Coaching Corner: Realistic Shooting Exercise
By Jeff Tipping, NSCAA Director of Coaching Education
  (from the NSCAA Coaching Newsletter - July 7th, 2005)

      Too many coaches line players up to shoot at the goal and expect players to be able to adjust to the many situations they find themselves in when shooting in a real game. A far better and more realistic approach would be for coaches to use penalty box exercises in which players in and around the penalty box receive balls under pressure, frequently facing the wrong way and off balance and are expected to swivel and get a shot off. The following exercises are a good way for coaches to put players in more realistic shooting situations.

     Three attackers are situated in the penalty box just off the 18-yard line. There are flank players on both sides of the box near the touchlines and a central midfield player 10-15 yards off the top of the box. The ball begins with the central midfield player who can either feed the ball into the forwards or play the ball to the flank players. If the ball goes to the forwards, they must shoot on the second touch. If the ball goes to the flank players they must serve the ball in and the forwards must shoot the ball first time.

      The second stage is that the forward inside the penalty box who takes the first touch cannot score, which means that the ball must be laid off to another one of the forwards to shoot. The coach keeps track of how many goals the unit of three can score in a minute.

     The third stage is adding three defenders to mark the three forwards. The forwards can score any way they wish. In this particular exercise when the defenders win the ball or the goalkeeper saves it, the ball goes back to the center midfield player and the players’ roles in the penalty box switch (Attackers become defenders, defenders become attackers).

     The major benefit to these penalty box exercises is that they replicate what really happens in a game with balls being played into forwards where they have to receive them at numerous angles. It is a much more realistic environment than simply lining players up outside the penalty box to take shots.
 

  Web Administrator    Ken Gamble