Teaching young players about offsides?

Ian MarshCoach, England

Hi Wayne,

Not an easy one to answer.

I had a look on Youtube and this was the best explanatory video on the offside rule I could find. It may be a little long-winded for your players but it could be worth setting them all the "homework" task of watching it one night after training to improve their understanding.

The key thing I think though is not to spend too long explaining the rule - keep any explantions succint as players learn better through play. Instead it's best for you to simply teach your players how to defend properly (stand up, shepherd players to the outside and don't dive in).

Definitely encourage players to hold a good backline and to push up and drop back at the right moments (tell players to imagine they're linked by a piece of string to help them visualise the back line) but at younger levels it's rare for matches to have official assistant referees so the use of the offside trap as a tactic is fairly limited.

To practice holding a good defensive line I would recommend an attack v defence half pitch game where your focus is on the defence moving as a unit and supporting one another in the 2v1.

Hope this helps,
Alex

Football CoachCoach

This might not be the answer that most people want to hear but my son now aged 10 knows the offside rule and has never played it or been taught by me. How? FIFA on the xbox!