Rondo

Rondo Diagram

Personally I think that this is the best drill in football because it is good fun and it teaches lots of different aspects of the game. I personally use it as a warm up at the beginning of training as well as before matches because it forces the players to prepare both mentally and it warms them up.

How to Play:

Start with everyone in a circle apart from 1-2 players who are in the middle of the circle. (About 1 person in the middle for every 4 people on the outside.) The players on the outside of the circle have to try and keep the ball away from the people in the middle. If someone from the middle gets the ball they switch with the person on the outside. If the ball goes out of the circle then whoever made the mistake swaps with whoever has been in the circle for the longest.

Areas of Focus:

Passing

Control

Tackling

Closing Down

Composure

Vision

Fitness (For the Defenders)

Key Coaching Points:

Use both feet.

First touch out of your feet to pass the ball.

Think ahead.

Defend as a team, contact and cover, hunt as a pack.

Progressions:

Make the circle smaller.

Introduce 1 or 2 touch rule.

Add more people to the middle.

Extra Points:

Offer a free first pass to get the game started.

To make it more exciting and interesting offer points to anyone that nutmegs someone in the middle and take a point away from anyone

Keep the game going quickly to keep everything fast paced and exciting. It also makes the passers improve faster because they have to work under harder conditions.

If you want to make it a bit safer then stop the defenders tackling the attackers and only let them intercept.

Encourage the passers to allow the ball to run across their body so that they receive it on their back foot, this forces them to open up their body so that they can see the whole pitch.