Originating in football, the Rondo is a small sided game that encourages many touches of the ball and can be easily constrained to impact the desired outcomes. Use them as a starter activity, getting players to self-organise into these simple games to work on their catch/pass skills under pressure.
STANDARD RULES
Player can move with ball, become defender if they either: get intercepted, throw the ball out, or get touched in possession.
Scoring variation – per pass or by scoring a try on any of the lines.
VARIATION #1: LINEMAN
Standard rules, however now one attacker can only move along the lines to be an option to pass to.
Scoring variation – per pass or by scoring a try on any of the lines.
VARIATION #2: 2V2
Standard rules but 2v2 – on a change in possession, the other team begin to “attack”.
Scoring variation – per pass or by scoring a try on any of the lines.
VARIATION #3: MAGIC MAN
Standard rules plus magic man who is always an option for the attacking team.
Scoring variation – per pass or by scoring a try on any of the lines.
VARIATION #4: MAGIC LINEMAN
Standard rules plus magic man who is always an option for the attacking team – however he is restricted to the lines to move on.
Scoring variation – per pass or by scoring a try on any of the lines.
VARIATION #5: 3V2
Attack get 1 minute to score as many tries between the red cones as possible. Every time they’re touched or ball gets intercepted they pass the ball back to teammate behind the blue line to start again.
Defenders can only move forward once ball crosses the blue line.
Other rule adaptation: if defender intercepts and gets outside the box before being tackled, they are immune from returning to the middle for 3 attempts.
We have plenty of tag resources on this site, and I’m keen to ensure they can easily be upgraded into full sessions. Perhaps they won’t be doing much rucking, but there’s plenty else to learn from tag beginnings. MORE
Ian Diddams reviews the latest law directives around the ruck, and looks at how you might adjust your training sessions to help your players become more effective in this contact area. MORE
Upgrade your good tacklers by making them more aware of the type of tackles which would prevent offloads or create opportunities for turnovers. That will make them defenders not just tacklers. MORE
How far should you go in developing better evasion skills by setting up footwork exercises without defenders? Is it better to let them play and discover? MORE
In essence, I wanted to create defensive games which would force attacking teams to realign with more depth. The rewards were aimed squarely at the defence. If they were successful, they would either gain the ball, or in the case of the overloaded game (where there were more attackers than defenders), they would move over into the attacking team. MORE