One of my favorite books is, 'Training Creative Goalscorers'. The book is by Chelsea FC Academy Coach, Michael Beale. The focus of this book is on training shooting and finishing in functional situations that also involve an activity after shooting like defending the next player or playing a give-and-go with another player. These are the kind of exercises that transfer easily to the game. These are the perfect progression once the players have an understanding of the technical aspects of shooting a moving ball.
Another strength of these exercises is that you can do a number of different variations from one set-up. Here are two different ways to set-up the exercises and a number of variations for each one.
Practice 1
Player 1 dribbles and shoots at goal
player 2 plays a one-two with player 1 and shoots
Player 3 dribbles past a “passive” player 2 and shoots
Practice 2
Player 1 dribbles and shoots
Player 2 plays a one-two with player 1 and shoots
Player 3 dribbles and attacks in a 1v1 against player 2 who attempts to defend
Practice 3
Player 1 dribbles and shoots
Player 2 dribbles and attacks in a 1v1 against player 1
Player 3 combines with player 1 in a 2v1 situation against player 2
Practice 4
Player 1 dribbles and shoots
Player 2 dribbles and attacks in a 1v1 against player 1
Player 3 makes a choice of which team mate he would like and passes
into that player to make a 2v1 situation
Practice 1
Player 1 dribbles and shoots at goal
Player 2 passes to player 1 and runs out wide to receive a return pass
Player 2 crosses for player 4 to run into the box and attempt to score
Player 3 dribbles into the area to attack 1v1 against player 4
Practice 2
Same as above but now player 2 and player 4 defend 2v1 against player 3
Practice 3
Same as above but now player 3 combines with player 1 to make a 2v2 against players 2 and 4
Practice 4
Player 2 dribbles and crosses for player 3
Player 4 dribbles and crosses for player 1
The coach now passes to player 2 or player 4
A 2v2 game commences with players 2 and 4 against players 1 and 3
There are many more progressions and variations that you can come up with from each of these basic set-ups. There are many more inside, 'Training Creative Goalscorers'.
Please list any that you'd like to share as a comment to this post.
