FRA
Bringing Training Sessions to Life Using “Rondos”
by Ian Barker / United Soccer Coaches Director of Coaching
Who is the coach? Ian Barker is the Director of Coaching for the United Soccer Coaches. He is an A-Licensed coach from England and has been in his current role for 7 years.
Session Focus: Providing different variations of “Rondo” activities for your teams.
Beyond Pulse Breakdown
What is the Rondo:
Its a simple small sided possession game with the basic objective being that the players who are placed on the outside of a square/circle/rectangle/triangle etc. must retain the ball while being put under pressure by their opponents who are less in numbers.
1) Active Participation:
Active participation (AP) is a measure of how active the players are during a practice session or game. From the yellow dial above we can see that the overall AP for this session was 40%. However, it should be noted that the aim of this coaching session was to demonstrate to other coaches how they could include the Rondo in their sessions. Therefore achieving a high overall AP level was not a central focus of this coaching session. Notwithstanding this, if we isolate the AP for the Rondo itself, we can see this is a particularly useful activity to encourage high AP levels for players. Ian also explained that you can manipulate the intensity of the Rondo by changing any number of variables. For example, changing from a circular shape to a triangular shape, places more physical demands on the players who are in possession, as they have to work harder to create space to receive the ball.
2) Heart Rate Response
In the red dial above we can see that the players spent on average 13 minutes at or above 80% of their maximal heart rate. This tellls us that the players were working at an intensity which was sufficient to improve their fitness levels using a soccer specific drill such as the Rondo.
3) Total Distance & High Speed Running:
In the blue dial (total distance) we can see that the players covered on average a distance of just over 2600 meters and that 28% of this distance (green dial) was carried out at high speed i.e at a speed that is comparable to what they would be expected to run at in a game scenario. Here again we can see how effective the rondo is for exposing young players to high speed running which will help prepare them for the demands of competition.
Ian kept the flow of the activities moving nicely while being able to deliver to the coaching audience.
Come and check out our booth #1529 for more info and a greater look at this session!
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