Building strenght in the youth sector

The exercise as a whole is divided into three phases.

• First phase:
  • A ball is placed in the center of the square, which must be defended by one of the three players (in the example red player A), who will act as the attacker in possession of the ball
  • Another player (in the example white player B) will have the task of trying to steal the ball and get it out of the square
  • The difficulty for the player who has to protect the ball is that they cannot touch the ball with their feet, but must protect it through proper stance, keeping the opponent away through the use of their arms, body and legs
  • The exercise continues for 5 consecutive minutes and each time the ball is sent out of the square, the player who was defending the ball comes out of the square to rest, the player who was trying to push the ball away switches to the role of the attacker who has to defend the ball, while the player who was outside the square (yellow player C), becomes the one who has to push the ball away from the opponent. In this way, for 5 consecutive minutes there are two players working and one player recovering

Example of the first phase 

• Second phase:
  • In this variation, we have a similar request to the first phase, with the difference that the attacker in possession of the ball can touch it and then move it away at the time they have to defend it, in this way the exercise becomes much more similar to what happens on the field
  • It’s important at this stage that the attacker defending the ball uses, in addition to arms and body, the correct foot to keep the ball away from the defender trying to move it away
  • The exercise is performed for 5 consecutive minutes with players rotating among themselves so that there are always two players engaged in the exercise and one recovering

• Third phase:
  • This phase involves placing the ball on one of the sides of the square, as chosen by the player
  • The attacker, in possession of the ball, must carry it over the side of the square opposite to the side from which they started, while the defender must try to move the ball away by moving it out of one of the three different sides from the attacker's goal
  • The attacker can only attempt to make the point by advancing backwards and moving the ball with the sole, thus without the possibility of making feints or turning to aim and pass the defender, and this is because the objective of the drill is the development of strength in a ball protection situation and not really the 1 v 1 duel
  • In this phase, 5 minutes of consecutive work is done with the three players rotating between them, with one of the three recovering and the others working