Soccer Movement Off the Ball

This is a key concept & one of the most important things you can teach. Movement Off-The-Ball is important on both offense AND defense and is critical to support and good teamwork. It is the key to "off-the-ball attacking". On offense, "movement off-the-ball" refers to the movement by the ballhandler's teammates (the ballhandler is "onball"). The 2 types of movement off-the-ball which all coaches can teach players U-10 & older are: having attackers stay a pass apart, and having receivers move away from the ballhandler as he approaches them in order to create space (i.e., so they are a pass apart). (See "Creating Space", "Off-The-Ball", "Third Man Running", "Support" & "Diagonal Run"). I strongly recommend you teach "Passing to Space" and "Aggressive Receiving" -- Passing to Space is easier for beginning players and will result in much better ball movement, better ball possession, use of Open Space and "field vision". Aggressive Receiving is a better way to teach receiving and will result in a big improvement in your players and their ability to retain the ball.