Stretch is a good football term. One that every good coach should understand and teach his players, whether they are playing in real estate in Del Mar or in rural areas. Let us make this simple. Take a rubber band and “stretch” it. The bigger you make the opening in the rubber band, the larger the box you can put it around. But if you stretch too much, the band may break, but that’s like the defense, and more on that later.
In football terms, when you have possession of the ball you want to stretch the field in width. By playing to the sidelines you open space that you can exploit against your opponents. Keep in mind the term of “playing to the touchlines”. If you only stretch within 8-10 yards of the touchline you leave space between yourself and the boundary that is difficult for your players to utilize before the ball goes out of bounds.
Remember, you can only use the space that is in front of you. Defenses like to be compact. That restricts space and makes it easier to defend. It’s like trying to get a string that is already tied into a loop around that box. It is tough to do if the string will not stretch.
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