There’s a bit of debate over which foot is the best foot to pass off. Current thinking is beginning to favour the foot closest to the receiver. Does it matter and should you care? What are the best teams doing?
When we are striving to improve our players handling skills, one area we concentrate on is the detail of the technique. Kim Oliver, who coached Bristol Ladies and now works with Ealing Trailfinders, focuses particularly on “firing the rifles”, with the hands finishing pointing towards the target.
Footwork is another area coaches have been concentrating on. The current wave is for the passer to deliver the ball from the foot closest to the receiver. In other words, the hips are closed, not facing the receiver.
This is not a particularly natural movement. Firstly, it means far more shoulder rotation, which in turn probably means that the passer hasn’t got the receiver in their sights as much as before. It’s not a no-look pass though.
Secondly, with the hips closed, the arms must work harder. That’s where the advantage comes. The elbows and wrists add the power, which leads to greater speed. It should also reduce the ball swinging below the hips during the pass, which can lead to the pass being pulled up.
Teams who are also replicating this action are finding that not only does this increase accuracy, it speeds up the pass.
With defensive line speed getting faster, teams need to pass faster to beat the defenders to the outside players. Therefore, these factors are making a difference.
If you don’t think this works, try it out. Recently I’ve been playing some games of walking rugby where there’s a turnover if the passer turns their hips towards the receiver. The players eventually work out that they need to pass off the near foot.
Though they don’t realise it, they are passing a lot faster than they were before. Initially, I ran these game with even teams. But now I give the attack one or two extra players. With walking rugby, the speed of the pass makes a massive difference. They notice this.
But we can’t get too hung up on this technique because sometimes the players don’t have an opportunity to choose which foot to pass off. That’s why they need to practise off both feet. Hence, though it seems simple, the practice, called Passing with your feet, is very useful to challenge the players to develop a good feel to pass using either way.
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