Click here to join the England Football Learning group and chat with other members
OPTIONS
DETAILS
  • State Not Answered
  • Replies 1 reply
  • Subscribers 386 subscribers
  • Views 377 views
  • Users 0 members are here
RELATED

Tackling

Shaun Dyer

My under 8s girls team tackle like, well under 8s girls. Are there any drills we can work on to make them tackle like under 9s girls? For context, we played a team last week and their defence was superb, no fear in the tackles, firm but fair and we just couldn't compete. It was the first time we've not scored all season including playing the Man City Academy. Our girls tend to dangle a leg or just follow the attackers around. We've been working on attack v defence, and do bulldogs with a football each week but no signs of improvement yet.

  • 0

    So first thing to remember is that they're 7 and 8, so this is normal. We emphasised that rule number one was to slow the opposition down (which you can't do if you leg dangle) before you even think about the tackle. 

    So we did a few 1v1 drills for a while to get them to drop the leg waggling. firstly, we got them to in 1v1 to run and just jockey backwards, showing them good form and positioning.  Did this without a ball as part of a warmup so it became normal. then introduced a ball, but still no tackling just to practise the movement. Then moved onto creating a box and giving the attackers the challenge of getting to the other side and stop the ball on the line to "score", but if the defender got it and they can then score if they could take the ball and then get to the other line first.  This was just about basics, and giving them the confidence to win the ball and not by hoofing it away. then we'd maybe do a game to put it into wider practise in a match type scenario, focussing less on the tackle but on the how quickly can you get the ball back so if one team can win it within say 30 seconds they score a point. 

    We'd then increase it with 2v1, 2v2 etc. giving difference scenarios along the way. Sometimes it would be a 2v1 but with a recovering defender to get it back to 2v2, so how quickly can you get into the right shape and can the one player slow play down until they get there.