Ask any coach what their team needs to work on and one of the first few answers is always, “We need to finish our chances around goal”. Proper finishing begins with proper shooting technique. In order for any child to have a chance to compete at the higher levels of youth soccer and be successful, they must be able to strike a ball cleanly and precisely.
The Problem
A number of years ago, I was working a camp for state level ODP players. We had a young camper who was excellent on the ball creating numerous chances to score but her strike wasn’t solid enough to finish off the play.
My coaching colleague saw this and asked her to stay after the session so she could help. As everyone else headed back to the dorms, they headed the other way towards a lone goal.
Now, my fellow coach knows a few things about striking a ball and scoring goals. She led the nation in goals scored across all divisions of the NCAA as a college freshman.
The Fix
Once at the goal, the brilliance in teaching proper striking was in the simplicity of the drill she chose. She had the young phenom hold the ball with two hands, then drop and strike it into the back of the net in the air, while landing on her shooting foot.
When you pull up any number of shooting tutorials on YouTube, they come with a multitude of steps. Do this, do that. One can get lost just in the translation. So many things to focus on in order to get it right. The genius in her instruction to the young player however, was that the task given solved all the steps. To accomplish hitting the back of the net straight out from the goal line required a locked ankle, instep contact, body forward position, weight transfer, and so on.
While that teaching moment wasn’t captured on camera, a very similar instruction video exists out on the web. Don’t let the retro ESPN vibe fool you, the demonstration is straight to the point and will have your player striking rockets in no time just like she did at camp.
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