Punt to your partner
A kicking and catching drill for U11 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
- U11, U12
- Time
- 8 minutes
- Players
- 4 to 24
- Space
- 20 m channel
- Kit
- 4 cones, 1 ball per pair
- Pitch
- Fine on hard ground
- Indoors
- Fits a small space
Setting it up
Pairs facing each other twenty metres apart, a cone either side of where each of them stands.
How it runs
Kick it to your partner so they can catch it without moving their feet. Ten each, then ten more with a step in first. Almost every miskick at this age is the drop rather than the leg, so watch the hands: the ball wants pointing at the ground and letting go, not throwing up. Anybody launching it over their partner's head goes back to holding the ball out at arm's length and dropping it straight onto the laces.
What to watch for
- Hold it out in front, point it at the ground, let it go
- Strike it with the hard bit of your boot, not your toe
- Follow through at your partner. Your foot ends up pointing at them
Make it easier
- Ten metres apart
- Drop it onto the foot from a standing start with no run up
Make it harder
- Two steps and kick, then off a jog
- Kick to land in front of your partner so they run onto it
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- The ball tossed upwards out of the hands before the foot arrives
- Drop it. Do not throw it. Let go and let it fall
- The ball spinning off sideways every time
- Point the end of the ball at the floor before you let go
More like this
The grades that can do it
What U11 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.