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GAMES AND DRILLS FOR IMPROVING VISION FOR

RUGBY BY

PAUL TYLER. The author is a Rugby Development Officer with the Scottish Rugby Union and is based in Glasgow. He is a Level 2 coach and coaches at Hillhead/Jordanhill RFC in Glasgow. He got interested in improving vision for sport after hearing about Sherylle Calder’s involvement with the England squad and he started thinking of how this could be practically applied for the everyday club coach Development and improvement of peripheral vision, variable depth vision, dynamic visual acuity, visual concentration, eye tracking, visual memory, visual reaction time, focus flexibility, depth perception and scanning skills can be built into nearly any rugby drill or game and almost without your players realising it. In this paper I am going to look at a variety of different drills and games which will improve your players’ visual skills at the same time as working on other important rugby skills. Some of them are position specific, some are for individual players and others are for groups of players or teams. Most of the drills and games I’m sure you will have come across or will already be using in your training, but maybe you have never thought about them in these terms. Don’t just stop at the drills in this paper; a lot of the fun from coaching comes from developing your own training drills and passing them on to your players and other coaches. Don’t be afraid to try something – if it doesn’t work, think about why it didn’t work, change it and try again. Visual training is essential for the modern sportsperson and is of paramount importance in rugby. The modern game is so fast and there is so much movement in attack and defence, on and off the ball, that the modern rugby player must have excellent visual skills to succeed. As visual and audio inputs are the two main sources of sensory information that a rugby player receives during a game, the two are inextricably linked. A lot of the drills included in this paper are, therefore, designed to improve both visual and audio skills. There seems no point developing one if we don’t develop the other at the same time; what use is a player who can see the gap but is not able to communicate it to his team-mates? It is essential that you insist on a high level of communication in all training, no matter how simple the drills. Most of the drills and games here can be used for players at any age, although some of them might be more suitable for older players. Remember, though, that the quickest way to improve your players’ all-round skills is by playing rugby, even mini games (4

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v 4, 5 v 4 etc). I would recommend that you play rugby in training as often as possible. This will ensure the skills your players are improving are also being developed in game situations.

“The eye is a muscle and like any other muscle can be trained, exercised and measured in its performance”. Sherylle Calder (RFU vision coach) I would suggest that the ear can also be trained, exercised and improved in its performance and we know for sure that the vocal cords can be trained and improved to improve communication. “In rugby the biggest opportunities in defence and attack come from players simply seeing the space on the rugby pitch. The problem is the players simply weren’t looking up and taking in all the information about the pitch. Most players only look up when they have the ball in hand, at other times they watch the ball. The players need to form the habit of constantly looking around the pitch throughout the game.” Sherylle Calder’s comments when she started working with the England Rugby Team Contents:

- SAQ® drills. - Peripheral vision. - General awareness. - Defensive drills. - Seeing space. - Positional vision. - Definitions.

SAQ® DRILLS. It is essential when carrying out SAQ® drills (especially with ladders and hurdles) to ensure that players keep their heads up and scan what is in front of them. Here are a series of really simple drills which will work on your players’ footwork as well as their visual skills.

- Always use short ladders (4 or 5 steps).

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- Use a variety of footwork patterns. - All these drills can be easily progressed as players improve. - All these drills can be performed using hurdles instead of ladders. - All these drills can be used just with straight running. - As players improve, reduce the time and space they have to make decisions.

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A player moves through the ladder and the coach stands at the end. At any point during the player’s progress through the ladder he points left or right and the player reacts by moving sharply in that direction. 2/

A player moves through the ladder and the coach stands at the end with a tackle shield. When the player reaches the end of the ladder the coach moves left or right and the player must react and make the tackle.

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3/ As the player moves through the ladder, another player passes the ball to him (this pass can be at any point). The player in the ladder must catch the ball and give a pass to a third player. 4/

As the player moves through the ladder, the coach nominates one of three players (wearing tackle suits and carrying a ball), who starts to move forward. The player in the ladder must tackle the moving ball carrier. 5/

A player moves through the ladder and holds a ball. Three defenders stand in front of the coach, who gives them a signal to move up whilst leaving an intentional hole in the defence. The ball carrier must spot the hole and attack it.

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As the player moves through the ladder, another player stands beyond the end and moves toward the end of the ladder; he can hold a ball but it is not essential. As the player in the ladder approaches the end of the ladder, the other player runs either left or right and the ladder player must either mimic the movement or go in the other direction to avoid him. As players improve, the player with the coach can leave his change of direction as late as possible. The coach can call which option the ladder player is to take. 7/

Two players move through two sets of ladders at the same time. The coach stands in front and at some point signals left or right. Both players must react and sprint in that direction. When the players have mastered this, the coach points in the direction he wants the players to run. Then the coach moves left or right. The next stage of development can be when the players have to move in the opposite direction to the coach’s signal. This can be made very intense for the players by the signals being altered by the coach’s hands up or hands down. The number of players involved can be increased, depending on how many ladders are available.

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Four players move through the ladders together and the coach throws a ball into play (can be passed, chipped, rolled or bounced at any point during the ladders). The players must react, recover the ball then attack and support each other. PERIPHERAL VISION. The following drills will help develop your players’ peripheral vision and the result should be an improvement in general field of vision; this ought to lead to better reactions to seeing space or in watching opponents’ movements. The passing drills in this section can be made harder and more effective by reducing the size of the ball used; use golf balls, tennis balls, mini rugby balls etc. The practices are more difficult and more demanding if the ball is the same colour as the background and a cricket sightscreen can be very useful 1/

Red and blue players move from side to side between their cones and the green player in the middle must move to keep in line with both red and blue.

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2/

Red and blue players move from side to side between their cones and the green player in the middle must move to keep in line with both. At any point red can pass the ball to green who must catch the ball and give a pass to blue. 3/

The red player runs down the channel between two lines of players. He receives a pass from the green players and must immediately pass that ball to the correct blue player. The runner/passer must look straight ahead at all times, even when passing. This will be very difficult at the beginning so a slight turn of the head can be allowed. As players improve you can reduce the size of the balls being used (mini rugby balls, tennis and golf balls can all be used). This drill is probably not suitable to use with young players as we want to try to encourage them to look at the ball as it is passed to them.

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4/

This is similar to the previous drill. It is a simple passing drill, except that players should try to look straight ahead as much as possible. To start with, players will need to pull the ball back in the pass to give the receiving player a chance; however, as players improve, the passing can get flatter and flatter. Again, this drill is probably not suitable to use with young players as we want to try and encourage them to look at the ball as it is passed to them. GENERAL AWARENESS. General awareness is about your players’ all round vision and communication; it is about developing scanning skills, peripheral vision and variable depth vision all at the same time, rather than concentrating on one aspect in isolation. For this reason it is very game related because players will use all their vision and communication skills together during a game. These drills will develop general awareness in your players and develop all their vision and communication skills as well as a multitude of other essential skills that will be utilised. There are hundreds of games and drills which can be used for general awareness, from simple games of Tag to Truck and Trailer drills and any other drills which require movement and skills in a confined space. In general, the less space you give the players, the harder the drills and games will become. Set out a grid (size depends on numbers) with equal numbers of players on each side of the grid. When the coach blows the whistle the players simply jog back and forth across the grid, avoiding contact with each other. As players improve, increase the speed the players are working at and reduce the space they have to work in.

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1/

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A group of 4 (or 5) players is on each side of the grid with a ball. On the whistle the groups shuttle back and forth across the grid, passing the ball down the line; they work continuously for anything between a minute and ninety seconds, trying to avoid contact and dropping the ball.

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3/ Truck and Trailer drills are excellent for players of all ages and abilities. Players work in pairs (but this can build up to 3s or 4s) with a ball. The ball carrier (truck) moves around and the support player (trailer) has to stay as close as possible without running into the truck. They must avoid contact with other pairs of players whilst staying inside the marked area. A number of skills (such as pop passes, gut passes, ball up, ball down etc) can be practised using this as a basis 4/

Five-pass game: two teams of five or six players (ideal numbers to make sure everyone is working) work in a tight grid. The team with the ball must make five passes to team mates to get a point, but the ball carrier can not move. The team

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without the ball wins possession by intercepting the ball or if it is dropped; they are not allowed to touch the ball carrier. Variations:

- make it 10 passes instead of 5. - allow ball carrier to move (but only keep possession for 2 or 3 seconds). - introduce a second ball. - allow defending team to knock the ball out of ball carrier’s hands. - decrease the size of the grid to increase the amount of traffic.

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This is a really basic individual drill which will improve peripheral vision, eye tracking and visual reaction time. The player working faces away from his partner who has the ball. The ball carrier shouts “Go” as they throw the ball, and on the call the working player turns round and tries to catch the ball. Start off by making it easy and progressively get harder by using a smaller (and progressively smaller) ball as the players improve. Defensive Drills: The drills in this section will work on your players’ ability to keep a straight defensive line while watching the attacking players. They will improve vision, communication and teamwork. They get progressively more complicated so start with the simplest and don’t move on until the players have mastered it.

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1/

A line of attackers (blue) in tackle suits move from side to side as directed by the coach. They are mirrored by a line of defenders (green) communicating which player they are covering. The coach calls “Up” and the attackers move up and are met by the defenders. 2/

As before, but one attacking player drops back behind the main line and acts as a floating attacker. The coach directs the attackers left and/or right and the defenders mirror them. The floating attacker moves left and right independently. When the coach calls “Up” the two lines move up to meet each other and the floating attacker hits the gap in front of him and must be covered by the extra defender.

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3/

As well as having an attacking player dropping back, a defender drops back as well; the further complication is that the attacking players in the line can now move around and swap positions. Again, when the coach calls “Up” the two lines move up and all the attacking players must be covered. 4/

This looks complicated but it’s not! Two lines of 4 attackers (blue), one line behind the other, move from side to side independently. When the coach calls “Up” the two lines move up together and the back line picks a gap to attack. The defenders (also in two lines) also move up; the front line tackles the front line of attackers and the back line tackles the back line. The attackers can change positions while they slide from side to side and the defenders must communicate who is their man. This drill is good for improving your players’ variable depth vision and when the players are competent at the drill you can make it harder by changing who they are marking during the drill. For instance, while the players are moving, shout “Swap” and the front line change from marking the front line of attackers to marking the back line (and vice versa).

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SEEING SPACE. In this section there is a progression of simple attacking drills designed so that the attacking players must see the space that the defence has left, communicate to their team mates and attack the space. There are hundreds of ways these drills can be changed or progressed which will work on your players’ scanning skills in various facets of the game. Players will only succeed in these drills if their heads are up and they are scanning what is in front of them – and then communicating what they see to the rest of their team. 1/

This is a very simple attacking drill where four attackers (green) are faced with three defenders (blue) and must see and attack the space. To start with, the coach manipulates the defence (i.e. tells them to leave a hole at position 3), but as the players become better at the drill it can be left to the defence where to leave the hole. Remember - as your players improve, give them less time and space to make their decisions. 2/

Still four attackers v three defenders, but now one of the defenders is allowed to change direction as late as he likes. This means that the attacking players will have to alter the point of their attack at the last minute.

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3/

Now an extra defender is added and again the coach manipulates the defence. In this example, the third defender has been told to step in to leave a hole on his outside. The coach might ask defenders 1 and 2 to rush up and 3 and 4 to hold back or not move at all – thus creating a hole between 2 and 3. There are endless possibilities and it is important that the coach manipulates the defence to ask progressively harder questions of the players. POSITIONAL VISION. Different players on the rugby pitch use different visual skills at various key points of the game, the following set of drills look at specific positions at specific moments of the game and consider the visual, communication and decision making skills required. 1/ Scrum Half

The tackle bag represents a ruck with the ball won by the attacking side. A number of defenders (the actual number can vary but should be less than the number of attackers) covers the various channels of attack but always leaves 1 or 2 channels open. The scrum half has to scan the defence as they approach the ruck and make a decision based on which channels are not defended. The scrum half has a number of runners giving options as well as a stand off or they can decide to make a break themselves. The drill can start as touch and build up to full contact.

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2/ Stand Off

The drill can start with 10 holding the ball or it can be delivered from a scrum half; this is more difficult but also more game related. The defenders are manipulated by the coach so that a gap (or half gap as skills improve) is left. The 10 must identify the gap and get the ball there. You can use this simple set-up in a variety of ways:

- 12, 13 and 14 are not allowed to communicate, meaning that 10 has to scan

and spot the gap. - 10 has to rely on the scanning and communication of 12, 13 and 14. - All four players scan and communicate to get the ball into the gap.

As with previous drills, start off slowly and simply. As the players improve, build up the pace and reduce the time and space that the attacking players have. You can also vary the amount of contact in the drill from touch to full contact (this is also an excellent drill for which to use tag-rugby belts). 3/ Back 3

The back three align as if defending from a scrum or lineout in the opposition’s half. The ball is kicked behind them so they have to turn and run back to recover the ball. As they retreat, two defenders chase the kick and they can run any defensive pattern they want. The back three must find the gaps and exploit them.

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4/ Back Row

This drill is best done as shown in the diagram with two complete back-rows – if that is impractical then you can either use front five players as the attacking side or just use one or two players as attackers. If you have two complete back-row units then they will both be improving their visual skills and you can make the drill as competitive as you want. The back-row in green is attacking and the back-row in blue defending. Both back-rows are packing down to a scrummage machine or tackle pads held by other players. The attacking back-row discusses what they are going to do

(which could involve giving the ball to 9 and 10) and then executes the move. The defending team strives to stop the move on or behind the gain line or get to 10 if the ball is passed out. The defending players will learn to keep their heads up and look for cues from the attacking side which will alert them to what the attacking side are doing. 5/ Lineout pods

Two lineout pods line up next to each other and the attacking pod decides with the hooker what they are going to do and where they want the ball. The defending pod must then try and follow their movement, anticipate the hooker’s throw (watching the hooker for cues) and try to win the ball. Encourage the attacking lineout to use lots of movement to make it harder for the defending team.

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‘SAQ®’ is a registered trade mark of SAQ® INTERNATIONAL. All rights reserved. www.saqinternational.com

Definitions of terms used in the article.

Variable Depth Vision:

The ability to see objects at different distances, i.e. being able to see the defensive line while at the same time picking up the full back and wingers’ positions.

Scanning:

A combination of eye tracking and visual memory, allowing players to quickly assess and remember the position of objects on the pitch.

Peripheral Vision:

The ability to see things that are not directly in front of you without turning your head.

Visual Concentration:

The ability to stay focused on an object and screen out external distractions (crowds, other players etc).

Dynamic Visual Acuity:

The ability to clearly see fast moving objects or see objects when you are moving fast.

Eye Tracking: The ability to follow moving objects without excessive head movement, which helps to maintain balance and speeds up reaction times.

Visual Memory: The ability to process and remember a fast-moving, complex picture of objects – allows you to be in the ‘right place at the right time.’

Visual Reaction Time:

The speed with which your brain interprets and reacts to visual cues.

Depth Perception:

Allows you to judge distances, i.e. between yourself and the ball/ opponents/ touch etc.

Focus Flexibility:

The ability to rapidly change focus on objects at different distances.

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Awareness:

The ability to ‘sense’ what is happening around you by utilising all your sensory inputs.

Eye-Hand-Body Coordination:

This is how the rest of your body responds to the visual information gathered.