October Touch  Drills: Although greatly abused by many (especially the players ) touch does have its uses .....Here are a collection of touch drills that I have used ..... Ruck touch Maul touch Channell touch Ruck touch..from an article by Don Parry Qld womens coach. Don Parry Background to the Drill As a Colts (Under 19) coach I am constantly asked, the moment the players arrive at training - Can we play touch ? By the frequency of this request 'touch' is considered fun and as fun is an essential ingredient of coaching I set about turning touch into a useful training technique. Walla Rugby already exists as a useful low contact game to teach the basic skills of mauling and due to the ever increasing value of ruck ball to our game rucking was chosen as the focus for this drill. The drill has been successfully trialed with teams from an Under 14 (club side) through to the Queensland Country Under 19 team, All participants picked the drill up quickly. Equipment Required -Four (4) markers, a whistle (optional) and a football. Size of Area Needed - This is variable depending on the number and age of participants. On average a 20m - 25m square is appropriate, defined by the four markers. Don't be afraid to adjust the playing area during the course of the drill if you are not achieving the result you are seeking. You will achieve best results when the players are reasonably tightly packed together. With the right sized area the players quickly give up the negative characteristic of hunting space on the outside. They realise the 'secret' of the game is to go forward and get the ball transfer over quickly. No. of Participants - 10 to 20 players (divided into two approx. equal teams). How to Play Level 1 - Two equal teams play touch in the small field as defined above.When a player is touched he must immediately drop to the ground and present the ball. You should have briefly shown the players how to drop to the ground and present the ball for a ruck prior to the commencement of the game. Player 2 comes in and picks up the ball with a strong and stable base. He can either pass off or run himself. The coach, acting as the referee commends players when skills are performed well. If players become 'sloppy' the coach can order a changeover in possession whilst very briefly reinforcing the correct action required.Option - if you do not wish to encourage players to drop to the ground you can replace this step with a place and clean out step. Level 2 - As players accomplish the skills in Level 1 you can introduce a new condition of the ball transfer (ruck). The player touched must drop to the ground and present the ball. Player 2 must clean out over the player on the ground before Player 3 can pick up the ball and continue. If the player cleaning out does not stay on his feet and maintain good body height and angle a changeover in possession is ordered. Option - if you have a large number of players you can require two players to clean out before the ball can be picked up. Level 3 - A defending player is allowed to step over the player on the ground and pick up and pass the ball if the clean out is not effected immediately by the attacking team. This helps re-inforce the concept of isolation to the ball carrier and support play to his team. Notes 1) the off side line for the defensive team can be two or three metres and does not have to be stongly policed as long as players are making an attempt to retire to an on side position. 2) The'touch' can be modified to two handed. 3) The defensive team can not gain possession at the ruck (except in Level 3). Possession is changed over when the attacking team displays poor rucking skills or through the usual forward pass, dropped ball or intercept. 4) Whilst technique correction is desireable to maximize the benefits gained from the drill this correction must be both precise and concise so as not to lose the momentum of the 'game'. Make sure your instruction has positive reinforcement (Well Done!) as well as the negative (refereeing change overs in possession - due to poor technique) and remember the game ' (drill) must remain FUN in the eyes of the players or it has lost its greatest value - the desire to participate.
		Maul Touch : the emphasis is the same as above in ruck touch but now the player stays on his feet and presents the ball. Start with just the ripper going in and passing the ball, then make the person passing the ball to the person who gets touched follow their pass and rip...practising primary support..make it a turnover if they take too long to get there or forget ..encourage teammates to talk it up to remind the passer of his obligations. You may find that the defenders drop off and make a wall of defenders ,so you could stipulate how many defenders to go in e.g if you are playing ripper and 2 blockers for offense then say 4 defenders in before the ball can be released..or even allow the offense to drive the maul to show the defenders what not committing does....condition the defense at first to not be allowed to touch the ball than eventually let them try to steal the ball at the maul . Channel touch : have a look at the link to Tim Fry' s avoiding the breakdown article for more info on working in channels ....but the basic concept here is to play a normal game of touch . Play keep away sevens style touch not worrying about going forward to much. , but when the touch occurs the team in possesion  has to move the ball forward up the same channel that the touch occurred in. A variety of options can be used as you work up the channel: Pop pass , Handoff , Delayed pass , Overhead/in the tackle , Switch , quick rip and roll/pop , pass off ground after tackle , place on ground for pick up. At every point you are trying to avoid the ruck or maul situation and keep the ball going forward to disorganise the defense , make a hole , get in behind them. The support players must be moving to the hole/channel , in depth , talking it up/communicating , to give options to the ballcarrier. Prescribe the number of touches ( 4? ) that they get to move the ball up the channel before it has to be moved laterally again to the space that has been created by playing up the channel and making defenders come in to stop it. Players cannot touch the ball more than once while moving it up the channel as in a game they would have been tackled or played by a defender , also the defenders are restricted to one touch each until the ball is moved laterally again. Make it a turnover if there is too much of a delay in the work up the channel i.e the ball sits on the ground too long or there is no ripper or support player Have less touches up the channel if you have small numbers or if , realistically , you would not be able to keep it for that long as you work the channel. This is a high work rate drill that gets all the touch players participating and not spectating , waiting for their turn for a pass.
					So the sequence is : Play keep away sevens style touch not worrying about going forward to much. x1 is touched , call touch1, defender drops back.ball to x2 who is touched , call touch2, def drops back.ball to x3 touch 3ball to x4 touch 4ball to x5 touch 5 ,which makes a total of 4 touches as the ball is worked up the channel, and now one of the x's acts as halfback and passes the ball to the reformed x line made up of x ' s and x1 x2 x3 x4 who have repositioned themselves to get the ball again ,while looking for the spaces created in the defense by the channel work.Defenders dropping back to the new defensive line.... Play touch again until the next touch occurs then attack the channel again.