3v3+3 Hexagon Rondo (Atletico Madrid)

The hexagon rondo is one of the exercises most closely tied to Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid. Footage from the club's training ground shows it played on a painted hexagon, with a member of staff feeding balls in from a pile at the side, and coaches everywhere have borrowed it since.

The set-up is what makes it work. Twelve players, two teams of six. Each team has three players inside the hexagon and three outside, one on every other side, so the outside colours alternate all the way round. Whichever team has the ball has a 6v3: three inside players and three outside players against the other team's three inside. The outside players of the team without it are not spectators either. They can slide along their side and close down the outside player next to them, so the team on the ball never has a free side.

Because every outside player sits between two opponents and faces two inside team-mates, the passes that work are short triangles: into an inside player, out to a side, back in to the other inside player. That is the combination play the exercise is known for, and it is the same shape a midfield three makes with a full-back in a game.

The transition is the second lesson. Nobody changes places when the ball is lost, so the moment a pass is cut out the defenders become the team with the 6v3 and the attackers become the three who must press. The safety pass out to an outside team-mate after a regain, a rule used in Spain, rewards the team that wins it for getting out of the pressure first.

The size of the hexagon sets the difficulty. A 5 m hexagon is only for players who can play one and two touch; 7 m suits most groups; 10 m gives time for longer, firmer passes. Play four minute games, swap the inside and outside players, and keep score by passes in a row.