Warm weather drills and training

When the weather warms up and the grounds get harder, it’s time to reappraise your preparations for matches. Think tactically and practice to play to your strengths.

SHORTER, MORE DYNAMIC WARM-UPS

Shorten the length of the warm-up on warm days and change content to reflect the sort of game you will want to play. As the ground gets harder, your more agile and quicker players will move across the ground faster. Your warm-up needs to incorporate activities that allow them to begin the game fully ready to focus on pace and offloading.

Training ideas

• Change the role of the ruck pad A lot of teams hit a ruck pad in their warm-up. This can be modified by asking the ball carrier not to place the ball but to pop up the ball off the ground to a support player. Ask that player to immediately pass the ball to another player who continues a similar run into a ruck pad. This encourages the players to use the good weather to move the ball away from contact quicker.
• More agility work Use cones to step around in a channel to force players to change direction quickly before passing to a supporting player. This will instil in your players an ambition to use their footwork more to avoid contact in the match ahead.

FOCUS ON QUICK BALL

With a drier ball, more offloading options can come into your team’s game. Offloading out of the tackle, which may be seen as a risky option during wet weather may become a more significant option now the weather has improved.

Training idea

• Place ruck-pad holders inside a square and ask the players to pass when they can. However, if contact is inevitable, ask the players to take it on their terms and then pass the ball out of the contact to the best-placed support player. Focus on quick hands by the new receiver to move the ball to a new area of the square which, again, focuses the players’ minds on moving the ball away from a contact area quickly.

DON’T FORGET PRE-SEASON THOUGHTS

Think back to the start of the season. Did you throw to the back of the lineout more before the weather made that difficult? Do you need to rethink your selection and pick a more mobile team? Did you play with more width in attack at the start of the season rather than attack close, retain possession and kick for territory?

Tactical ideas

• Revisit your original tactics from the start of the season to check whether they might be relevant now. You will benefit from not having to introduce new tactics, just revise old ones.
• Mix up which tactics you will concentrate on in your training sessions, no matter what the weather is. Challenge your players to use the most appropriate tactics for different conditions.

WET/DRY

Use the wet/dry game and technical session. You can add in your own tactics and techniques as well. Real handling width activity With drier weather, you might want to exploit the open spaces. However, not all your players can throw long passes.

Use the activity on Real Handling Width to develop better passing and realistic outcomes because not all your players are going to be capable passers.