just signed up to coaching under 6s,would like to hear?

Rugby CoachCoach

Simon,

At under 6s I would concentrate on the 3 main areas:

• passing
• catching
• running

Its all you can do to get them to understand that they have to pass the ball backwards and run forwards.

When I coached this age group many moons ago, I only used 3 games, 1st was TAG bulldog to get them used to running and evasion, and also to start taking the TAG. 2nd was rugby netball for handling skills and multi-directional movement. Last was the full game of TAG itself.

I would condition the above games to increase/decrease difficulty for the players i.e. narrow the channel for bulldog to make it more difficult to evade. or i'd change rugby netball to 'keep ball' where you have 1 or 2 defenders and 5 or 6 attackers, the attackers have to pass the ball around (any direction) while the defenders have to try to make the TAG on the ball carrier. With the full game of TAG I would introduce an overload for either defence or attack where the player making the TAG then has to kneel until either the attackers score or their team takes possession of the ball, this is great for space awareness, or the tagged player has to kneel until a score or turnover.

The main thing is to adapt but keep the 3 main skillsets at the core of all training sessions at this age through game sense training rather than drills.

Regards

Den

Gary DCoach, Northern Ireland

Hi Guys, Have coached 4-6 year olds for 4 seasons now and over the last 2 have developed a programme and lesson explanation, although it does and is constantly changing (if you wish copies please send email and I will send over - I can be contacted through Simon). Hopefully it will give you a base to work from / a few thoughts. As Den says keep it to the very basics and have fun! anything more is a bonus. Attention spans are very short so it pays to have sessions planned out with a few different features to them. They will develop with age, but hopefully take with them at the very least how to run with the ball in 2 hands. Hope this is of use.

In Rugby

Gary

P.S Also material at the sites below. Unfotunately this site removes the links so you will have to search these in but they are worth following up:

teddington rugby rugby football club and go to coaches corner

new zealand ru dot com and go to the toolbox

ulster alternative fans club go to forum and skules rugby - mini rugby coaching a number of links given to follow

good searching :-)