Tag Archives for " Shooting "

0 Warm-Up for Shooting

One of the perks of being apart of WORLD CLASS COACHING is that I have access to a large library of training sessions from some of the top professional, collegiate, and youth coaches. We have published books and DVDs on every aspect and topic of coaching.

I often refer to our DVD especially for new ways to approach topics to keep my coaching fresh and interesting to the players I work with. I think we're all probably guilty of using the same few drills or exercises for a specific technique over and over. This can be a good thing because it allows us to focus on teaching the game rather than having to spend a lot of time teaching the drill. But changing things up on occasion can breath new life into a stale session and motivate players to perform at a higher level with the addition of new challenges.

In the past if I was looking for a new warm-up for a shooting practice I would have to scan through three or four DVDs to find what I'm looking for. This changed

1 Shooting at the End of Every Practice

Like many coaches I focus on one particular aspect of the game during each training session. Sure, I try to train the technical, tactical, physical and psychological components around the specific skill so that the practice is as economical as possible. But in the past if my focus was on passing and receiving I wouldn't have thought about ending the session with any type of shooting.

When WORLD CLASS COACHING conducted a tour of Dutch club a few years ago I was fortunate enough to attend. While visiting the Ajax Academy I watched a session presented by

0 Small-Sided Game for Shooting and Goalkeeping

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on dribbling, passing, shooting and goalkeeping.

Start with two goals set up 40 yards apart.  There is a keeper in each goal and 2 mannequins in the middle yards apart (if you don’t have a mannequin, corner flags, coaching sticks or, if necessary cones will work. There are 2 lines of players with balls 5 yards to the opposite side of each goal.

To start, the first player in each line dribbles at the near

4 Improving Dribbling and Shooting Technique while Developing Aerobic Capacity

By Justin Cresser

After coaching youth soccer for several years, I have observed that shooting from distance is one technique young players frequently have problems with. Players tend to either drag their shots wide, or shoot way over the bar. Like all components of the game, developing good shooting technique requires repetition. However, we frequently observe shooting exercises that have long lines with players waiting to shoot on net; and most coaches will agree that long lines and waiting times are two things we try our best to avoid during training sessions.

Today’s activity is a shooting exercise that circumvents the problem of long lines and standing around by incorporating a dribbling component. The format of the exercise also allows you to simultaneously develop the aerobic capacity of your players. We also include a section that targets speed dribbling and receiving technique.

Set-up and Directions
This activity uses just over half of a regular-sized soccer field for the playing area.  Place (or set up with flags or cones) a regular-sized goal on the bottom

1 Finishing from Volleys and Headers

I've always had a standing challenge to my teams (U13 and below), if they score a headed goal, I buy ice cream for the next practice. It's been a way to encourage the players to try and score with their head if they can. This has been most successful with the girls teams I have coached. The extra incentive has become something that the team rallies around.

After spending a few weeks working on our combination play to score we played very well in our next games. Two of our three goals came from combinations in the middle of the field.

Another area that I've wanted to address

3 Teaching the Movement of the Forwards in the 4-3-3

As I've written about several times, I've been going through the process of training one of my teams to play the 4-3-3 formation. I've always used a 4-4-2 or a 3-4-3 in the past so this has been a learning experience for me as well as the players.

I began with the defensive phase of the game to give the team a foundation to build on. They now have a good understanding of their responsibilities when we don't have the ball and that has made us a tough team create chances against. As a part of this we've worked a great deal on getting our wing backs involved by pushing them forward when we win the ball. This put emphasis on our wide play and we've been able to generate a lot of our offense by attacking the flanks with both our wing backs and wingers.

The area that we have been lacking

0 Finishing With Pressure Around the Box

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on finishing around the 18 and dealing with pressure.

Start with a server with some balls around 25 yards from goal.  A forward starts on the 18 and a defender is marking the forward.  A keeper is in goal.

The server plays the ball into the forward and the forwards job is to

0 Finishing With Combination Play - First Step

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity is the first step in working on finishing with combination play.

Start with groups of 3’s spread out 30 yards from goal.  Each player has a ball.  A keeper is in goal.

Player 1 starts by dribbling toward the top of the 18, making a move and

0 Finishing In a Competitive Environment

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s activity involves finishing in a competitive environment.

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with two full sized goals and a keeper in each goal.  It’s 2 v 2 in the middle and in each attacking half there is a player on each sideline and a player on each part of the end line

In the diagram above the black team is attacking the top goal and the yellow team is

0 Shooting from Central Areas in a 4-3-3

I've written about my teams transition to playing a 4-3-3 in previous posts. The process has been going really well. I've been very pleased with how we are defending with the system. This was a concern for me because I could see how we were going to be able to deal with the other team's wide players. The girls have done well sharing this responsibility between the winger, attacking midfielders and wing backs.

We've been able to create a lot of offense using the wingers and wing backs getting forward. The player we haven't used much is our center forward. The spaces in the middle have been so congested that it's been easier to get the ball wide and attack from there.

This week I want to work on attacking combinations in the middle of the field. We have a number of good resources for this type of session. An article in the September Magazine Update to our Member Drills Database includes a great session from Jan Pruijn of Ajax International. The session was originally presented at the Nebraska WORLD CLASS COACHING International Coaching Seminar held last February in Lincoln, NE.

Another great resource is Player's Roles in the 4-3-3. One of the two books focuses on

3 A Quick Shooting Activity From An Angle

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity is a quick shooting activity working on coming in from an angle.  The book A Year in the Championship: A complete season of training sessions with Millwall FC shows similar type of activities where they take a simple activity and alter it to make it more effective.

Frequently we see teams do a simple shooting activity where a coach or player stands near the top of the 18 and there is a line of players with balls.

The first player passes into the coach who lays the ball off for

1 Shooting - Three and Four Line Exercises

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

0 Shooting - Two Lines on the Posts

This is the second in the July series of posts on shooting progressions. The exercises I'll discuss are normally part of a complete session but are shown here on their own to focus on them. The exercises shown in the first post of of this series where mostly static so that the players would really

0 Shooting Exercises - Wall Ball

During the month of June I highlighted my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. In July I'll thought I'd go through the progression I use for shooting. The exercises are normally part of a complete session but are shown here on their own to focus on them. The first time I work on shooting

0 A Shooter or a Scorer?

In basketball, some players are referred to as shooters while others are referred to as scorers. A shooter is someone who is fundamentally very sound.  If you give a shooter an open shot, they will typically score however, they usually struggle creating their own shots or scoring while under pressure. Scorers, on the other hand,

2 Long Passing

If you asked a group of 100 players to list their 5 favorite practices I don't think that 'Long Passing' would show up on the list. The activity itself is not intrinsically fun or exciting. But you can make it challenging and competitive if you turn it into a game. It's important to first make

4 From Shooting to Finishing

When I work on shooting with my teams I like to create realistic situations that transfer easily into the real game. My favorite resource for these kind of exercises is a book by Chelsea Academy Coach, Michael Beale, called Training Creative Goalscorers. This is the best book or dvd I've seen for exercises that engage