Tag rugby drills for children

Trotter

I'm going to do Tag Rugby during PE for a few weeks with my class of 11 and 12 year olds. Does anyone have web links or details of good coaching drills for them? They're complete beginners. I could be in for a long afternoon

Amz

I've a load of mini rugby skill games somewhere that I did at a rugby summer camp last year. If I can find 'em I'll scan 'em and PM them to you.

None of them involve contact or anything, but are just to get the kids having fun and doing stuff with a rugby ball or with certain skills that they'd use in rugby.

(Not promising anything on the games though, I've moved since last year so they may be hard to find!)

Trotter

Amz wrote: »

I've a load of mini rugby skill games somewhere that I did at a rugby summer camp last year. If I can find 'em I'll scan 'em and PM them to you.

None of them involve contact or anything, but are just to get the kids having fun and doing stuff with a rugby ball or with certain skills that they'd use in rugby.

(Not promising anything on the games though, I've moved since last year so they may be hard to find!)

That'd be fantastic! Thanks a lot.

Tim Robbins

Trotter wrote: »

I'm going to do Tag Rugby during PE for a few weeks with my class of 11 and 12 year olds. Does anyone have web links or details of good coaching drills for them? They're complete beginners. I could be in for a long afternoon

You need to teach the very basics of attack and defense.

Attack:
1. Straight arms passing the ball.
2. Hands out before you catch it.
3. Always stand behind the player behind you with the ball and then try to run on to it when he passes it.

Defense
1. You have a flat line. The reason for this is one defender shoots up, it creates a huge gap and it's easy to run through.
2. Unlike G.A.A. and Soccer, in tag / Rugby defenders don't mark players, defenders don't cross each other. You stand in a slot (channel) and then each defender moves to left or to the right but never crosses the guy beside him.
It's a bit like basketball, where you defense form a guard on the circle.

Unlike basketball, they hole line come up together. Do this by walking, not
running as if if someone runs they'll shoot up out of the line and have lost the hole principle of defense.

Drills.
1. Passing:
Forms four lines next to each other. The Left most player starts running with the ball and passes it down the line. The line is one person from each line,
so it's four people.

Make sure:
- the arms are straight in passing
- the receiving player is always standing deep enough
- the receiver has his hands out before catching it, ideally before the player even makes the pass, to force the habbit.
- two hands always always always on the ball.
- make it simple, don't allow kicking.

Start with lines close to each other, a little more than a arms width apart and then increase the distance as they get used to it.

If they master that, introduce switches, loops and skips into the line of four.

There are some defensive drills but they'll find them too boring. Just play a game and make sure everyone comes up in a line.

Good luck.

Trotter

Print Print Print!!! Thanks a lot!

Tim Robbins

Trotter wrote: »

Print Print Print!!! Thanks a lot!

Basically, bad tag rugby is the same as chasing. Someone picks up the ball and runs as fast as the can and people run as fast to him to tag.

It's bad because once a team get the basics of defense this is simple to defend against.

Good tag Rugby is players attacks as a team and defend as a team.

So the ball carrier runs with the ball, he is trying to create space for the next guy, who is trying to create more space for the next guy, who is trying to create more space for the next until the one player, has a huge amount of space and there is no defense so he can just run in and score.

This is done, by each player trying to draw in at least one defender, if not one and half or two and then the eventually the defense runs out of defenders.

So if you can imagine, two attackers and two defenders. The ball carrier runs in between the two defenders, causes a little confusion and both defenders move towards him. He has sucked in two defenders and if his team mate is standing deep enough will receive a pass and will have no-one to defend him so he will have an unopposed run or ("overlap"). Again you sometimes see this is basketball, where an atatcker tries to suck in a player or more than one and then pass. In rugby it's trying to create the overlap.

Once you have the overlap it's about spotting it and executing it.

The best way to teach this simple principle of an overlap is to run some drills:

2 Attackers against 1 Defender: Ball carrier runs at defender, draws him in and then passed to the teammate who if deep enough will catch it and run in unopposed.

3 attackers versus 2 defenders: This is a bit harder, because 2 attackers have to suck in 2 Defenders. If they do this, they third person gets the overlap.

4 attackers versus 3 defenders: Same idea again. If you can teach that you've thought them the principle of an overlap and executing it. That's the principle of attack in Rugby.

Now, if they get the hang of that, it's time to try to create the overlap.

Time to go to 2 V 2, 3 V 3, and 4 V 4. Then your attack will have to think a bit more about the lines of running, use of switches, loops etc. to create space and the overlap.

Basically, Tag Rugby is not chasing and you'll sure get headless chickens you play that way. All fine against a useless defense, but useless against a good one.

Let us know how you get on and if you have any questions.

Diom

A good drill that we used to do is have the players line up, ball with the person at the leftmost position. They start jogging up the pitch (medium pace). The person to the right of the ball carrier then sprints as the person with the ball passes (i.e. the person sprints onto the pass). The person who passed the ball then loops around the back of the line of players to re-join the line at the rightmost position.
Repeat until you get to the end of the pitch, then repeat in the opposite direction except pass to the left (i.e. ball starts at the right). Usually best with no more than 5 players at a time, and keep the passing tight.

gordys

Try these, from the Australian Rugby Union. The drills are age specific, both contact and non contact and you can watch videos of the skills being perfomed.

http://www.rugby.com.au/community_rugby/online_coaching_centre/online_coaching_centre,51881.html

Trotter

Thanks a lot for all the help so far. Session 1 went well. Its just difficult to coach 30 kids on your own! Especially when you're introducing a new sport.

Daaboo

http://www.coachingrugby.com/drills/Rugby/Tag-Rugby/Attack-The-Space-tagless503.jsp?