U12s High Balls, Quick Hands & a “Battle Scar” to Remember 🏉

The U12s kicked off their session with a lively warm-up focused on movement and agility. Using an L-shaped running pattern, the players worked on accelerating, decelerating, and changing direction sharply, an important foundation for match situations where quick reactions are key.

The main focus of the session was catching skills, starting with the high ball. To help develop proper technique, players tucked cones under their armpits to encourage keeping their elbows in and forming a strong “triangle” shape with their arms. This helped reinforce safe and effective catching. Once the basics were in place, the cones were removed and the players put their skills into practice, this time under some… let’s say interesting kicking from the coaches!

Next up was dealing with grubber kicks. The players concentrated on watching the bounce of the ball closely and getting their body into the correct position to gather it cleanly. There was great effort shown here, with players becoming more confident reading those tricky bounces.

For the final catching drill, the team split into groups of four. The focus was on early catching technique, arms out in front, keeping the ball off from the body followed by a quick pop pass left and right. Once the coaches were happy with the execution, it was time to turn up the competition. Each group raced to complete 20 passes without dropping the ball. There were some questionable counting methods from the players this time, but plenty of enthusiasm and teamwork on display!

To finish the session, the team played a fun and fast-paced game of 2-ball touch. With uneven numbers, Coach Daryl stepped in to even things up… but unfortunately had to step back out after picking up a cut on his eyebrow. He’s already come up with a much more heroic story to explain his new scar to his friends, because it definitely wasn’t caused by an U12!

A great session all around, full of energy, learning, and plenty of laughs.

Well done U12's