Combine speed, accuracy and anticipation to read the opposition’s movements. By Joe Payton, NZ Rugby’s women’s high-performance development manager.
I have spent a lot of time learning from the South Africans, who are among the best exponents of the art of the lineout.
One way they apply pressure on the opposition front jumper is to have their front lifter standing at 450 to their own jumper and facing in towards the opposition.
That means the defending jumper will effectively be closer to the 5m line and more likely to have their inside shoulder in front of their opposite number, giving them more chance of them getting up in front of their opposite number.
In defence, if you have the hooker in the line (and the 9 in the hooker channel), I would have two props lifting the front jumper, and the hooker and one of the flankers lifting the middle jumper.
This depends on what defensive lineout structure you’re working with and what the opposition are doing with their attack.
Speed off the ground is essential to beat opposition players into the air. That can depend on how the jumper ’loads’ before the jump.
From my research of South African lineouts and jumpers, I can see that they use specific techniques to generate momentum to get into the air more quickly and more explosively.
In the last 10 years, in New Zealand, the ’little tick’ terminology has been used to describe players’ jumping technique.
This refers to jumpers using as little angle as possible at the ankle, knee and hip joints, as well as the arms, to propel themselves into the air.
Theoretically, this means that opposite jumpers have little or no time to react to cues from the attacking jumper, and therefore they win the race into the air.
Contrary to this, there is terminology to describe players who use large angles at the ankle, knee and hip (and arms) – they are called ’big ticks’.
These are generally players who actually jump off the ground, using big arm pumps, a short, sharp hop, and as little contact time on the ground as possible.
There is no right or wrong with these two differing techniques, but we have been using the ’big tick’ approach, which has been derived from watching the South Africans, and we are having a good amount of success using it.
Some coaches like the jumper to have a little bend at their hips, and knee joints in particular, so that they can get into the air quickly without alerting the opposition.
However, learning from the lineout experts in South Africa, a bigger set of ’ticks’ at those joints means the jumper is more powerful, easier to lift, and gets into the air quicker and higher.
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