Just after a bit of advice…

I’m doing a bit of coaching with the U9’s at my local club tomorrow (the first time I’ve ever taken a session). I’ve been asked to do a couple of exercises with them to last approximately 20mins, get them passing, tackling, playing the ball etc.

Anyone got any recommendations on what to do with them? It’s U9’s so I want to make it fun whilst they hopefully get a lot out of it.

I've got my L1 Textbook which has some examples, just thought I'd see if anyone had any good ideas on here.

Thanks.

In my opinion the most important coaching a player receives is in the formative years because that is where their basic skill-set is formed and developed. Quality coaching is essential to teach kids these skills and with all due respect coming onto a fans forum 24 hours before a session asking for ideas doesnt instill me with confidence.
I appreciate you are giving up your spare time to help the kids but i think you are the reason we cant beat Australia.


ps. I was kidding about the last bit. (sort of).

Keep it simple and fun - games rather than drills.

Hard to say what to do without knowing what level the players are at now, but unless you've got the best in the country, expecting to cover passing, tackling and PTB in one session and have them remember any of it is too much.

Just do something like offside touch and encourage them to use the proper passing motion.
Perhaps add a PTB (in any direction) after being touched, rather than an immediate pass, after a while.

Have they played before? Teach them proper technique, either passing or tackling. You can't expect to do both in one session. Disagree with the previous poster, you don't want them running around like headless chickens if they have no idea what to do, it will turn into chaos. Just teach them the proper techniques (I'm assuming you already know them) and don't do fitness-related or position-specific drills under any circumstance.

To be fair to the above comments I would suggest you plan the time into three sections:

Warming up - start with some basic stretches, get the kids moving and involve rugby related things, (ie Fall, Stand, PTB, Move forward 5 m.)
Game Training - play some gametime, if the kids are a team already use backs v forwards with the backs attacking, stop regularly to talk about tackling properly, or whatever to ensure the game is not a competition but a training exercise.
Warm Down - Stretching, reaffirming what has been learnt, team building.

And most importantly, if you are enjoying it, the kids will be.

They are U9's, playing backs v forwards and having them running into each other would be just about the worst thing you could do. I'm not even sure that it would be a good idea to have the backs against the forwards at any level but at U9s it would just be terrible.

keep it simple- if at all possible split them up into smaller groups and show more confidence than you have done on here and you will be fine.

the kids will respond to how clear and confident you are, be prepared to do the drills yourself and i would try to add something to the drills you have done on your l1 coaching course has tbh they are very poor drills and the kids would soon be very bored.

That was my first thought too along with the physical exercise/warming up stuff.

My brother coaches from U8 to U11, and hands up right here, its at a RU club but that makes very little difference, up to ten years old they don't tackle at all but play tag rugby instead and as you'd expect from RU they don't "play the ball" at a tag but just pass it instead.

Non contested three man (boy???) scrums are introduced at 10 years, that should be easy to replicate in RL as the pros do nothing more than lean on each other for a few seconds

, the other technical Union stuff like line outs and rucking come later, that sort of stuff is not for the U10s

THE most important thing, your top priority, should be to make their time fun - so what if they can't fling a pass out onto the wing from the centre circle, or if you find a lad that does then find that the winger can't catch - it doesn't matter if the ball goes to ground or even a little forward and you certainly should n't start to get pedantic about offsides and suchlike - just try a few little routines, run a line up and down the pitch and get them passing to each other, if you're happy that they can do that then get a game going as soon as possible, and keep it going without lots of silly breaks for explanations and penalties.

In doing so they'll enjoy their time with you, they'll learn from each other without even thinking about it (there are always one or two who's dad has been coaching them since they could walk), and they'll want to come back next week - if you spend half an hour with them sitting in a circle while you explain Stevos Momentum Rule you'll be the only one at training next week.

Above all else, and I can't believe that you've got this far without this - find out what your club intend to do with your U9s and what their child rugby policy is.

But above all else get them to enjoy it and you will too, its very rewarding.

BTW I've just been updating our kids RU club with this years Child Protection Policy documents and the RU guide to parents who are choosing a club for their kids, what to look for in a club, what the set up should be etc etc - they are in a pdf format and I'd expect your club to give you access to theirs, if not and if you want a copy of these then PM me with an email address.

Dude

Read what I wrote.

Teambuilding and keep breaking up play to discuss things.

You'd barely get 5 PtBs but the lads will think they've played a game.

thanks for the replies. Basically the guy who was helping walked out on monday, and they asked me last night if i could help out and run through a couple of things. I'll only be assisting, we've all got to start somewhere and should we go another 30years without beating the Aussies, I'll be to blame

.

PS - Watch your back for the parents.

A really good thing you can do as assistant is stand with the kids when the coach addresses the team (instructions etc) rather than alongside the coach. If they see that you're listening they'll be encouraged to listen....which makes everything run smoother!