Coaching any sport to a group of young children, with a limited attention span, is a challenge. Deliver a session that doesn’t immediately engage them and you will be in for a long hour or so trying to contain the carnage that will inevitably follow.
When looking up rugby drills for kids, put yourself in the shoes of a kid who turns up to training only wanting to play a game. While you may have all the tactical knowledge and have developed your sessions down to the finest intricate details, if your players don’t buy into your session then it doesn’t matter how good your session plan is.
That is why you always need to consider how fun your session will be, as well as the learning objectives of each drill and what you hope to achieve. With the right approach, your players will learn and develop skills that they can take onto the pitch while having a thoroughly enjoyable experience that will keep them coming back for more.
Rugby Warm-Up Drills for Juniors
At the start of every training session, especially in the colder months, there must be a warm-up to get players ready and raring to go. Crucially, setup time should be kept to a minimum to avoid your young team standing and waiting around. Hopefully, you will have them engaged in an arrival activity as you wait for everyone to turn up.
Boxercise
A quick boxercise session, making use of contact shields and/or tackle bags, makes for a fantastic fun warm-up for the little ones that will work them hard, develop upper-body strength and stamina. Get them to pick a partner (or threes if there isn’t enough shields or bags) and take turns punching the bag for 45-second rounds.
Tag
Another idea for a fun warm-up that requires no equipment other than cones to mark out a suitably sized area is tag. You may wish to present a bib to whoever is selected to be the tagger, who can then pass it to the player they tag. This playground game is perfect for junior rugby teams as it perfectly replicates the short and sharp movements of a match.
Players avoiding the tagger are forced to move into space and the tagger must follow the player and change their direction to make the tag. If you have many players turn up to your session, make sure to split the players into separate groups for a small-sided game – less confident players may tend to fade into the background and not get involved if there are too many players involved.
Cat and Mouse
This is like tag, only that when a player is caught, they then join the chasing team. The objective of the game is to be the last player standing. Mark out an area with cones and choose one player to be the cat, with the rest of the players being mice.
Give each of the mice a bib to put in the back of their shorts, sticking out akin to a mouse’s tail. The cats chase the mice and, when the bib is pulled out, the mouse becomes a cat. As the cats begin to outnumber the mice, the game becomes harder and players must keep constantly moving, darting and dodging cats trying to nab their tails. Young players love this game and no doubt will be pleading for an extra round or two!
Fun Rugby Passing Games for Kids
Much of our warm-up sessions cover the players’ movement and could be incorporated into the main part of your training session, so we will turn our focus on passing. As juniors, they cannot yet scan and read the game, which means that when they receive the ball, they probably tend to go it alone.
Passing games not only develop the physical skill of how to pass the rugby ball but also help to develop your players’ understanding of when and where to pass the ball. Mini-games that force players to make quick decisions are fantastic for developing their understanding of the sport. They will no doubt make mistakes and, from those mistakes, they will have the chance to learn.
Target Games
Target games can be tailored to suit passing with both hands and feet. Coaches can set out several targets, such as coned areas, buckets, and mannequins for players to hit – add in a point scoring system and you have all the makings of a fun session!
Set up a session that forces players to flick between throwing and kicking, keeping them on their toes, and end the drill with the greatest target of all – the drop goal. Children love scoring and with the incentive of shooting at the posts, this will help to keep them interested and engaged in the session, as well as improve their accuracy.
Play around with the distances and sizes of targets to suit the ability of the group. Anything too hard or too easy will soon see your players quickly lose interest and that’s when balls soon start flying around and carnage ensures.
Set Realistic Expectations
Head into every training session with realistic expectations – your players are going to need time to get the hang of things. If they could do everything you set them perfectly, they wouldn’t need to train (and they would be at a professional club). Expect to have to revisit aspects of the session and be prepared to deliver your session to suit all the different learning styles.
Roll with the punches and adapt the session to suit the needs of the players. This means having several contingency plans to fall back on if/when the session doesn’t pan out as you might have hoped. Keep your cool and do not allow yourself to become frustrated – it is all part of the journey.
The reality is that if you are planning a session that Eddie Jones would be delivering to the England team, you probably aren’t planning for your audience (in this case, your players). Keep things fun and light-hearted, which has all the makings of an environment where youngsters can develop on and off the field.
If you would like some information on the range of awards and trophies that you can use to recognise your team’s achievement, please get in touch with a member of our team today.