Need to learn how to pass!

pickarooney

Has anyone got any good tips for learning how to pass effectively? My passing is absolutely brutal - I can't get any distance, spin, direction or lift - and that's just my 'good' hand. I've done countless drills at practice, watched a load of videos, practised on my own for hours but it's just not going in. I'll get it to fly right maybe one in five attempts (flat or spin, although I often manage to achieve one while attempting the other) but if it goes straight it won't go beyond 5 metres and if it goes long it's way off target. I've a feeling my feet are as much at fault as my hands and my timing is obviously terrible.

I play in the second row so it's not the most vital element of my game but it still sickens me a bit when the under-10s are firing twenty-metre spin passes down one another's throats and I can't throw the thing further than my own feet

Fishooks12

Often had trouble passing off my weaker side from distance but I got away with it playing at fullback

Played a year at 12 then and had to adapt quickly

Best thing to do is constantly practice off the side you want to improve, and do it a lot !

GerM

Wouldn't worry too much about it. As you said, you're a front five player. It's not your job to pass. Some people just don't ever get the handle of passing. It's a coordination thing. I'm fairly poor off my left but am a lock too so I'm not too bothered. Trevor Brennan and Victor Costello couldn't pass water and it didn't hurt them too much. I find it better to focus on your strengths than try to improve things that aren't naturally part of your game. If you've spent many hours working on it and it's not clicking, I'm not sure if you're going to significantly improve now.

Teferi

Yeah, I don't think there is a better way to practice your throwing then getting a couple of balls and firing them off until you have a bulletproof pass. You probably have the basics so all it takes is practice.

funky penguin

I've often practiced with one hand, to see if I can get the distance and spin, adding control later.

Don't know if it'll work for yourself, but it helped me. Best of luck!

Timothy Bryce

I bought 2 items last year which helped me out a good bit.

1. The Gilbert Morgan pass developer (weighted ball)

2. Gilbert Reflex Ball

The Morgan helped my lineout throwing very well - I'm now able to hit 6 not a bother!

Tox56

For some strange reason, even face-to-face, I find it difficult to explain to people how to pass, and over the internet I would be of no help whatsoever.

All I can suggest is, as a Second-Row, I would imagine it's rare you have to make a pass any longer than 5 meters anyway, so just focus on firing them fast and accurate from a short distance, and over such a short distance you don't really need to spin it, so don't bother if you don't have to.

.ak

Passing with one hand helped me greatly, from a casual point of view. You throw 'through' the ball, point and turning your hand into the direction you want the ball to go. Find a spot, throw the ball at it with one hand, alternate hands and after a while you'll see improvements.

errlloyd

It's funny mate, I've never been able to throw and tennis or cricket ball long distance, and no one has ever been able to explain that technique to me. I know your frustration (because I pretty decent batter, but I couldn't field for ****).


Someone is going to be critical of this advise, its certainly not perfect for in match passing, but I had to train a tag rugby team to play, and most of them had never passed before, this is how we got distance.

Start with the one hand technique, and consider using a size four ball to get the hang of this. Point your left shoulder at where you want the pass to go.

Hold the ball about 1 third of the distance along it with a fully open right hand. Point the ball right (almost 180 degree opposite direction to where you want to pass) and start quite low. With your arm almost fully extended swing the width of your body, twist your body (your left shoulder will no longer be pointing at your target, but don't worry), at the very last second twist your wrist in an airplane "Barrel roll" motion.

If you need more help I can try and create a video?

dub_skav

To be honest I'd say you really need somebody to help you - either a coach or a good passer from your team needs to watch you and tell you what fundamentals are wrong.
Trying to fix it on your own you may be missing something glaringly obvious.

I'll give you what sounds like a silly piece of advice, but focuses the mind.
After you pass try to end up pointing with both hands where you were trying to pass, this will ensure you are following through correctly.

I'm a 2nd row too and I think every player on the pitch needs to be confident in passing - even if only short distances.

It's a bit late now Tomás...

sickpuppy

AS you have stated your a second row so the need for long passed should be minimal.
Its not like your a scrum half who needs a quick accurate pass or a 10 or 12 who may need to pass off both sides and skip runners.

Have often seen usually novice players try a bullet spin pass to a team mate and see it knocked on or miss the target when a simple pop pass would be the job.

If you had someone to practice with eg start slow jog and pass running in tandem and work your speed up as your skills increase.
Like many second rows maybe you have dreams of moving to the back row :pac: best of luck.

Clearlier

The key to improving is repeatability. There's no point in throwing 100 passes, 10 of which are good and not knowing why the 10 were good and the rest weren't.

So start off by practicing in a simple situation. Find a wall. Make a mark on it and start trying to hit that mark. Note what you are doing and then make small changes and see what the impact is. The position of your feet and your shoulders is important but it changes depending on the type of pass you're trying to make. Note where on the ball you place your hands. I'd start off by standing straight in front of the mark and passing it straight in front of you. Of course you'll rarely use that pass in a match but this is all about skill development.

If (as it sounds like) you have trouble spinning the ball first practice doing it in one hand just throwing it in the air. You'll master it relatively quickly, then look at where you put your hands on the ball. You should be holding the ball in the same way every time (again not always relevant in a match but you're developing a skill here).

The more you practice the better you'll get. Devin Toner has some of the best hands I've ever seen so it's nothing to do with the position and whatever people say about Trev he worked very, very hard on his skills and they improved enormously if not perhaps improving quite to the level where Eddie would consider selecting him for Ireland.

Sindri

Just go out with a friend and practice throwing the ball to each other. Pick a target i.e. his hands and keep practicing. Alternate each side as well.

ormond lad

Make sure your feet are pointing the direction you want to pass. Follow through with your hands so that they finish pointing in the direction you want to pass. Ie when you pass if your hands are pointing towards the ground more than likely the ball will end up on the floor
To improve your passing before/after training get a ball or two and go to the posts and practise spinning the ball trying to get the ball above the height of the top of the post off either hand. If you consistently are getting the ball above the posts go down on your knees and again try get the ball aove the height of the posts.
Get a partner and stand 5mtrs or so apart and throw the ball one handed. starting the ball on your hip
Get this or get your club coach to get one for everyone to practice with. They are a great help to improving your pass

skregs

Its weird, I can pass with about 99% accuracy up to about 5 metres, one-handed off my good hand and two handed off my bad side no bother.

As soon as I try to go over 5m, I couldnt hit a barn door in ten attempts.
Never really bothered me until a few weeks ago, playing a bit of a mess game with some friends, including a guy who never played before. He threw a fairly accurate pass a good 30m whie I struggled to get the ball to his feet

[Jackass]

My 2 cents for distance passing, getting the spin on the ball is most important. Practice throwing the ball up in the air whilst twisting the ball, to get it to spin. Get used to the flick motion from your wrists / thumbs, see how high you can throw the ball up in the air with a very fast rotation. You can do this on your own in the garden.

Once you've mastered the spin of the ball, apply the same twisting logic to passing it sideways, remember that the ark / swing of your arms is important for momentum but it's the quickness of the release of the ball and spin applied that will get you the distance. Get someone in training to stand a bit away from you and just practice, practice, practice. Distance can be learnt quickly, and accuracy comes from perfecting it.

Not until you feel completely comfortable with it, will you instinctually use it in a match.

locum-motion

[Jackass] wrote: »

My 2 cents for distance passing, getting the spin on the ball is most important. Practice throwing the ball up in the air whilst twisting the ball, to get it to spin. Get used to the flick motion from your wrists / thumbs, see how high you can throw the ball up in the air with a very fast rotation. You can do this on your own in the garden.
...

Make sure you practice this spinning in both directions, or you'll only be able to do it one way when you bring it to the horizontal.

Sindri

Ask Jonny.

_ricochet_

Where do you start your pass from, with the ball directly in front of you? Try with someone passing to you, receive the ball on one side and follow through to the target with your hands so its like one big sweep movement in front of you. In hurling terms id guess im saying to you to double on the ball!

It worked for me anyway, Just remember to keep the hands up to receive the pass, no point being able to pass if you continually knock on!

skregs

Sindri wrote: »

Ask Jonny.

Pass the ball to Doris.

pickarooney

I'm going to try a few of these tips tonight. Just hope none of the kids come out to the green and show me up like they did last time

I mostly begin the movement from my hip, releasing just after the end of the ball passes my other hip with a very slight upward movement. When they go right everything just feels smooth; the rest of the time it feels really jerky and I feel like my arm is forcing for little gain. A bit like learning to perfect a 'natural' golf swing I suppose.

I notice Wilkinson doesn't really put much vertical distance between his hands (i.e. both are just off the centre of the ball).

IRL_Sinister

Really simple trick I used at home when I was tranisitioning into a scrum-half.

(Note: This can be done both standing or off the ground - I suggest starting off the ground because it's more difficult but gives you a better overal foundation).

If you have a shed/garage/wall draw a circle (about shoulder height) on the wall (I just used a paint brush). Stand about 5-10-15 (etc) back and try hitting that spot. I used to literally do it for 10-15 mins a day depending on how I felt.

You'll notice a huge difference. The same can be done at training afterwords. Another simple trick before/after/during training.

Stand on the 5 meter line directly opposite one of the pads on the posts. Try to hit it. Doesn't matter where, just try to hit the bag. The circle trick will improve your to-the-point accuracy. The drill with the bag will improve the direction you want to throw.

Good luck.

Since you seem to be focusing on posture a bit here's a few tips:

1) Always ALWAYS follow through with your hands after you pass. The direction your hands are facing is where the ball will go. If you over-extend you'll throw the ball too far. Just look at where your hands are positioned after you throw the ball. That will be a big indicator or where you need to improve.

2) If you're throwing to your LEFT you want your left foot FACING left (not pointing forward). Ideally you want to almost 'stamp' your foot to hold your balance and keep it facing in the right direction. The opposite goes for throwing right (ie; right foot facing right).

3) Don't worry about your hips. The power doesn't actually come from there. It comes from your hands and feet. You can, certainly, add extra distance when moving from the hips but I don't think that's something you need to worry about right now.

4) LOOK AT WHERE/WHO YOU'RE THROWING THE BALL TO. It blows my mind how many people just throw the ball blindly. If you know who or where you're throwing the ball to then your mind will begin to think about it and work towards achieving the right objective (giving it to the person who is meant to recieve).

5) I don't know what level you play at or at what speed but hold the ball in two hands. If you have the ball in one hand and get caught you won't be able to offload. If you have the ball in two hands you have control over the situation the entire time.


These are very, very basic rules of thumb but when you get these nailed down to the ground you'll notice a drastic improvement and you'll then be able to move on and focus on to more advanced things.

.ak

Here's a decent vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkhAvoakxGY

dmd79

To pass effectively you need to have a few things in mind.
1. Your pass is swinging across your body, so you need to get that motion right. You can do this by standing with feet shoulder width apart and have some one pass a ball to you from either end. Your hands must be extended to where the ball is coming from. I.e. if pass is from right your hands are all the way out to the right. Once the ball is caught, swing your arms down and through to move the ball left. We call this the monkey pass, both your arms should finish up in the opposite direction as when you caught the ball, extended and almost paralell to the ground.
2. The actual pace and speed from the pass is driven by the wrists, and speed at which you swing your arms. To get this right, take a size 5 ball, hold your arms straight out with a bit of bend in them, then flick the ball up in the air, using just your wrists, the balls two ends must face the ground and sky, and when flicked it must travel same way up.
3. If the flick part is the issue you can use the age old brick, as the flick pass is all from the fingers, a brick is the most effective way to learn how to spin a ball, hold a standard brick in just your finger tips arms down to one side, then swing the brick through and spin it with your fingers. This helps as there are the right angle sides you can grip onto to use to get it to spin. The brick also has weight so strengthens up the wrists and forarms.
4. The grip of the ball is also very important, both hands need to be near the middle of the ball, and held in the fingers, too far back and the ball will fly up and loop to far forward and it will wobble, so near the centre as best possible with all ten fingers on the ball.

Hope this helps, i would try the brick first to get that confident spin motion going, then introduce the flick ball into the air for distance, then later on combine it all.

Hope it helps, and as everybody here says its practice practice practice.

pickarooney

I tried just tossing it vertically for about 15 minutes last night but the spin is just completely wrong. Instead of spinning neatly around the long axis it sort of goes arse over tit. Kind of like this:



I tried with hands at the ends, towards the middle and one-handed with the same result. I deflated the ball slightly as it was rock-hard and not really sitting right in my hand and it seemed to improve a little - although that said I don't have small hands and the hard ball was no problem for the neighbour kids.

I tried a one-handed drill and.... jesus what a disaster. I seriously cannot throw the ball further than three metres one-handed and it goes every which direction. I seem to have the upper arm strength of a five year old.

I'll try persuade my scrummie mate to spend a half-hour with me next time and see if we can't find the problem.

I think I would end up with a fractured skull if I used a brick

dmd79

pickarooney wrote: »

I tried just tossing it vertically for about 15 minutes last night but the spin is just completely wrong. Instead of spinning neatly around the long axis it sort of goes arse over tit. Kind of like this:



I tried with hands at the ends, towards the middle and one-handed with the same result. I deflated the ball slightly as it was rock-hard and not really sitting right in my hand and it seemed to improve a little - although that said I don't have small hands and the hard ball was no problem for the neighbour kids.

I tried a one-handed drill and.... jesus what a disaster. I seriously cannot throw the ball further than three metres one-handed and it goes every which direction. I seem to have the upper arm strength of a five year old.

I'll try persuade my scrummie mate to spend a half-hour with me next time and see if we can't find the problem.

I think I would end up with a fractured skull if I used a brick

Ha

The brick is meant to be thrown side ways to your right or left, and ahm not up in the air. By the looks of it you are not using your thumb correctly, depending on your stronger hand the ball needs to roll over the weak hands thumb, imagine your pass to that of a gun barrel from the inside your hands need to turn the ball in almost the same motion to get that spin going, but you are right time with the scrummie will prob be better as the methods i described less the brick helped my 7 yr old daughter get her pass going, but that was 1 on 1 and not via a forum, wish you the best of luck.