Week 3 - Touch Football

Skill focus: Passing and catching, evasion, scoring a try

Session equipment

1 touch football (or similar) per student
40 markers
Bibs/braids to differentiate teams

Download Touch Football - Week 3 activity card to support teaching before and during the sport session.

Fast start - Upside down

Equipment: 8 markers to set out 25m x 25 m playing area, 1 additional marker per student

How to play:

Divide students into two groups called 'builders' and 'bulldozers'.
Each student places 1 or 2 markers out in the playing space.
Builders place the markers the right way up and bulldozers place them upside down.
Students return to their baseline (group zone) at each end of the playing area.
On the teacher's signal, all students race to turn the markers over to their designated side.
Students can only turn over one marker at a time and then return to their zone before moving to turn over another.
The game continues for a set time until the teacher signals the end of the round.
The markers are tallied for each team and then reset to commence again. The aim is for each team to have as many markers as possible positioned in their favour at the end of the allocated time.

CHANGE IT!

Vary the size of playing space.
Add more markers (even amount for each group).
Vary the locomotor movements.

Select card to download

Skill development games

Activity 1 - Boundary pass

Equipment: 1 touch football per pair, marker cones to define boundary line

How to play: In pairs, players try to make as many passes to each other as they can in 60 seconds. To add a challenge, the pass has to be across a different boundary line.

Pairs, with a football, are dispersed over four boundary lines 8 metres by 8 metres.
On designated students signal, all pairs jog in the same direction and pass their ball.
Passes can only be made across a boundary line.
Each pass has to be over a different boundary line.
Encourage players to pass backwards to their partner.
Pairs count how many passes they made in 60 seconds.
Pairs repeat in the opposite direction and attempt to beat their previous score.

Activity 2 - Giant's treasure

** Teacher needed at this station

Equipment: 20 footballs as the giants treasure, 4 marker cones, 1 bib or sash to identify the giant, 1 hoop

How to play: Teams try to collect the most footballs from the giant’s treasure before ‘Time!’ is called or before they are tagged by the giant who is protecting the treasure.

Organise team into four groups.
An additional player is designated as the giant to guard the treasure.
The giant roams the space around the treasure.
All footballs are placed in the centre of the playing area.
When you call ‘Go!’, one player from each group attempts to steal one ball at a time and pass it back to their group.
Players tagged by the giant must stop and place their ball on the ground, step over it (perform a rollball) and return to their group.
When all balls in the centre are gone, players may attempt to take a ball from other groups, but must perform a rollball if tagged by the giant.

Activity 3 - Back to back

Equipment: 1 touch football per game, marker cones to define score line

How to play: On ‘Go!’ players standing back-to-back run around a marker on their score line. The player who scoops up the ball attempts to score a touchdown without being tagged by their opponent.

Pairs collect one football and four marker cones to create their playing area.
A ball is placed on a scoreline at one end of the area.
Pairs start back-to-back in the middle of the area.
When the player facing the ball calls out ‘Go!’, both players run to opposite ends of their area and around a marker cone.
The player who was facing the ball scoops it up and attempts to score a touchdown.
The play is completed when either a touch or a touchdown has occurred.
Players take turns facing the ball and calling ‘Go!’
The pair observing act as referees and make calls such as, ‘Touchdown’, ‘No touchdown’ or ‘Touch’.
Pairs swap roles.

CHANGE IT!

Increase the area and play with two attackers against one defender.
The attackers can pass or run themselves, or attempt a dummy pass. • Rotate pairs to other games to provided variety and challenge.

Activity 4 - Back-to-back passes

Equipment: 1 football per pair

How to play: In pairs, players experiment with different ways to pass the football to each other while standing back-to-back.

Organise players into pairs, with a football, standing back-to-back.
On your signal, pairs experiment with different ways to pass the ball.
Once the signal ‘Stop!’ is given, pairs volunteer to demonstrate their idea.
After exploration of ideas, set a time limit for pairs to pass their ball in nominated ways

CHANGE It!

Pairs move apart and explore new ideas to pass the ball.
Pairs sit on the ground and explore ways to pass the ball.
Join pairs together to form relay groups and perform races with nominated passes.

Modified small-sided games

It's time for competition!

Teams compete against each other in the game outlined below. You can use the 'Touch Football draw' as a guide to organise the competition, across the 4 sessions try to ensure each team has a fair number of games.

Allocate 3 points for a win, 2 points for a drawer and 1 point for a loss for each game played. Record results and points in the School sport program results spreadsheet.

Remember, to give students an update of the leader board each week.

Game - Drop out, drop in

Equipment: 1 football, 10 marker cones to set up a 25m x 50m playing field, bibs or sashes to distinguish teams.

How to play: Teams play a modified version of Touch Football. When the ball carrier is touched, the defender who made the touch must exit the field and run around a marker cone before returning to the game.

Organise players into teams of six.
The attackers start the game with a tap on the half way mark. • The defenders must retreat five metres at all rollballs.
The attackers retain the ball for six touches (errors are counted as touches).
When a ball carrier is touched in the defending team’s half, the defender who made the touch must exit the field and jog around the nearest marker cone.
The defender then returns to the field in an onside position.
All other Playing for Life — Touch Football rules apply