Rugby drills putting the focus on feet

Balance is a key component in all sports and it is especially important in rugby – whether for passing, tackling, scrummaging, lifting in a lineout, kicking or side stepping. The following training drills will improve your players' footwork and, therefore, balance.

The key to being balanced is keeping your feet underneath your centre of gravity all the time. The illustration shows a player with good balance about to make a tackle. The line shows his feet are under his centre of gravity (as marked by the circle).

getting players to keep feet underneath centre of gravity

You should always emphasise to your players that in any training drill or game they should try to keep their feet underneath them. At first they may need to consciously think about their feet positions and their other skills may dip. It often takes some time before players make the foot movements naturally, so don’t expect immediate results. There are some simple drills you can use to demonstrate the importance of correct foot positions to your players.

Agility ladders

Get the players to run through a set of agility ladders, putting one foot in to each space. Watch them very carefully and look for the players who are hitting rungs and missing spaces by the end of the ladder.

Watch again and you will see that these players are the ones who are trying to go too quickly. Consequently, their bodies are getting ahead of their feet. As soon as their feet are outside their centre of gravity they are off balance and cannot control their movement properly.

You can use a variety of other ladder drills, such as stepping in and out of the sides of the ladder, to help your players’ balance skills. Emphasise that these are not about speed but accuracy. Players should keep upright, back straight with their feet underneath their backsides all the time.

Agility Poles

Set up a line of six or eight poles about a metre apart and slightly staggered. The players must weave in and out of the poles, staying on the balls of their feet and keeping their feet underneath them. They should take several fast small steps to get round each pole rather than big slow wide steps.

Test the players’ ability to react and move quickly during the drill. As they are running through, blow a whistle and see how fast they can get to a cone set to one side about five metres away. The players with their feet under them will be able to react and move much faster. The players with their feet outside their centre of gravity will find it very difficult to react and move fast.

1 v1 Touch or TAG drill
In a narrow channel play 1v1 touch or TAG and encourage both the attacker and the defender to work hard to keep their feet underneath them. This will help them change direction quickly and react to each other’s movements.

table summarising footwork points