Under 7’s Summer Training

 3rd August 2008

The rugby fields of St. Andrews burst into life on 3rd August, with the first under 7’s training session of the new season.

Elvis and Martin soon had the very excitable group under control, organising lots of fun activities that generated squeals of joy from the young players.

It was great to see a number of new faces and even the very young were keen to join in.  The parents were a little more reluctant, however with some gentle persuasion they were soon doing some rather impressive troll Impressions across the field - teaching the players how to weave in and out of defenders.  The training lasted for 1½ hours and a great time was had by all.

10th August 2008

The second training session took place today, but the weather was not so kind.  Despite a rather wet and miserable day, 14 happy and vocal young players threw themselves into all the activities Elvis and Siobhan designed for them, including running, catching and passing.

Very young new players Joshua and Leon had a lovely time and showed some great skills in catching the ball and 10 year old Emma, who was there to help with the under 7s, showed such promise that she was promptly signed up to play for the under 10’s.

When the heavens opened, Elvis took the opportunity of introducing the kids to the changing rooms and they took part in some pre-match warm up techniques – including some very enthusiastic pre-match chanting.  Once again a good time was had by all.

After training, the children, parents and coaches took the chance to talk tactics in the clubhouse!!

17th August 2008

It was a lovely warm day for training on Sunday. It was good to see so many parents supporting their children and joining in willingly once asked – thank you for that!

The coaches were delighted that numbers of players had swelled to 16, giving greater opportunities for developing the skills of the young players in age appropriate groups.

General fitness was developed with lots of running round the pitch and passing/running games.  Kicking practise gave some very mixed results initially, however with 100% effort on all sides the progress was soon seen.

The group was split into 3, according to age.  The bigger children were coached by Elvis and Martin – concentrating on passing backwards and running with the ball.  William and new player Luke showed a very good turn of speed and Jordan made some great back passes, effectively searching out his team member before throwing the ball.  There was some very enthusiastic defending and one or two very good tackles.

Elvis and Martin took on the role of defenders, asking the young players to bob and weave round them to score a try.  All the kids did brilliantly and flatly refused to give up - running round and round to achieve their goal – well done everyone!!

The middle group aged 5 and 6 practised passing backwards as soon as they had been tagged.  They had a wonderful time and several of the players showed their “competitive natures”! – They were successfully restrained by the coach ‘Smiler’ and their energy was channelled into good natured play.

Despite their age, it was clear that they understood what they were expected to do.  They were enjoying themselves tremendously and developing their skills, whilst maintaining discipline and good manners – this was all under the watchful eyes of the coaches.  Dilan and Alexander showed excellent sportsmanship during play.

The 3rd group were the little ones aged 3 & 4.  What fun they had!!  Lots of squealing and running where they shouldn’t!!  Siobhan showed fantastic patience and skill in corralling them and getting them to understand what they were to do.  Soon they were running once they had passed the ball with great agility and concentration. 

If any cheekiness emerged from a player, a quick run to the posts and back made them think twice about doing it again – although most of the group enjoyed doing this and it soon became a race!

Once again it was a lovely morning, in a positive and fun environment – roll on the season – St Andrew’s Under 7s are ready!!!!!

24th August 2008

Despite a really damp and dismal start to the day, by 10am arrived sun shone over the fields of St Andrews.  Martin started proceedings by singing Happy Birthday to Daniel – next stop the X factor!!!

The bank holiday weekend brought lots of new members, who threw themselves into the proceedings with great energy and the numbers reached 16 despite a few regulars being on holiday.

After a warm up session, the group was split into three.

Elvis, Siobhan and assistant coach Chris instructed the oldest group of William, George, Harjan, Joel, Daniel and Avneet.  They spent time running in and out of their lines, passing the ball behind them as each player called out their name.  Their fitness was further improved with running and defending practice.

Elvis stressed the need for the players to listen to their coaches, as they would be playing their first match in 4 weeks time and needed to focus their minds.  As the games were looming, the coaches concentrated on teaching the correct method of tackling and falling.

The kids faced each other on their hands and knees – then they took it in turns to bring their shoulders in low, grasp the opposing player around the thighs and push them gently to the ground.  Once they had this skill, they moved on to develop the art of falling without hurting themselves.  Again Elvis demonstrated the “parachute” fall, whereby the players pulled their arms up in front of them, then dropped to the ground, bending their knees and falling to their shoulders.  Once again the coaches stressed the importance of using the safe method of falling - not putting their hands out first, which could result in serious injury.  It was only when the coaches were certain that each player had understood this technique and could do it properly, that they were allowed to progress to tackling whilst standing.

The kids clearly loved this first introduction for full contact rugby and each player had developed their skills considerably during the session.

The middle aged group spent time with Martin developing speed, dodging and defending skills.  They also practised passing and running whilst calling out their names.  Frank and Oscar displayed some great passing and running

‘Smiler’ was ‘training’ the littlies who had great fun running and passing the ball between their legs – this brought lots of giggles from Halle who was having a fantastic time and can run really fast for a little one!  Katie came along to help training and found herself doing more running than the players.

For the last session of the training, Martin played Bulldog with the group and had the kids squealing with joy as he chased after them.  All in all a great training session!