📋 Session Plan
U13 Defending — Pressing as a Unit
A 75-minute advanced defending session — pressing triggers, unit coordination, and the discipline of waiting for the right moment.
A 75-minute advanced defending session — pressing triggers, unit coordination, and the discipline of waiting for the right moment.
Standard warm-up to activate before the high-intensity pressing block. Add the 'taggers' element from minute 4 — gives players an early read on their defensive instincts.
Foundation block before adding unit complexity. Run the full progression including the shooting variation. Individual defending principles must be solid before pressing makes sense — without 1v1 ability, pressing collapses.
The session centrepiece. Run all 4 phases. Phase 4 (coach stops calling triggers) is the test — can the unit recognise without narration? Build in 90-second water breaks every 6 minutes; pressing is the highest-intensity drill on the site.
Constraint: 'goals only count when won by tackle, not from a turnover'. Forces defenders to actively press rather than wait for mistakes. Run as 4-minute rounds with 60-second resets. Free play in the final 4 minutes.
After a hard session. Closing reflection: 'when did the press work today, and when did it fall apart?' Players naming their own observations is the deepest learning.
Clear demonstrations and high energy. Keep the session moving with minimal queuing, and reinforce one or two key coaching points rather than overloading players with information.
Players standing in queues (set up enough stations to keep everyone active) and the session running too long on one activity (keep blocks tight and move on while engagement is high).
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Coaches tip: Post-session recovery nutrition matters as much as the drills themselves — MaxiNutrition's recovery range is built for exactly this.
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Building conditioning between sessions at home? DeerRun UK's home treadmills make it easy to keep up cardio work off the pitch.