Football/Soccer Session (Difficult): warm up Rondo

Animation 1

In this drill we are setup into three teams who are located in their zones. When the blue team starts the drill 1 player from each of the other teams has to go into their zone to try and win the ball. The blues can win 5 points if they pass the ball 5 times without losing it and if that happens the drill restarts with the blue team.

 If one of the opposition players wins the ball, that player has to pass the ball to his teammates and joins his zone as quickly as possible to help assist his team. The other zone who don't have the ball yet, has to rotate their interceptors so another player goes out to intercept while the player who was in the blue zone goes back to his zone.

The rules of the game are as follows.

• 5 points is awarded if the ball is passed 5 times.
• 2 points if the interceptor wins the ball and successfully passes the ball into his zone.
• 1 point for dribbling or holding the ball for 5 seconds or more.

Coaches Points.
It is a rondo and we are looking for quick passing, but we must also encourage our players to be creative. Do we keep the ball on the floor at all times? Do we just pass or can we dribble and move with the ball? do we block opposition interceptors? How do we make sure the ball never leaves our zone?
These questions are important and they have to cross our players minds and before we start the drill we should make it clear that we are looking out for the following:

• Press to win the ball.
• Be creative in your movement.
• If you lost the ball how are you going to retain it?
• Can you dribble with the ball or hold off opposition players. 

This will get our players to think and start hunting the ball down in packs rather then individuals.