The ability to run and pass accurately is where you want your players to get to. This is done by combining the best of your passing drills and adding in some challenges. When it comes to passing in motion drills, you want to work towards game-specific situations to allow your players to be more effective during a game.
We have covered a number of different passing drills on our static passing, spin passing and offload drills pages. All of those drills are important and should be practiced on a regular basis. They are the cornerstone of a great attack and a skill that players can master.
When players master those drills the errors are cut down and they create more scoring opportunities. Basically you increase your odds of winning more games by practicing those skills.
How passing in motion drills should progress
Coaches often fall into the trap of not making drills game-specific. If players are not used to the challenges that they will face in a game, their results suffer.
You will increase the speed of correct decision making by incorporating game-specific drills into the equation. Players will see more situations unfold while practicing and when faced with similar situations during game time, they will be better equipped to execute correctly.
As a starting point, you should take all of the drills across our other passing drill pages and make sure that all of your players are able to execute the passes effectively. If they have mastered those passes, you add game-specific situations.
Passing in motion drills become effective when they are repeated often and in limited space.
The main principle behind these drills is that they should only be run for one or two phases at most.
The simplest of these drills is to run the 3 vs 2 or 4 vs 3 drill in a relatively small area.
- measure out an area of around 5 x 10 meters. Players will run the length of this mini-field
- 3 attackers start on the one side and run towards the 2 defenders
- the attackers will try to get past the defenders by drawing defenders and passing to their support runners
Players will quickly start to understand the importance of timing their passes, running into space and drawing defenders. As a coach, it is important to point this out while they are running through this drill. The rest of the players will also learn by watching their teammates.
This is the most simple of passing in motion drills that you can do. There are many variations that you can do on this, which includes changing the number of players, size of the field or the situation.
Ways to change the situation is, for example, setting up a ruck with a 5 meter or 10-meter blind side. you have two or three attacking players lined up on the blindside and there are no defenders in place. As the scrumhalf passes the ball, two defenders run across in cross defense. The attackers will try to beat them either by passing the ball or by faking a pass and stepping inside.
There are countless variations that you can work on, but these basic options will go a long way in helping your players to be effective during game time.