Body position ladder
A ruck and maul warm-up for U10 and up, with where the cones go, how it runs and what to say when it is not working.
Free to read with no account. It works at a pitch with no signal too.
- Age grades
- U10, U11, U12
- Time
- 6 minutes
- Players
- 6 or more
- Space
- 15 m channel
- Kit
- 6 cones
- Pitch
- Fine on hard ground
- Indoors
- Fits a small space
Setting it up
Six cones in a line, a metre and a half apart. Waves of three or four.
How it runs
Walk the line dropping into a low crouch at every cone. Flat back, head up, hands ready. Then jog it. Then jog it and stay low for three strides past each cone. Three lengths each. It looks like nothing. It is the difference between arriving at a ruck upright and arriving useful.
What to watch for
- Flat back. If you are looking at the grass you are wrong
- Bend at the knees not the waist
- Hands out in front, ready to grab something
Make it easier
- Walk the whole thing
- Fewer cones so there is more time between them
Make it harder
- Add a shield to grip and hold at the last cone
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- Bending at the waist with a rounded back
- Bend your knees. Back stays flat
- Head down looking at the grass
- If you can see the floor, you are wrong
Safety. No contact with another player. Bodies only.
The RFU's Headcase is where to go for what to do after a bang on the head. It is theirs rather than ours.
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The grades that can do it
What U10 rugby allows is the rule this sits under. Regulation 15 is reissued every summer, so the RFU's own rules of play are the ones to read for this season rather than a copy on somebody else's website. Ours included. Read against the RFU's 2026/27 appendices in August 2026.