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Ball Familiarisation; Passing & Receiving

U7 Activities for Ball Familiarisation; Passing & Receiving

BALL FAMILIARISATION
The coach should have as many balls as possible available at training. One each is the ideal and one between two is the least number desirable. The more often a player handles the ball the more competent he will become.

Let the players run and pass and play with the ball as soon as they arrive at training before you start. A few simple rules such as staying in a designated area is all that is required.

Ball familiarisation is a good warm up activity. Mark out a large grid (15 x 15) which acts as the boundary for the players. They must stay inside this grid but can run in any direction and change direction as often as they like.

Then there are any number of activities which can be carried out:
- Running with the ball in two hands – speed up and slow down on the call – keep looking forward so as to not run in to another player - score a diving try on the whistle – get up quickly and go again.
- Bounce and catch the ball as they jog around
- Throw it in the air and catch it as they jog around
- Roll the ball forward and run after it and pick it up.
- Place the ball on the ground by pressing it down with two hands on the side of the player – run on and return to pick the ball up in two hands at the side
- Move the ball around the body as they jog around
- Stand on the spot and move the ball under the right leg then under the left leg by lifting the leg.
- Stand on the spot and move the ball between their legs in a figure of 8 motion.
- Make up your own

In Pairs: - run around passing it backwards and forwards to each other.
- Start a metre apart and the ball carrier is chased and tagged with two hands if the chaser can catch him. Swap over.
- One partner rolls the ball out and the other partner chases and picks it up. Continue on.
- Do all the above activities for 20 seconds then swap with the partner.

Skills when running with the ball:

  • Carry the ball in two hands about chest height.

  • Fingers spread out on each side of the ball and facing upwards.

BASIC PASS
Techniques:

  • Hold the ball in two hands at chest height with fingers spread on each side of the ball facing upwards

  • Rotate the ball and the hands so that the fingers are now facing downwards

  • Swing both arms across the body staying side on to the pass

  • Follow through with the arms and point the fingers to the area at chin height and out in front of the receiver that the ball is aiming towards

  • Keep the arms up momentarily so that the ball flies straight.

  • The hips stay square with the upper body rotating.

Activities:
- In pairs a metre or more apart side on to each other. Pass across the body to the designated spot in front of the receiver at chin height. Once they can do this place them under a bit of pressure by doing the following: how many passes in 30 seconds / jogging and passing in pairs down a channel / passing on their weak hand doing the same activities. (Weak hand is when the hand propelling the ball with the follow through is the furthest away hand which is not as comfortable as the other hand. Normally the left hand)

Middle Man: Use a grid 5m wide and about 7m long. At one end there is one player on each corner. At the other end there is a player on each corner and a player in between them. This group have the ball on one corner. Any extra players line up evenly behind the corner players at the end with the ball.

On ‘go’ the group with the ball start jogging forward and passing. When the third player receives it he pops it off to the waiting player at the corner they have run to. The two corner players who have already run and passed wait at that end and the middle man turns and runs and passes with the two waiting players. This continues until the coach calls ‘change’ at which time the middle man changes over.

RECEIVING THE PASS
Techniques:

  • Hands extended forward and towards the ball at chin height.

  • Fingers spread and facing upward.

  • Chin up, eyes open, watching the ball.

  • Move forward to catch the ball in front so that the head is still facing up and forward.

Activities:
- Use the same activities as for passing with an emphasis on the catching technique.
-The players line up and prepare to run past the coach and receive a pass. The coach will have all the balls so that the whole group continue through. If there are not sufficient balls for everyone the ball should be passed by the receiver to another player who places them on the ground. As soon as the balls are all used then the coach moves to the new starting point where the balls have been placed and the activity continues.

The coach can introduce more skills after the ball has been caught by coaching: a change of pace / a change of angle / a swerve / another pass to a second player in support / use Rippa belts and have a tackler in place and a support player.

Make sure the players practice receiving the ball on both sides of their body.