Quick Coach: Tic-tac-tackle

CORE SKILLS

• Tracking
• Defence
• Evasion
• Recovery

THE STORY

“A defender races into position, squares up and comes forward to close down an attacker.”

SET UP

Cones, a ball.

HOW TO PLAY

1. Put a defender and feeder on their fronts at the side of a box, nearer the defending side. Have another attacker at the corner.

2. Shout out a letter. The defender races to that gap, before coming forward to defend.

1. In the meantime, the feeder races to a ball before passing it to the attacker. The attacker runs into position in the box before taking the pass and trying to beat the defender.

2. Use two-handed touch tackling or full tackling. The key focus to this exercise is tracking.

3. Because the defender is potentially compromised by their starting angle, they must adjust quickly get in front of the attacker.

DEVELOPMENTS

• Adjust the starting positions for the players. For example, the attacker could be in a different corner, or coming from deeper or closer to the defender Also, have the defender facing in different directions to start with. 

NUMBERS

Keep it to 2 v 1, but quickly rotate players into position. With five you could develop with a 2 v 2 in the box.