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Under 6's Training
The Club is keen to encourage children to take part in the game from as early age as possible and runs an "Under 6's" group so for children who are aged 5 as at the 31st August prior to the start of the season.
Children of this age have no real concept of team play or co-operation and, certainly at the outset, activities will concentrate on improving individual skills.Running, jumping, evasion, invasion, passing and receiving will be taught using various drills and games.
No competitive games are played against other clubs at this age.
Over time, the childen's agility, balance, co-ordination and communication will improve and they will progress to small group activities which are both co-operative and competitive in nature.They will gain confidence in carrying out basic skills and will learn fair-play, sharing and co-operation.
As children learn much by "watching and copying", they will be given the oppurtunity to watch the Under 7 and Under 8 age groups playing games of tag rugby. That way they will be able to see where the training is leading.
The main aim of the sessions will be to ensure that the children become sufficiently familiar with the game of tag rugby and acquire the confidence to play the game before moving to the Under 7 age group next season.
Further, and just as importantly, is that the children learn that the "spirit of rugby" is an extremely important phenomenon.
Enjoyment of the game, teamwork and respect for the efforts of others is vital as is the concept that the decisions of officials are to be accepted without complaint or argument.
For the 2007 / 2008 season the group will be led by Amanda Armstrong who is a former Chairperson of the Club's Mini's Section and who has a wealth of experience in coaching and dealing with young children.
Finally, for now, the "Continuum," which are the "Laws" of Mini Rugby (and which you can view on the R.F.U's main website) do permit players to join the Under 7's age group immediately upon their 6th birthday. It is the Club's preference that this does not happen and that the children remain in the Under 6 group for the full year.To do otherwise would disrupt the coaching regime of both the Under 6 and the Under 7 groups as children would be leaving one group to join the other!
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