Best Defensive Soccer Drills

The attack side may be the glamorous side of soccer, but a team is as strong as its defense. The offense can score as many goals, but eventually, the defense has to step up and stop the opponents from scoring. Good defensive drills should be able to empower the players to use their skills effectively in the real game situation.

Defensive drills are targeted to improve specific skills such as dribbling, passing, defending, and shooting. Here are 5 tailor-made drills for strengthening the defense of a team. These drills are perfect for both children and teens. To start, you will need certain equipment like cones, ropes, and a lot of soccer balls.

You need to divide your team into attackers and defenders. Make sure that the attackers outnumber the defenders. Create a rectangular boundary within which the players have to play. Each attacker should have a ball. The aim is for the attackers to try to score a goal, whereas the defenders have to stop them.

For this one, a team of 4 defenders and 6 attackers are required to dribble the ball inside a circle. The defenders aren't allowed to leave the circle. Once a defender gets the ball from an attacker, they switch sides.

For this drill, the team is divided into pairs of two, wherein, one is the attacker and the other is a defender. The aim is to prevent the attacker from scoring, and once the defender takes the ball from him, they switch roles. This helps in better understanding of the two sides, and it also sharpens counter-attack skills.

This is one of the most effective defensive drills as far as soccer is concerned. For this, groups of 4 attackers and 4 defenders are made. The goalkeeper guards the goal, while one by one, the attackers dribble up and try to score.

On the other hand, one by one, the defense comes up to stop the goal. When a goal has been saved, the two change sides. This drill needs to be done at a fast speed.

Here, the main objective is to sharpen the player's accuracy while passing the ball. To perfect this, the team is divided into sets of three, where two are offense players and one is the defense.

It is the job of the defense to clear the ball away from the offense. Another simple variation is to make the players dribble the ball and pass it amongst themselves, to sharpen their accuracy.

Go ahead and try these with your team. Your defense will definitely be in top form, and the opposing team would hit a roadblock.