Rugby: Rugby Netball

As the start of the season nears, continue to build your players resilience to contact and ensure they?re up to speed with their physical conditioning with this demanding session.

Improve your player's confidence in a pressure-free environment, with this passing and moving session!

A session for beginners, work on their basics to develop the correct technique so that when it comes to game play, your beginners will soon look composed and confident in attack.

1. Seated on floor, feet touching, knees bent, join hands and pull one another forwards and backwards to loosen up lower back.
2. Same position hands joined, rotate upper body from left to right in an upright seated position to stretch lower back and warm up obliques.
3. Standing, facing one another each both players place 1 hand on the other players' shoulder, swinging legs in a pendulum motion to stretch the hamstrings (see video below).
4. Same position but now swing leg diagonally across to stretch groin and glutes (see video below).
5. Both players do 10 push ups taking at least 5 seconds to complete 1 push up, to warm up and stretch chest and back.
6. Swing the arms in a circular motion to loosen up shoulders and warm up the arms.
7. Pick up one another in a tackling technique and take 2 steps with player on your shoulder, then put down softly and slowly. Make sure to pick up with both legs and shoulders (same leg same shoulder)
8. One player leans forward, the other places his hand on his shoulders, and resists while the player leaning works his way forward using leg power.
9. Back to back, one player resists with the legs and the other pushes, resist 60% so that the player can keep moving forward.
10. 1 vs 1 scrummaging with a max effort of about 50%

Tell players the following....

1. Each Player will work individually, unless told otherwise.
2. Players can run in any direction: moving forward or side to side.
3. They must remain within the grid trying to avoid contact by running into space, sidestepping for example.
4. They will have a ball each.
5. When the coach calls stop, all players must be at least 1m from the nearest player.
6. From time to time players will be ask to do things e.g. 1 press-up. Following completing the instruction - players should keep moving.
7. You will be asked to pass your ball - before doing anything make sure you communicate with another player, you agree to pass to each other, and then you make the pass!

• This part of your warm-up should be no more than five minutes.

This is a great warm-up for defensive and evasion sessions, or it might even be a warm-up that helps you reinforce coaching points made during a previous session. The best bit is that it's fun and relevant to all ages. If you're coaching tag rugby, change the warm-up exercise from contact to tags.

One team runs clockwise round the inside of the circle with the other team running anti-clockwise around the outside of the circle. The circle in this case is marked out using blue cones, but you can use whatever colour you like.

When the coach shouts 'Jailbreak' the players inside the inner circle try to 'escape' to outside the 10m x 10m square (yellow cones). The size of the square and distance from the circle is a suggestion, play with it a little and let us know your variations!

The inside team scores a point for each 'jailbreaker' - swap over. If you have an odd number of players give the defenders the extra man.

• With each new instruction to players you'll be having a race, lets see which group is the fastest - no cheating!
• Don't spend too much time talking, get the players into their groups quickly and tell them to do the following:

1. Pass the ball between your legs to the person behind you - keep going until the ball reaches the end of the line.
2. Same thing as above, but this time when the ball reaches the end of the line, the player at the end runs the ball back and the ball starts the same journey again. This is repeating until the every player has run from the back to the front of the line.
3. Same idea but this time under legs then next person passes over head, next under legs (under/over/under etc.)
4. Same idea but twist hips to pass to person behind first to the left then to the right - back person runs to front.
5. As above but just over the head.
6. Progress this with your own ideas e.g. pass to the person behind you with one hand etc.

• This warm-up should be full of fun.