Team swap game: An activity to use at training

This game works on players' problem solving and communication.

Photo credit: Omega Photography

This game, called Team Swap Touch, causes chaos, with players constantly moving. As a result, it forces your players to communicate and problem solve.

How to set up the game:

• Set up a playing area with two trylines.

• Split players into two teams.

• Play touch rules (this can be whatever rules your team uses).

• Although you can progress to some contact variations, there is alot of movement in this game that means touch might be the preferable option for your team.

• Every time a player makes 2 touch-tackles, they swap teams.

• This doesn’t reset after a score.

• For example: Player A makes one touch-tackle, the game continues and several minutes later Player A makes another touch-tackle. They swap teams. If Player A makes another two touch-tackles, they swap teams again.

• When playing this game, you can go straight to the final level: the rule is live for all players.

• You can also adapt the levels and have a number of players on each time that have the team swap rules. For example: 3 players from each team have the team swap rules applied.

Why this game might work for your team:

This game challenges a team’s problem solving. A player that has just swapped teams has to communicate to their incoming teammates.

It also means teams have to constantly work with different teammates.

As well as challenging their communication, this activity gets your players thinking about problem solving and looking at how to exploit a team’s defence.

There will be overlaps created in this game and sudden gaps in a defence left by a player swapping teams. This challenges the attacking team to identify space and prompts the defending team to work hard.

If too many players end up on one team, you can always reset the game or see if they can play their way to a full side again.

Questions to ask your players:

• If you’ve just swapped, how could you have an immediate impact?

• If you’ve just swapped teams, where could you run to so that you can have an impact in 1-2 phases?

• If you’ve just lost a player, what might you communicate to the rest of your team?

• How could you organise your team so that you gain more players than you lose?

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