Defending against runners and overlap runs

[Charlie]

When you are coaching your defenders do you encourage "handing on" runners, "stay with your man" or a mixture of the both?

[ian.curry]

A mixture. Generally mark the man, stick with him if he has the ball.

If he moves across the field without the ball then switch the marking over with communication. Once or twice I have put my fastest defender on their main attacker and told the rest ofthe defence to re-organise around my defender's position. This eventually stops the attacker moving as much.

[Jerzy]

A mixture of both for me. If it is an overlap run, your guy who's covering the man at the start of the run has to stay with him, because he's usually up to speed. An attacking player who's got a full head of steam can blow right by the defender if the defender recognizes the switch too slowly. Attackers moving laterally across the field are usually passed from defender to defender.

[74offsuit]

The defending principles I have been taught on the level two course are;

Pressure the ball - to either -
Win the ball
Prevent the ball going forward

So I would build my marking strategy from these building blocks. The obvious answer is a mixture of both, but I think you need more information on a specific situation before answering correctly.

[Cookie]

Depends on age and ability of the children for me. Anything from U10 and below they would struggle to understand the principles of passing players on.

[huffsw]

For the first group of children, U6-U10 this concept is mostly a figment of the coaches imagination... An in the upper levels it can turn into a nightmare with no coaching.

Most coaches that will coach this concept are advanced and others are very well trained.

The concept of passing the player, as a rule is coached somewhat upon the opposing team's talent and skill level. But I will have my U13 girls maintain there position when our defence is strong sided or we are playing up in bodies.

The times when man to man is maintained is when our team is tired, which doesn't happen often, or they have fowards that are just quicker than our defenders.

I coach our Defence on the Triple "D" - Deny, Delay and Destroy

Deny the reception of the pass
Delay the play for recovery and support
Destroy the play to prevent one on one's with the GK

Hope this helps you