I was recently asked, “Coach Hardy, why are you coaching youth soccer teams?

play a flat back four zone defense? “The perception is that a street sweeper /

The blocking system is a “safer” defense for younger teams. First of all, any defense.

it will have your strengths and weaknesses. An experienced coach will know

weaknesses and will encourage your team to break it. All disclaimers

Besides, the flat back four is the preferred system of most modern equipment. FOR

The youth soccer coach should emphasize the development of the players within the

context of modern football.

When properly executed, a four flat back will provide excellent

defensive pressure, coverage and balance. Young soccer players must be

developed to play at your highest potential level and almost all the highest levels

teams play a system of four or three planes. Training a flat back defender four days

players a foundation for future success in soccer. Even a team as young as U11

The team can successfully play a flat-back four-zone defense. A team can give up

short-term ‘breakout’ goals, while learning the system, but in the

In the long run, they will have the ability to confidently step into a modern defense.

system.

A team can successfully play a back four after just a few practices.

sessions and a handful of games. I use preseason practices, tournaments

and scrimmages as a time for a team to learn player roles and team form

of a flat-back four-zone defense.

To help players visually understand the defense team shape,

call it the ‘Swoosh’ defense. As the four defenders in the back move left to right

on the field, the defense unit shape resembles Nike’s “Swoosh”

logo. If players lose shape, I can only say “Swoosh” and immediately

players know where to position themselves. As players get comfortable

with the system they will remind each other to “Swoosh”. Here are four basics

Ideas to keep in mind when training the Swoosh defense.

1. Swoosh defense

The defensive form of the rear four will prevent the other team from having

‘break opportunities’ by making sure that the outer defender on the far side and the

The central defender on the far side moves and takes cover diagonally behind the pressure.

defenders from the near side. It sounds complicated but it is actually quite simple. Tea

the defenders move diagonally to the position of the ball.

With this correct positioning the ‘Swoosh’ defense is denying the ball

penetration, dangerous attacking players are marked and coverage

defenders will ‘sweep’ any ball that passes. If the ball is changed

across the field, the four defending players will change the ‘Swoosh’

respectively. I found that young players can easily remember ‘Swoosh!’

more than ‘Pressure, Coverage, Balance’.

It is important for players to remember that the shape of the diagonal deck

that is why the equipment does not need a sweeper. The most common defensive mistake

is that the equipment remains totally “flat”. This is especially common in midfield.

line when the team with the ball has maintained possession in the

the opponent’s half of the field. Which explains why teams that are learning

Swoosh’s defense will generally give up their goals on midfield breakaways.

If the defenders stay flat in the middle of the field, any balls played behind the

defense will lead to a breakaway run with no one being able to stop a goal, but the

goalie.

2. Marking a man in your area

In addition to the Swoosh shape, the four defenders must become

aware of the attacking player in his area of ​​responsibility. Young players

they often focus all their attention on the ball. This bad habit is called ‘ball

looking ‘. Young players will often watch the ball until the ball approaches them.

and only then will they try to achieve it. But getting the ball is only part of the job

to defend. Swoosh defense requires players to be on good defense.

position while marking the opponent ‘goal side and ball side’.

When defenders ‘watch the ball’, opponents will move to

positions. The basic rule for defenders is to mark the most dangerous player in

their zone and stay on the ball side and on their goal side.

Escapes against the Swoosh defense often occur when a

the defender is “caught flat” and does not react to the open opponent in his zone

until it’s too late. If a defender waits until the forward pass is played to

move towards the mark in your zone, then there is often a foot race to the finish.

90% of a good defense is placed away from the ball.

(Note: Another reason I use the term “Swoosh” is because young players

they often remain “flat” if the defense is called “four flat backs”).

Ball observation

is quite normal behavior for young soccer players, however a defender is a

very important position and that player must be alert and mature enough to

no ball clock. Learning to score correctly is a skill that will come with

commitment to learning.

3. Constraint line and compactness during transition

The basic principle of a good defense is to create “compactness”. I

encourage the defense to create compactness when we transition to offense or

when the opponent passes the ball backwards. We do this because (a)

Compacting the space the other team has to work with creates pressure.

and (b) we can catch them offside. I do not encourage a sophisticated off-

sides catch below U14, but moving up the field to create compactness will catch

unsuspecting strikers offside.

If we are slow in our own transition to the offense (for example, after

just cleared the ball from the defensive third) and our defenders just stay deep

in our own half, so we are giving the other team plenty of room to move the ball

back to our goal. The general rule that I train is if the ball goes to court 5

yards and then we move the defense up 5 yards – 20 yards up the field means

Move 20 yards up the field. This is true until we cross the middle of the field. In the middle of the field,

the four in the back take a step a few meters towards the opponent’s half of the field.

If our defense lags behind in our own half of the field, then there is less

pressure and with less pressure the other team will pass the game in our field.

I think it is better to try to defend the half line than your goal.

The key to successfully compacting the space is that all

defenders must rise together. If only one defender is left behind, then the

another team will exploit that. The line of defenders advancing across the field is called

our ‘Restriction Line’. Our goal is to have our ‘Restriction Line’ no more than

35 meters from our forwards until our defenders reach the half line.

Again, a secondary benefit of compacting the space during the transition is

that the other team is often offside because their forwards are caught

stand after the ball has been cleared.

4. Offside and referees

A common concern when playing the Swoosh defense is that umpires

you can make mistakes with the offside call and the other team will have an easy time

breakups. As for the umpires missing the offside calls, well that’s the

Nature of the game. The key is to control the controllers. As coaches,

We cannot control the referee’s decisions, but we can control the ability of the team to

have a good positioning and marking. Also, if a team plays good defense

and score goals, then they will not be in a position that allows the referee to

determine the outcome of the game.

In short, if we train to have compact defenders in transition, get

in our proper ‘Swoosh’ form, and mark your opponent on the side of the goal and the ball

side, then I am sure the flat back four zone defense can be successful

even with young teams.

Now that my current U11 team is comfortable with it

Swoosh defense, we have moved to the role of the outside attacker

defender and his ability to move forward to join the attack.

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