Rugby
ESPN staff 7y

All Blacks turn to ballet and cage fighting for inspiration

Rugby, Super Rugby

All Blacks scrum guru Mike Cron continues to develop his own coaching nous by spending time in other sports, including ballet and cage fighting.

On the day Cron, 61, re-committed to New Zealand Rugby until the 2019 Rugby World Cup, he revealed to Newshub how he continually evolves his own understanding of rugby by taking inspiration from other sports.

Regarded as the finest scrum brain of the professional era, Cron's immediate focus is on knocking over the British & Irish Lions and to aid that, he has spent time with Olympic bronze medallist shot-putter Tomas Walsh.

"Every year you have to be better than last year otherwise you shouldn't be here, so that's the first thing," Cron said. "I look at other sports really to try and upskill myself.

"In the past I've been to sumo wrestling in Japan or in America, the New York giants, Knicks, Yankees, Pittsburgh Penguins.

"This year I went to the Royal New Zealand ballet for their lifting and I went into cage fighting on the Gold Coast, looking at activities, how to get off the ground quickly, those sorts of things.

"Tom Walsh looked after me for a day -- the shot-putter -- and I watched him train with his coach Dale Stevenson. Last week I was with a volleyball coach.

"I am always looking at other sports to innovate and looking at how I can learn from them and transfer them into rugby and my players. You're always trying to find a better way of teaching your player."

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