Do some players hate rondo (piggy in the middle)?

joej12321 · Apr 18, 2012

My team will play it if we're outside early for training and waiting to get started. I don't really think it's too useful but it is fun to play.

laure23 · Apr 21, 2012

nicklaino said: ↑

Ok this is my oberservation. In any 11 on a side game there is always going to be small sided play near the ball. Until someone can make the break out pass.

But how many times do you see 1 person with the ball and 8 team mates near that player?

Does that happen in real games?

Is there only 1 or 2 defenders near the player with the ball in real games and no other defenders in real games?

To hold the ball in a small space in real games your need your team mates to pass and move to get open. As your doing that you are also always looking to make the break out pass. They are not just standing around without moving.

At youth tryouts it is true that most coaches look for players who can hold the ball in a small space. But it depends how you set up that small sided game.

I scout players for my old club team looking for youth players. I scout players for our adult team. I also scouted players for an A league team.

Do you know how long I watch a player before I make a judgement about that player 5 or 10 minutes tops.

I don't watch their warm ups. I watch them play in actual games. I look for quickness in a small space, ball touch and vision. If I like what I see I invite them to practice with our teams.

So what else do you need to know?
Click to expand...

I agree that this drill doesn't address movement and long range passes. One needs to practice those skills else where.

It was good for practicing pressing and passing under pressure. The players with the poorest first touch suffered the most (myself included).

FirstStar · May 5, 2012

I think it's an immensely powerful drill to teach the fundamentals of both movement and defense in space-- excellent for younger players. However, you need to make a few modifications to the drill to get these concepts across. First, divide up the sides equally and put them into confined space. Then give one team the ball and tell them that they got a "point" for each completed pass. Make it harder (2 passes, 3 passes, etc. and, even better, "passes" only count if made to moving teammates). It's a turn-over if anyone holds the ball for more than 3 seconds (cut to 2 seconds as soon as you can with the kids). Just keep it going with these rules.

I think it teaches a lot of very important lessons in a pretty fun atmosphere-- trapping and controlling the ball and one-touch passing (due to time limits on the ball), field awareness- kids have to learn to be thinking at all times where they will pass the ball before they receive a pass (again, due to the time limit on the ball) and movement off the ball by teammates to get open (especially when you start limiting passes to only moving teammates).

Finally, I think it teaches some important lessons in defense about pressure versus position- due to the time limits, you can "win" a ball just as easily by taking away a passing lane as you can by intercepting the ball. I think this concept of positional defense is very hard for kids to understand-- they frequently seem to think that they aren't playing good defense unless they are actively taking the ball away from someone. This smaller area and simplified game really drills them into understanding that defense by shape is very, very effective in soccer. No matter how many times you tell them, they just never seem to believe it until they experience it for themselves.

Cheers!

snolly g · May 9, 2012

FirstStar said: ↑

I think it's an immensely powerful drill to teach the fundamentals of both movement and defense in space-- excellent for younger players. However, you need to make a few modifications to the drill to get these concepts across. First, divide up the sides equally and put them into confined space.
Click to expand...

this is no longer "rondo" or "piggy in the middle" or "pickle in the middle" or "man in the middle".

(not saying it's a bad modification, but you have essentially described an ssg without goals.)