EXPERT SESSIONS AND ADVICE FROM QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED GRASSROOTS RUGBY COACHES
It’s worth coaching rugby kicking skills as early as possible, even if your young players are not allowed to kick during games yet. By the time kicking is introduced into the game, the youngsters will have a well-developed set of core skills and a basic tactical understanding of when to kick. Use the following rugby coaching tips and drills to help. And, of course, any catching drills are going to be worthwhile as they’ll soon be faced with some up and unders too!
in Kicking & Catching, Small-sided games
Improve your kicking with a game of aerial noughts and crosses. Teams take it in turns to kick the ball and aim to drop it in a square which marks their nought or cross. Aerial noughts and crosses gives your players a chance to make accurate kicks with additional tactical pressures as you build the game. MORE
in Kicking & Catching, Small-sided games
Here’s how I’ve challenged my players’ kicking and fielding thinking with the law experiment with the 50:22 rule. MORE
in Kicking & Catching, Rugby drills
There are 10 key factors for drop punting, but if you had to concentrate on just one, here’s which would make the most difference to your players. MORE
Try this 10-minute session for your kick-off specialists. An accurate and consistent kick-off strategy can be very hard for opponents to defend against. It can hand your team a territorial advantage, put the opposition under pressure and even force a turnover. But having a kick-off team tactic is no good if the kicker cannot execute... MORE
in Kicking & Catching, Passing & Handling, Practice plans
This session concentrates on players kicking a ball ahead on the ground. They have to control it, gather it and score, as they might when pouncing on a loose pass from the defence for instance. They might have to dribble the ball, or pick up and pass it. Any player may be in this situation and it will be a good source of tries over the season. MORE
Make more of poor opposition kicks with this session. Also, work on what your defence might do when you do make a poor kicking decision. Most matches have poor kicks. Use these training scenarios to practise your team’s reactions and decision making. MORE
in Email Newsletters, Kicking & Catching
Players who turn for training early often kick the ball around. While you might not want to intervene and allow them to have free play, you might want to make this a "thing". That is, "if you want to start 15 minutes earlier than the official start time, I will lay on some activities to do. They are voluntary". MORE
Develop your players’ ability to jump to catch a high ball under pressure. This session aims to give your players more confidence. A jump to catch a high ball is not just a vertical jump. The player has to be moving into the space in front of them to dominate the situation. MORE
Avoid aimless kicking from your kickers. Give them targets and then, as they develop, make them look to kick to space and adjust to before they kick. Help players develop their understanding of how to receive a pass so they can be in a good position to kick to where they want. MORE
in Kicking & Catching, Practice plans
More teams are refusing to kick for touch, instead kicking for territory in a bid to launch counter attacks. This simple session helps players discover ways to perfect this and should be a standard session for every season. MORE
