Building to Win: Attacking Out of the Back

2012 NCAA D-III National Runner-Up Brent Ridenour shows you exercises and games you can use to build a solid attack starting from your back line and including everything from basic passing to game-like scenarios.

Warm-up
Coach Ridenour demonstrates a passing-under-pressure drill that teaches outside backs, center backs and defensive midfielders how to control a ball out of the air while under pressure and how to serve it to a teammate. This drill will help your defenders prepare for opposition from forwards, reducing the chances of getting trapped, blocked, or forced to make an error.

Pressure Passing
Lower the risk of turning the ball over to a forward or passing it out of bounds. As your players become better at passing under pressure, they will be able to look up and find the open spaces needed to move the ball forward. Coach Ridenour demonstrates several exercises that will develop high quality passing out of the back from your defenders. These exercises work on long and short passes as well as balls played on the ground or in the air. Your players will be better able to recognize where pressure is coming from before they win the ball, which will enable them to know where they want to go with the ball ahead of time.

Defensive Midfielders
Gain strength in the key positions that connect your defenders to your forwards. Efficient two-touch passing is essential for defensive midfielders getting the ball out of pressure and distributing it into the attack. Coach Ridenour shows you how to avoid extra touches that can lead to turnovers in the central defensive half of the field. You will see how your defensive midfielders can lose their defender so they can be an option for your team's backs.

Create the Attack
Connect all positions on your team through proper distribution and touches. The Peak-a-Boo drill emphasizes pushing the ball forward and connecting the longest possible pass. This will spread the defense and allow your team to move forward and support the attack.

These training exercises can double as conditioning exercises for your players. When you put everything together, you will be able to consistently move into the final third of the field.

54 minutes. 2013.