Five-a-Side

Keep the ball moving at all times.

With lots of quick passing and moving you can get the opposition out of position. This should give you a chance to score. If you do lose it, you have to let the opposition come to you, then aim to nick it back and hit them on the break. This is because, when games are close, most opponents will try and mark your striker out of the game. Having someone at the back who can chip in with goals is really handy.

Five-a-side-football pitches | Aosta Valley

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Defend from the front as a team. Your front man should mark their defender to make it hard for them to get out. This puts pressure on the opposition at the right end of the pitch. You need good communication because the game is so fast-paced.

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So how different are the long and short versions of football? Are the tactics different? And what special skills and attributes do you need to develop to become the Lionel Messi of the five-a-side pitch? We all have our favourite formation for the a-side game, but five-a-side isn't played at Wembley and it's just you and your mates against another bunch of mates, so the environment and the culture is different. But it's still football, and the most exciting things about football are condensed and speeded up in five-a-side, so you'll need to be a different player.

So what does it take? Five-a-side is a frantic, mph game so players spend more time working at a higher intensity than in an a-side game. Five-a-side requires almost constant movement, short sprints, lateral movement and frequent changes of direction.

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Remember, there's only five of you out there and there are fewer breaks in play, so you need to be in decent shape if you don't want to let your team-mates down. The beauty of five-a-side is that it's an informal game. Groups of friends, workplaces and colleges all run teams - mainly for the fun and social benefits the game offers.

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If you also want to win, however, you need the right attitude. Again, there's only five of you, so be a team player, put in tons of effort and encourage your team-mates. Play together and win together.

Without being crazily over-competitive, right? The skills needed for a-side are useful for five-a-side as well, but most passes in five-a-side are over a distance of less than 10 metres and the receiver needs to be able to control that pass quickly. Studies show that a five-a-side player gets more than four times the number of touches on the ball as in a-side. So those 'one-touch' skills are a great asset in five-a-side. Of course, the better organised team doesn't always win at five-a-side, but a shambles of a team rarely does.

So your players need to have a clear idea of what their roles are in the team, but without micro-managing all the fun out of your games. Having five players doing their own thing and hoping it will all magically come together rarely ever proves to be a winning formula. Find a basic formation that brings the best out of your team. And try to stick to it.