how to lift and be lifted in the line outs.

General lifting:
When lifting you want it to be a fast explosive action to get the player to his max height as quickly as possible and so you can lock your elbows, put your legs in a powerful position as you lift with your legs first.
Be in a low position like a squat but it differs from it as you want to be leaning forward, you may want to put one leg back and bring it forward in the motion of lifting the player its whatever suits you really.
You should also look straight forward (at the other lifter) during the lifting instead of being tempted to look upwards to the player being lifted.


There are two different ways you can lift a player, either by the shorts or the legs like in the picture above, lifting by the legs is a lot more popular although i'm not sure why.

Lifting by the legs:
Lifting from the front- when lifting from the front grab his leg just above his knees and under (or at least as close as possible to under) the main part of his muscle, the quadriceps.
Get a good strong grip, don't have your elbows square, have them out at a comfortable angle and have your fingers partly round the leg as to get a good grip.
Lifting from the back- lifting from the back isn't quite as a nice job than from the front.
You basically need to cup his ass with your hands in a position so that your thumbs are facing upwards, although not straight up as that won't be be comfortable or a powerful position, so put them at an angle that feel comfortable and right, once again get a strong grip.

Lifting from the shorts:
Lifting from the front and back is basically the same when lifting from the shorts, all you do is grab his shorts at the bottom so your fingers are curled round the shorts on the outside and your thumb inside, have it so the back of your hands are facing up.
That's all there is to it, as all you change is your grip, you use exactly the same technique to actually lift the player.

Being lifted in the line out:
There's lots of ways people like to get into the jump, for example you could have one foot back and bring it forward just as your about to jump or you could simply have both legs together at the start so there's no need to move them untill you actually jump, its down to you to work out your routine as long as the people lifting you know it.
First of all you want to make your actual jump as high and as possible so you get to your maximum height as quick as possible, this is very important to winning the line out, you want to elongate your body so your legs are straight and together and your arms are out stretched in the air; during the jump your need to keep your legs straight, move them as little as possible by tensing your legs and core- you may want to work out your core so you can keep rigid and balanced in the air- if your able to stay relatively still in the air it then allows you to completely concentrate on catching the ball, another tip is to always lean towards the center of the line out during your throw as if your hooker doesn't throw it straight then it can make it seem like he did.
When you catch the ball then there will be two options, you should already know which one your going to do based on the hookers or scrumhalf's call.
The first option is to give the ball to the scrumhalf now when doing this take your time to give your scrumhalf a good pass right to his hands, you should have at least a second or two from catching the ball to do this which may not sound like much but its plenty, otherwise your scrumy could be crushed by there flanker or one of the other quick forwards.
The second option is to take the ball into a maul, now once again this will be communicated before hand and all you need to do is turn so your back is to the opposition and your lifters should bind either side of you and then you should hold the ball out for the next player into the maul to take.