Tag Archives for " Finishing "

0 #003 Exercises to Develop Creative Finishers

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1 Supporting the Striker

Small-Sided Game - Supporting the Striker By Sean Pearson Area: 45x30yards Players: 10 Teams: 2 Length: 20-25mins This game has 3 zones. 2 end zones (10x30) and a middle zone (25x30). 1 striker and 1 defender allowed in each end zone and the defender must stay behind the striker. Everyone else in the middle zone. Each

0 Creating and Capitalizing on Finishing Opportunities

Training Activities for players U14 and above By Chris Kouns These activities are designed to help your players not only get repetitions in terms of some of the technical aspects of finishing, but, to also create an environment for them when they can hone their “Finishing Mentality” Activity 1: 3v1 / 3v1 + GK’s Field

0 Crossing and Finishing Under Pressure

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on long passes, receiving long passes, dribbling at speed, crossing and finishing.

This activity uses half a field with a goal and a keeper in goal. There are 5 groups of players to start. One group has balls just inside of midfield, in the middle of the field. One group is out wide waiting for the first pass. One group is 10 yards away from goal than the group waiting for the ball (they are defenders). One group is out wide on the other side and the last group is off of the end line (they are also defenders).

The player with the ball starts by either chipping or

0 Using Mannequins to Training Crossing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s topic deals with using dummies (mannequins) to force more accurate crosses.

Let’s start with a simple crossing and finishing activity. A player starts out wide with a ball., another player starts out near the corner of the 18, on the far side. There is a keeper in goal.

The wide player dribbles toward the end line, cuts in and then

0 Reaction Speed and Finishing

By Alex Trukan

The reaction speed and finishing exercise is designed to improve the time needed to accelerate, change direction and win a 1v1 duel. In addition to that, there is an engaging element of finishing and competitiveness, what makes the practice enjoyable and motivating.

Set Up and Directions
Set up two triangles as shown on the diagram. Divide the team into two groups and organise players between the two cones on the edge of the penalty area. Goalkeeper should be ready in the goal, and coach should be on the opposite side, with min. of 5 balls. Players shuffle between two cones and wait for the signal from the coach.

As the players move between two cones with the back to the goal, a coach plays

0 Real Sociedad v Real Madrid

By Stevie Grieve

In the recent match between Real Sociedad and Real Madrid, there were 6 goals, with 50% scored from corner kicks, with several other missed headers and 2^nd balls which could’ve resulted in more goals.

Interestingly, both teams chose to leave the back post open with no player on there, which turned out to be a zone which was tried to be exploited by both teams.

Sociedad Corner Routine

• 6 players forward, GK and 3 back, 1 at 35m
• Drilled, flat delivery to around 6m
• 2 men at the front zone for the flick on
• 2 men attack the back – 1 from a central starting position who loops around unmarked
• 1 player on edge of the box for rebounds

Near Post Flick on routine

As the flat ball is drilled in, it has enough pace that a flick on will continue fast enough past the GK and central defensive players. Sociedad look to exploit the back post zone as there is nobody on the

0 Dutch Up, Back and Through to Finish

Some  coaches may consider pattern play to be limiting. They say, 'I don't want my players to be robots that just pass and move in the patterns that I've taught them.' I can understand this and I agree with it but where are our players supposed to get their creative ideas from? We want our

2 Long Passing, Receiving, Crossing and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on long passing, receiving, crossing and finishing.

Start with a 50 x 40 area with a goal on each end line and a keeper in goal.  The group is evenly split into 4 groups just outside the 4 posts.  There is also a player out wide on each side.

The player with the ball plays a

1 Finishing Drill to Improve Reaction Speed

By Alex Trukan

This exercise involving finishing in the penalty box focuses on developing reaction and starting speed. Therefore, players improve physical component in the engaging and fun practice what stimulates their interest and motivation. The content of this practice is especially relevant for strikers, however it will benefit any player in the penalty area who needs to react quickly in order to score a goal.

Set up and directions
Organise 5 players (the numbers are flexible) around the penalty box with two balls each, two players in the penalty box without the ball and a goalkeeper in the goal. Each outside player should be given a number. Also smaller area marked out by cones can be used. Recommended minimal amount of outside players is three.

As the coach shouts a number, relevant outside player plays the ball into the penalty box. The pass can be

0 Crossing and Finishing to Improve Speed

By Alex Trukan

The crossing and finishing pattern exercise helps in developing starting speed. This physical component is particularly required in the final third of the pitch in wide areas as well as in and around the penalty box. Starting quickness and short distance speed often create difference and can determine whether player gets to the ball or into space first.

Set up and directions
Divide the team into 6 groups and organize as shown on the diagram below. Starting positions for the wingers should be placed around 15 m. from the penalty box. Strikers attacking centrally and defenders should start another 10 m. behind the wingers. Organize a goalkeeper in the full sized goal. All players should work position specifically whenever possible.

The practice starts by a horizontal pass to the second striker, who then

2 This Is How You Finish a Break-Away

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on finishing breakaways.

A breakaway is such a great way to score a goal and while they don’t occur frequently, they do occur frequently enough that teams need to prepare for them. Not enough teams prepare for them and those that do tend to do so in such an artificial manner that it barely helps. We see teams set up with a line of players 30-40 yards out with balls and a keeper in goal.

The first player in line starts dribbling and the keeper

3 Shooting From Different Angles

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

0 Shooting and Finishing From Wide

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on passing, movement, receiving and finishing.

This activity has a lot of running, passing and shooting. A keeper starts in goal, there is a player wide on each side, another player is near midfield and a target player is at the top of the 18. A few extra players are on the end line. The keeper starts with a ball.

The keeper plays the ball out wide. One of the extra players

0 Finishing With Quick Touches

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on quick touches, sharp cuts and finishing

Start with two goals 40 yards apart with a keeper in each goal. There is a line of 6 cones 1 yard apart across the middle of the field. A line of players, with balls starts at one end of the cones.

The first player starts by dribbling through the cones and when he gets to the

0 Speed Off the Mark and Finishing

By Alex Trukan

The exercise is focused on developing speed off the mark and finishing skills. Short distance speed is required to lose tight marking, win short distance duel or be the first player to shoot from the cross. Therefore, this fitness component is integrated with finishing skills.

Set up and directions
Divide players into two groups and organise them as on the diagram below. One group of players should be placed on the cone in front of the goal, second group of players, on the cone situated on the side of the penalty box. This exercise, ideally needs to be done with 4-6 players and a goalkeeper. That is why, it is suitable for small group training. However, if two independent goals are used, this practice can be also suitable for bigger groups.

First player from the attacking group makes a quick slalom between two mannequins. Shape and direction of runs can be

1 Chesterfield Shooting Activity

By Keith Scarlett

This activity works on finishing, passing, one-touch play and goalkeeping.

Set-up three cones facing one-goal at the top of the box. One cone each should be placed at the point where the field markings form the intersection of the penalty area and “D,” while the third cone should be placed 10 metres out from the edge of the penalty area in a straight line with the penalty spot forming a triangle; per the diagram.

To start this activity, all of the balls should be placed on the “left” cone and the team should be broken up into three different groups with each group being assigned to

0 Functional Game For Crossing and Finishing

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a 2 v 1 situation out wide playing into a 3 v 2 in the box.

Start with an outside midfielder near the touch line and a central midfielder with the ball. There are 3 attacking players at the edge of the box and two defenders in the box. A keeper is in goal.

The play starts with a pass from the central midfielder to

1 Conditioning With a Finishing Circuit

By Daniel Severn

This week we have an easy to set up, fun, but hard working exercise. This exercise works well using 7+ players. This game involves tons of shooting so it is always easy to get the player motivated and on your side straight away for this one. It is a very rich exercise as we see shots from different angles in situations. One v Ones, Long Range Shooting and Crossing and Finishing are all included in this exercise.

Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below. Three lines of players are set up as shown in the diagram below. As we see in the picture, left to right, we have the One v One line, the Long Range Shooting line and the Crossing and Finishing line.

Play begins with our first player running in a one versus one with the goalkeeper. While player one attempts the one v one, player two is

0 Continuous Paired Finishing

By Daniel Severn

This week we have an easy to set up, fun, but hard working exercise. This exercise works well with either two or three players.

Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below. We will show the exercise using just two active players and a goalkeeper. You could still keep a good, high tempo with three active players. You will begin with one player at the corner of the six-yard-box (this will be the ‘feeder’) and the other player (active player) facing away from the feeder, towards a line of cones.

Play begins with the active player shuffling through the cones as quickly as possible.  As he gets to the end, the feeder plays a pass out in front of the active player, who curves his run around the tall cone in order to run onto

0 Finishing From Crosses

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on finishing crosses.

Start with a grid that is 50 x 50 with a goal on each endline. There are 4 players on the sidelines with balls. They are numbered 1-4. There is a keeper in each goal and 2 forwards in the middle.

Player 1, on the outside starts by taking a touch and then

0 Three Line Shooting

I usually end each session with a shooting exercise that incorporates aspects of the practice theme. One of the formats I often us is a simple three line set-up. I like this because you can do a wide variety of things from these basic starting position. The players are comfortable because we use this set-up often but I can make adjustments to place the emphasis where I want it.

I started using this as a regular part of my practices after

0 Finishing on Goal After a Long Pass

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on long passes, receiving long passes, combinations and finishing.

Start with two goals 50 yards apart with a keeper in each goal. There are two players in the middle and a line of players on the right side of each goal with balls.

The first player in one of the lines starts by driving a ball to

0 2v1 Finishing Drill

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a 2 v 1 in tight space to try to finish.

Start with a grid that starts at the two corners of the D and then goes out 15 yards. There is a defender and two attackers in the grid. A server starts 20 yards away with balls and a keeper is in goal.

The server starts by playing a ball into