The 3-4 defense has been used with great success, especially with the Steelers in the NFL. I have used the 3-4 with 5 year old flag players and 14 year old travel plate players as long as it has been modified for the level you are training.

Similar to the 5-4 defense, the 3-4 will confuse many coaches in youth soccer. A crucial component when setting up a difficult defensive system, such as the 3-4 defense, is making sure it has been adjusted to the level you are training for. If he’s coaching a young team, he won’t need any of the fancy blitz packages in the 3-4. Tricks, biases, blitzes, and corner schemes come in many varieties in the 3-4 defense. Many of these will need to be skipped or heavily modified if you want to use them at the pop warning level.

The lean used by the defensive line should be used at all age levels. This devastating technique will cause your defensive line to mess up your opponent’s blocking schemes and they won’t even realize you’re doing it to them.

With proper preparation, including a full scouting report on your next opponent, you should be able to use tilt to confuse your opponent’s blocking schemes. The beauty of the 3-4 defense is that you should be able to wreck your opponents entire offensive line using just three players. Hopefully you’ve scouted your opponent and have a good idea of ​​the blocking styles he’ll try to use against your team. Using defensive line leans, he’ll be able to fill all five offensive linemen with just his nose guard and two defensive tackles. You will be able to play most of the game with a two man advantage. We show all the mods for defensive line leans and stunts in our Youth Defense 3-4 Playbook.

For over 20 years, the 3-4 defense has been my go-to defense. I have installed it with 14 year old travel level gear as well as 5 year old flag gear and have had tremendous success. I have coached in the smallest city in my conference and have rarely allowed more than two runs in a game. In almost half of my games we have knocked out our opposition and I have a win percentage of over 80%. I believe in minimal blitzing, if any, and like to use defensive line lean to keep the opponent’s offensive linemen away from my linebackers. Unlocked line sponsors run free to make plays and I want my best athletes to run free.

In conclusion, the 3-4 is a wonderful defense to use at all levels of soccer as long as the coaches use a modified version applicable to the level they are coaching.