How do I get players to stop diving in?

In recent high school games I have watched there seems to be a pandemic of missed tackles as a result of over running plays, stabbing at the ball and diving in when patience is required so I thought I would repost this for the benefit of coaches and players alike.

Diving in or stabbing at the ball is a common mistake made by young or inexperienced soccer players. The defending player, in an attempt to tackle the ball away from an opposing ball carrier, will lunge at the ball. Bad, bad things can happen when defenders do this,

1) They dead leg themselves.  That is, when the foot they lunged with hits the ground that leg becomes exploitable by the carrier.

2) The defender turns himself sideways presenting a far smaller obstacle to the ball carrier to deal with.

Opposing Principles of Play

I have published these and similar thoughts before. They are extremely important for both coaches and players to understand.  Consider this a short guide to transition from playing AT soccer to actually playing soccer.

Attacking Principles of Play                                  Defending Principles of Play

1) Penetration to score                                            1) Delay the Attack

2) Depth to stretch the defense vertically                2) Support behind 1st Defender

3) Width to stretch the defense laterally                  3) Compactness

4) Movement of Players & Ball                                4) Maintain Balance

5) Creativity & Unpredictability                                5) Discipline & Patience

 

Opposing Principles of Play

Attacking Principles of Play                                                 Defending Principles of Play

1) Penetration to score                                                             1) Delay the Attack

2) Depth to stretch the defense vertically                                 2) Support behind 1st Defender

3) Width to stretch the defense laterally                                   3) Compactness

4) Movement of Players & Ball                                                 4) Maintain Balance

5) Creativity & Unpredictability                                                 5) Discipline & Patience

When they break your press.

This is a companion article to Tactical Cues for Pressing

Zonal defenses by design are meant to get as many people behind the ball as possible. That is, a zonal defense wants to keep the ball in front of it and force opponents to attempt their attack through multiple layers of defenders.  It is very much a style of defense that seeks to intercept passes and win 50 / 50 balls to then counter from to goal. Pressing from a zonal defense can be an effective strategy when executed as a coordinated team effort. 

There are, however, some associated risks with pressing and those must be accounted and planned for as part of a teams overall strategy. I think it will help to think of pressing as the defense being numbers up around the ball and / or the ball carrier.  Logic then dictates that if both sides are playing with equal numbers the defense will then be numbers down elsewhere on the field.