Guest Karl Marius Aksum discusses the effectiveness of Rondo drills in soccer practice, emphasizing representativeness, creativity, and transferability. The importance of fostering creativity, visual scanning, and affordances in player development is highlighted, along with the significance of game-like training activities for enhancing performance and skill adaptability.
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Quick takeaways
Practice activity analysis in soccer should focus on representing game scenarios and fostering creativity.
Rondos in soccer may enhance specific skills but lack important game strategy principles and scanning behaviors.
Deep dives
Definition and Function of a Rondo in Soccer
A Rondo in soccer is a training exercise where players in possession aim to keep the ball away from the underloaded side out of possession. The primary goal is ball retention rather than scoring goals. Different variations like four versus two or eight versus five can be used. However, the traditional Rondo design lacks the inherent direction seen in actual game scenarios.
Principles of Play in a Rondo
Rondos emphasize attacking principles like body position, receiving with the right foot, attracting pressure, passing at the optimal moment, using both feet, and supporting the play. Defensive principles such as cover shadows to prevent passes through players are also coached. However, while effective for specific skills, Rondos may lack key principles needed for overall game strategy.
Limitations of Rondos in Fostering Creativity
Rondos may limit creativity due to their structured nature that focuses on ball retention rather than exploring unique or low-probability actions. The lack of affordances, such as space for longer passes and dribbling opportunities, restricts players from experimenting with various movement solutions. Creativity in Rondos is hindered as players are confined to repetitive passing sequences.
Scanning Behavior and Transfer in Rondos vs. Game Context
Rondos show minimal scanning behaviors crucial for successful performance in actual matches. Research indicates that players scan fewer times in Rondos compared to full games or small-sided games. The reduced scanning frequency affects passing performance and fails to replicate the cognitive demands of real-game scenarios, hindering transfer of skills practiced in Rondos to match situations.
A case study in how we should be doing theoretically-based task analyses of practice activities: the Rondo in soccer. Will the activity achieve its goals? Is it representative? Will it transfer to competition? Does it foster creativity and functional variability? My interview with Karl Marius Aksum.