Training in Isolation

By Scott Nies

Joe Rusert-Cuddy, the captain for the Colorado State men’s rugby team, has been without his most beloved companion — competition. Like many other sports, rugby has undergone a complete upheaval within its community and gameplay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While professional athletes have been able to resume activity, athletes like Rusert-Cuddy that earn their stripes on the collegiate level have been benched for a little over a year. Without the consistency of team practices, Rusert-Cuddy has found a routine in isolated training sessions he hopes will keep him mentally and physically ready as he prepares for professional competition and declares for the Major League Rugby draft.

This is a small photo series aiming to provide insight into what one of Rusert-Cuddy’s sessions entails.

Rusert-Cuddy begins his daily session inside the Colorado State University recreational center. Due to COVID-19 precautions, the capacity of the campus gym is vastly decreased. Gone are the days of team lifts, as now those that choose to work out operate solely under their own accountability.

After the indoors portion of his session, Rusert-Cuddy moves outside as he looks to replicate some aspects of what a normal rugby practice would have looked like.

Although not a normal practice, Rusert-Cuddy begins it as hundreds of standard practices have started in the past — with conditioning. Using a small hill at the Lagoon field on Colorado State’s campus, Rusert-Cuddy sprints up the slope to emulate the explosive leg drive he’ll need to compete at the professional level.

Playing the open-side flanker position, Rusert-Cuddy puts an immense focus on agility and lateral quickness. Changing where his center of gravity is whilst completing these cone drills allows him to loosely imitate the actions that are required while contesting a ruck. Attempting to replicate various game scenarios is a technique Rusert-Cuddy has been using to make up for the inability to have normal practices.

Rusert-Cuddy practices his technique under the high ball, one of the few rugby-centric drills he can do by himself. A field void of teammates and equipment paints a picture of the mental fortitude one must have to continue to train at a high level despite your sport being a distant thought.

“I am just trying to be optimistic that all of this training will pay off,” Rusert-Cuddy said. “I would much rather grind through the uncertainty and have it pay off than be unprepared when the time to compete comes.”