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Shooting Drill

A good practice to start with for your first touch is to set up players around the circle. 8 is a good number for this practice. 1 player goes into the circle, 6 players spread around the circle with 2 balls each. 1 player rests. Place a cone approximately 12 yards out from the goal. The player in the circle is the player who will be doing all the shooting.

1. The player doing the shooting starts on the cone. To start the practice they must run to to the top of the

circle to receive a pass inside the dotted area.

2. Player 1 passes to the player shooting, inside the dotted box, with a hit pass.

3. The shooter has to receive the ball and with their first touch, put the ball into a position where a goal shot can be taken quickly.

4. The shooter must then run in and touch the cone again, before returning to the top of the circle to receive the ball from the next feeder.

5. This is repeated until the shooter has received 2 passes from all 6 feeders.

6. The shooter then rests. The player who rested goes to feeder number 1 position, and the other feeders all rotate anti-clockwise and feeder number 6 becomes the shooter. You do this until everybody has had a turn.

If you really want to learn from this practice;

Make sure that you keep the intensity of your running and goal shooting hard and fast for every one of your shots, not just the first couple.
Make sure you shoot from where the ball lies. Don't take the ball 2 or 3 yards closer to the goal before you shoot.
If your first touch is bad, don't give up. This is actually when you are more likely to score, if you are quick to react and change your shooting technique to put the ball at goal, i.e. instead of hitting try flicking or pushing the ball, you can catch defenders sleeping and still score.
It is not the speed of the ball that will score the goal, but the speed of the shot. Shooting early does 2 things. Firstly it does not give defenders time to make tackles. Secondly it catches the keeper before he is ready and gives you more chances of success.
It is important to note that 90% of field goals come from rebounds. If your shot goes wide it means nothing. If you hit the target, then you double the teams chances of scoring a goal. When I coach this practice, firstly I look to see who hits the target the most, and secondly I look for the players who are the most effective with their last 4 or 5 shots, as this is more realistic to real game play.

This practice can also be done 7-8 yards out from goal. No hitting is allowed to make it game like and the feeders are brought closer in. This is to simulate the more realistic chances players have in games, which are shots from this distance under pressure.