FineSoccer Drill 66

Today's exercise is a form of shadow training which works on defensive rotation.

This exercise can use anywhere from 4 v 4 to 7 v 7 with one keeper and requires a third of the field.  Let's assume that we are going to have the numbers for 5 v 5 with a keeper.  Start with the red team spread out in a semi circle around the offensive third of the field. (see diagram below).

The blue team will mark up man to man by initially getting real close to each of their marks.  As will be seen real easily, if the red team is going to goal, they have a lot of space in the middle to receive a ball with the blue team marking up this way.

Start with the ball in the with red 1 and make sure that each member of the blue team is marking up correctly but also is providing proper coverage and balance to her teammates.  The further the offensive players (red) are from the ball, the further back and towards the middle the defensive player can be while maintaining proper ball-you-man-goalside defense (see http://finesoccer.com/edition70.htm for an explanation on this).

Once all of the players are in the correct position, the ball can be passed from red 1 to red 2 and each defensive player would then make the proper adjustment to be either the 1st defender, 2nd defender or 3rd defenders.  As the blue players start to make these adjustments quicker and quicker, have the red team start knocking the ball around playing 3 touches minimum (by making the offense take at least 3 touches, it will allow the defense time to shift properly)

This whole time, the red players should be stationary so that the defenders only have to worry about where the ball is since their marks are staying in one place.  As the defense gets better at this, allow the red team to start moving (slowly at first).  Gradually, allow the red team to play at first speed and see whether the blue team can adapt accordingly.

Do this for five minutes or so and then have the two teams switch roles.  

This exercise can be used as a great opportunity for teaching proper defense and, as a coach, you have to be extremely careful to balance out the coaching opportunities with spending too much time talking at which point you are at risk of losing the attention of the entire team so while you think you are making a great coaching point you are in fact teaching nothing at all

This exercise is a slower moving one then most that I have written about and really is something that coaches have to spend a great deal of time and energy planning for to get the maximum benefit from it, but like most shadow training, it has the potential of being a very effective way to work on team defense and the roles of the first defender, second defender and third defender.

Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to comments@finesoccer.com or posted to the FineSoccer Forum

Have a great day!

Lawrence