Skip to main content

Passing

Ability to catch and pass smoothly is what makes a game flow.

Piggy in the Middle​

This is a simple warm-up activity that also improves smoothness of catch and pass, improving confidence to pass under pressure in a game situation.

  • The piggy will shuttle across the grid 10 times
  • 5 passes are left to right (common weak side)
  • next 5 passes are right to left

Great for beginners to get into the flow of passing, realising a good quick pass does not require much physical effort.

Requirements​

  • 4 cones circa 6m square
  • 7 min participants (a rugby backline)

Optionally 3 participants with piggy running transfering the ball from side to side as they run through the grid.

Setup​

Six supporting players arrange themselves around the cones.

  • One player each at top cones
  • One piggy stands between the bottom cones
  • Remaining players distributed at bottom cones

Routine​

tip

Supporting players are counting the number of shuttles completed by the piggy

  1. The ball starts with supporting player at the bottom left cone
  2. Support player runs forward two-three metres passing right to the piggy
  3. The piggy catches the ball on left side of body and naturally swings hands across body passing to the right
  4. The player on the right passes directly ahead to supporting player at top of the grid
  5. The top support begins running forward while the piggy makes ground and turns making sure to turn while watching the ball
  6. The support player runs forward two-three metres passing right to the piggy and the sequence continues
  7. On completing the 5th shuttle, the support player instead passes across to the other side instead of straight ahead
  8. The drill continues, but now passes are flowing from right to left
  9. On the 10th shuttle a new piggy takes position in between the bottom cones.
tip

On the 5th cycle the person that is taking the cross-pass must be calling for the ball

Goal​

Focus smooth movement of hands from one side to another, listening for call from your runner and not looking where you are passing.

  • Learn to use your ears
  • Increased positive talk
  • Hands out towards where the ball is coming from

Avoid the trap of resetting, taking multiple steps to pass the ball.

mantra

No meek voices, lots of positive talk with clear calls for the ball from support players

Testing​

Record the time for each player to cycle through running the piggy position twice.

Dropped passes incur 10 second penalty, pressups, laps of the field etc.

As skill and fitness increases, optionally:

  1. move the grid wider to improve wider passes
  2. make the grid deeper so the piggy needs to cover more ground and peform under fatigue

The supporting players can put more pressure on the piggy to make shuttles faster and perform passes under fatigue.

Use Your Ears​

Get a ballplayer used to listening for a calls where to pass to.

Get support players to run effective support lines to pick out holes in defences.

A good pass requires a succinct communication from someone running a good supporting line.

Requirements​

  • 1 dice
  • 2-4 participants
  • 1 defender/cone/tackle bag
  • 1 dummy half

Setup​

Support runner rolls a dice for which slot to attack. Does not communicate this to the ball player.

  • 1: 1 long
  • 2: 1
  • 3: pop 1
  • 4: pop 2
  • 5: 2
  • 6: 2 long

Calls​

  • 1 = Left
  • 2 = Right

Variations:

  • Pop: Off the shoulder
  • Long: 5m running wide

Routine​

Ball carrier picks a shoulder to attack the defender/tackle bag/cone.

Support runner chooses a position to start running their line, disguising from starting position.

As the ball carrier approaches defender, support runner calls for the pass they need.

The goal of support runner is to step into a new running line before as the ball is passed to hit the gap.

Ball player attempts correct pass purely on listening for the call.

Advanced​

Use a dummy to pass to ball player with ballplayer running faster to improve timing of runs.