DATE: Thursday 25th February, 2016

MOMENT: Defensive Transition

PRINCIPLE: Avoid the ball being played progressively forward and looking to regain possession quickly or give time to allow the team to be organised defensively.

SESSION TYPE: Constraints driven activity that is created to reflect the standard of the learning from the first 2 days. This is often an overload situation or a game with multiple goals or targets within the designed area to embed the principles (Challenging situations)

WEEKLY BLOCK SUB-PRINCIPLE: An aggressive mental and physical change from attacking to defending.

1. Players must be ready to alter, in a instant, their attacking mindset to a defensive mindset.
2. Intense and immediate pressure must be applied on the ball carrier to deny them the opportunity to pass or move the ball proactively forward.
3. Immediate coverage and pressure must be applied to opposition players around the ball who are potential ball receivers in the spaces around the ball.
4. Players must quickly recover the teams defensive balance and make the field small.

DEFENDING WORDS:

1. Pressure — apply pressure onto the ball carrier. Trigger thought for pressure is “can you force the ball carrier to put their head down to keep control of the ball, therefore denying them the ability to continue scanning for best options higher up the field.”
2. Predictable — ensure that the ball carrier is directed into areas of the fields where we have at least even numbers. Trigger thought for predictable is “can you turn them away from the supporting runners beyond and beside the ball and force them to go towards our recovering defenders”.
3. Patience — Look to regain the ball by tackling, spoiling ball reception, interception of bad passes or off bad technique. Players who are providing cover and balance do not need to win the ball in a tackle. “Look for a slow pass or bad touch before leaving a recovering defensive position otherwise keep denying spaces beyond and in front of you”.

AGE GROUP: 2001-2002 boys

NUMBERS: 14 boys

AREA: 35m wide x 50m long (across a field works best for this one as you can have multiple groups working).

EQUIPMENT: cones, balls, 2 3×2 goals, 2 sets of bibs

Set up a field 35m wide by 50m long. Seperate the players into two even teams. Ideally you want them to play on the field as they would normally play in an 11v11 match. To match the playing model the 7v7 match was organised in a 2-3-2. There is no goalkeeper and this is vital to ensure this game outcomes achieve. If you bring in goalkeepers this game will provide very different outcomes.

RULES OF THE GAME:

1. You can shoot from anywhere
2. All goals count
3. Normal football rules apply

COACHING POINTS: (all focusing on denying time, space, and balance to the team who has just regained possession).

On Immediate loss of possession:

• Point 1: Nearest player must put immediate and strong pressure on the ball — Pressure must be applied to stop a shot or forward movement
• Point 2: Surrounding players must get goal-side ball-side of any supporting opposition players close to the ball
  • Maintain high and immediate pressure high if a pass is made on the ball receiver.
  • Look to double team the ball carrier by leaving your player if you can guarantee winning the ball otherwise track runners.
• Point 3: All other players cover behind the pressure point and look to block shots and intercept forward passes

INDIVIDUAL COACHING POINTS:

• Closing down immediately: move quickly to close down, slow down, get low, weight evenly balanced, shoulders and hips in line with the front foot positioned outside the line of the ball to push the ball carrier the way you want. A visual clue when the head comes down is to see a lot more space on the open and stronger side.
• Goal-side ball-side: body slightly open with hips and chest facing the surrounding player. Front foot slightly forward (front foot is the foot furtherest away from the player being covered). Player is looking to intercept the ball with their front foot to deny a clean pass. If a pass is given across the back side of the opposition player drive off the front foot and cover the weak side with a quick movement and turn them away from the supporting players.
• Turn with the runner: if the ball carrier passes the ball the pressuring player must turn the way the ball carrier goes to deny a one-two and take responsibility to track the runner.

STRUCTURE: Play 4 games of 12 minutes each with a 2 minute break between each game. Take the opportunity between each game to question and guide the players. Reiterate the three Ps and ask how they could improve what they are doing in regards to each P. If you have more players create 3 teams and have the team off the field playing a simple 4v3 possession game to maintain the same principles.

OUTCOME AND REVIEW:

• The first game the score was 14-11 with slow transition from attack to defence. The final game the score was 2-1 with very rapid transitions occurring.
• The first game the players were looking to get into shape before putting pressure on the ball and there wasn’t a lot of communication.
• The final game the nearest player (generally the one who lost possession) applied pressure on the ball with nearest players working immediately to get goal side ball side against the surrounding players.
• Blocking — the blocking of shots and intercepting of forward passes was outstanding and the end to end nature of the game should have meant a bigger score with no goalkeepers but the reality was the players denied most chances to shoot from any distance.

QUESTIONS/KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION:

During the after session Q/A many of the players used the words, Pressure and Predictable — not as many used patience but the words cover, mark and goal side ball side were used.

When asked what the major differences between the first and last game the feedback was:

• “by the end I was looking to see if we were going to lose the ball and I started to think about defending”
• “Easy to remember that if i was the closest player i needed to close down”
• “Was fun and was really intense”
• You had to play really well to keep the ball

SUMMARY: The game was intense and created realistic game day situations in regards to the defensive transition. To be used again for this sub-principle.