Four “D’s” for good defensive principles in youth soccer: DELAY, DENY, DESTROY, DEVELOP
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One aspect of a youth soccer player’’s development that is often neglected is defensive competency in the individual player. Individual defensive techniques should certainly be incorporated with the overall tactical ideas of the team. When a player consistently has sound defensive technique and is able to incorporate that into the team’’s tactical ideas, the player will become more well rounded as time progresses.
Without expanding too much on team tactics for obvious reasons, the basic principles of solid individual defensive play are: Delay, Deny, Destroy, and Develop.
Delay: When presented in a one-on-one defensive situation, it is important for the player to stay on their toes (not on their heels) and have great balance (not falling over backwards, foward, left or right). Another key in this aspect of defending is a player’’s eye-control. The player must have eyes locked on the ball (not the waist, head, feet, or chest, of the opponent). Proper delaying technique allows time for teammates to make recovery runs and get in the correct positions.
Deny: After delaying the opponent in a one-on-one situation, players should become confident in denying penetration to opposing dribblers. . This requires the individual players to work on their overall foot speed while still maintaining good control of their eyes in seeing the ball. Flexibility in the hips is quite important when having to defend an opponent who is attempting to dribble. Players must learn to adjust quickly and avoid “diving in” or “stabbing” at the ball.
Destroy: After effectively delaying and denying, the next step to is to destroy the other team’’s possession as quickly as possible and regaining possession for your own team. It could be a direct result of denying dribble penetration or it could be because of “covering” defenders intercepting passes. These defenders were able to recover because of the delaying and denying of other teammates, which in turn allowed them to destroy the opponent’’s attack.
Develop: After destroying the opponents” attack, a team must now work on the fundamental principles of possession. With a large number of players who are very sound in one-on-one defensive situations, a youth soccer team’’s chances of group success are greatly increased. I view this as an overall positive quality for individual youth soccer players to acquire as they grow older. It takes some hard work and attention to detail, but teammates should expect each other to be VERY good in one-on-one defensive situations in order to achieve team success.’, ‘Four “D’’s” for good defensive principles in youth soccer: DELAY, DENY, DESTROY, DEVELOP
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