Let it be known that during soccer practice games kids tend to have a lot of fun when they keep on scoring goals. It is therefore necessary for you to find out and add as many opportunities as you can for their practice. In order to create such occasions for them, many options are available that can be performed. For example there are small sided games, shooting drills, and full-field scrimmages.
During small sided games and full field scrimmages, it’s your responsibility to keep altering the various ways to encourage extra goal scoring. Slot in those games that can be played without a goalkeeper or you can confine their movement inside the defined boundary. There is another way of increasing the possibility of goal scoring by broadening the goalpost being used or else by adding up more goals.
Once players develop good judgment and great shooting skills during the soccer training, it gets easy to score goals. As in passing skill, it’s a good idea to start shooting skills as early as possible but emphasize them more during the later stages of their development.
Carrying out soccer drills is one of the means to equip the players with requisite shooting skills. Players become skilled at shooting the ball accurately and score many more goals by way of these shooting drills. As a coach, you should therefore work on developing your kids shooting skills progressively.
Throughout the soccer exercises, train your players to perfectly strike the ball while shooting it. Players can use the inside of their foot to take shots from a close range. Using the inside of the foot results in enhancing the shooting precision. When the situation is such that more strength is needed to hit the ball, ask the players to strike the ball using the instep of the foot, with toes pointed downwards and ankle locked.
How you position the non-kicking foot impacts the height of the shot. Therefore, ask the players to position the non-kicking foot ahead of the ball to keep the shot low. Ensure that there are no distractions such as moving balls, moving shooters, or defenders so that the players can focus only on striking the ball.
Kick start the drill progression in soccer practice games with the help of stationary ball and a striker. As the shooting techniques progress, increase the challenge by putting the shooter in action before he/she hits the ball. Such a shift will distract from the accuracy of the striking efforts at first, because the player’s visualization must serve a double purpose.
One, it helps the shooting player to get some space in the direction of the ball and two, it helps them manage their foot right where the ball is.
As players grow in confidence, increase the difficulty by putting both the shooter and the ball in a moving state. When they improve their shooting, throw the balls towards them at irregular speeds.
Here it is! Develop more opportunities for the players to score goals in soccer practice games and make the most of practice sessions. To know more about youth soccer and enhance your coaching skills, enroll for our youth soccer coaching community.
Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Fun Soccer Drills.