Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): Skill Center Defending

Block Tackling (5 mins)

Block Tackling

Players partner up with a ball between them

They time their tackle on the ball so that both hit the ball at the same time

Once they have success, they can back up and step into their tackle again timing it so as to not injure their opponent

Details

planted foot next to the ball

Inside of foot

middle of the ball

knee over the ball

One on one 2 goals (15 mins)

One on one 2 goals

Player 1 passes to player 2 and then closes them down

Player 2 attempts to score in either of the 2 goals

Can be used for dribbling, dragging or turning as your theme of the session.

Depending on the theme, encourage the attacker to use that skill in the session.

After each go, players switch sides

Jodar Drill (15 mins)

Jodar Drill

Set up

Split the team in half

Balls to the coach as indicated next to the attacking player

Defenders go on 1 cone each from the goal line and curling towards the attacking players every 5 or so yards

Play

Players match up and go one on one with a 60/40 ball sent from the coach to the attacking player to go to net

After they are done, the attacking player goes back behind his line and the defending player goes to the cones and moves up one spot (so if he was at the closest cone to the goal line, move forward one spot, if the player was on the closest cone to the attacker, they move to the back closest to the goal line)

After everyone goes, the first 2 go again but now the angle of the defender has changed since they aren't on the same cone.

Once everyone has gone from each defensive cone, teams switch roles

Details

Attacker identifies where the defender is coming from (distance and angle to them)

Attacker and defender need to close the ball at pace (defender must identify when to slow their approach)

Attacker should be thinking about shifting the ball across the defender where they came from or do a trick (dragging or dribbling) to create space to go towards the net to finish