Here are four great warm-up games to energise your players while working on skills and decision-making.
Notice that I’m keen to showcase player-led activities for warm-up games. This is a good chance to build more cohesion amongst the players, while you are still providing a certain amount of control on the direction of the session.
Set up and run the game over several weeks before giving over the reins to the players. However, don’t be afraid to step in sometimes to reiterate rules or the reasons for the exercise if you feel the standards are not matching your expectations.
Developed by Harlequins DPP coach, George Ross, Warm-up Rondos are quick to set up and can be player-led if you want. With six variations, they will be a good heart-rate raiser for the session as well as a good breakout exercise.
The grid game from Tom Sheridan can also be used as a breakout exercise. A more developed version of rugby netball, it has challenging ways to increase the pressure on the players.
Prison break can also be player-led and explores footwork skills. Good for younger players who aren’t yet confident with their ball handling.
Originating in football, the Rondo is a small sided game that encourages many touches of the ball and can be easily constrained to impact the desired outcomes. Use them as a starter activity, getting players to self-organise into these simple games to work on their catch/pass skills under pressure. MORE
A fun game to help work on defensive footwork as well as evasion skills from attackers.
Develops evasion skills, plus defensive footwork and communication. MORE
Set your players up for the session with this competitive warm-up game which helps them use footwork, communication and in the development, passing skills. MORE
We have plenty of tag resources on this site, and I’m keen to ensure they can easily be upgraded into full sessions. Perhaps they won’t be doing much rucking, but there’s plenty else to learn from tag beginnings. MORE
Ian Diddams reviews the latest law directives around the ruck, and looks at how you might adjust your training sessions to help your players become more effective in this contact area. MORE
Upgrade your good tacklers by making them more aware of the type of tackles which would prevent offloads or create opportunities for turnovers. That will make them defenders not just tacklers. MORE
How far should you go in developing better evasion skills by setting up footwork exercises without defenders? Is it better to let them play and discover? MORE
In essence, I wanted to create defensive games which would force attacking teams to realign with more depth. The rewards were aimed squarely at the defence. If they were successful, they would either gain the ball, or in the case of the overloaded game (where there were more attackers than defenders), they would move over into the attacking team. MORE