Intro to Touch
About Touch (Rugby) Football
Following are some quick points about the sport of Touch Football - (OR as it is most commonly known - Touch)
- Touch Football (Touch) evolved from the ‘full contact’ professional code Rugby League in Australia in the late 1960’s. It was originally a warm up activity prior to training – participants and interest grew rapidly and a new sport was created
- The aim of the game is to score more touchdowns than your oppsition team by running, passing and using evasion skills without being ‘touched’ while in posession
- Touch was an instant success and spread to the world – now played in over 60 countries and growing
- Today, Touch is a unique independent sport with it’s own rules, referees, international competition and worldwide administration
- See www.austouch.com.au and www.touchnz.co.nz for more information
- As an example of it’s popularity and acceptance in Australia, Touch is the most popular team sport played by more boys and girls in both primary and secondary schools than any other sport
- Touch Football is now one of the fastest-growing sports in Singapore and one of the most accessible as Touch is ‘fun, fit & friendly’
- Touch is seen as a new ‘run, catch & pass’ community based sports activity
- Touch is played by both boys & girls & adult males and females of all ages, either separately or in mixed teams
- Playing ages range from 6 year old primary school children to juniors to adults and up to the 50 years plus Masters category
- Touch Football is essentially a ‘non-contact’ sport and it is seen as far safer than the traditional brands of full contact codes. This is a major consideration for parents of young players, for many females and for a growing number of men, especially those past their physical fitness peak
- The increase in sports injuries has been a significant reason for the sports rapid growth and development worldwide over the past 20 years, to the point where it is now a phenominally popular sport all around the world
- Australia is the leader among F.I.T member nations competing for the Touch World Cup
- There are also regular international youth events that include the FIT-World Schools Touch Championships and the FIT-Youth Touch World Cup
- At its elite level, the Touch World Cup – this sport is fast, skilful and spectacular to watch. But even at the most casual, social-game level it is a fun, invigorating and exciting form of exercise and recreation
- Asians are perfectly suited to play Touch Football. Asians are lightweight, agile and fast and will be competitive on the world stage
sporting environment offering a true development pathway.