Soccer Edition 47

Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's subject is about emphasizing defense.

First of all, I would like to welcome all of the new subscribers. The more subscribers to the various FineSoccer newsletters, the more features will be added. If you know anyone who would like to receive one of the newsletters, have them go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm.

Not enough teams (or coaches for that matter) seem to understand the importance of defense in the game of soccer. This newsletter will not be able the technical side of defense but rather about the commitment to defense.

In a previous survey, I asked, "What percentage of your practice was spent on defense?" The response I received was not surprising but somewhat disappointing. Please check out the results at http://finesoccer.com/survey.htm to get a better understanding of what I am talking about.  By definition (not counting loose balls) the average team spends 50% of their time defending, yet the majority of  the teams spend 33% of their time or less working on defense. Regardless of what the emphasis of a team is on (meaning whether you are in it for the winning or for the player development) defense should get at least 50% of the time of the training.

If it I was taking over a new team and wanted to simply win (or, if I didn't want to lose) I would spend a large portion of every training session on defense. It's easier to master defense then offense. If my objective were player development, I would still spend a large part of my time on defense. This is such a huge part of the game and it's getting ignored (the bad thing about this newsletter is a number of the players that I coach subscribe to it and they will read this one and know that the next few practices with me will be all defense since I am annoyed by what I found)

Admittedly, teaching defense is not as glamorous as working on finishing but it can be just as fun. It should be introduced the same way as a ball skill is introduced.  Demonstrate it, and then have them go through it slowly, then a bit faster and then under pressure. Finally, put them under in a game situation to see if they can actually apply the defensive concept. 

There are a number of training games that can be played that work on defense. Next weeks FineSoccer Drills will all be training games that work on defense. To receive them, go to http://finesoccer.com/subscrib.htm.One of the neat things about defensive training games is that they almost always work on offense as well (in order to work on defending, there must be someone to defend).

Almost every coach I have ever known talks about how important defending is (whether it be high pressure, low pressure, man to man or zone) but very few seem 
to be willing to actually do something about it. If you want to be successful as a player or as a coach, spend an equal amount of time on defending as you do on attacking.

In order to learn more about what teams and coaches are doing, it would be really helpful if more people would participate in the surveys. I put new questions up two times per month and they will always be something that takes less then a minute to answer. Please help others by taking the surveys (they can be found on the same page as the results.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, send them to me at comments@finesoccer.com or post them to the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm

Have a great day!

Lawrence