Study Notes: 4v0 and 4v1 Rondos

[Bret AndersonParticipant]

My U10 team had its first practice of the season tonight.  We did the 4v0 and 4v1 (ghost) excercises as outlined in the videos.  We’ve done rondos before so the idea wasn’t new to the players, but he have never emphasized  receiving across the body and getting to the end cones for support .  I found the players were able to do a good job on both of these key details in the 4v0 format..though their touch was very rough.  When I layered in the ghost player things started to break down.  They still did a decent job of receiving across their bodies, but having a person in the middle with very light pressure caused the pace of play to pick up significantly and the quality of the passing and touches dropped off.  The other casualty was the players getting to the end cone to provide support.  I used the tip Andrew shared above to help emphasize why it was this movement is important.  I think they understand what they are suppose to do as they can respond on this when prompted.  I think they just need more exposure to start developing the muscle memory/comfort needed to start to master these details.

I really like the idea of letting the person in the middle switch out if they catch someone not receiving across their body.  As Brian did in the video demonstration I had to make a few comments like “you could have been out of the middle Jackson” to get the ghost to pay closer attention to how the players were receiving.  I found that was a great way to get all of the players to focus.  All in all I’m very pleased with the first session and can definitly see how repeated focus on this is going to yield great results.  A big thanks to Brian, Gary and all of the posters for guidance and tips that helped get us started on the right foot tonight.

[CalebParticipant]

I had my first practice of the season last night. We did 4v0 Rondo’s for about 25 minutes.This is a U12 Girls Silver Team.

Receiving across their body was difficult for them to grasp. Most picked up on it after a few re-teachings and demonstrations. Had 1-2 that were continuously receiving with the wrong foot without even thinking they were doing it wrong. Would stop them, point out the mistake, and ask them “If you received a pass from Emma right now, which foot would be opposite?” I would play as a shadow defender to show how receiving with the wrong foot limits their options- seemed to click but this will be a process.

Moving to a supporting angle after making a pass was a whole other beast. I think they were so focused on receiving with the proper foot that they were statues on a cone. Getting them to move to a proper angle was a struggle. I layered in some communication as well, but didn’t stress it too much at this point.

I know where we are starting from now. A “simple” activity with a lot of thinking going on. As an elementary teacher and a coach it is fun to watch development. I was expecting a higher starting point- so there should be a lot of development to come. I had one girl tell me she enjoyed how much I explained the “why’s” so much and that it really helped her understand what it is we are trying to achieve.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by  Caleb.

[Dan KomorowskiParticipant]

With regards to the speed of play discussion above, I am divided between slowing the speed of the activity down so that players technically improve (and then increasing the speed as they improve) or maintaining a higher speed from the beginning and being patient with more mistakes in the beginning (with the goal of technical improvement over time).  The former approach is recommended in some books that I have read (like the Talent Code) while, the latter approach seems to be used by some academies in Europe (per discussion with coaches). The holy grail is to have both speed of play and good technique in todays game – just not sure which method is most the effective to reach the end goal? Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.

[John PranjicParticipant]

Love that approach, Andrew! It’s weird how simple, yet not simple, shit like this really is.

The good thing about 3four3, and this member section specifically, is that we’re able to not only ask questions but also share information like this. No matter what level we are at, we can all take stuff away from it. Like your explanation for example. Bravo, dude.

[John PranjicParticipant]

Caleb- don’t forget it’s not only WHAT foot you receive it, but how you receive it on that foot as well.

I went down to watch the US U18 camp last week in LA and you’d be shocked at how many of our countries ‘best’ players are airballing in this department. Clarence Goodson is a prime example at senior level. That fool loves the outsides of his feet. He consistently makes things more difficult for him and his teammates by not receiving ball properly. Keep an eye on it… I’m sure he’ll make his way onto the field leading up to WC2014.

[Dirk BennettParticipant]

Perhaps a bit off-topic, but I thought I’d share something.

I introduced rondos to my high school girls team when our season started near the end of February. We’re a month and some change in now, and have had a very successful season so far. We’re 11-1 with 59 goals scored and 3 against. What’s more – at first we had to force girls to do the rondos in their different variations. Very very slow progress. Now, as soon as they get to practice, they get into groups and do circle rondos. They even do them during water breaks. I had one of them come up to me today at practice and tell me that she loves them and can’t wait to play them every day at school. I can’t help but feel a little pride when I hear that and see the progress they’ve made in such short time 🙂

[Kyle GeroParticipant]

In the game rondo story, I coach U9girls and U9Boys, as well as U14 girls, all are D1 teams in our league/tournaments. With that said we do Rondo’s every practice in some variation. With the U14 girls it has translated into a team at low level D1 to move to a team that competes way above that. The biggest impact has been to the U9 teams. My U9 girls play in a micro league in a U9boys division. Last weekend my center back who is very comfortable to turn around and play her keeper, did just that but this time she banged it at our keeper right in the middle of the goal. Some principles of play came up first can we play our keeper with the correct weight of pass and outside the pipes. Well that did not happen instead she hit a ball on the ground with a lot of pace, my keeper who is a field player simply and calmly trapped the ball across her body, and took her second touch to play wide to an outside player who was getting wide, all of this was done without much thought. Just like we do when we brush our hair in the morning or anything else. It came naturally with out thinking. This is the rondo, the keeper can be rather awkward because she is very tall for her age, but wow, this is the result!!!!!! Rondo’s just do it
Kg

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