Shielding- Show them your bootie, not your belly
A few weeks ago, I published an article on some common phrases I use in training. One of those phrases is "show your teammates your hips and the defender your backside." After publishing that article, I headed out to a training session where I was working on one of our core skills which is shielding/turning with the ball. I worked with both a 8U group and a 12U group that night and all but a few players had the same problem: turning into the defender. It is a frustration that both the coach and the player share. If you turn into the defender, there is a high probability that you will lose the ball and have to work hard to get it back.
Unfortunately, it is also a behavior we do innately. It is the fastest way to change directions and if no one is on you, then you don't have to worry about how you turn. So when you are coaching this skill, it takes a lot of patience and focus to create the right conditions for skill development.
Below, I have the text from my previous article describing what shielding and turning should look like:
Showing the defender your backside is the best way to shield the ball from the player. Now make
sure that you don’t interpret this to mean “put your backside into the defender.”This is not a good
technique because then your shoulders and the defenders are parallel and he can poke tackle
the ball away from you. When shielding, your shoulders should be PERPENDICULAR to his. This
keeps the ball on the far foot as far away as possible from a poke tackle.
When making a dribbling move to beat a defender, your move is set up by fakes with both the
shoulders and the feet. However, no matter what move you make, you will always be using your
body to keep the ball away from the defender. Therefore, your backside is what the defender will
see most of as you make your move.
Trying to describe this technique to your typical 7 year old is challenging, so I developed a new meme just for the younger players "Show them your bootie, not your belly." I set the players up in a 1 v 1 situation where they had to first shield the ball from the defender before they could try to beat him and then score. The 8U players did not understand this activity at all. The 12U players did understand the activity better, but still struggled to make the turn. Two weeks later, I repeated the same activity with the 8U group and they did much better and consistently shielded the ball.
So I then put them into a sharks and minnows formation where the players with the ball had to shield and turn to get away from the sharks. Sharks in this case are NOT kicking the ball away (see my post on eliminating games of elimination), but instead are trying to win it and become minnows. Once a minnow loses his ball, then they have to try to get another ball back.This provided multiple opportunities to force players to shield and the intensity level of the game was very high, especially when the players who were sharks at the end of the round had to do push ups.
This skill doesn't transfer easily into the game, but I have watched as a few kids who have been working on it very hard have used it in game situations to great effect. It takes a lot of practice and many coaches don't understand the importance of it or how long it takes to learn how to do it.
I strongly urge you to make this part of your training goals for the season. A player who can shield the ball from a defender buys time to figure out what to do next. The player can also change the tempo of the game, slowing it down by shielding or speeding it up by using another attacking move. Having a group of players who can shield the ball effectively gives supporting players time to move into position and helps improve the overall shape of the team in attack.
So a quick summary: shielding helps the player gain confidence that he or she can keep possession of the ball even under high pressure; it allows the player to control the tempo of the game; and it allows teammates time to get into better attacking positions, improving the shape of your team. So if you are looking for a skill that helps your kids spread out, this is it.
Unfortunately, it is also a behavior we do innately. It is the fastest way to change directions and if no one is on you, then you don't have to worry about how you turn. So when you are coaching this skill, it takes a lot of patience and focus to create the right conditions for skill development.
Below, I have the text from my previous article describing what shielding and turning should look like:
Showing the defender your backside is the best way to shield the ball from the player. Now make
sure that you don’t interpret this to mean “put your backside into the defender.”This is not a good
technique because then your shoulders and the defenders are parallel and he can poke tackle
the ball away from you. When shielding, your shoulders should be PERPENDICULAR to his. This
keeps the ball on the far foot as far away as possible from a poke tackle.
When making a dribbling move to beat a defender, your move is set up by fakes with both the
shoulders and the feet. However, no matter what move you make, you will always be using your
body to keep the ball away from the defender. Therefore, your backside is what the defender will
see most of as you make your move.
Trying to describe this technique to your typical 7 year old is challenging, so I developed a new meme just for the younger players "Show them your bootie, not your belly." I set the players up in a 1 v 1 situation where they had to first shield the ball from the defender before they could try to beat him and then score. The 8U players did not understand this activity at all. The 12U players did understand the activity better, but still struggled to make the turn. Two weeks later, I repeated the same activity with the 8U group and they did much better and consistently shielded the ball.
So I then put them into a sharks and minnows formation where the players with the ball had to shield and turn to get away from the sharks. Sharks in this case are NOT kicking the ball away (see my post on eliminating games of elimination), but instead are trying to win it and become minnows. Once a minnow loses his ball, then they have to try to get another ball back.This provided multiple opportunities to force players to shield and the intensity level of the game was very high, especially when the players who were sharks at the end of the round had to do push ups.
This skill doesn't transfer easily into the game, but I have watched as a few kids who have been working on it very hard have used it in game situations to great effect. It takes a lot of practice and many coaches don't understand the importance of it or how long it takes to learn how to do it.
I strongly urge you to make this part of your training goals for the season. A player who can shield the ball from a defender buys time to figure out what to do next. The player can also change the tempo of the game, slowing it down by shielding or speeding it up by using another attacking move. Having a group of players who can shield the ball effectively gives supporting players time to move into position and helps improve the overall shape of the team in attack.
So a quick summary: shielding helps the player gain confidence that he or she can keep possession of the ball even under high pressure; it allows the player to control the tempo of the game; and it allows teammates time to get into better attacking positions, improving the shape of your team. So if you are looking for a skill that helps your kids spread out, this is it.
Comments
Post a Comment