By Danny Carvalho -
When talking about pressing, we must consider a lot of intensity and effort to apply good pressure on your opponent. And it comes without saying that your players must be grinding remarkably on their physicality.
This rondo was totally designed to work on your players capacity to endure the defensive demand.
Set up
Set four square grids of about 10x10 yards and split the group in four groups of four players on each grid. Make sure to have a good number of spare balls around the squares to keep a high tempo.
Assign each player a number of 1 to 4 on each group. When you call their number, they are the ones to be the defenders in their own square first.
Defenders play for 30 seconds in their own square. At the end of the time, coach blows the whistle and each defender must go clockwise to the next square.
Another 30 seconds in the 2nd square until coach blows the whistle again to move on to the 3rd square. After these four rounds of 30 seconds in each square, swap the defenders by calling out the next number, giving the defenders some time to recover their breath.
To make it competitive, have players keep scores. Every time they intercept or force the ball out of bounds, they get a point.
Rank them all. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th on the rank are free of punishment. Have the 5th to 8th do five pushups, 9th to 12th ten pushups and 13th to 16th fifteen pushups.
By Danny Carvalho, DOC at Corinthians Campinas Youth Club, Brasil
