Lineouts - Getting the jumpers up fast

I received this in my inbox this morning ...

My players are asking for more help with the lineout, and they have correctly identified the fact that our biggest weakness is getting the jumper into the air quickly. Are there any good drills for this? Today I just had two pods going up and competing for the ball, neither was designated ''offense'' and they just had to go on the thrower. I'm just curious to know if anyone has any other ideas for working on this skill.

There are alot things at play here ... are you lifting legs or shorts? Are the jumpers moving or static? Going straight up or into the tunnel? Either way, getting into the air fast is a matter of the lifters reacting to the jumper, and minimizing all the extranous stuff at the actual jump (cadences, steps, delays in binding, etc).
As to timing, if we time things off the thrower, both teams get to initiate their actions at the same time, and neither team will get an appreciable advantage.

I like to use very dynamic lineouts and put everything in the hands of the jumpers. The lifters then have only one task .. lift, or don't lift. As to the mechanics - each jumper is a little different and I like to let them be. I don't personally believe in any kind of cadence at all for jumpers and lifters - again, its all about the jumper moving quickly and the lifters reacting. This is JUST my opinion, I've seen some static lineouts where the jumpers get up fast, its just not my personal preference.

So - if you want to develop speed, make your games/drills about speed. Instead of the "winner" being the one who has the ball, the "winner" can be the fastest unit. Here is a sample format.


Set up a line of 6 cones 5 meters apart. Set up as many of these in parallel as you have lifter/thrower groups. It's a race.

Throwers all start on the first cone, jumping pods on the second. On "GO" the group has to execute a lineout. When the ball is successfully caught in the air, the jumper passes it back the the thrower, and the whole unit moves to the next cone. When they hit the last cone, they now come forward, repeating the process. If the lineout is not successful, the group has to stay on the cone until they get it right. At the end of it every group will have executed at least 10 lineouts, under stress, and the winner will be the fastest group.

There are a million variations on this format, and many other lineout games that can be used to develop this speed and the decision making skills that go along with it.

As to off the pitch, your lifters and jumpers should be doing olypmic style lifts - push presses, cleans, jump squats, etc. This will get them faster and more explosive for the lineout tasks.

Great topic Deanna - lets see what everyone else has to say!

Game day warmups

Sorry I've been out of touch for so long - both work and rugby have escalated and it seems theres hardly a free moment to breath.

As everyone's seasons are now ramping up it seems a good time to discuss match prep.

Like probably 99% of coaches on the planet (at least here in the states), "four corners" was always part of my teams warm up. I'm working with a new group of players, and the night before our first match as I was penciling in our warm up schedule, i realized that I have never run "four corners" with this particular group. I'd been operating under that axiom that "four corners" is match prep because you can do lots of different things, and everyone works together.

But seriously, is it really match prep? I mean, I'd never even run four corners in TRAINING, so why in the world would i even consider doing it before a game? Pre-match time is at a premium. We need to manage players confidence levels, let them warm but not hot, get them aroused but controlled.

So instead of four corners we used a continuous 3 v 2 game with very light contact. The results were marvelous! The decision making gates seemed to open wide, and it became clear as day to me that pregame isn't just about warming up bodies, it's about warming up minds, warming up communication channels.

What sorts of different things does everyone do pregame? How long do you warm up? I've seen teams practically scrimmaging as warmup, is that a good idea or not? How about varying warmups - is it safe to do different things based on the teams needs, or, is your teaching pedagogy that we always do the same thing for warmups, to get everyone in a common frame of mind?

Please share your opinions. It might be fun at a big tournament to go sit up on top of the camera man's scaffollding and get a birds eye view of all the different teams warmiups, see what they do the same, see what they do different. Better yet, see if there's a connection between how a team warms up and how they play.