If you've read previous posts, It would be easy to come to the conclusion that I disagree with coaching of any kind. This is simply not true. After all, I'm a football coach. I simply don't see learning as the only, or possibly even the main reason why kids get involved with football.
But guess what, I do coach. I try to think about my sessions, my children and what could be needed at any point. I also ask them how they are feeling and whether they just want to play. It really is no big deal.
In this post, I'm going to discuss my interest in Rondo's, how I feel they can be unrealistic and how I've tried to morph some of them into Games.
To help with this I'll simply lay out a session that focuses on Transitions and walk you through how and why I designed the session as I did.
Transitions.
Over the last 3 years my coaching has focused on the Principles of the Game and what this means for a Footballer. Most people know these Principles and I find they're a great way to get kids involved in thinking about the game. They also act as a kind of Syllabus.
To make this even more Child Friendly, the kids tried to formulate their own ideas a few years ago. We called this the Flow of the Game.
Recently, our discussions have moved on to Transitions and how regular and important they are. This is how we ran the session.
As with most specific sessions, earlier in the week, I had sent out some video clips to some of the team as a primer for what would be discussed at training. I could have focused their attention with some well thought out questions but as usual, they just received the clips and I left it to them.
As the kids began to arrive, they immediately started to play 1V1, 2v1, 2v2 and so on as the numbers grew. This would culminate in 2 games of 3v3 until they were called together to start the session.
We chatted about the video footage and I asked what it was they were noticing. Some correctly identified turnovers while, as is typical, some highlighted other parts of the footage. A nice one two or a switch of play. This is a great reminder that no one will ever see the game as you do. Well, not unless you focus their attention.
Once I explained that we would be discussing Transitions, all the kids could see what was happening in the videos .We followed this up with a question:
What is a Transition?
"losing the ball, winning the ball, being in possession, not having the ball, having to defend"
Lot's of answers and all of them relevant and correct.
I dug deeper about the "in possession and out of possession" comments and we drew up the following list of what could be going on at either moment:
The kids also noticed that the list for Out of Possession is pretty much just the opposite of what we are trying to do if we've got the ball. This is what we should be tapping into and using back with them. Their ideas and language not ours.
This chat also led to a moment of inspiration from one of the kids that shaped my comments for the rest of the evening.
"Transitions are when my job changes"
So simple, so insightful and so useful. I now had something that I could hang the rest of the evening on. "New Job".
Through this 4 minute discussion, the kids had correctly worked out how to identify and notice a transition and more importantly that a transition required some kind of reaction.
I explained that these reactions are the essence of football. Possession alters so many times during the game and that how you react, and how often you can react will make a huge difference.
The rest of the session was based on noticing the transitions and reacting.
I wanted to start with less "noisy" opportunities to do this so set up some simple 5v2 rondo's to dial down the interference and dial up the chances to spot and react. However, this is were the rondo, in it's simple format, fails to be representative of a game. I was asking the kids to notice a transition but to also react by changing their job.
The simple, basic rondo that we all know doesn't do this. Transition is obvious, the ball is won by the clever, hardworking defenders but what happens then?
Rather than an instant change of job and a reaction, there's a stop and a swapping of places, then the job changes. You don't get this luxury during a game. The thing is, without the clarity of "Transitions are when my job changes" we may never have spotted this.
We quickly varied the rondo and added a new rule. When a defender won the ball they had to dribble out of the square on any side. The attackers who had been keeping the ball had to close down the ball and prevent the movement out of the square.
I'm quite sure this game is nothing new but I'm highlighting it to show how the session evolved.
Once we had this rondo going we thought about what else happens upon transition and worked out we could add two pug goals outside the square so that as soon as an interception is made the defenders were to look to pass into the pugs.
We could also have combined these two methods to give the players a choice. Dribble out or complete the pass.
Essentially the basic rondo and "ok I've won it, time to hand over the bib" was replaced by the realism of "ok I've won it, my job has just changed."
After 15 minutes of swapping between these games we decided to add to the challenge. I divided the square down the middle and gave 1 point if you passed or dribbled on the same side that you won the ball but 3 points if you played or dribbled into the opposite side. This was an attempt to encourage players to circulate the ball out away from the pressure.
This progression was much more difficult for my group but at least they still had the choice. I wasn't insisting they must switch the play but rewarding it if they could.
Finally, I tried to dial up the amount of noise in the session and depart from the rondo to more of a game with all the inherent difficulty this brings.
We chose 3 teams, 2 playing and 1 acting as goals or receivers. The teams would play directionally and attempt to score by getting the ball to one of their receivers. The other teams would try to stop this and immediately react, changing their job and trying to do the same with the opposite receivers.
First to 3 goals would win and the receivers would replace the losing team. This element of "winner stays on" competition led to a frenzied, intelligent exploration of Transitions and reactions. Many of the kids mentioned it was the best game they had played and some even wanted to continue rather than set up a full sized game.
We carried the theme over into the 7 aside game and for 20 minutes we could hear kids reminding others that their " job had changed" as Transitions were highlighted.
I know this is a very long winded way of describing a session that others can take, use and adapt but I feel there's much more to the art of coaching that just the set up of the activities.
I'd be really interested in other sessions being expanded upon like this.
Please share your stories.
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