I receive many emails asking me... "How do I make my soccer team harder to beat?", so in this week's tip I'm going to give six key technical proficiencies your players need to help them defend more effectively.

In youth soccer today, many teams just need a couple of training sessions to help them get organised and be extremely difficult to break down.

Sometimes it doesn't matter how many skillful players your opponents have, the point is as long as your players are well organised and work hard they'll be hard to beat.

The toughest teams I've come across execute the key basics of defending effectively. An article on Group Defending is being published on the site later today.

Defending teams must be able to read the game and react as a unit as the ball moves. However, team defending, whether that's at junior or youth level, starts with individual defending.

Here are the six most effective individual tactics that all coaches must reinforce with their players...

1. Ensure that the distance between your player and the attacker is kept to a minimum.
2. Make an aggressive run from a diagonally angle and force the attacker on to their weaker foot. This means that moving them onto their weaker foot puts the ball on your players stronger side. Alternatively, I prefer my players to show the attacker outside towards the sideline.
3. To slow the attackers run, your player should ease their run as they get close (within 1 - 2 yards). This means that they can then hold up the attacker and not leave themselves open to ball knocked around them and the attacker sprinting on to it.
4. Your player should keep their eyes on the ball at all times. This prevents your players from being sold on fakes and dummy movements.
5. Defenders should time their tackle. They should hold up the attacker and wait for the moment that the ball is left unprotected before attacking it.
6. Defenders should go in wholeheartedly when making a tackle. When attempting to win the ball they should put their upper and lower body in between the ball and the attacker

In 1 v 1 situations, your defenders should be ready to react to any attack. They can prepare themselves by staying on their toes, leaning slightly forward from the waist, keeping a fairly low centre of gravity.

In the members only area of Junior Soccer Coach we have many drills that can help your players in 1 v 1 defending, here are just a couple...

Technical Development of 1 v 1 Soccer Defending Skills

More 1 v 1 Defending Technical Practices On Edge Of 18 Yard Box

Flat Back Four - How To Defend Against An Attack Through The Middle

Flat Back Four - How To Defend Against An Attack Down The Wings

How To Coach Players The Importance Of Touch Tight Marking

How To Coach You Players To Stay In Defensive Contact

All of these drills and small sided games are being utilised by our members in every training session that they run. Our members are experiencing some terrific results with their teams by simply working on a couple of key elements with their teams, defending is just one of them.

When you join JuniorSoccerCoach today, you can immediately download my Soccer Opponent Annihilation Report which details the 12 Key Principles Of Playing The Game to give your team the best possible chance of winning.

To get your hands on this "must have" report and get access to over 1,000 pages of quality soccer coaching drills, exercises, small sided games and information you simply need to click here to become our latest member and get a warm welcome from us... we run our our teams as well, just like you, so understand the highs and the lows!

That's it for this week's tip... I hope you found it useful and more importantly, that you come and join us and get stuck into the really hardcore coaching information that we have in the members only area.

Neil Travers - Junior Soccer Coach

Best wishes

Neil

www.JuniorSoccerCoach.com
Helping You Develop Tomorrow's Soccer Talent, Today!

PS...

At the bottom of this page you'll also find some more articles that our members rate very highly which are also based on defending!