Friday, 3th July 2009Mini Rugby 1- Increasing involvement
HarlandRDOChanging a session to increase involvement
Coaching Mini-rugby
The brave and inspiring coaches who work with 3-6 year olds know it all too well. Kids have short attention spans. I don’t blame them-it’s more fun to let your mind wander than wait in line in a drill.
If it sometimes appears that your players are mentally floating far away during a session, it might be useful to consider the following equation:
The Mini-Rugby Attention Span Calculator
Seconds Spent Waiting divided by Age = Mental Miles Away from Practice.
To keep younger participants from ‘wandering” they need to be kept active and engaged. While games are my preferred way to increase fun and participation, sometimes there's a need to work on a specific skill. With this in mind let’s look at a fairly common mini-rugby session (I've observed similar in two recently visited countries) and see how we might adjust it to keep the players more involved.
Two lines, each with ten 5 year olds. Bobby from line 1 runs 10m to hit the bag Coach is holding then passes to Sue from line 2. Both players run back to take a place in line.
xxxxxxxxx Bobby………10m….. []C
xxxxxxxxx Sue………………..
Seems fine, right? Well, let’s say it takes 5 seconds to run, hit the bag, and pass. Ten groups x 5 seconds with pauses to pick up dropped passes means at least 1 minute to give all the players a turn. (That’s if there’s only two dropped balls, the coach doesn’t stop to explain or correct, and all the kids are ready to go as soon as the previous group hits the bag-right!).
So once per minute Bobby and Sue get 5 seconds of action where one hits a bag and passes while the other gets to catch a pass. If we do the same drill for 10 minutes (horror!) then Bobby will hit 5 bags, make 5 passes and catch 5 balls. Which is just not enough to develop and improve a skill. With 90% of the time spent waiting, it appears that waiting in line is the skill being developed!
So what can we do to increase involvement? Here are a few ideas:
1-Move the bags closer. 2m is plenty, and means it will take 1 second for each group to hit the bag and pass. You’ve just cut out about 40 seconds between each repetition. It’s also more game-oriented, since who would run AT a defender 10m away?
2-Keep the wait active. Play games such as passing the ball back and forth the most times while waiting in line. Now Bobby and Sue are getting in 20 passes/catches PER MINUTE. Make it left hand passes, roll the ball, etc. Add skills as you think them up. Play games between the lines like trying to roll the ball through the other line.
3-Add steps to returning to the line. Zig-zag through a set of cones, passer chase and try to tag the ball-carrier before they reach a line, go to a nearby square and try to tag each other’s knees three times, etc.
4-Involve more players per rotation. Bobby hits the bag, Sue drives over the top, Johnny picks up and passes to Mary.
Now by the time that the players return to the line it’s their turn to go again. No wait means no mental wandering! And the players get more development.
I’m hoping that you will send me your favourite mini-rugby sessions and games to help grow the list of tips for coaches of mini and youth rugby. No doubt some of your ideas will be new to other readers. You can add them in the forum or send them to me directly at sharland@nawira.com. Keep checking the NAWIRA web-site for more articles and ideas on coaching mini-rugby, and look for useful links and ideas in the Forum.
Actively yours,
Scott Harland, NAWIRA RDO
