Rugby Research and Injury
Prevention Group
2020 Summer Internship
What is RRIPG?
RRIPG is a non-profit organization at the forefront of knowledge on the safety and well-being of rugby athletes. Their goal is to help improve and encourage communication between health professionals in sports medicine and athletes. Professionals from a variety of backgrounds work at RRIPG to address the critical issue of player health. The group studies the rates and etiology of injury with a goal to generate evidence-backed prevention guidelines for players of all ages, genders, and skill levels. You can learn more about their mission and history at rugbyinjury.org.
What is Rugby?
Before joining the RRIPG team, I had little experience with rugby. Rugby is a team sport played across the globe. It is a contact sport characterized by high frequencies of collisions and injuries among players. Players attempt to touch the ball down over the goal line of the opposite team. Referred to as a “try” this is one of the main methods for scoring in rugby.
As I’ve progressed through the internship, I’ve started to learn more about the rules, objectives, and techniques in rugby. There are significant injury risks to rugby competition, as tackling is very frequent. Nonetheless, rugby is rapidly gaining popularity in the United States, especially since the introduction of Rugby-7s, a modified form of rugby in which there are only 7 players for each team on the playing field.
Rugby is INTERNATIONAL
Presentations: Summer Lecture Series
Every Wednesday night, RRIPG hosts a summer lecture series. Guest speakers present in their areas of expertise and current interns present on previously published research. For my first presentation, I presented research published in 2017 on head impacts in women’s rugby. Check out my powerpoint.
This is the title slide of my second SLS presentation.
What’s MY role at RRIPG?
As a summer intern, I have been assigned to various projects at RRIPG. Most frequently, I’ve been working manuscript writing, abstract writing, and quantitative data analysis. The internship has provided an excellent opportunity to build my skills as a scientific writer and presenter. I’m learning how to communicate in a clear and professional manner, while contributing to efforts to improve the safety and well-being of rugby athletes in the United States.
Recently, I’ve started to familiarize myself with the literature and published standards for injury coding in sports medicine. This includes the ICD-10-CM, CPT, and OSICS codes. My second SLS presentation is on the revision and implementation of OSICS (Orchard Sports Injury Classification System).
What do I ENJOY about working with RRIPG?
I enjoy the people and the collaborative environment at RRIPG. I feel supported and pushed to work hard in every assignment. I know that my experiences at RRIPG will serve me well in my future career and education. Check out RRIPG’s intern page to learn more about the other interns in my cohort.