Count-Up Rondo Warm Up

Objective

• -Switch the brain on with a possession game
• -Warm the body with short, sharp movements
• -Get every player touching the ball early

Setup

1. 1Small rondo circles of five or six players in a 12 x 12 yards area.
2. 2Give every player a home cone and a ball.
3. 3One ball and one bib per circle.

How to play

1. 1Each circle keeps the ball away from one defender.
2. 2Start on unlimited touches and reduce to two.
3. 3Rotate the defender every 60 seconds.
4. 4Start on the whistle and count reps out loud as a group.
5. 5The squad has three attempts to beat its own total.

Progressions

• +Shorten the time window
• +Raise the demand once the group is consistently successful

Regressions

• -Lengthen the window and lower the target
• -Simplify the area or the service until success returns

Variations

• -Split into two teams and compare totals
• -Run the practice on the opposite side of the pitch

Common mistakes

• -Full-blooded tackles in a warm up
• -Circles too big to be useful
• -Counting sloppy reps to inflate the score