Coaching Soccer For Dummies

by Greg Bach

  Approach from the side: The ball bends, or curves, when a youngster delivers the kick by coming across the ball (see Figure 11-7) rather than straight on.

  Go low to get it high: In order for the ball to curve, it has to be put in the air. Players must make contact with the ball at its bottom half.

  Inside of foot: As the youngster approaches the ball, he strikes it with the inside of his shoe and above his big toe, and drives across the ball.

  Figure 11-7: The banana kick is an advanced offensive technique.

  Chapter 12

  Coaching Defense 101

  In This Chapter

  Putting the “D” in your defense

  Testing types of tackles

  Sure, you have great fun watching your team delivering precision passes up and down the field, creating quality scoring chances, and keeping the scoreboard operator busy tallying all those goals on game day. But what about when your team doesn’t have the ball? How do your players respond when the ball is deep in their end of the field, and they’re under attack from the opposing team? What do they do when they turn the ball over at midfield? What defensive style should you be teaching them?

  In soccer, just like any other team sport, playing defense is a major element of the game. During games, roughly half of your team’s time is spent playing defense, so players who know and understand the techniques involved in defending derive more enjoyment and success from the game. Learning defensive skills may not be as glamorous as learning offensive skills, but slowly, your players begin savoring the ability to derail and disrupt an opponent’s attack. Being able to do so on a consistent basis is the mark of a well-coached team that understands how to play a complete game of soccer.

  Building a Solid Foundation

  Your team spends approximately half of every game on defense, so don’t neglect this area of the game during your practice sessions.

  Marking: The framework of sound defense

  The foundation of all good defensive play begins with marking, which simply means that the defending player is between the attacking player and his own goal. Marking is guarding an offensive player to prevent him from dribbling or passing the ball, or slowing his progress while the defense is under attack.

  Marking, also sometimes referred to as backs on, is where you simply assign your left and right fullbacks to follow specific attackers on the opposing team wherever they go on the field. This tactic typically works well with younger kids learning the game, because you can assign everyone a player to mark, and you can keep track of who loses their player relatively easily. This style of play also ensures that your players don’t become bored or lose concentration during the game, because they have to stay focused on sticking with their assigned player. This system can also be effective at creating turnovers, because your players are always right on top of the player dribbling the ball, as well as guarding others tightly, which cuts down passing lanes.

  Here are some points to keep in mind when teaching marking:

  Get close: The closer a defender sticks to the attacking player, the more difficult it is for that player to maneuver the ball, deliver a pass, or get off a shot.

  Be aware: Youngsters are in good defensive position only when they’re between the player they’re marking and their own goal — and they have sight of where the ball is. Whenever a player loses sight of where the ball is, his ability to defend is weakened.

  Notice tendencies: With older and more experienced players, stress the importance of paying attention to tendencies. Does the player always dribble with her right foot? If so, making a slight adjustment of sliding a small step over in coverage makes a big difference in how effectively you mark the player. By overplaying to one side, your players give themselves more chances to make a steal. Does the player look down a lot when she’s dribbling? If so, she’s susceptible to steals, and it’s probably a sign that she’s not totally comfortable with dribbling, which means that by putting tight defensive pressure on her, your player may be able to force a turnover.

  A bunch of other key defensive principles

  Regardless of what type of defense you choose for your team to play, the following are some basic defensive principles that any team, at any age or level of experience, should adhere to:

  Protect the scoring area: The area in front of the net is the prized piece of real estate. Keeping the opposing players out of this area drastically reduces the number of legitimate scoring chances they get against your squad.

  Help out: The essence of team defense is lending support when needed. When a player nearby gets beaten by the dribble, teammates need to recognize the importance of sliding over to help defend that player and preventing a clear shot on goal.

  Beat the ball: The more players you have between your goal and the opposing team when it has the ball, the more likely your squad is to make a successful defensive stand. When your team turns the ball over, your chances of derailing the attack go up as more players rush back and put themselves between the ball and their own goal.

  Clear out: Teach your defenders — and really, any player who gains possession of the ball in front of the net — to clear it out quickly. Clearing out refers to kicking the ball away from your own net to clear away the chances for the opposing team to get shots on goal.

  These kicks should never be played across the front of your own net, where an interception can quickly lead to a quality scoring chance for the opponent. Rather, they should be played to the nearest sideline to help ensure that defenders can’t get their foot on the ball or that if they do, they have limited options available to them.

  Cover the dribbler: Any time your defensive player finds himself outnumbered, such as in a 2-on-1 situation, he must always take the player who has the ball. You never want to give the player with the ball an easy and direct route to the goal. At least by covering the dribbler, you force him to make a pass, which produces a greater chance of a miscue and losing possession of the ball.

  Don’t lunge: Defensive players who lunge for the ball instead of sticking to sound tackling fundamentals make it drastically easier for attacking players to maneuver the ball down the field. When a player lunges for the ball, she manages to take herself right out of the play and allows the attacking player the opportunity to continue dribbling, take advantage of the open area to get a clear shot on goal, or deliver an unobstructed pass to a teammate. Whenever you spot a player lunging during a drill in practice, immediately correct the mistake, and demonstrate what type of tackle is best to use in that particular situation. Check out the “Kicking the Defensive Skills up a Notch” section, later in the chapter, for tackling instruction.

  Maintain proper depth: Your defenders shouldn’t be lined up straight across the field. All the attacking team needs to beat this type of alignment is one good through pass, which is a lot easier to convert when defenders are in a straight line. If your defensive players are staggered at different depths in the field, the attacking team encounters greater difficulty in executing its plays.

  Angle approaches: Your defensive players should always approach an attacking player from an angle instead of going directly at them. Taking an angle forces the attacking player to send a pass backward or to a specific area of the field, because the angle eliminates a lot of his passing options.

  When a youngster makes a great defensive play, make sure you recognize the effort with a verbal comment during the game or a high-five when she comes to the sidelines for a breather. Kids understand the importance of defense, and give you a strong effort in that area of the game, when they sense that you put equal importance on it. If the enthusiasm you exhibit for a goal your team scores matches your enthusiasm when your squad stops a great scoring opportunity from the opposing team, your team is on its way to being well rounded.

  Also, while the team is performing any type of drill, you may easily get caught up in watching the offensive player and his passing or shooting mechanics. Don’t forget to devote an equal amount of attention to the d
efensive player. Pay attention to whether he uses the appropriate tackling method, which we cover later in this chapter.

  Different Types of Defenses You Can Run

  As we discuss in Chapter 11, you can utilize a variety of offensive styles, and the same goes for implementing defensive systems. The methods you choose for your team are based on several factors, most notably how much experience the youngsters have playing the game.

  The most commonly used defensive style of play at the youngest age levels is man-to-man, which is exactly what it sounds like — a player is responsible for guarding a specific player on the opposing team. As kids gain more experience, you can introduce them to the zone defense, which tends to be a bit more complex to comprehend, because players are responsible for an area of the field rather than a particular individual. Of course, you can get really creative with your defense and incorporate aspects of both styles into your approach. Any defensive style can be altered to fit your team’s strengths.

  Man-to-man defense

  Man-to-man is the most basic style of defense to teach beginning soccer players, because they have a fairly easy time understanding that they’re responsible for following number 12 wherever he goes on the field. If you have any players who have participated in other team sports, such as basketball, they’ve probably been exposed to this concept and have a head start on some of your more inexperienced youngsters. With this defensive approach, your player covers the opposing player regardless of where he is on the field, and when you have possession of the ball, your player joins the attack.

  One of the advantages of going with a man-to-man defense is that you can easily tell who’s accountable for each of the opposing players. For example, if one of the opposing players is continually dribbling down the field, you clearly see who she’s beating with her moves, and you can make an adjustment in who’s responsible for that player, which usually remedies the problem.

  Throughout the course of a game, your youngsters may lose track of the player they’re guarding, or the opposing player may be faster and may beat the defender down the field with the ball. The element of defensive support comes in here. Introduce this aspect of the game to youngsters, and work with them to pay attention to what’s going on throughout the field. Teach them to recognize that when one of their teammates is beaten defensively, the nearest defender is responsible for lending support and putting pressure on the attacking player who has broken free.

  Lending this support can be a pretty difficult endeavor with youngsters at the beginning levels of play, who are easily distracted. But as players progress in the sport and gain experience playing games, they start to become familiar with those situations that require them to vacate their positions on the field and help provide defensive support to one of their teammates.

  With the man-to-man defense, you can make various modifications to fit the needs and abilities of your players. For example, you can choose an aggressive defense that brings more risk into the picture, or you can opt to go with an approach that involves a lot less risk but also allows the opposing team to control much of the action.

  Fore-checking

  Fore-checking is a term you may have heard used in hockey, but it also applies to an aggressive defensive approach in soccer that is employed to regain possession of the ball as quickly as possible whenever you turn the ball over. The signature of this type of defense, which focuses on a high-pressure style of play, is that after a turnover:

  One and sometimes even two players always immediately pressure the dribbler in an effort to force turnovers, stall the attack, and handcuff the opponent’s ability to get the ball moving downfield.

  The other defenders press forward to help cut down the number of options available for the player to get passes off to teammates.

  It can be a fun style of play for kids who enjoy going after the ball. When operating this type of defense, you have to instill in the kids that as soon as the ball is turned over to the other team, their sole focus is to regain possession as quickly as possible before the other team even has a chance to set up and compose its attack. The biggest weakness associated with this type of defense is that it leaves the team highly vulnerable to a counterattack, because you have all your players pressing forward.

  Falling back

  At the other end of the spectrum from fore-checking is falling back, a low-pressure style of play. With this approach, when the team turns the ball over, players quickly move back to prevent any type of deep penetration by the attacking team. It’s a great style of defense for protecting leads, because the attacking team has to execute at a very high efficiency in order to enjoy any results. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that the attacking team dictates play and has plenty of time to set up any specific plays it wants to run or to survey the defensive setup before attacking. And because your opponent’s ball handlers aren’t under any defensive pressure, they’re able to scan the entire field.

  You have plenty of room to make modifications with this approach. For example, you can have one player taking an aggressive approach and providing immediate pressure on the ball handler, which provides a few extra, and very valuable, seconds for the rest of the team to get back and set up in its proper positioning. Or you can choose to have a couple of players provide the defensive pressure as soon as your team turns the ball over and make the other players responsible for retreating toward their goal.

  Zone defense

  When youngsters have been involved in soccer for a couple of years and have a basic understanding of the principles of good defense, you can begin teaching the zone defense to them. Basically, a zone defense makes players responsible for a specific area of the field. Figure 12-1 shows which area of the field each player is responsible for in a 3-5-2 alignment. (We go into greater detail on the advantages and disadvantages of different alignments in Chapter 16.)

  Defending individual standouts

  If you’re facing a team that has a player who’s highly talented and poses quite an offensive threat, you may want to consider using what is called point marking, or man marking, with your defense. With this approach, you designate one of your players to totally commit to stopping this offensive player, and even when your team has possession of the ball and is on the attack, this player hangs back so that he’s always in position to defend the talented player if your team turns the ball over.

  In the zone-defense approach, any time an attacking player enters a defensive player’s zone, he is immediately marked. When the attacking player moves out of that defensive player’s zone, you have two options:

  Instruct the defender to continue marking him, even though the player has to leave his zone to stick with the player and the ball. With this approach, nearby players have to rotate over, if necessary, to defend the area that has been vacated.

  Transfer the responsibility of marking him to the defensive player of that respective zone.

  Coaches use both approaches, so it’s up to you to find out which technique works best with your squad.

  Figure 12-1: You can see which areas of the field the players are respon- sible for.

  Kicking the Defensive Skills up a Notch

  Players on the attack must have a wide range of skills and moves to choose among to enhance their chances of being successful, and the same goes for youngsters on defense. A child who is resourceful and has an assortment of defensive techniques to utilize keeps the attacking players off balance, disrupts the attacking team’s rush, and increases the likelihood that his team will regain possession of the ball. You can teach your team a smorgasbord of individual defensive techniques, including the various tackles we cover in this section. (Check out Chapter 16 for the more advanced slide-tackle technique.)

  When conducting drills to practice all the tackling techniques covered in this chapter, be sure that you put the kids in a wide range of situations that force them to use both their left and right legs. For example, if you practice the shoulder tackle only coming from the right side, an
d in a game, one of your players needs to perform it coming from the left side, you really can’t expect him to pull it off.

  Block tackle

  The best time for a defensive player to resort to a block tackle, often referred to as a ground tackle, is when the opposing player is dribbling the ball directly at him (see Figure 12-2a). In order to execute a successful block tackle, the defender moves directly toward the player and uses his entire body to tackle the opponent. The defensive player blocks the ball by applying steady and even pressure to it with the inside of his leg (see Figure 12-2b). He should also tense all the muscles of his leg, which helps protect the knees.

  When teaching the block tackle, keep the following tips in mind:

  Staggered: As the defensive player moves toward the attacking player, one foot should be slightly ahead of the other, and he should be focused on the player’s chest.

  Crouched: The defender should be slightly crouched, which enables him to be properly positioned to react to the dribbler moving to either her left or right.

  Attacking the ball: When the defender is ready to attempt the steal, he must go after the ball, not the player. He should use the inside surface of his foot and keep it firm as he drives it into the ball and blocks it so that the attacking player is unable to continue moving forward.

  Figure 12-2: The defender uses the block tackle against the player coming directly at him.

  Shoulder tackle

  Although soccer is a game played primarily with the feet, players who understand how to use their entire bodies to their advantage while on defense enjoy increased levels of success. The shoulder tackle (see Figure 12-3) is an excellent defensive technique to use when a defender finds herself running alongside an attacking player as she’s chasing the ball. During games, you see a lot of contact among players, and players are usually allowed to make contact with an opponent’s shoulder if they keep their elbows close to the body and the ball is in close proximity. Of course, this rule depends on the type of league you’re playing in. Some leagues instruct their officials to call games closely and frown on any type of contact, while other leagues want the officials to call games more loosely and not whistle every infraction that occurs.