San Diego Barracudas — Rugby League 101 Onboarding | ID Case Study by Christopher Welch

The Challenge

A sport almost no one in the US arrives already knowing

Rugby league is largely unknown in the United States. New adult players join the Barracudas with little or no exposure to the game, and the club's only onboarding was in-person coaching and word of mouth.

That created friction at exactly the moment that decides whether a recruit stays: the first few sessions. New players were unsure of the rules, their position, and what was expected of them; volunteer coaches repeated the same basics every season; and nothing existed to help a nervous newcomer prepare before showing up. For a volunteer-run club trying to grow the sport, that friction costs both recruitment and retention.

The San Diego Barracudas squad gathered on the field — The San Diego Barracudas, the city's first rugby league club (est. 2021), field men's and women's sides and are growing the sport in Southern California. Photo: San Diego Barracudas.

Discovery & Research

I started with the learners, not the content

I had an advantage most designers don't: I was also a volunteer assistant coach at the club, so I saw the friction on the field firsthand and had direct access to the learners. I still started formally, with an organizational analysis (mission, audiences, communication channels, and friction points) and a short Google Form surveying new and recent players, asking how they preferred to learn, what confused them, how confident they felt, and what got in their way.

What the new players told us

"Being shown in practice"

The most preferred way to learn, kinesthetic first, with short video and a quick guide as backup.

Play-the-ball & restarting after a tackle

The single biggest source of confusion, alongside the overall flow of the game.

Time was the top barrier

Named repeatedly, together with inconsistent attendance. Anything built had to be short and mobile-friendly.

Several came from rugby union

First-game confidence skewed low (several self-rated 2 of 5), and many were "still confused" about their position.

Responses were anonymous; findings are reported in aggregate.

The Insight

For ex-union players, prior knowledge was working against them

The research surfaced a problem most onboarding ignores. Several of the surveyed recruits already played rugby union, a different code with conflicting rules. Their instincts (contest every tackle, unlimited possession, ruck over the ball) are exactly wrong in rugby league. In learning terms this is negative transfer: existing knowledge actively interfering with new learning.

So the design had to do two jobs at once: build a clean league mental model for true beginners, and actively unlearn union habits for the experienced players, without confusing or alienating either group.

The design isolates these contrasts on purpose, so old reflexes get corrected instead of quietly reinforced.

The Solution

A hybrid "Contrast + Stand-Alone" onboarding design

Rather than one generic rulebook, I designed a sequence that teaches league cleanly while surgically addressing union carry-over only where it helps:

The four-stage sequence: orient everyone fast, teach league cleanly, drill it live, and leave a reference behind.

Intro micro-lesson: "Same ball, different game"

A 2–3 minute video / one-pager with a side-by-side graphic of the six biggest league-vs-union differences. Orients everyone fast.

Core league modules, taught independently

Tackle count & set completion, play-the-ball mechanics, the 10-metre onside line, positions & roles, and restarts & penalties, each standing on its own so true novices are never lost.

Optional "union contrast call-back" in each module

A clearly marked box that lets ex-union players connect (and correct) the dots, without derailing beginners who don't need it.

On-field scenario drills

Mixed-team drills act out common infractions; the coach calls "Union brain!" when an old reflex appears, turning negative transfer into a shared, low-stakes joke.

Quick-reference cheat sheet

Front: league fundamentals. Back: the "union traps" to avoid. Built for the phone, for players short on time.

The contrast at the heart of it

Rugby league versus the rugby-union habit, contrast by contrast
Situation	Rugby league	Rugby union (the old habit)
After a tackle	Play-the-ball restart	Ruck / contest on the ground
Tackle count	Six tackles, then hand over	Unlimited
Contesting the ball	Rarely contested; you keep your set	Contested at every breakdown
Defensive line	Retreat 10 metres	Offside at the ruck (≈ at the ball)
Restart / scrum	Uncontested	Contested
Drop goal value	1 point	3 points

The cheat sheet (concept)

Front · League fundamentals

Six tackles, then hand over
Play-the-ball to restart
Retreat 10 metres on defence
Know your position and role

Back · Top union traps

Don't contest the tackle
Don't ruck over the ball
Possession isn't unlimited
Drop goal is worth 1, not 3

The pocket cheat sheet, designed for the phone: fundamentals on the front, the union habits to unlearn on the back.

Designed Around Reality

Every choice traces back to what the learners said

"Time" was the top barrier, so the assets are short, modular, and mobile-first, usable in the gaps before or after practice.
Players learn best "being shown in practice," so the digital pieces support and reinforce on-field coaching rather than trying to replace it.
Play-the-ball was the #1 confusion, so it gets its own module and a prominent place on the cheat sheet.
Confidence going into a first game was low, so the sequence front-loads orientation and "what to expect" before rules detail.

Why this matters

Grounding the design in a real learner survey, not assumptions, is what turns "make a rules guide" into a targeted solution that removes the specific friction stopping new players from coming back.

Delivery & Measurement

What I handed off, and how it gets measured

I worked in a rapid ADDIE cycle with action mapping, keeping every piece tied to an on-field behavior: building the assets in Google Slides and Canva, running the intake survey through Google Forms, and packaging everything so the club could push it straight to players through Discord.

I handed the club a complete, editable onboarding kit: the sequenced Rugby League 101 deck, the "Same ball, different game" contrast, the pocket cheat sheet, and an intake-tracker spreadsheet that runs the pre/post confidence math automatically, plus all source files, so volunteers can run and maintain it without me.

From the actual deck

Title slide: Rugby League 101, New-Player Onboarding, San Diego Barracudas Rugby League Club, created for the club by Christopher Welch — Three slides from the delivered deck: the branded title, the play-the-ball core with its "union trap" call-out (negative transfer, handled in-line), and a clean rules card. Shown as excerpts; the full kit is the club's property.

Content slide: the six-tackle set and play-the-ball, with a highlighted Union Trap call-out box warning ex-union players not to contest the tackle — Three slides from the delivered deck: the branded title, the play-the-ball core with its "union trap" call-out (negative transfer, handled in-line), and a clean rules card. Shown as excerpts; the full kit is the club's property.

Measurement, built in

Rather than bolt evaluation on afterward, I designed it into the program. The intake survey's 1–5 confidence question doubles as a repeatable pre/post measure, so the club can track, each intake:

New-player confidence before a first game (the same 1–5 self-rating, run pre and post).
New-player retention into a second season.
Coach time spent re-explaining the basics each session.

The work also landed amid real momentum for the club: the Barracudas field men's and women's sides, called 2024 their biggest season yet on the back of an expanded sponsor roster, and launched a youth program, BarraKiddos, in December 2024, the growing pipeline of new players this onboarding is built to serve.