A multisport game for your session
Let's play a game that merges different sports together.
I’m a big fan of bringing other sports into my rugby sessions. For the past few weeks, the women’s team I coach have been in a block of sessions themed around ‘Space Invaders’.
This block looks at what we skills we can take from other sports to help us within rugby. For the first session, I wanted to set the team a new game that evolved with each rule. The game is inspired by football, rugby and aussie rules.
After the warm up, we played the game for the whole session. The aim of each game rule was to switch between different sports, changing the rules and giving players different challenges.
How to set up the playing area:
Set up a main playing area, big enough for your players.
A short distance outside of the grid, create two football goals at either end using cones (the orange circles above)
Beyond the two football goals, place four agility poles to create AFL goal posts. (If you don’t have agility poles you can use cones)
How to play the game:
Start off with the football/rugby rules:
The group play with a football.
They can’t move with the ball but they can throw it or kick it along the floor to a teammate.
The passes or kicks can go in any direction
The teams are aiming to kick the ball through the opposition goals.
Players can only kick from inside the main playing area.
One player from each team is allowed to defend/act as goalie outside of the main playing area.
Add in a progression:
Players can now run with the ball, they can also dribble the ball at their feet whilst moving.
If they are touch tackled by a member of the opposite team, players must stop and either throw the ball or kick pass it to a teammate.
These passes can still go in any direction.
Add in a some rugby rules:
Players now use a rugby ball.
Passes must now go backwards.
Any kicks along the floor can still go forwards.
Add in the AFL scoring system:
Instead of scoring through the football goals, players can now try scoring through the AFL posts.
If a team kicks the ball through the outer posts, they score one point (see picture), if they score through the middle posts, they earn three points.
Add in a progression to end the game:
The ball can now be passed in any direction (like the first half of the game).
How to coach the game
This game can seem quite complicated. The rules start inspired by football, they then build up to rugby before going into Aussie Rules. It gives players a chance to develop skills from other sports.
This game helps players build up their confidence in kicking and develops their ability to scan for spaces.
One of the main aims is to help players quicken their reactions when the ball drops to the floor. The ball being on the ground is a natural part of this game. Players can either pick it up or kick the ball along the ground.
I gave players regular chances to pause and chat amoungst their teammates to problem solve.
You can play this game over a whole session, like I did. You can also split the game across different sessions.
If you’re splitting the game over different sessions, start on the same level or the previous level the game was last played at.
This will help the players find their footing in the game before the new rules are added.
During the game, go to different players and give them prompts or questioning. I found it helpful to theme my questioning around the following:
Having different options to move the ball (dribbling, kicking or throwing).
The option to kick from anywhere in the main playing area.
Players following their pass/working off the ball to create space.
Limiting the questioning to a few themes helps to focus on the main goals of the game and session.
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I loved the variation in skills this training session offered.