“The ideal defensive position is between the ball and the goal.
This is very difficult to achieve individually,
even harder with all six defenders,
and almost impossible for 60 minutes.”

The best way to learn is to prevent the defender from grabbing the attacker’s jersey, pulling, and similar actions.

The most common exercise coaches use for this purpose is playing defence with the hands behind the back. Personally, even as a player I disliked participating in such drills, and perhaps for that very reason I do not use them as a coach either, because I consider this type of movement unnatural. Biomechanically, the human body moves through space by coordinating the movements of the arms and legs, and moreover, stopping an attacker with the chest in handball is almost impossible.

In addition, with the hands behind the back it is impossible to play group defence, which requires reading the game, switching assignments, intercepting passes, stealing the ball, and so on.

The method that resolved all of these shortcomings I found in the book The Art of Winning by Bill Belichick.

Why is the position between the ball and the goal ideal?
If Ante is in front of the attacker, it is very difficult for the attacker to score. Ante has no need to stop him with a foul, and especially no need to pull him or do anything that could result in a 2-minute exclusion from the game.
If all six defenders are capable of playing this way, scoring a goal becomes impossible.

Of course, such ideal defending is not realistic—certainly not for 60 minutes—but coaches know that by striving for this ideal, the team will defend better than if it does not strive for it. The methods we use to move toward this ideal vary.

The most basic one is playing a shallow defence in the hope that our goalkeeper will save shots by back players over or around Ante, while the density achieved in this way will, with mutual support, make it easier to position all defenders in front of the ball.

Along with various tactical ideas, maintaining density—i.e. a small distance between defenders—is the fundamental group and collective tool that helps us reach the desired goal.

The second tool we use consists of the aforementioned drills with hands behind the back, in which we place Ante in situations where he cannot grab or pull attackers by the jersey and thus cannot rely on this help in moments when he feels that his footwork is insufficient to position himself in front of the attacker or between the ball and the goal.

Through an indirect method borrowed from The Art of Winning, we place Ante in more demanding defensive conditions, making training harder than the match itself, which is precisely the developmental stimulus we want to create.

Like other effective indirect teaching methods, this one is so simple that it can be applied by any coach, from beginner to elite level.

We use it across all age groups in 1-on-1 situations, as well as in group and collective play.
For Ante, it represents a developmental stimulus regardless of age, because it is possible to create games and competitions in which he can win, not just drills that he merely completes.

A major advantage over other methods is that Ante plays defence that is tactically identical to match play, so there is no “transfer of abilities,” which is usually a characteristic of other methods.