Doing the Hard Yards: Tracking Back & Pressuring the Striker
Doing the Hard Yards.. something you will tell your players many times.
Its easy to run forwards to want the ball, but its a lot hard to run backwards to get it.
This Drill encourages that defensive tracking.
Layout the Cones, Flat Circles / Discs as per the diagram above.
On the Whistle, the Striker makes their run around the Cones.
The Goalkeeper back peddles to the Goal line, then sidesteps into the centre of the goal. This encourages good footwork and positional awareness.
When the Striker reaches the Red Cone the Defender sets off in pursuit and tries to catch the Striker to stop them scoring / getting a shot off.
This adds pressure on the Striker to take a good first touch and will teach the concentration on the immediate task, rather than getting too ahead of themselves or worrying too much about what is coming from behind.
A good touch takes away the pressure and should leave time for a composed finish.
Award Points to each team for a successful run.
1 point to attacking team for every goal scored.
1 point to tracking team for every shot prevented
1 points to Goalkeeper for every Save made
Give each team 3 goes each, then switch and allow the other team to chase down the target.
Example of Drill
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Doing the Hard Yards: Scale in Up
Shorten the distance before the defender sets off
Play different types of passes into the Forward (high ball, bouncing etc)
Control Drills
Looking for more drills to improve Control and First touch – Click here
Finishing Drills
Looking for more drills to improve Finishing – Click here
Doing the Hard Yards: Final Thoughts
What do you think of this Drill ? How could we improve on it ? Please leave your comments below.
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