Great Soccer Drills - Defensive Drills

In this article I am going to present two great soccer drills that you should print out and take with you to the practice. Drills mentioned in this article are beneficial for all soccer players no matter how old they are.

However, before you start implementing these great soccer drills I would recommend you to first visualize yourself performing them. By doing this it will be easier for you to set up the drills and also instruct your players to perform them right. Not, let's check out the drills...

Small Soccer Fields

Purpose
Improving your players overall ball handling skills.

Set Up
Create 2 or more small fields (10 x 10 yards). Separate your players into groups of 3.

Performing the Drill
The players are facing each other’s 3 vs. 3 in a small rectangle shaped area. The team that it is in the possession should try to keep the ball within the team as long as possible.

Equipment required
Cones, colored bibs, balls.

Variants
You may vary this drill by restricting the amount of touches. You could also create small goals by using cones or similar to increase the competition among your players.

Summary
It is always a good practice to train your players on the small soccer fields. The benefit of small fields is that your players need to think and react fast. They get very small amount of time to think and conclude what they should do which will impact on their regular game performance.

In the beginning, your players will take a lot of wrong decisions. However, this is pretty normal and your players will probably need several sessions to adapt their selves to the small area.

Another benefit of playing on small field is that all your players will have short distance to each other. This will generally create more competition among them as everyone will try to get their feet on the ball. So, your players will remain competitive and will also learn how to remain prepared all the time for competition during the regular games.

Learning how to mark

Purpose
Improving your players work in defense.

Set Up
Use cones or similar to create a rectangle (15 x 15 yards). The teams should have different colored bibs to make it easier for your player to distinguish their teammates.

Performing the Drill
In this drill your players will face each other 4 vs. 4. Every player should have a pre-determined player which he should mark. The players are restricted to follow their pre-determined player which means that they can’t chase other players when they have the ball.

Equipment required
Cones, colored bibs, balls.

Variants
You may vary this drill by restricting the amount of touches. You could also create small goals by using cones or similar to increase the competition among your players.

Summary
One common thing that I have learned during my soccer carrier is that some players simply don’t like to mark their opponents. I don’t know why but they just feel uncomfortable of doing that. I am sure that you probably have some player in your team who doesn’t seem to understand that marking his opponent is crucial.

Many players don’t like this drill because it forces them to work hard. However, I can ensure you that after only few sessions your players will start to mark their opponents closely and also put more work in defense. This will of course improve your teams overall defense and the opponents will have more problems with finding a way through your defense.