1v1s 5/7: Put Them 1v1 and Watch What You Learn
Here's a challenge for you. Before your next practice session, watch half a game — yours, a college game, a professional match — and count the 1v1's. Not just the obvious ones where a winger takes on a fullback. All of them. Count the striker fighting for position with the center back. Count the midfielder trying to receive the ball with someone on their shoulder. Count the fullback dealing with a forward pressing from behind.
Give yourself a table. Mark face-up pressure. Side pressure. Pressure from behind. Count how many times each one happens. Note the trends.
I promise you the number is going to be higher than you expected. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
That's the point of training 1v1's with purpose — not as a warm-up activity, but as a core coaching tool. Because those moments are happening constantly, and how your players handle them determines the outcome of your games more than almost anything else.
There are three main types of pressure I build my 1v1 training around:
Face-up pressure — the defender is in front of you, closing down. This is your winger taking on a fullback, your striker winning a ball that's been played to their feet. The key here is the first touch to create space and the ability to beat a player off the dribble or play forward quickly before the pressure arrives.
Pressure from behind — a player checking in to receive the ball with someone on their back. Your #10 dropping into space. Your #9 holding up play. This is one of the most common and most undertrained situations in youth soccer. Learning to feel the pressure, create separation, and receive on the half-turn changes everything for that player.
Pressure from the side — a player receiving as a defender steps across to press. Common all over the field. Your fullback getting the ball with a winger pressing across, your #8 receiving in a tight channel. The key is anticipating which shoulder the pressure is coming from and using the other side to either turn or play.
For each of these, I build activities around five elements: organization (who's playing, what's the setup, what are the constraints?), game-like quality (does this replicate what actually happens?), repetition (how often does each player get reps?), challenge (is the defender making it genuinely difficult?), and coaching (what specifically are you looking for and when do you intervene?).
The reset time matters more than most coaches realize. In my sessions, after any ball out or goal, the next ball is in play within six seconds. That restart speed is intentional. In a game, the next moment arrives fast. You don't get to jog back and set up a neat line. Practice should feel the same way.
One thing I want to address: the defender needs a job too. If the only goal in a 1v1 is for the attacker to beat the defender, the defender has no real incentive beyond trying hard. Give them a transition target — win the ball, play it to a target, score in a small goal. Now they're competing, not just defending. The quality of your 1v1 training goes up immediately when both players have something to play for.
And then there's what I call Transition 2 — the moment after. The 1v1 ends. What happens next? In my sessions, I build the expansion in from the start. Win the ball, play it to a supporting player, now it's a 2v1 the other way. That next moment — learning to be immediately ready after winning or losing — is part of the 1v1 too.
Watch your players in isolated 1v1's and you'll learn more about them as individuals than in almost any other environment. Who gets stuck under pressure? Who needs a second touch before they can go? Who instinctively creates space before the ball arrives? That information shapes how you coach them individually and what you build for them in your sessions.
Put them 1v1. Watch what happens. Then coach to what you see.
@LeeDunneSoccer