One Eighth of a Second - It is vital that you impress on your players how important it is that everything moves quickly and smoothly, like clockwork. This should provide the motivation to train to the best of their ability when it comes to skills. The more familiar they are with these drills, and the more they have practised them, the less likely they are to slip up in attack and lose vital time and space to defenders.
One crucial element of the game where speed is more important than most is at play the ball. Here it is vital to get quick ball out again – by making sure the ball carrier gets up quickly after the tackle, by making the movements quickly enough, and by making sure the ball is passed out quickly by the acting halfback. All of these are opportunities for time to be lost by the attacking team, and this means losing vital metres up front.
Every second lost allows defending players to move up eight metres to form their lines more efficiently and stymie your attack. Meanwhile, if the ball comes out quickly enough, you will have created space in the opposition line for your players to get through. This is why it is so important that everything run smoothly after the tackle.
Passing appropriately is also essential to the fast moving game that stops a defence from forming properly. If a player passes to the hips or side of another player, it will slow them down. The receiver will have to turn to face the pass, slowing them down and reducing their awareness. It seems like a small thing, but how many metres does this represent for defending players to move up to tackle? One, two, three? However many, it is too many to give up for simply sloppy play.
Deciding when to pass is of course also an important skill to develop in your players. Passing even a few steps too late allows defence players to move up in support, wasting time and effort on behalf of your players on the attack. Pointing out to your players just how time lost converts into metres gained for the opposition can really hammer home to them how important their decision making, timing and skills levels are.
The best way to develop these skills, once you have impressed their importance on your players, is repetitive drills. Practising the same skills over and over again will mean they will become second nature to your players.
They will no longer have to consciously think about them in a game setting, meaning they will shave valuable time off their actions and save themselves the effort of fighting out further hard yards. It should also mean that more scoring opportunities are converted into actual tries as moves are pulled off more smoothly and professionally.
Remember that speed and time are vital to the game of rugby league. Drill this into your players time and again to make them aware of how important it is to play skilfully and cleverly, and not to waste even the tiniest fraction of a second. Shaving even the smallest margins of time off of your plays can mean the difference between defeat and victory, between a great team and a mediocre one. Never underestimate the power of that one eighth of a second!
