Presented by AYSO's John Oulette. He used a Division 3 (U-14) girls team to demo his points.

The first thing he did to make a point about what kids typically do on defense, (i.e. always try to win the ball) was to set two flat cones about 15-20 yards apart perpendicular across the field somewhere at midfield. He then placed a player on each cone and a ball between and equidistant from the cones. He told player X that her goal was down there (pointing to one goal) and player Y that her goal was the other one. Then he told them both to, at this command, take the ball towards the goal. He blew his whistle and, of course, both girls went full bore to the ball. One got to the ball a little sooner than the other. But because they were going full bore, they both stumbled over the ball neither having absolute control.

The point he was trying to make is that a player has to learn how to "read the speed" of the opponent and make a very quick decision on how to proceed to the ball. That is, if the player reads the speed of the opponent as being very fast, then, the player must adjust and attempt to delay the opponent (attacker) by such things as "arcing" the approach to the ball in a way that serves to delay rather than attempt to win the ball outright. He then layed out some cones in an arc from player X (the slower player) to the ball or actually to the spot where the opponent and ball should be covered in order to delay the opponent's likely movement. This arc was a visual for player X to see the desired path.

He discussed the 3 D's of defense. I'm not sure I have these right but, they were: Delay the attack, Destroy the attack, Develop the counter attack.

Thanks To: Mike Edwards