Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on finishing.
In trying to develop goal scorers we tend to recreate ideal situations too often. As an example, we might line up balls and have a player shoot one after the other.
Or, we put in a simple passing combination prior to the shot.
While these are excellent ways to work on shooting technique, getting your knee over the ball. positioning of the plant foot, steps in the approach etc, it’s not necessarily preparing the players for finishing in a game environment. The reality is, players don’t always get the opportunity to get their approach steps correct. They don’t always have the chance to get their knee over the ball. They don’t always get to lock their ankle. The truth is the ideal situation is not necessarily the real situation players find themselves in. Sometimes balls get played behind the player and they don’t get the chance to take a touch to correct. Sometimes the ball comes in so quickly they don’t have time to prepare.
In order to prepare for the “unpreparable” we need to put players in a situation where they see balls coming from different angles, different trajectories etc and have to finish first time.
We can do something as simple as put a player in the middle of the 18 and then surround the 18 with servers. There would also be a keeper in goal.
A coach calls a name and that player serves a ball in for a first time shot.
As soon as the shot is hit the next name is called and a new ball is served.
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In an ideal situation the ball gets played softly, on the ground and in front of the player for an easy finish but we are not trying to recreate the ideal situation. In this case, some balls should be hit “knee high” others hit too hard, others hit behind the player. The player has to find a way to finish first time. The servers standing by the posts are recreating a rebound off the post so this ball might be hit real hard or away from the player etc.
The idea here is to create an environment where a player gets accustomed to finishing the unpredictable, unusual ball.
Have a great day!
Lawrence
