Getting 9-10 year olds to spread the ball out wide

Nick Hillary-TeeCoach, United States of America

we have had success with the good old only five possessions or turn over the ball and also first reciever cant move but it is still a struggle to get the kids moving the ball out. it does start to sink in when they are tackling though.

Andy CheethamCoach, England

We have the exact same issue with our U11s. When they do correctly its great to see with good results (yards gained / tries scored) plus praise form us coaches. We are starting to see them do it more and more but it is often quite static.

The key is patience from us coaches and positive feedback when they do do it correctly.

However I have also seen the same thing happen in the recent 6 nations so its not just Minis coaches that face this problem with the players!! :-)

Alex Coach, Spain

What we did with our U10-U12 was that on tha last 30-45 minnutes of the practice we simulate a match with the coaches behind the lines and guiding them to use the spaces. This worked quite well.

Anyway, now those players are U14 and we have had the same problem...new pitch size, new rules, old custom...

keithloftusnorthgatepscom Parent, Scotland

Yes it`s not a simple one to get around ...

Good zonal training drills with different coloured bibs and buttons on the pitch .. players cannot deviate from zones until the ball is passed .... teaches them to play in channels and forces better passes out wide.

KeithCoach, Canada

when I was coaching that age group we ran into that constantly. What I discovered is that from a physiological perspective, many U12 and down are still very egocentric and have difficulty understanding that passing the ball to another player is in their best interests. we worked on having them follow their pass and communicating regularly that if you do that there is a great chance of getting the ball backing your hands with good scoring opportunities. Patience is the key. Have them enjoy the game however they play it at that stage and hopefully they keep coming back when they are cognitively more capable of understanding the benefit of working with others. Cheers

Rob HCoach, England

Same problem here at U9. I`ve been asking the kids to suggest ways we can encourage passing out wide, or even passing at all, and we`ve been using their suggestions in training matches to good effect. i had my own ideas but wanted to kids to think about it so some guided questioning came up with some ideas.

Part of the problem at U9 level is a huge disparity in passing/catching ability and that is something to be patient with. Over time they will all become more proficient and move the ball about more freely without fear of it being dropped. Also as pointed out above, the ego will recede a little.

In the meantime we`ve used things like:

• more points for trys scored when ball passed 5 times in open play (not from the breakdown or passed from taking the ball into contact) leading up to the try.
• Make a channel on the wing, inside which runner cannot be tackled.
• players can only score once - this forces them to use each other but can frustrate them so not my favourite.

These have all had some success but it does often still end up with a huge gaggle of kids in one area..... kids eh ;-)

Ben ThomasCoach, England

We've been heavily focusing on this for the past 2 months, attempting to use width within the game, instead of a single carrier from every break down. The teams who can move ball quickly whilst maintaining a go forward motion tend to be the strongest.

We've found the following has helped our development.

• Tailoring the "skill zones" to focus on 2- 3 passes into space then attacking the same direction.
• Encouraging 2 passes from every ruck during training games.
• Rewarding tries scored in the wide channels with 2 points.
• introduction a no defence allowed technique in the wider channels, however the ball must be passed into this zone.

We're by no means the finished article, but the improvement is noticeable. they're certainly playing smarter, scanning for gaps and exploiting space.

Patience is key, individual player skill sets will improve throughout which will inevitable make the squad stronger.