Contact is coached in person, on a pitch, by someone watching you. This page is here to make that coaching land faster, not to replace it. Rugby AI does not score tackles and never will. We cannot see legality, head contact, or force from a phone, so we do not guess at them. Do not practise contact alone or with a friend who has not been coached.
Guides / Contact / Footwork and body height
Contact
Guide
Footwork and body height
Short steps, a low athletic position, and the balance to change direction without falling apart. This is movement work. What you do when you arrive somewhere is coached in person.
What good looks like
- Steps get SHORTER as you get closer to where you are changing direction
- Knees and hips bend together, so you are low without folding at the waist
- Chest stays up and eyes stay forward, never down at your own feet
- You can stop, hold the position for a beat, and still be balanced
The drill
- Put four cones in a square, five metres a side.
- Start at one cone in a low athletic position: knees bent, chest up, weight on the balls of your feet.
- Move to the next cone with short, quick steps. Do not cross your feet over.
- At each cone, stop dead and hold the low position for one full second.
- Go around the square twice in each direction.
- Rest, then repeat three times. Quality of the stop matters more than the speed between cones.
Space
A five metre square of flat grass and four cones. No ball, no partner.
Make it harder / make it easier
Harder. Call the next cone out loud for yourself as you leave the current one, so the direction changes before you are ready for it.
Easier. Walk the whole square and hold each stop for three seconds, so the low position registers before you add any speed.
Why this one is first
Coaches spend a large part of a contact session on what happens before anybody touches anybody, because arriving balanced and low is what the rest of the session assumes you can already do. That part you can build on your own. The rest of it is a coach and a pitch.
Contact is taught, not scored.
Solo and contactless. Contact itself belongs in coached training.
