By Danny Carvalho
Question - “My players love shooting drills, but I keep doing the same drills. Do you have some good and new shooting drills that will keep my players interested?"
One of my favourite topics! It can be very challenging to set up shooting drills that won’t bore players after a while waiting for their turn in a long line.
Another challenge is to make the drill safe for everyone involved, avoiding people getting hit by powerful shots or running at each other.
That being said, let’s see one of my most recommended drills and its progressions.
Shooting bonanza – variation 1
Set up two lines and have a gate set in between them, just as shown above. All players in line must have a ball, except the first player on the yellow disc cone line. The drill is very simple. Player from the blue cone sends a pass for the player on the yellow cone to run to the ball, take one touch, and the second touch must be a shot on goal. After that, the same happens with the next player in the yellow cone line sending a pass for the first player on the blue cone line who is now without a ball. This drill achieves a very high tempo and is quite game realistic.
Progressions:
• Blue line must use right foot only, yellow line must use left foot only
• Shot on first touch
Shooting bonanza – variation 2
On this variation, only players on the blue line with a ball. Right after passing the ball, they must run and try to stop the player from the yellow cone from scoring. Players switch lines after every play.
Progressions:
• Chip pass
• 1-2 and chase (blue pass to yellow, yellow pass it back and run to defend)
Shooting bonanza – variation 3
On this last variation, add a third line which will be the defenders line. The play still starts the same way but now a 2v1 is played with the player from the blue cone passing the ball and joining the play with the player from the yellow cone versus the player from the red cone.
Progressions:
• Chip pass to start the play
• Play starts with player sprinting with the ball
By Danny Carvalho, DOC at Corinthians Campinas Youth Club, Brasil
