Play The Ball | Introduction to Touch Football

The Introduction to Touch Football program concluded this week, capping off a successful term 2 at Carseldine and Toowong.

It was fantastic to see so many excited individuals participating and wanting to improve.

The program has been designed to expose young children to touch football through a wide range of activities. 

Participants will build gross motor skills around their movements - agility, acceleration, evasion, judgement and coordination.

Next, they will begin to develop foundation skills - pass, kick and catch technique, playing the ball and scoring a try. 

Finally, children will start to learn about the game of touch football - playing the ball following a touch, what a dummy half & first receiver does and retreating to the referee after a touch. 

All are subtle development traits that over time will give participants are big head start when joining a team. 

It's not all about running, agility and evasion. 

The play the ball is a core fundamental of touch football, and a key focus area throughout the six-week Introduction program.

Understanding what a play the ball is, and how/when to perform one is an important step.

We can incorporate the play the ball movement into a variety of activities to ensure participants are constantly repeating the skill when it's not always the focus. 

Through repetition, we can introduce a dummy half and first receiver; slowly piecing together a touch footy puzzle. 

It's not until the trial game in week five, and the parents & kids game in week six that it all starts to make sense. 

A simple skill that is developed rather quickly, with some good results. 

The full Introduction to Touch Football activity list and schedule is available via the resources tab below.