I am looking for drills / ideas on how to teach U6/U7?

I am looking for drills / ideas on how to teach U6/U7 about how to stay "onside" during a game.

David

This is always a challenge with young children.

There a number of ways you can teach them - try playing a small sided game where the rule is you have to pass backwards. It will be confusing at first but have second ball in your hand so when the ball is buried in a maul you can hand it to another player and the game will free up again.

The children will soon adapt to only getting a pass if they are behind the ball carrier.

Another way is to play a game of touch. When touched the ball is put on the ground by the tackled player who then has to use a scrum half pass to continue the game.

With the ball placed on the ground all the opposing players have to retreat 2 metres. If you ref this properly the children will soon get the hang of the offside law.

You could speed up the process of learning by appointing a couple of defence captains on each team whose job it is to encourage the rest of their team to get back onside when a tackle is made.

I used this very successfully in Malaysia last week with 26 boys who had never player before - they very quickly adapted to this simple game.

I hope this helps

Simon