What To Look Out For When Coaching 7s! image
Posted on May 24th 2019 by Richard Hicks

What To Look Out For When Coaching 7s!

The London Sevens takes place this weekend, the second last tournament of the 2019 series and in case you're not up to date on the standings, it's all still up for grabs. With only 15 points between USA, Fiji and New Zealand, this weekend should make for some great viewing!

Coaching 7s, as we have discussed is an oppurtunity to develop core skills that transfer over into the full game. In coaching 7s it is important to have an awarness of the tactical issues and therefore techical challenges we have as coaches. A standard comment is 'There is more space so there should be less contact!' Which, although true, is not always something that happens on the pitch.

If we agree that space is everywhere on a 7s pitch, we need to learn to identify this space and find a way to exploit it.

We can simplify this and say there is space:

  • In the wide channels, outisde players
  • Between players
  • Behind the players
Video: Playing with width and depth

To identify space out wide and have the ambition to exploit it, we need to encourage our player's to play from more depth. This depth gives us more time, less pressure and therefore the ability to make better decisions.

Going wide requires being able to pass wide on the run. This takes a lot of practice in both closed technical practice (to develop ball grip and power generation) and also in context driven games where success is important!

Video: Technical - Spin pass

Going through the spaces often means more chances of contact, current trends in 7s are:

  • Fast powerful collisions
  • Dynamic movement through the tackle and on the floor
  • Very rapid ruck clearance and ball speed generation
Video: USA sevens contact techniques

In 7s there are also plenty of opporunities for the offload, a skill that is often overlooked for the development of the ruck. Offloads are an art (just watch the Fijians this weekend), that needs nurturing in all players.

From this it should be clear to see that playing and training 7s has mulitple advantages, mainly making your 15 a side players more skillful and well rounded. Why not incorporate some sevens into your coaching sessions!