard “skills” such as strength, physicality, and aggression, and under last night’s controlled conditions, the soft skills in my players were thoroughly tested. The result was a highly competitive, highly skillful, and highly equitable game of rugby where both teams adapted, learned, and had fun, three key tenets of my coaching (and leadership) philosophy. Moral of the story: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. This is true in sport and in business, and to achieve equity we must recognize these inequalities, make adjustments, and adapt. But here’s the rub: blindly putting our thumb on the scale to engineer equity, is the absolute antithesis of equity. #passion #purpose #performance #equity #leadership #coaching #timrhutchins
Last night we engaged in a live scrimmage with our close friends at Colorado Gray Wolves, to help with their preparation for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) season which the kicks-off on Saturday. Both squads benefited from stiff competition, and played some excellent rugby within controlled parameters of contact and physicality. When working with players of this high skill level and rugby IQ, we achieved a highly competitive environment while maintaining safety and security for all the players. Thanks Coach Jamie Burke and everyone at Gray Wolves. Let’s do it again soon! #rugby #USAclubrugby #USArugby #DenverBarbarians #Barbos #ColoradoGrayWolves
