There’s an art to being able to shoot accurately in football and often much of it comes with practice, greater spatial awareness and a good understanding of the way you should hold yourself and the way you should move. With a bit of dedication, players can learn to be conscious of how they position themselves and the technical moves they should make in order to score a goal.
If you’re looking to improve your youth team’s shooting skills then there are a few things that you can teach the players to help make them more aware of themselves and the space around them.
Accuracy, power and curve
It’s good to start with the basic elements of accuracy, power and curve as these are the fundamental aspects of scoring well.
Accuracy – encourage your players to visualise where they want the ball to go before they shoot. They should look at the goal and the goalkeeper’s position to pick the right spot to aim for, rather than just hammering it blindly in the direction of the goal. So, for accuracy, visualise the shoot before you take it and kick the ball with the proper technique (for example, using the inside of the foot will allow you greater accuracy).
Power – Believe it or not, while it’s tempting to boot the ball hard with all your might, often this can slow down the speed of the ball. That’s because a player might tense up all their muscles to kick the ball the hardest they can. By doing that it slows down the motion in itself, whereas staying a bit looser when you kick the ball and moving in more of an accelerating, whip-like motion will give the ball more speed.
Curve – Place the planting foot at an angle to the ball slightly in the direction of the bend you want the ball to take, keep the hand out on the same side as the planting foot for balance and power, then strike the ball with the inside of the foot and follow through in towards the goal with the foot once the ball is kicked.
Drills to improve your shooting skills
There are plenty of drills to improve your shooting skills that you can discover to get your players hitting the ball on target more.
Try and encourage them to be more relaxed when kicking the ball too and let them see how much faster it moves, for example.
It’s also good to get the players shooting with their whole body – so you might have them imagine that the ball is in front of a sheet of glass that needs to be broken through and it will take the force of the body to break through it. This should have them landing on their shooting foot after the kick.
Sign up for one of our tournaments if you think you’ve got what it takes
If you have some great team players who have been working on their shooting techniques and have come on in leaps and bounds, then why not sign them up for one of our youth football tournaments to really put their skills to the test? Get in touch with us today to find out more.
