May 27, 2025 • 8 mins
19-year-old Ryan Satterthwaite has died after he and some friends tried to recreate the controversial 'Run It Straight' sport in a park in Palmerston North.
His death has led to concerns that the sport is too dangerous to allow.
Patria Hume is a professor of Human Performance at AUT, she spoke to D'Arcy Waldegrave on Sportstalk about why the collisions in this sport are so dangerous.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk z'b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's eleven minutes after sevens. Yesterday, nineteen year old Ryan
southwait come to as injuries that we received during a
backyard copy cart version of the controversial run it straight
concept that wasn't officially under their auspices, but it was
a game that they played, and Ryan Southwaite has died.
(00:36):
As death has accelerated concerns around these styles of activities
that have gained huge traction across social media platforms recently,
like the inherent risks of these amateur collisions because they
are they're known, but maybe not enough to stop people
having a go I suppose all about education. We're joined
(00:58):
now by a Patria Hume, professor of human performance from
aut Good Evening. Patria absolutely devastating.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, Ryan's death was preventable and people do need to
understand the risks because when two people are running at
each other under these run it style conditions, the impact
forces are like jumping off the roof of your house
on your front. So that's the level of trauma that
your body is experiencing and especially the brain. So people
(01:29):
need to understand those risks so they can decide whether
they want to participate.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
That's a massive impact, and I suppose it's the ability
to well, you can't really control the position of the
impact and how you'd react to that. It's not really
something you have much command over in the middle of
that action.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, it happens in a very short amount of time,
and you've got unknown circumstances because you don't know how
the other person is going to react. And in these
types of run it style events, people are just running
at each other and there's no guidelines on the type
of tech. And so the work that we've done, you know,
the twenty five years in Rugby Smart and Nettle Smart
(02:10):
and trying to reduce impacts on people and minimize the
risk of these severe injuries. That's kind of being ignored
by people in the formal events that are being organized
and these copycat you know, activities where people are playing
in the backyard and they think it's fun, but really
the consequences are immense, and in this case it was
(02:33):
devastating because Ryan has died and his death was preventable.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Don't need a situation like this to put an exclamation
mark on the request and not, but it has happened.
If there's ever been an underlining of a piece of advice,
that is it. So I w'd like to think that
his death wasn't in vain and people learn from that,
And I suppose that's the only small positive out of this.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yes, Unfortunately, it takes a death or multiple deaths for
people to take action. And so the lessons from Ryan's
death are that the forces involved can be deadly, and
we've got to stop glorifying these types of activities and
events where the goal is to hurt someone. We need
to be participating and enjoyable sports and playground activities where
(03:20):
we can improve our social interaction and our cultural engagement
and participate safely.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You basically can't mitigate, can you in a situation like
this when you're running straight out at each other? Is
there any form of control these semi professional competitions can
put in place, because I believe they've got medics on
site and so on and so forth. This was in
someone's backyard, but we can we even control these outcomes regardless.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So with medics being on site, that enables you to
identify the concussions and to deal with the injuries. After
they've occurred. But that's like the ambulance at the bottom
of the cliff. We need to stop people falling off
those cliffs or the house analogies I gave before to
ensure that people don't get injured in the first place. Now,
(04:08):
for rugby, for example, there is compulsory tackle technique instruction,
and there's progressive engagement in contact from tag rugby you know,
right through to full professional all blacks. There's nothing like
that in these run it type activities. So that kind
of injury prevention and safety education and development in these
(04:34):
types of events, if they're going to continue, which I
hope they don't, you know, would need to be created.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Patria Home joining us, professor of a human performance from
aut in your time, when you looked at how to
beast mitigate these situations in collision sports like rugby and
rugby league over the last quarter of a century, has
it markedly improved. I are fewer people getting bad hea knocks,
bad concussion. Other steps actually making a palpable difference.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
They are making a difference. So Ken Quarry, who's the
senior scientist for New Zealand Rugby. His PhD work was
all about changing scrum engagement and reducing the severe neck
injuries that were resulting. And then Simon gan Nototty and others.
There's a whole lot of PhD students who have done
some amazing work who have shown that we can change
(05:26):
technique and introduce things like the identification of concussion and
help and recovery when people are injured. So there's a
lot of research out there. People just need to understand
the risks and know that these type of events or
activities they are not harmless stunts, their high speed impacts
and they can because cause severe brain injuries and death.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Also, when you look at these matchups, there may be
some people that engage in this that haven't got a
background in anything collision base and if they come up
against someone who has got a background in rugby league
or rugby union, they're going to be in a much
better physical and mental state to understand what's going on.
So the odds are poor that you're actually going to
(06:10):
get through this without some devastating injury. A great big
man who's trained in it as opposed to a guy
who's got a bit of bravado that's just asking for it.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That imbalance it is so this technique to consider. There's
also the body mass, so it's a straight physics equation. Actually,
the impact force is due to the mass of the
person and the speed at which they can run, and
then you're multiplying that by two because you've got two
people running towards each other and impacting each other. So
you know, I can predict by looking at people as
(06:39):
a biomechanist, who is likely to come off worse, just
based on the speed that they can run and the
size of that person. And then if I don't know
anything about their technique, I can figure that out when
I see them, you know, hitting each other and predict
who's going to be injured. It's physics, it's basic biomechanics.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
We're looking also at the possibility of this being banned
telling people they can't engage. I'm not entirely sure you
can actually do that because people will be people. Is
there any way or space you think maybe there should
be something that actually outlaws this kind of activity.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Well, if it's not considered sport, and it's considered to
be occurring our sidelines of sports, it could be technically
called assault, in which case then there are consequences.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And what about the athletes that you see sideline at
these events that are actually professional athletes themselves, so in essence,
are being seen to legitimize this kind of behavior. I'd
suggest that anyone involved with a professional rugby team or
a league team should be kept as far away from
these exchanges as possible. They don't need their name tied
(07:51):
up with this.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
No, that's correct, and you've already seen some backtracking of
some high profile people who were trying to help their mates.
You know, it's a great idea to create a culturally
appropriate event. We're really in support of that. It's just
unfortunately this is not the type of event to be supporting.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And on that Patria Hume, we thank you so much
for your time, Professor of Human Performance at aut Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Dancy Wildergrave
from News Talk z'b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's eleven minutes after sevens. Yesterday, nineteen year old Ryan
southwait come to as injuries that we received during a
backyard copy cart version of the controversial run it straight
concept that wasn't officially under their auspices, but it was
a game that they played, and Ryan Southwaite has died.
(00:36):
As death has accelerated concerns around these styles of activities
that have gained huge traction across social media platforms recently,
like the inherent risks of these amateur collisions because they
are they're known, but maybe not enough to stop people
having a go I suppose all about education. We're joined
(00:58):
now by a Patria Hume, professor of human performance from
aut Good Evening. Patria absolutely devastating.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, Ryan's death was preventable and people do need to
understand the risks because when two people are running at
each other under these run it style conditions, the impact
forces are like jumping off the roof of your house
on your front. So that's the level of trauma that
your body is experiencing and especially the brain. So people
(01:29):
need to understand those risks so they can decide whether
they want to participate.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
That's a massive impact, and I suppose it's the ability
to well, you can't really control the position of the
impact and how you'd react to that. It's not really
something you have much command over in the middle of
that action.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, it happens in a very short amount of time,
and you've got unknown circumstances because you don't know how
the other person is going to react. And in these
types of run it style events, people are just running
at each other and there's no guidelines on the type
of tech. And so the work that we've done, you know,
the twenty five years in Rugby Smart and Nettle Smart
(02:10):
and trying to reduce impacts on people and minimize the
risk of these severe injuries. That's kind of being ignored
by people in the formal events that are being organized
and these copycat you know, activities where people are playing
in the backyard and they think it's fun, but really
the consequences are immense, and in this case it was
(02:33):
devastating because Ryan has died and his death was preventable.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Don't need a situation like this to put an exclamation
mark on the request and not, but it has happened.
If there's ever been an underlining of a piece of advice,
that is it. So I w'd like to think that
his death wasn't in vain and people learn from that,
And I suppose that's the only small positive out of this.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yes, Unfortunately, it takes a death or multiple deaths for
people to take action. And so the lessons from Ryan's
death are that the forces involved can be deadly, and
we've got to stop glorifying these types of activities and
events where the goal is to hurt someone. We need
to be participating and enjoyable sports and playground activities where
(03:20):
we can improve our social interaction and our cultural engagement
and participate safely.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
You basically can't mitigate, can you in a situation like
this when you're running straight out at each other? Is
there any form of control these semi professional competitions can
put in place, because I believe they've got medics on
site and so on and so forth. This was in
someone's backyard, but we can we even control these outcomes regardless.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So with medics being on site, that enables you to
identify the concussions and to deal with the injuries. After
they've occurred. But that's like the ambulance at the bottom
of the cliff. We need to stop people falling off
those cliffs or the house analogies I gave before to
ensure that people don't get injured in the first place. Now,
(04:08):
for rugby, for example, there is compulsory tackle technique instruction,
and there's progressive engagement in contact from tag rugby you know,
right through to full professional all blacks. There's nothing like
that in these run it type activities. So that kind
of injury prevention and safety education and development in these
(04:34):
types of events, if they're going to continue, which I
hope they don't, you know, would need to be created.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Patria Home joining us, professor of a human performance from
aut in your time, when you looked at how to
beast mitigate these situations in collision sports like rugby and
rugby league over the last quarter of a century, has
it markedly improved. I are fewer people getting bad hea knocks,
bad concussion. Other steps actually making a palpable difference.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
They are making a difference. So Ken Quarry, who's the
senior scientist for New Zealand Rugby. His PhD work was
all about changing scrum engagement and reducing the severe neck
injuries that were resulting. And then Simon gan Nototty and others.
There's a whole lot of PhD students who have done
some amazing work who have shown that we can change
(05:26):
technique and introduce things like the identification of concussion and
help and recovery when people are injured. So there's a
lot of research out there. People just need to understand
the risks and know that these type of events or
activities they are not harmless stunts, their high speed impacts
and they can because cause severe brain injuries and death.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Also, when you look at these matchups, there may be
some people that engage in this that haven't got a
background in anything collision base and if they come up
against someone who has got a background in rugby league
or rugby union, they're going to be in a much
better physical and mental state to understand what's going on.
So the odds are poor that you're actually going to
(06:10):
get through this without some devastating injury. A great big
man who's trained in it as opposed to a guy
who's got a bit of bravado that's just asking for it.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That imbalance it is so this technique to consider. There's
also the body mass, so it's a straight physics equation. Actually,
the impact force is due to the mass of the
person and the speed at which they can run, and
then you're multiplying that by two because you've got two
people running towards each other and impacting each other. So
you know, I can predict by looking at people as
(06:39):
a biomechanist, who is likely to come off worse, just
based on the speed that they can run and the
size of that person. And then if I don't know
anything about their technique, I can figure that out when
I see them, you know, hitting each other and predict
who's going to be injured. It's physics, it's basic biomechanics.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
We're looking also at the possibility of this being banned
telling people they can't engage. I'm not entirely sure you
can actually do that because people will be people. Is
there any way or space you think maybe there should
be something that actually outlaws this kind of activity.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Well, if it's not considered sport, and it's considered to
be occurring our sidelines of sports, it could be technically
called assault, in which case then there are consequences.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And what about the athletes that you see sideline at
these events that are actually professional athletes themselves, so in essence,
are being seen to legitimize this kind of behavior. I'd
suggest that anyone involved with a professional rugby team or
a league team should be kept as far away from
these exchanges as possible. They don't need their name tied
(07:51):
up with this.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
No, that's correct, and you've already seen some backtracking of
some high profile people who were trying to help their mates.
You know, it's a great idea to create a culturally
appropriate event. We're really in support of that. It's just
unfortunately this is not the type of event to be supporting.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And on that Patria Hume, we thank you so much
for your time, Professor of Human Performance at aut Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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