Four lane soccer defending drill
This simple soccer defending drill will enable your players to practise the skills needed to outwit an attacker who is running straight at them.
How to run the soccer defending drill
Split your players into four groups. Create four lanes, approximately five yards wide, running from the half-way line to the edge of the penalty area. Begin with a defender and several attackers in each lane.
The soccer (football) drill begins with the first attacker passing to, and receiving the ball back from, the defender. The attacker then dribbles at the retreating defender using an array of skills to unbalance them. The defender does not try to win the ball.
After all four lanes have had their turn, return to "lane one" and repeat with the next attacker. Once the defenders have dealt with a couple of attempts, make them switch lanes before rotating in new defenders.
How to develop the drill
Add a goalkeeper. This time the defender starts a little deeper and must try to win the ball. Meanwhile, the attacker attempts to get close to, or into, the penalty area to score. Keep playing until the defender wins the ball, it’s knocked out of play or the attacker scores.
The development should be run one lane at a time.
Incorporate the soccer drill skills in a game
Play a continuous game with two teams and one goalkeeper. Starting from outside the penalty area, each player has a turn at attacking in a 1v1 situation, then immediately defends the next situation before returning to their queue of team-mates.
The attacker must score to win a point, while the defender gets a point if they win the ball, knock it out of the penalty area or prevent the attacker from shooting for five seconds once they enter the penalty area.
Click here for competitive team games to make defending fun.
To order the Perfect Defending manual, which has 67 soccer drills for marking, tackling and blocking, click here.
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