Youth Soccer Defense Pt 1 - Clearing the Ball

[@elizabethdawson7085]

These are great videos. My league is teaching us to condition them young to use the goalie as a last defender, even risking own goals. They want us to build the understanding early on. It depends on your goal keepers ability to retrieve the pass and quickly release. I am really liking the simplicity of these videos. It would be great to have them match to the youth's development (one for slightly older kids). Thanks!

[@soccerdots]

Thanks for the feedback. I strongly encourage passing back to the keeper in the older age groups depending on skill level. There will be an example of this in my upcoming 11v11 formation video. For many teams in the younger age groups (U8 and U10), this will likely result in a lot of turnover goals if the passing control isn't there yet. Curious to know how early it's being taught in your league.

[@elizabethdawson7085]

@@soccerdots I run a 2011 team (ages 10/11) and we are trying to introduce it. They do not so it yet, too scary! lol. I am holding a zoom meeting today with my players and showing them your 9v9 (3-3-2) video, and the clearing the ball defense video! Keep them coming, they are so perfect and simple, yet effective!

[@soccerdots]

@@elizabethdawson7085 Thanks! Good luck this season.

[@jwolfe003]

love this. so well thought through and simple.

[@haiderabd7403]

AMAZING WORK

[@cleverboy327]

Good work,continue.

[@ZacAttack-py5hj]

This really helped

[@biswajitnaskar7278]

It help me a lot

[@Aikaagr-Bhatnagar]

You should have added that you can also pass back to the goalie as the goalie has the best view and can easily can get rid off the ball

[@soccerdots]

Yes for older and more experienced teams that can be a good option. However, for younger players who are starting to learn the game, passing back to the goalie is risky and will likely result in costly mistakes.

[@elttheshow736]

Good strategy

[@rerren82]

Fortnite Bro

[@quickfingerz]

What's the software used to make this? Awesome vid

[@marcusluster5383]

Why do you "NEVER" pass the ball to the middle? Almost every professional team passes the ball to the middle to release pressure if the option is available. Telling youth players to NEVER pass the ball to a teammate in the middle hinders development and may prevent them from using this useful option when they get older.

[@soccerdots]

You are right, there are exceptions to this rule, but I would recommend introducing this basic concept as a starting point. For the younger age levels (especially U10), passing through the middle of your own 18-yard box when under pressure will result in many high-risk turnovers. As an introduction for young players, many coaches will find that stressing the importance of clearing the ball to the outside by "never" passing into the middle helps to minimize high-risk turnovers. However, players will still make this mistake early on and give up a goal, but that is OK because it's a great teaching point and when you ask the players “why do you think they scored” they'll know right away it was because they passed into the middle instead of clearing to the outside. And from there young players begin to develop better tactics and awareness because you get the players thinking more about the strategies of the game. Also, when you help players learn to minimize risk and develop basic game strategies, those players become more confident and will start to do more interesting things with the ball, such as finding a safe exception to never passing into the middle.