Drills for guarding one on one

[thegeneral]

Can anyone suggest some basic drills that can be done 1 on 1 for individual defense. I have a low division coed team I play on and plenty of people just go for the steal. Against a few players (who are obviously playing in a far lower division than they should be) many of our players get beat because they get sucked in to a juke. I'm looking for some basic one on one drills to help people understand how to not over commit. Any help would be appreciated.

[rca2]

It doesn't sound to me like a skills problem. Team defense requires discipline and a grasp of the principles of play. Sounds more like your team is not defending as a unit. 1v1 drills wont help fix that.

[BigGuy]

Old post

Let's talk about the stand up block tackle. It is all about timing and
form not about being physical or big or even contact with the player.
it is about winning the ball, then starting your teams attack.

Tell player the idea is not to crash into the dribbler. The idea is to
win the ball from the dribbler.

I have the feeling nobody has worked with her on her tackling. So she
doesn't know how to tackle.

You don't go for the tackle when the dribbler has close control of the
ball. You do close space on the dribbler. Meaning if the dribbler is
alone you close that open space within two yards of the dribbler. That
alone limits the dribblers options, her view of the goal and also her
passing options.

Then you position yourself to be ready to tackle. You get into a side
ways position, and again you wait for the moment where the dribbler
does not have close control of the ball. Then at that time you go for the
tackle. So it is a lot about the timing of the tackle and knowing when to
tackle.

You never go straight into the player. Your not looking to bang into
her just take the ball away from her. Then you can start your teams own
attack.

You come in from an angle to the left or the right of the dribbler not
straight into the dribbler.

You tackle using only the inside of the foot with a bended knee not
stiff legged. You want to hit the center of the ball so your tackling foot
should be slightly off the ground with the heal down, and toes up
ankle locked. It looks very similar to the form she uses for her push
passes.

Can she make a good push pass by the way?

So she hits the center of the ball, and the tackling foot follows
through riding up the ball. That gives the ball top spin. You want to put
top spin on the ball to help the ball go over the dribblers right or left
foot depending on the angle she took. She wants to put the ball behind
the dribbler off the dribblers left or right shoulder. Then you go to
the ball and win the ball and start her own attack.

If you don't hit the ball over the dribblers foot the first time.
Immediately tackle the ball again, and keep tackling until she does win the
ball.

When you tackle you will hear a loud noise of your foot hitting the
ball, not your foot hitting the dribbler and not the dribblers foot
hitting her body. A loud noise but no one should be hurt either player. Both
of you hit the ball at the same time again loud noise both neither
player should be hurt because your just hitting a ball.

Take a ball put it down. You come from one angle she comes from another
angle you both hit the side of the ball your facing at the same time.
You both will hear a loud noise, and you both will be okay.

Do not turn your inside of the foot after the touch. Keep it square
with the ball just like she does with the push pass. If she can't do the
push pass think of it as when you putt in golf. You don't turn the face
of the club immediately after the putt as your follow through you keep
the face of the club in the direction you want the ball to go. The
tackling foot also faces in the direction you want the ball to go. Also the
non tacking foot points the direction you want the ball to go.

Eye on the ball and tackle coming in from an angle, hitting the ball
with the inside of your foot so it goes straight over one of the
dribblers feet with your top spin follow through. You don't want to hit the
ball into the dribblers body.

Practice-last thing is you don't go for a tackle unless you have a team
mate supporting from behind just in case you miss.

Practice - once she understands that you are not making contact with
the dribbler just the ball, and the foot to ball contact does not hurt
she will be fine. Once she sees that she can win the ball she will be
like the terminator on her tackles :-)

Good luck practice and have fun with it.
--------------
Steal the bacon

Play steal the bacon, and on each end play with goals. It starts with a
50/50 ball situation. One of the players wins the ball then the
defender again must win the ball not just knock it away. Who ever wins ball
can then attack his goal to score. You dribble the ball into the goal or
make a short push pass no shooting or long passes to score want to see
battles for possession. The defender can chase the dribbler and try to
win the ball back and then tries to score on his goal. You get 1 v 1
tacling practice, you get making recovery run efforts to win the ball back,
and you get scoring practice.

[thebigman]

sounds like some good technique advice my fellow big man!

id always advise using game/competative situations that can result in a win/loss because u can emphasise that it is of importance and not just a 'boring drill'

it will almost make the tackle important like a last line defensive tackle in a game!

what about 3 on 2 attacking games where the defense has to hold the line while marking 2 attackers who are looking to latch onto a ball played by a third person? it will help both defense and attack

im gonna be going into coaching after a course next month hopefully so ill need to develope a good knowledge of drills

i dont know how effective 1 on 1 drills would be, especially for a beginner defender

[ctsoccer13]

Tackling is great and very necessary at times, but remember that the ball is most vulnerable when it is farthest from the player. It's a matter of timing. One drill that is nice is to have someone dribble at you slowly, you backpedal with them, trying to contain the dribble in a certain direction. Progress by making the person dribble faster. This will help you with your footwork and timing. Then have the person alter their dribble to go on angles so that you have to adjust your body and feet. Then introduce tackling/stealing ito it. Again, dispossession is easiest when the ball is farthest away so it's a matter of timing and judgement. Good luck.

[ranova]

Good advice by BigGuy. If you go to nscaa.com coaching tips, they have a 2-part series on individual defending. But it still doesn't sound like a skills problem to me.

[Norsk Troll]

It's a mental problem that can be addressed through skills practice. The instinct for untrained defenders to immediately lunge for the ball when they meet the attacker is primal. The concept of simply moving with them, shifting position to keep themselves between the goal and the attacker, and waiting for the poor touch to take the ball away really does need to be trained into most young players.

I have sometimes simply placed them 1v1 without a ball, and instructed the attacker that his job was to get around the defender and run towards the goal, and the defender's job was to simply move to constantly interpose himself between the attacker and the goal, during which you can coach the defender on his "surfing" position (it also doesn't hurt for the attacker to get some practice on his feinting and misdirection, without worrying about the ball). After a while of that, give the attacker a ball and tell him to dribble around and towards the goal, and the defender still is limited to using his body to interpose and block progress towards the goal - again working on his positioning, and you can point out those moments when the bad touch by the attacker would be a good time to steal. Then finally, you let the defender use his own judgment and they're much less likely to lunge and get beat right off that bat.

Unfortunately, for smaller players at least, it takes a lot of reinforcement to really remember during the game environment. After doing the above, it's good to have them start at a distance from each other, so they can learn to close at speed, slow if necessary to take up a good defensive position to match their opponent's speed, and then look for the opportunity to steal.

And as to RCA's comment about "team defense", I think you're concern here is, in fact, the individual's basic poor defending. Certainly, you should also be working on the responsibilities of the first man pressuring, the second man covering, etc., but that doesn't mean you can fail to address how that pressure man is actually supposed to pressure the attacker, which is indeed all about 1v1 defending.

[thegeneral]

I should have noted that there is no tackling allowed in this league. Tackling is only a small part of guarding someone anyways. The issue is not team defense, it's players who have never played organized sports before who don't understand how to give players space, be disruptive and not overcommit to the player. In this case, a team defense is no good if one good player on the other team can individually beat 10 players.

I'm looking for ideas on drills so that individual defenders are more competent in dealing with another player.

At the practice yesterday I combined offensive moves with defensive moves. I demonstrated a basic move to get around an opponent and then had ppl drill it. I did that two more times and then had a rectangle setup where one person was offense and tried to get around a defender. I had the defenders work on staying in front of the person and staying square instead of trying to chase the ball around.

It seemed to get the point across pretty well.

[BigGuy]

I should have noted that there is no tackling allowed in this league. Tackling is only a small part of guarding someone anyways. The issue is not team defense, it's players who have never played organized sports before who don't understand how to give players space, be disruptive and not overcommit to the player. In this case, a team defense is no good if one good player on the other team can individually beat 10 players.

I'm looking for ideas on drills so that individual defenders are more competent in dealing with another player.

At the practice yesterday I combined offensive moves with defensive moves. I demonstrated a basic move to get around an opponent and then had ppl drill it. I did that two more times and then had a rectangle setup where one person was offense and tried to get around a defender. I had the defenders work on staying in front of the person and staying square instead of trying to chase the ball around.

It seemed to get the point across pretty well.

No tackling? Tackling is winning the ball from an opponent.

If you can't do that why not take on defenders every chance you get?

What kind of league is this?

[ctsoccer13]

No tackling? Tackling is winning the ball from an opponent.

If you can't do that why not take on defenders every chance you get?

What kind of league is this?

I would hope that he means "slide tackling". If that's what he's referring too, then "good". You don't want beginners trying to slide tackle. Bad for both sides.

[BigGuy]

I would hope that he means "slide tackling". If that's what he's referring too, then "good". You don't want beginners trying to slide tackle. Bad for both sides.

I hope that is what he means.

Speaking of the slide tackle do you teach it or do they learn it on there own? Do you cover some of different kinds of slide tackles used.

I cover it because it is better then letting players do it on their own. They know it is a last resort thing for me and to slide in front of the ball if you can and not at the player.

Plus I cover how to avoid the slide tackle. I use low dutch gates so if you see it comming you push the ball up under the gate and then the dribbler hurdles the gate. The gate represents the player doing the slide tackle.

[thebigman]

slide tackles are inituative i think but theres still a technique

i wonder if u can coach a poerfect slide tackle?

[BigGuy]

slide tackles are inituative i think but theres still a technique

i wonder if u can coach a poerfect slide tackle?

First never do one if you have a support team mate behind you.

There is a feast where I live called Santa Rosalia. They sponsor an adult soccer tournament every year.

I had one player a back in a game he tried three missed slide tackles, and the same player who he was against scored three goals.

I looked at the spectators at the game and said "I can't believe we actually paid this guy to play." :-)

[BigGuy]

There is a slide tackle that Beckenbauer used to do once in a while.

Not done much anymore by anybody, but I have seen Bobby Convey do it at times. He does it going against bigger dribblers. It starts off as a shoulder to shoulder charge. Then from that position he drops down to the ground and uses his closest foot to the opponent and to the ball to sweep the ball away from that opponent. Then it is actually posible to get up and win the ball back.

Ever seen it used?

[rca2]

Not sure if this is what you mean: running alongside getting slightly ahead, lean back, sliding down on the near leg cocked, reaching over and across the ball with opposite foot, drawing the ball back with heel, lean forward, pushing back upright with the cocked near leg, turn away from the opponent (to screen the ball) and dribble away.

Its been 20 years, but that's how I recall it done one time in a summer league game. It helps having a great grass field.

[ctsoccer13]

I do try to teach it, but it is extremely tough. I usually start with a lecture on it and explaining the body movements. I must admit that I consider myself and exteremely good slide tackler and I think that helps. I then start with having the players just practice a "baseball slide" so they get used to sliding. We move up to a moving ball and then finally someone running alongside a ball (not actually dribbling it). IMO I think it's a good thing to try and teach if they are going to use it anyway. But I agree that it's only a last resort.

[BigGuy]

Not sure if this is what you mean: running alongside getting slightly ahead, lean back, sliding down on the near leg cocked, reaching over and across the ball with opposite foot, drawing the ball back with heel, lean forward, pushing back upright with the cocked near leg, turn away from the opponent (to screen the ball) and dribble away.

Its been 20 years, but that's how I recall it done one time in a summer league game. It helps having a great grass field.

No it is the way I described and you get the ball with your laces.

[ChrisSSBB]

No tackling? Tackling is winning the ball from an opponent.

If you can't do that why not take on defenders every chance you get?

What kind of league is this?

No kidding. I understand in a co-rec league the need to keep things from getting too intense, but never heard of a no-tackle league.

What I find helps for individual defending with youths is to emphasize is that preventing the penetrating pass or dribble is important. Anytime you can position yourself that forces the opposition to go laterally on the field, you are doing your job and allowing the rest of the defense to position themselves. This is usually easier to accomplish than tackling an attacker who has good control of the ball and is coming at you. Also, if you aren't successful with at least 50% of the tackles that you attempt and the attacker is getting by you, you are probably not in good enough positions to make the tackle and should be jockeying, delaying more instead of going for the tackle right away.