 Whenever you are defending an opponent, I want you to think about making their life extremely difficult. Be someone they do not want to play against. How you do this, you do not give them a second to breathe, you do not give them time to get their head up and make easy plays. So when you're closing space, think about getting there as quickly as possible. If you don't know about me, I used to be a huge underachiever, but through obsessive self-improvement, I found my success. Earned a college scholarship, played for my national football team, a YouTube channel with over 100 million views. I've helped players worldwide, and I'd love to help you improve faster and achieve more. It's possible. However, once you get close to your opponent, you need to become more cautious. So as you can see, I'm sprinting towards my opponent, closing that space quickly. However, once I get close to him, this is when I get a little more cautious. I bend my knees, I get closer to the ground, and just playing lower to the ground, defending lower to the ground with bend knees, light on your toes, it's going to allow you to move quicker side to side. It's also going to give you more balance and strength when you're going into your tackles. The next thing I want to talk about is jockeying. This is more of a one-on-one defending when he's coming at you, trying to beat you. So same principles apply, you want to close that space down quickly. However, here you need to be much more cautious, as opposed to when your opponent is staying on the spot, he's not going anywhere, or he has his back turned. In those situations, you can get much closer. Here, you still want to get close. You don't want to give him too much space where you can get his head up and make a pass or take a shot, but you need to be more cautious. So get there, but now you're getting low to the ground, and you're almost thinking about just staying in front of him. You don't necessarily have to make the tackle, but you need to stay in front of him. Just move your feet quickly. Try to be light on your toes, never be flat-footed or square. You kind of want to approach him on an angle. So either force him to the left or force him to the right, but just get light on your toes and force him to have a heavy touch. Force him to make a mistake. And at the right time, you want to go in and stick your tackles hard. The next thing is anticipating. So rather than always reacting, if you know he's going to have a heavy touch, or you can see that it's an opportunity where he's going to have a heavy touch, get in there right away. This is a great opportunity rather than jockeying. Get in there right away and make a strong tackle. The next thing I want to talk about is turning or being light on your toes. So instead of always lunging for the tackle, which sometimes may be successful, you may get yourself into trouble by always lunging and trying just to stick your foot out and make a tackle. Instead, think about being light on your toes and always being ready to sprint in the opposite direction. So this is a great example here. And this is something that has helped me a lot with my defending rather than always lunging for the tackle. Try to stay light on your toes, turn quickly, sprint with your opponent and get your body in front of the ball. This is a great skill to have. And this is something I've learned from watching a lot of professional defenders. So always think about being light on your toes, quick to turn, sprint and get your body in front of your opponent. Here are a few mistakes that are pretty common. The first thing is diving in, especially when your opponent is turned. I don't need to necessarily win the ball at this point. I just need to force him to go backwards. But if I'm lunging for the ball and committing myself too much on one side, it's going to be very easy for him to turn. So just think about forcing him backwards and maybe winning the ball from behind, staying bull side of your man. The next mistake is approaching but not getting low to the ground. It's very difficult for me to stay with my opponent if I'm flat footed and I'm defending high. Remember, defend low. It's going to make you a much better defender. Allow you to move quicker side to side. So this is another common mistake, just running in and not really putting effort or focus into your defending. The next thing is being flat footed or too square. So as you can see there, I got nutmegged and again here, I can't move quickly if I'm square. So remember you want to approach him on an angle rather than facing him straight on. Think about positioning your body to force him to go left or force him to go right. Try to almost trap him in a certain direction. So that's a very common mistake. The other one we kind of talked about is lunging. And rather than lunging, you want to be light on your toes and just turn and be ready to sprint at all times and just focus on getting your body in front of the defender rather than always just sticking your foot out. So to recap here are some of the major points. The first one is closing, denying space. Do not give your opponent time to breathe. Close out space quickly. Once you get close to your opponent, that's when you need to become more cautious. Get low to the ground. The next thing we talked about was jockeying in a one-on-one position. Remember, you just want to stay in front of him, be light on your toes and wait for the right opportunity to stick a strong tackle. After jockeying, we talked about anticipating. So if you know he's going to have a bad touch, he's had some in the past or you can see that it's a heavy touch, get in there. Do not hesitate. Put in a strong tackle. Finally, rather than always lunging, you want to think about turning and just being ready to sprint. Staying on your toes. If you like this content, check out the Soccer Success Planner. You can download it for free. There's a link in the description below. And for advanced training, check out the Online Soccer Academy.