What are some good solo rugby drills for a back?

Question

Okay, so I usually play wing but I'm trying to work into being an inside or outside center. So, i need some drills i can do with a rugby ball to keep my skills up while i'm in the off season.- any ideas?

Answer 1

when you go for a run, take a rugby ball.  Practice aggresive kicking (chips, grubbers etc.) while you're running.  Things like chip the ball 10-20m and run onto it and catch it yourself, grubber the ball and learn the way the ball bounces, how many times it bounces low before it bounces up high enough to catch and time your running with that.

There's not a lot that you can work on alone outside of fitness when you're aiming to play centre.  There aren't many kicking centres around and a good kicking game when you play this position will carry you a long way.

Answer 2

run run run. practice kicking. practice sprinting, then cutting. have a buddy trhow ya tha ball as you sprint

Answer 3

google plyometrics it'll give you more ideas than i will but here's a few of my favorites...

Work on your speed, footwork, agility.   a favorite of mine (i'm a forward but a ball carying forward).   was to find a set of stairs, stand at the bottom, and as fast as possible (you'll get way faster with practice) on the floor run in place, left, right, then left foot to the 1st stair, then left right, and right foot to the first stair, keep going until you can't go anymore, take a break and go left, right, on the floor, left right on the stair (so your lifting your body up then back down, make sure to switch which foot is lifting your bodyweight up to the first step.

again as fast as possible as long as you can stand it...it will help your agility and topspeed more than you'd think...

get a rope ladder or draw some lines in the pattern of a ladder on the ground, practice crossing the ladder at max speed chop stepping into the middle of the ladder and onto the other side before you move forward to the next "rung", practice one foot in the center or both feet in the center before you exit the middle.

flexibility is a huge plus, learn to strech and strech often, don't go from never streching to streching all the time though you'll end up pulling a hamstring (or 2), kind of work your way into a regular streching routine over the course of a few months...beleive me nothing to a full routine in the middle of the season will result in a serious decrease in duribilty, but being a regular strecher for a few years will increase performance and duribility.

Fartlek (we calle'd em f**t licks cause they suck) - it meas speed play...it's a good way to increase your top speed AND endurance at the same time, and if you think about it, it's a good mirror for gameplay.   go out for a run, pick notice tellephone polls or find a way to mark distance.   jog for 3 tellephone polls and then dead out sprint for one, back to jogging for 3 (not walking jogging), and sprint again, full speed as fast as you can,  once you get good at it, go from 3 jogging to 2 and even 1 before you sprint, the trick being that you can do this speed play for at least 8 mins or more at whatever "pace" you set...

if you want to practice kicking, wait until you've done some of this other stuff, your absolutley exhausted, then start kicking for conversions and chip shots, practice over unders etc.

if you can get good at over unders by all means do so, it's a hard skill to master at a full sprint, but don't start using that skill when you don't need it, if there is someone to pass to near the try line PASS (it builds team spirit to not be a ball hog - and that's a HUGE part of the game), but if no one is around a good over under makes you a hero.

can't think of anything else now but like i said google plyometrics you'll get some good ideas.

Answer 4

wel centres, wings, and full backs generally need to be in the best physical shape they can be. us scrumhalves and 10's can get away with it to a degree, but we do more tactical thinking so... lol.

centres particularly need to be very powerful guys so do your weights but do not have a weight training programme without pull ups, dips, press ups  etc. try do some sort of gymnast training especially for the abs cuz from time to time u have to put ur body on the line and get smashed.

also incorporate plyometric circuit training - very good.

regularly test ur agility and fitness(bleep)

scrum half passes from floor or from throwing it up and passing to a thin post.

straight and cross field grubbers

high balls and clearance kicks for if 10 cant get it away.

learn to draw two defenders and pass off....

if u wanna know more get in touch.

Answer 5

like he said, theres not much you can do by yourself.

kicking; up and unders, grubbers.

practise changing direction quickly and "bursting" through a gap.

you really cant do much by yourself. just fitness. speed. agility. strength