By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on getting to goals and finishing rebounds.
Everyone loves the great shot. The blast from 30 yards out. The half volley from the top of the 18. The bicycle kick off of a cross. The thing people tend to forget is all goals count the same. Whether it’s a spectacular goal or a simple goal, they all count as one. For every spectacular goal, there are many more simple goals coming off of rebounds. The player who scores a goal off of a rebound doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being in the right place and making the effort to get to the ball first.
This activity is a 4 v 3 with a “keeper” in goal. The reason I put “keeper” in parentheses is because I would recommend using a coach or field player as opposed to a real keeper because a real keeper might develop bad habits in this game.
This is a regular game except all shots must be below waist height and the keeper can not use his hands. They must defend using the same rules as the rest of the players. This means to make a save the keeper must use some part of his body. Unless it’s an easy shot, the keeper will not be able to control the ball so this will result in a lot of rebounds
The attacking team will figure out quickly that one of their best methods of attacking is to shoot often and look to follow their shots. The thing we want the players to get out of this game is that this belief of shooting early and following their shot works in real games as well. The easiest shot for the keeper to save is the one that isn’t taken. We want to condition the attacking players to look to follow all shots so they can make the easy goal
At the same time, we want the defenders to look to follow shots as well to help their keeper out.
The great thing about players who score goals off of rebounds is they don’t have to be big, strong, fast or even skillful. In most cases it’s simply a matter of them being smart and wanting to score more than others.
This is a great activity to work on developing the inclination to follow all shots (both offensively and defensively)
Have a great day!
Lawrence
By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
