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Youth Soccer Skills for defending

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Key soccer skills for defending – pressure the ball Progressive defensive soccer skills - pressure and cover Collective soccer skills – communication and defending as a unit

There are three basic periods of a soccer match, when the team has the ball – attacking, when the team doesn’t have the ball – defending and when the ball is changing hands – the transition period.

Defending is hard work. It requires very specific soccer skills from the players. Not only soccer skills regarding pressurizing, jockeying, tackling, cover and support. But communication, team work, concentration, controlled aggression, discipline and the soccer skill of anticipation and reading the game.

We have designed lots of defensive soccer skill sessions that make coaching youth soccer easier and more enjoyable. Youth players need to be motivated and involved. We have lots of competitive defensive drills to improve the soccer skills needed in defensive situations which also provide stimulus and enjoyment for youth soccer players.

To design the animated 3- D drills that incorporate the soccer skills required for defending, our UEFA "A" Licensed coach has used all his experience of coaching youth players to develop a wide variety of defending soccer skill drills to help coaches in all aspects of coaching defensive play. Be it 1 v 1, 2 v 2 or working with the back four and midfield in functional soccer skill exercises, we have superb, interactive 3D animated practice drills to help your players improve their defensive soccer skills and improve you as a coach.

Practice drills to help improve defensive soccer skills include:

• Practice drills for (1 v 1): (2 V 2): (3 V 3): (4 V 4)
• Improving defensive shape
•  Recovery runs when defending
• Delay in defending
• Pressure when defending
• When to mark and when to cover
• Pressure, cover, depth when defending
• When to pressure and when to drop off
• Defending crosses

Coaching plans designed to develop soccer skills for defending should include a series of progressive practice drills that will test players individual soccer skills for defending and progress to working on the soccer skills needed for working in units that are specific to relevant areas of the pitch the players will need with their soccer skills to improve their skill, technique and understanding of defending. For example, forwards will need to understand and improve their soccer skills on how to defend against the opposition defence when they are in possession. How they can recover to help the defensive team shape and how they can defend from the front when the ball is passed beyond them. Likewise, midfield players will need to work on specific defending soccer skills needed for their position. By the very nature of their position, defenders will need more work on improving and developing their soccer skills for defending, both as individuals and units, in key defensive areas of the pitch.

In the members area of the site there are over 250 computer game quality 3 - D animated soccer skill drills and coaching sessions, with a chapter specifically dedicated to coaching and improving the soccer skills required for defending. Using the same technology as the virtual soccer replays that appear on the Premier league and BBC soccer web sites, we have designed a wide variety of soccer drills that allows the coach to interact with and understand completely the soccer skills required to improve defending.

Imagine being able to view the animated soccer skills drills from any number of angles, zoom in and out to see how the session evolves, slow the speed down and choose to have the key soccer skill defending factors appear on the screen. It is totally interactive and delivers a unique online learning experience for all levels of coaches.