Astro training

After a heavy couple of days of rain it was as if fate had decided it was a good time to trail playing on astroturf. So on a surprising mild and dry-ish night Julian ran some drills concentrating on 'game play' specifically supporting the ball carrier for a quick restart. And he also introduced the 'Quickie' - if you don't know what that is then come along to Touch to find out!

Numbers remain strong for the winter so we quickly split into team of 8-a-side with 3 subs each and a ref. We made the pitch a little wider than normal and settled down to playing. The first 5 minutes was a constant changeover dominated by mistakes on both sides, mostly from poor passes. But after this settling down period teams pulled it together and a fast flowing games followed.

Defence was strong but communication needs to be improved. Most teams were good at Ball in hand but it seems that the fast Astro turf surface pushed people into rushed decisions - we know it is always better to have ball in hand rather than throw it away.

For a first trail of playing Touch on Astro it went well, 2nd trial next week (Nov 11th), then back to the club after that.

We are hoping to play at the club for as much of the winter as possible and use the Astro as an alternative when pitches are unplayable BUT we have to balance this with how much notice we need to book the Astro and communication out to all Touch players etc.

Kenny