Pick your gate
An evasion and footwork drill for U7 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
- U7, U8, U9, U10, U11, U12
- Time
- 8 minutes
- Players
- 6 to 20
- Space
- 20 x 15 m
- Kit
- 10 cones, 1 ball
- Pitch
- Fine on hard ground
- Indoors
- Fits a small space
Setting it up
Three gates side by side across a channel, three metres wide each. A defender behind them.
How it runs
Run at the gates with the ball. The defender picks one gate to stand in. You go through a different one. Eight goes each. That is it. All you want is a child who looks up and chooses instead of running at whoever is in front of them.
What to watch for
- Look up before you run, then pick
- Commit to your gate. Changing your mind late gets you caught
- Ball in two hands so you are ready to do something else
Make it easier
- Four gates
- Defender stands still until you commit
Make it harder
- Defender starts moving before you set off
- Two defenders in three gates
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- Head down, running at whichever gate is straight ahead
- Look up first. Where are they standing?
- Changing gate at the last second and getting caught between two
- Pick it and commit. Wrong gate quickly beats right gate late
More like this
The grades that can do it
What U7 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.