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    Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making
    Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making
    Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making
    Ebook205 pages1 hour

    Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making

    By Ray Power

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    About this ebook

    We are told that the art of defending is dying. We are told that even large academies neglect it, as it is not 'technical' enough.

    Based on the concept of Deliberate Practice, and extensive recent research into talent development, this book shows the coach how to organize and deliver effective exercises that teach players how to defend in all situations. With sound principles and an easy-to-understand approach, this book will help you teach your players to defend effectively by absorbing them physically and mentally in the challenges of defending.

    Aimed at football coaches of all levels, but with a particular emphasis on coaches who work with youth players, 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making is comprised of 10 Individual Defending Practices, 10 Small Group Practices, 10 Position-Specific Practices, 14 Single-Sided Games, and 6 Scenario-Based Practices. They are carefully designed to be adaptable to suit the needs of the players you work with; to challenge them and give them decisions to make. The sessions look to make soccer complex and realistically difficult – no passing in queues from one cone to the next with no interference. Crucially, the exercises offer a means to accelerate player development effectively and enjoyably.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBennion Kearny
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781910515587
    Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making

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      Book preview

      Deliberate Soccer Practice - Ray Power

      Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Defending Football Exercises to Improve Decision-Making

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      Ray Power

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       [Smashwords Edition]

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      Published in 2016 by Bennion Kearny Limited.

      Copyright © Bennion Kearny Limited.

      ISBN: 978-1-910515-58-7

      All Rights Reserved. Bennion Kearny has endeavoured to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Bennion Kearny cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

      Disclaimer: While every care has been taken to ensure that the information in this book is as accurate as possible at the time of publication, the publisher takes no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by anyone using this book.

      Published by Bennion Kearny Limited, 6 Woodside, Churnet View Road, Oakamoor, Staffordshire, ST10 3AE

      www.BennionKearny.com

      Feedback

      At Bennion Kearny, we endeavour to provide the best reader experience we can. If this eBook falls short of your expectations, please contact info@bennionkearny.com with your feedback.

      Deliberate Practice & Defending

      In the first book of this series, Deliberate Soccer Practice: 50 Passing and Possession Exercises to Improve Decision Making, we explored the need for your soccer sessions to allow your players the opportunity to practice deliberately.

      Deliberate, or purposeful, practice goes way beyond what we may normally see from ‘soccer’ sessions – lapping pitches, long queues, waiting your turn and the inevitable insistence that players follow their pass. Deliberate practice is about the game – the real game – and how to absorb players in decision-making whilst ensuring they are physically and mentally engaged and challenged – for every single moment!

      This book, alongside the other books in the series, is not theoretical, but the theories that underpin the training methods here have been studied, practiced and implemented within youth and adult soccer, and work to accelerate learning. They make players, and their improvement, the centerpiece of the training program; not the coach and his ego or instruction.

      We noted in the previous book the need to maximise returns, make practices realistic and to give players challenges and problems to solve. These factors work together to accelerate player development by keeping all players physically involved, and critically, cognitively engaged. As a fraternity, soccer coaches are good at working players physically, ‘drilling’ them, but often unknowingly neglect the development of thinkers and decision-makers. By focusing on returns, we quickly move away from situations where we organise our sessions with queues and waiting your turn to ones that encourage players to solve problems while replicating the game and all its many, many variables.

      Defending

      First of all, although this book is about defending, it is not only for ‘defenders’. Just like the upcoming edition on attacking is not solely for forward players. Both defending and attacking are key components for the whole team. Just watch forward Luis Suarez when his team are out of possession, or defender Sergio Ramos when in possession. All players, goalkeepers included, need to have the ability to attack and defend, although precise positional requirements and foci will, of course, differ.

      Defending Principles of Play

      Regardless of what formation you play, what system or tactics you employ, or what your attacking or defensive strategy is, the game is dictated by the principles of play. These principles are what govern the game. So whether you prefer to attack centrally or use the wide areas to get crosses in, or whether you like your team to defend deep or to gegenpress, soccer remains underpinned by these principles.

      Throughout this book, although your defending philosophy may be challenged or you wish to defend a different way, we will constantly refer back to these principles. Broadly, we speak about defending either being organized or disorganized. When organized, our team shape is in place and the team can defend as per an identified strategy. When disorganized however, we need to defend differently and make different decisions that allow teammates to recover and which offer time for the team to reorganize. Defending when organized is a more comfortable place to be, but having to defend when disorganized is inevitable.

      Defending is often neglected both within local grassroots soccer and even in elite academy environments, largely due to some miscomprehension of the topic. Some coaches tell me that players find defending boring, while even established player development coaches will feel the necessity to focus purely on technique with the ball – passing, dribbling, crossing, shooting, etc.

      What we must understand, however, is that practices that can be used while coaching defending are no different than those used when coaching any other topic. After all, if some players are focusing on defending, then the others are naturally attacking.

      Practices in this Book

      Along with the returns above, I have outlined four further rules for the 50 practices within this book. Each aspect is essential in making the practices both realistic and deliberate:

      1. Transitions MUST be Included

      Although there is an obvious focus on the defending aspect of the game here, coaches must be careful not to treat defending as an isolated part of the game. Defending is one of the games’ Four Phases, which includes attacking and two transition phases. Transitions occur the moment a team either loses the ball or regains the ball.

      The Four Phases of the Game: Attacking, Defending, Transition to Attack, Transition to Defend

      Including attacking and transitions in your defending sessions is absolutely critical. A practice exercise should not grind to a halt when a defender wins possession, or when he simply whacks it away or out of play. He must be able to transition and must have the possibility of counter-attacking. If the possibility of transitioning is not present, then the game realism of what you are doing is seriously flawed. Players will defend differently depending on what happens when they regain possession.

      By simply devising exercises where all players involved are both attacking and defending, there will naturally be moments of transition. These moments occur organically in any game and are an integral part of matches. The importance of these transitions is growing more and more within

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