Passing & Catching Skills

Passing and catching is the bread and butter of any ball game where handling is involved, and yet is often expected to be good rather than be specifically coached. Additionally, the skills of passing and catching in rugby / rugby league are unlike that of any other ball sport, as the sideways pass does not exist elsewhere.

We find that young players almost always want to spiral their passes. It does give distance and speed to a pass, but for most younger players it is at a sacrifice to accuracy. Where possible we should encourage younger players to "swing pass", i.e. swing the arms across the body and float the pass to the receiver, in the style of Mike Gibson, Barry John and such players we may or may not remember.

It's also useful if players can be encouraged to run in support with their "targets" up the whole time, i.e. hands up with the fingers pointing up, ready to receive a pass. This means that they're almost always ready to catch, the ball carrier has something to aim at, and defences don't necessarily know who will get the ball.

From a catching perspective, we recommend fingers up rather than fingers down as you would say in Gaelic football. The reason is the when you catch the ball fingers-up your are almost instantly ready to pass again if required. If you catch fingers-down then you have to adjust your grip on the ball prior to sending a pass, usually an extra 3 - 4 seconds or half a pitch in Brian Habana terms.

Another key area to emphasis with passing, not only at junior level, is to keep the height of the pass. Often you find passes tend to be made towards the waist or stomach area, meaning that the receiver has to look down to catch the ball. This means looking away from the defensive line and possibly missing any gaps that open. Passing should be from chest to eye height, so that payers can catch the ball with the opposition in their field of vision.

Passing Drills

There are many passing drills available, documented on many of the sites referred to in the Coaching Resources page. Some of the most effective include passing waves and 2 v 1 drills, that put th eplayers into competitive situations.

We have also adopted as part of our warm-up a "free-style" approach to passing, where players in groupd of 4 - 5 operate down a narrow channel interpassing, i.e. sometimes passing along the line, sometimes passing back and forth. This encourages a bit of free-thinking and can be used for a number of skills. Key points include:

• The ball carrier runs himself ahead of receivers, i.e. a burst of speed.
• Receivers all run with "targets" up.
• On passing, the ball carrier gets themself into a support position quickly.
• Communication is vital - all players in good positions to receive should be calling for passes.

Extensions to this activity include turning and ripping, setting up a mini-maul, drop to the ground & place, and getting one or more players to act defensively.

Used as a warm-up or as a skill you can develop this activity to cover a range of skills and keep the similarity to game time as close as possible.

Hopefully a few ideas here that are of use. Feel free to offer comments or send in your own ideas to add to the skills list.