AGC #034 - New drills, who dis?

Coaches LOVE finding new exercises to try.

And they aren’t shy about looking for them either.

Here’s a sample of recent posts from a field hockey discussion group on Facebook:

There’s nothing wrong with looking further afield for new ideas, and seeing what you can find online.

A year ago this week, I shared three games I stole from influential coaches and put my spin on.

But as the famous quote from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu goes:

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The same is true for coaches.

Today, I’ll show you how to design exercises to solve your team’s problems, not anyone else’s, and avoid the perils of copy-and-paste coaching.

Our example will look at a classic small-sided game that many team sports coaches have stolen and used: the rondo.

Rondos are versatile activities that give players lots of touches and work on passing, receiving, deception, and decision-making under pressure.

They can be used for technical or tactical purposes, and keep everyone active, hence why many soccer and field hockey coaches are big fans of them.

The version above by Bayern Munich is a 4 v 4 + 3, where one team of 4 is in possession and has the assistance of 3 neutral players, against 4 defenders.

The neutrals are located at both ends of the space, with one in the center. When the 4 defenders win the ball, they become the attackers.

It is mesmerizing to watch. These are professional footballers at one of the world’s top clubs, who can circulate the ball accurately with their first or second touch, even under immense pressure.

Here are some U12 players from an American club team attempting the same exercise in a similar-sized space:

While the tempo and success rate have naturally come down, this still looks appropriate for the skill level and positional awareness of these players, despite their youth.

Now try to imagine this 4 v 4 + 3 rondo with some beginner soccer players.

It would likely be total chaos, a cluster of “bees to the honey pot”, with it rarely clear which team has possession as it turns over every few seconds.

It could quickly become demotivating for those involved.

This is where the coach’s skill is needed - adapting the activity to the age and stage of their players, and not just transplanting an exercise without taking context into account.

Here are some examples of how you might take the idea of the rondo - a numbers-up possession game - but simplify it for a different team’s needs:

The 3 v 1 rondo strips back all the complexity of the 4 v 4 + 3 by changing the space, numbers and the rules to ensure that even total beginners can attain some success.

Playing in a larger, less congested space will give everyone more time on the ball - although the passing distances will become longer, which may present a different challenge. You can always downsize later on if it’s too easy.

Reducing the numbers to 3 v 1 removes some of the chaos, and setting up multiple boxes will still keep your entire team active, with more players touching a ball and making decisions than in the 4 v 4 + 3.

The most common version of the 3 v 1 rondo might have whoever gives the ball away transitioning to become the defender, but again, less experienced players are likely to turn the ball over a lot.

Therefore, playing a version where each person takes a turn as the defender for a set period of time (e.g. 30-60 seconds) allows for trial and error without immediate consequences. If the defender wins the ball, the exercise restarts.

To make it competitive and incentivize the defender, you could challenge the four players to see who can win the ball the most in their allotted time.

A progression here is the 3 v 1 + 1 rondo. Here, the three try to make a set number of passes before “switching play” to their waiting team-mate in an adjacent box.

Two of the players, plus the defender, also move across to remake the 3 v 1 on the other side. Rinse and repeat.

Now we have changed the numbers, the space, and the rules to add a layer of tactical complexity while keeping things simple enough that success is attainable.

Our final progression adds a second defender in the opposite box.

Now, the waiting attacker’s off-ball movement will be challenged, as will the decision-making ability of the players coming across: do they pass, or dribble and draw the second defender to eventually get the ball to the player on the other side?

There are dozens of directions you could take the rondos from here, and about as many things you could choose to use them to work on.

Whatever problem you’re trying to solve as a coach, design a simple exercise that recreates the game moment, then consider how the numbers, space, and rules might impact its difficulty.

After you’ve designed it, ensure you have pre-planned one way to make it easier for the players, and one way to make it harder. You might think of better ones on the fly once you see it in action.

The more you do this, the more you will be able to tweak your existing exercises a little to achieve different outcomes.

This beats trying to reinvent the wheel each time, or trawling YouTube for an endlessly complicated exercise that won’t work anyway.

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