Skip to main content

Transitions: Old Job - New Job



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:


Notice they use different words than we probably would. Follow rather than Track?  

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.













Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Futsal and Youth Development

Futsal and Youth Football I've hesitated in writing this for a few months now but after spending sometime mulling the subject over, I thought I'd bite the bullet and suffer the flak that will inevitably find itself my way. Twitter is my University of choice. It's where I find ideas and swap opinions with like minded fellow Football Coaches. It's amazing, I am constantly surprised at the level of resources out there and more importantly the generosity of many of the people I come across. It's also chock full of people determined to see every exchange as a battle that must be won. This is why I've hesitated. For months now I've been engaged in exchanges about Futsal and in particular why it's a great development tool. Throughout these discussions, I've asked one simple question: Why? Now some have taken this innocuous enquiry at face value and tried to explain the reasons why they feel it works so well, some have just trotted well us

Coaching For The Brave

Over the years football has become more and more commercial. At its highest levels the game is now so professional and scientific it bears little resemblance to that played just a generation ago. This has brought great benefits for players, supporters and TV audiences around the world. A whole industry has erupted to support the game, spawning Directors of Football, Sports Psychologists, Performance Analysts and even Sleep Advisers. Clubs have poured millions into Elite Academies for those identified as having a chance of reaching the top and reaping the rewards. Young Starlets that graduate from these Centres of Excellence are paid thousands of pounds per week despite never having done anything of merit in the game. Coaches are trained and can't wait to get into the talent factories as a "first step on the rung" to a dream full time job with a club. Kids as young as nine and ten have a Golden ticket dangled in front of them and doting, eager parents hapi

Now THAT's a Rondo!

I've seen a quote that says "The whole of the game is present in Rondos" I'm not sure about this but since discovering them I have come to see them as an important tool for youth development. However, when I talk to other coaches I sometimes get the idea that they are misunderstood.  Opinions tend to vary from " Ah, the secret weapon of Barcelona " to " Piggy in the middle? " I certainly found that lot's of coaches I know use what they call a Rondo as some kind of warm up before sessions or games start and my own 9 year olds saw it as just a bit of fun when I introduced them to it. The problem is, the Rondo is so much more and can be used in many different ways. After asking my players what they thought about Rondos I decided I needed to reintroduce them and highlight their effectiveness in a new way. Below is a description of how I did this in a recent session. We've probably all seen this set up and this 4v2 exercise is how