Under 8
Matches
Sun 13 Oct 2013
Teddington RFC
Under 8
09:45
Bad weather fails to undermine the Teddington U8 spirit

Bad weather fails to undermine the Teddington U8 spirit

Sam Elliott15 Feb 2017 - 21:48
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https://www.teddingtonrfc.co.u

U8 parents woke up this morning and prayed that the rugby was off.

It was a minor miracle that despite over two inches of rain drenching the park in just over a 12 hour mid-week period that training went ahead. It was therefore great to see just over 40 children and parents ignoring the awful weather to battle it out. This underlines once again the unique pulling power training within such beautiful surroundings. Well done to all who made the effort.

Each week after tournaments and training the coaches will discuss areas to focus on for the coming weeks. The plan for today was to work on the art of tagging, improving passing and ball retention. The specific drills we had planned were:

1. Tag drill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akbt721GUKc&noredirect=1
2. Passing line drill..http://www.irishrugby.ie/downloads/Activity-RightAnglePassing.pdf
3. Keeping the ball. Passing & tagging drill. Groups of 6 players tags on, 1 small grid 6x6. One tagger tries to tag the player with the ball as they pass it to keep the ball away from the tagger. Count the number of successful passes
4. Two versus one. Passing decision making drill. Groups of 6 players. 10x25 grid. It works by everyone lining up in the middle 2 attackers (1 with ball) run down around a cone at one end of a grid the defender runs around a cone at the opposite end. Attackers draw the defender. Support runner run from deep. Defender must defend ball carrier. Progression 3 v 2 then 4 v 2.

As you can appreciate the weather really disrupted the session we had planned. After some last minute changes the coaches decided to focus only on tagging and passing. Anything else in the conditions would have been to ambitious. The tag drill quickly got up to speed and the results were impressive given the conditions. Trying to pull a wet slippery tag off whilst a player is running at you is no mean feat. The passing line drill was going to be a real test of concentration and skill. The balls by now had turned into bars of soap in the conditions we had, however with so many passes going to hand it was great to see. These basic skills will build a vital foundation to any players toolkit throughout their entire career.

The last 10-15 minutes allowed the players to put into play what they had just spent practising. In the end though the weather did mean the coaches had to shorten the session as we could see the players were getting colder by the minute. One or two parents looked like drowned rats as well! Without doubt the U8s are turning into a great year group on and off the pitch. Well done everyone. See you next week, details are on the website where everyone is.

Match details

Match date

Sun 13 Oct 2013

Kickoff

09:45
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Minis Sponsor - The Beech House
Club sponsor & wine supplier - Doran Family Vintners
Minis Shirt Sponsor - New Victoria
minis sponsor - Exodus Travels
Mini shirt sponsor - Savills