Duels and defending

The word, first

The duel is defined in the IFAB Laws of the Game glossary, and the three language editions do not say quite the same thing:

• English — "Challenge: an action when a player competes/contests with an opponent for the ball."
• German — "Zweikampf (→ Challenge): Versuch eines Spielers, im Duell mit einem Gegner an den Ball zu gelangen oder ihm diesen abzunehmen."
• French — "Disputer le ballon (→ challenge) : action par laquelle un joueur, aux prises avec un ou plusieurs adversaires, cherche à conquérir ou conserver le ballon."

Two practical consequences. First, the official French term is a verb phrase, not a noun: the word French coaches actually use on the touchline, duel, is not the IFAB string. Second, a tackle and a challenge are not the same thing: a tackle is a challenge made with the foot, and not every challenge is a tackle.

The Belgian ladder: 56 competencies, and not one exercise

The document that closed this gap is the Opleidingsvisie Voetbal Vlaanderen, 2025 edition (128 pp.). It presents itself as the whole Belgian union's document: "De opleidingsvisie voetbal van de Koninklijke Belgische Voetbalbond (met de Vlaamse vleugel Voetbal Vlaanderen en de Waalse vleugel ACFF)." Its Bijlage 2 ("Overzicht basics", pp. 124-127) is a numbered ladder of 56 competencies, each carrying a published leerplanfase: 5v5, 8v8 (1), 8v8 (2) or 11v11. Items 24 to 45 are defending; items 46 to 56 cover set pieces and throw-ins.

The core defending block is printed under a heading worth quoting exactly, because it is the tackling-and-jockeying module the rest of European coaching documentation does not publish: B- 1-1: druk/tackle/remmen.

Remmend wijken — retreating while braking, what English calls jockeying — is published here, named, and assigned to a phase. It appears twice (items 24 and 35), both times at 5v5, which is very early. The over de grond / in de lucht pair (33, 34) is the ground/aerial split, and the two are not placed at the same phase: the ground duel at 5v5, the aerial duel only at 11v11.

The remaining items complete the block: 37 to 40 — closing playing angles, strict marking, covering the nearest team-mate; 41 to 43 — counter-pressing after a loss, depending on whether the player is the nearest, is not the nearest, or lost the ball personally; 44 and 45 — the transition after a recovery. On the team-tactics side, the same document numbers theme 23. Onmiddellijk na balverlies druk zetten (= counterpressing), along with 11. Het duel nooit verliezen (never lose the duel) and 12. Het duel proberen winnen bij 100 % zekerheid (try to win it at 100% certainty).

Which competency, at which age

Bijlage 1 (pp. 120-123) of the same document takes the same material and bands it by category. It is the only source in this corpus that puts an age on a defending competency.

The practical reading is straightforward: individual 1v1 pressing starts at U8-U9, retreating while braking arrives at U10-U11, and mutual cover plus tight marking on the long pass wait until U14-U15. None of this is an exercise, but all of it is a published teaching order.

The U6-U7 duel forms: the only genuinely executable material at that age

The other Belgian wing publishes the opposite: complete practice cards, but only for the youngest. The Cahier des défis / Cahier des duels — Festifoot U6-U7 from the FFA (ACFF), 81 pages, holds 48 named games and 24 duel forms. Every card follows the same nine-field template: category, objective(s), task(s), number of players, equipment, dimensions, description, variations, and the coach's role.

Verbatim example, Cahier des duels p. 1, "FESTIFOOT U6 – U7 : DUEL 1 C 1", theme CONDUITE ET DRIBBLE:

"Faire des blagues" — literally to play jokes — is the federation's own word, not a paraphrase: that is how the FFA names the feint at this age. And "rester debout", stay on your feet, is the whole of the defending instruction at six: no tackle, no slide.

The 24 forms break down into duel 1 v 1 (pp. 1-8), 1v1 / 2v2 (p. 9), duel 2 v 1 for U7 (pp. 10-12), duel 2 v 2 (pp. 13-20) and duel 3 v 1 (pp. 22-24).

The same booklet prints, on page 4, a federation position on session design that deserves quoting whole rather than summarising. The forms:

• "Evitent «l'élimination» de l'enfant au profit d'un système de «vies» pour favoriser la confiance en soi de l'enfant" — avoid eliminating the child, in favour of a system of lives, so as to build self-confidence;
• "Doivent mettre UN MAXIMUM D'ENFANTS EN MOUVEMENT en même temps" — must keep a maximum number of children moving at the same time;
• "Doivent être réalisables peu importe le nombre d'enfants présents" — must work whatever the turnout;
• "Excluent l'esprit de «compétition» entre les différents groupes tout en mettant les enfants au défi. LE FUN EST LE MOTEUR DU DÉFI."

The FIFA sessions, with their metres

In its Practice → Elite section, FIFA publishes two training-camp days from the Costa Rica Women's National Team (head coach Beni Rubido), released on 16 and 23 April 2024. Ten practices, every one carrying published dimensions, of which eight are about defending or pressing.

The coaching points are published word for word, and they are technique-level rather than slogan-level: "Defenders should use their body in 1v1 scenarios to impede the attacker's progress"; "open and side-on stance, so that it is easier to adjust their body"; "shepherd the ball carrier towards one side to limit their passing options"; "Stay within 2 m of opponents"; "reduce the space behind them to avoid being vulnerable to a wall pass"; and, in a high block, "high and compact, with each player within 10 m of a team-mate".

A third session, Spain U-23 Women (Sonia Bermúdez, published 28 January 2025), does carry a stated age and deals explicitly with recovering shape after losing the ball: a small-sided game at a numerical disadvantage on 25 × 35 m (6 + GK against 5, switching play after 4 consecutive passes), then 11v11 with the defensive line 25 m from halfway on one side and 15 m on the other, an extra player entering after 6 consecutive passes, and a scoring scheme that acts as the instruction: same-side goals 2 points, goals after a switch of play 1 point.

On counter-pressing the same caution applies to the vocabulary: FIFA defines "counter-press" and the KBVB numbers theme 23 "onmiddellijk na balverlies druk zetten (= counterpressing)" — but the word "gegenpressing" appears in no federation source read here. The only quantified operationalisation comes from a data provider, not a federation: StatsBomb defines it as "pressing actions within 5 seconds of an open play turnover".

The Swiss position: a solid framework, a catalogue that stops at attacking

Switzerland publishes a clear defending framework. The OFSPO Manual Fussball Kinder (2023), page 21, prints under the heading "Zwei Spielphasen, sechs Erscheinungsformen" (two phases of play, six forms of expression): "Das Fussballspiel der Kinder ist in zwei Phasen unterteilt: «Wir haben den Ball» und «Wir haben den Ball nicht»." The two out-of-possession descriptors are "Den Ball entschlossen erobern" — win the ball decisively — and "Mutig Tore verhindern".

But the exercise catalogue itself stops at attacking, and that is not a research failure: a full-text query of the mobilesport.ch index across all 215 football publications returns zero exercises for Zweikampf (3 hits, all articles), zero for Tackling, zero for Pressing and zero for Standardsituation (a single hit, inside a heading-methodology text). The SFV's Technik-Training module defines ball control, dribbling, passing, striking and heading — and contains no Verteidigen, no Zweikampf, no Tackling.

What Switzerland does publish that belongs to the duel:

• The aerial duel. The Kopfball module of the Manual Fussball (pp. 66-67) gives "Kopfball 1 gegen 1 oder 2 gegen 2 mit Zuwürfen … Spielfeldgrösse: 10 × 10 Meter … Wer schafft in 4 Minuten mehr Tore?" and "Kopfball 3 gegen 2 nach Zuwürfen mit Torhüter/innen … Spielfeldgrösse: 20 × 15 Meter" — that is heading 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 from hand-thrown balls on a 10 × 10 m pitch, "who scores most in 4 minutes?", then heading 3 v 2 from throws with goalkeepers on a 20 × 15 m pitch. The 03/2015 monthly theme adds a Defensiv-Kopfball whose coaching point is "Hohe, weite Flugbahn des Defensiv-Kopfballes" — clear it high and wide.
• 1v1 play forms. Kinderfussball: Theorie und Praxis publishes a "1 gegen 1" family in category F on roughly 10 × 7 m, in one-minute rounds, with a 5 m main goal and 0.5 m mini-goals; the Brückenwächter in category G on roughly 20 × 15 m with 5-8 players against one defender; and, in category E, a "Torspieler + 1 gegen Torspieler + 1" whose constraint engineers a local 2v1.

The aerial duel carries a constraint the ground duel does not, and it differs by country. The FFF published its first framework on 16 December 2025: "suppression du jeu de tête pour les catégories U6 à U9, filles et garçons, à l'entraînement et pendant les rencontres" — no heading at all U6-U9, in training or in matches — plus "aucune séance dédiée uniquement au jeu de tête des U10 aux U17 inclus" and "15 minutes maximum consacrés au jeu de tête dans une séance, des U10 aux U17 inclus". Switzerland has no age restriction, deliberately: the manual offers only guidance, "Passe das Kopfballtraining dem Niveau und dem Alter der Spielerinnen und Spieler an" — match heading training to the level and the age of the players —, and the 2026/27 children's and youth football regulations do not mention heading at all. The Scottish FA regulates seven age bands, in training only, with no heading in training up to 11s; US Soccer bans heading at U11 and below, in practices and in games, and caps U12-U13 (30 min/week, 15 to 20 headers). Four federations, four incompatible units of measurement — no single number can represent them.

What nobody publishes

A guide built on sources is only worth reading if it also says where it stops. Three holes, all verified rather than assumed:

1. No federation opened in this corpus publishes a throw-in or set-piece drill with a pitch size and a rule. The KBVB gives competencies without setups — items 46 to 56, including the throw-in to the right team-mate (51, phase 8v8 (1)) and the long throw into the attacking third (52, phase 11v11), banded inworp (kortbij) U10-U11 → (halfver) U12-U13 → (ver) U14-U15. FIFA gives setups without ages. The FFA gives both, but only for U6-U7.
2. No source publishes a defending drill with a setup for the U10-U15 band. This is the theme's most awkward gap: between the Cahier des duels (U6-U7) and the FIFA sessions (senior squad) there is nothing that carries both an age and an organisation.
3. No metre value is published for block heights. No "the defensive line should sit X metres from halfway", no target distance between lines, no numeric compactness goal. The only metres that exist are practice constraints — the 25 m and 15 m of the Spanish session, the 10 m between team-mates in the FIFA session — not training standards.

On the French side, the FFF publishes no defending-technique document at all. Its district booklets treat defending as a task inside attacking practices: in the District de Savoie Livret pédagogique U10-U11 / U12-U13, "Conduite dribble – 3 v 2 Stop-Ball" runs on 15 × 25 m plus 5 m stop-ball zones, with defenders given 4 seconds to stop the ball in a side zone; "Dribble enchaînement tir – 2 v 1 Escalade" chains 2v1 → 4v2 → 6v3 with 5 seconds to get out and 3 to finish. The U11 tactical content that booklet states is "conserver-progresser, déséquilibrer-finir, défense" — so defending is a stated content area, just without a dedicated technical module.

Sources

KBVB / Voetbal Vlaanderen, Opleidingsvisie Voetbal Vlaanderen, 2025 edition, 128 pp. — Bijlage 1 pp. 120-123, Bijlage 2 "Overzicht basics" pp. 124-127, § 10 pp. 98-117 · FFA (ACFF), Cahier des défis / Cahier des duels — Festifoot U6-U7, 81 pp., 2019-2020 edition, still linked from the live "Foot à 2" page · FIFA Training Centre, Practice → Elite: Costa Rica Women's National Team sessions of 16 and 23 April 2024; Spain U-23 WNT, 28 January 2025 · OFSPO/BASPO, Manual Fussball Kinder (2023) p. 21 and Manual Fussball Jugendliche (2022) pp. 21-23 and 66-67 · SFV/ASF + J+S, Kinderfussball: Theorie und Praxis (2015) p. 11 · OFSPO / mobilesport.ch, Kopfball monthly theme 03/2015 and the complete index of 215 football publications · FFF, Jeu de tête booklet published 16 December 2025; FFF District de Savoie, Livret pédagogique U10-U11 / U12-U13 · Scottish FA and US Soccer heading guidance · IFAB, Laws of the Game, EN / DE / FR glossaries. Sources consulted and verified in August 2026.