As the year progresses I like to add more functional activities to replace purely technical exercises. Not only do the players enjoy activities that are game related more I’ve also seen a greater transfer of training when I use them.

I prefer drills, exercises and games that are progressive; moving from low pressure to full pressure. They allow the player to have initial success but then be challenged by the ever increase pressure of Continue reading ‘Progressive Finishing Game’ »

I’ve always had a standing challenge to my teams (U13 and below), if they score a headed goal, I buy ice cream for the next practice. It’s been a way to encourage the players to try and score with their head if they can. This has been most successful with the girls teams I have coached. The extra incentive has become something that the team rallies around.

After spending a few weeks working on our combination play to score we played very well in our next games. Two of our three goals came from combinations in the middle of the field.

Another area that I’ve wanted to address Continue reading ‘Finishing from Volleys and Headers’ »

It was difficult to choose a winner in our recent shooting drills competition because we received so many good entries. In the end we picked this exercise from Dennis Hillyard of New York. We were looking for drills that were easy to understand, used equipment all coaches have access to, provided a lot of repetitions for the players, were scalable to larger and smaller numbers and provided progressions that could be used as the players develop. This exercise meets all of those criteria.

Shooting Competition – First Time Shooting
Continue reading ‘Shooting Drills Competition Winner’ »

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activities work on crossing and finishing.  There is a series of activities you can use in the DVD Winning Crossing & Finishing.

The field is 50 x 40 (the size can vary depending upon the level of the players) with goals on each end, a keeper in each goal, a server on each sideline and a line beside each goal.

The ball starts with one of the keepers and he throws the ball to one of the wide servers.

The first player in the line beside his goal sprints toward the other goal to receive an early serve for a first time shot

As soon as the shot it hit the keeper in that goal grabs a ball (or uses the same one if the ball was saved) and does the same thing in the opposite direction.

Next you can do the same thing but now have 2 runners.  Now the runners have to get organized for near post and far post runs.

You can also add a defender so the defender takes one of the runners and the server finds the other runner.

After doing this for awhile the next step is to play a small sided scrimmage on this same field but now, every time the keeper gets the ball he plays it wide and runs are made for the early serve.  You can also add the rule that whenever a team wins the ball they must play the ball wide within 3 touches and then runs and a serve is made (you would have a server from each team on each side).

This is a great way to work on keeper distribution, runs, crosses and finishes.

There is a series of activities you can use in the DVD Winning Crossing & Finishing.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity is the first step in working on finishing with combination play.

Start with groups of 3’s spread out 30 yards from goal.  Each player has a ball.  A keeper is in goal.

Player 1 starts by dribbling toward the top of the 18, making a move and Continue reading ‘Finishing With Combination Play – First Step’ »

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s activity involves finishing in a competitive environment.

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with two full sized goals and a keeper in each goal.  It’s 2 v 2 in the middle and in each attacking half there is a player on each sideline and a player on each part of the end line

In the diagram above the black team is attacking the top goal and the yellow team is Continue reading ‘Finishing In a Competitive Environment’ »

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on crossing and finishing.  There are many variations you can do with this activity.  To learn more, check out the DVD Tactics & Drills For Flank Play.

Start with 2 goals 25 yards apart.  There is a keeper in each goal and a server with balls behind each goal.  There are 3 sets of 2 attacking players to the side of each goal and 1 player out wide on each end line.  Use as much width as you can.

One server starts by playing the ball out wide.  The wide player has one touch to receive the Continue reading ‘Crossing and Finishing’ »

I’ve written about my teams transition to playing a 4-3-3 in previous posts. The process has been going really well. I’ve been very pleased with how we are defending with the system. This was a concern for me because I could see how we were going to be able to deal with the other team’s wide players. The girls have done well sharing this responsibility between the winger, attacking midfielders and wing backs.

We’ve been able to create a lot of offense using the wingers and wing backs getting forward. The player we haven’t used much is our center forward. The spaces in the middle have been so congested that it’s been easier to get the ball wide and attack from there.

This week I want to work on attacking combinations in the middle of the field. We have a number of good resources for this type of session. An article in the September Magazine Update to our Member Drills Database includes a great session from Jan Pruijn of Ajax International. The session was originally presented at the Nebraska WORLD CLASS COACHING International Coaching Seminar held last February in Lincoln, NE.

Another great resource is Player’s Roles in the 4-3-3. One of the two books focuses on Continue reading ‘Shooting from Central Areas in a 4-3-3’ »

When I work on shooting with my teams I like to create realistic situations that transfer easily into the real game. My favorite resource for these kind of exercises is a book by Chelsea Academy Coach, Michael Beale, called Training Creative Goalscorers.

This is the best book or dvd I’ve seen for exercises that engage the imagination of the players and motivate them to play at game speed and focus.

Having said that, my players will tell you that their favorite shooting game is one we call ‘Half-Line’. After we warm-up with some exercises that focus on the technique of shooting, we divide the team in two and put one goal at each end of an area that is the same size as two penalty areas. Since the size varies depending on the age of the players, this is a good reference point to use. A line of cones halfway between the two goals separates the teams. With younger teams, each team starts with two balls. With older teams we only use two balls to lessen the chance of someone being hit by a ball they didn’t see coming.

To begin with, the rules are fairly simple: shoot from your side of the field and score in the other team’s goal. Depending on the age and ability of the players, you can allow them to use their hands to save shots that are taken on their goal or you can say that they must defend the goal by clearing the ball as a field player would. The first team to score 10 goals wins.

There are a whole list of alternative rules that you can use to focus on whatever skills you’d like. Here’s a list of just a few:

• If a ball is caught, the shooter must sit out until his team scores or catches a ball shot by the other team.
• If a ball is received cleanly (no bounce) by the defender, the shooter must sit out until his team scores or a teammate receives a ball cleanly.
• The ball must be rolling when you hit it.
• You can only shoot a ball that has been passed to you by another player.

As the first progression, we take one player from each team and put them on the other side of the field as a forward who is also responsible for pressuring the other team’s shooters. If the forward wins the ball from the other team he can finish it. His teammates can pass to the forward for him to finish. If the forward is under pressure and unable to shoot, he can pass it back to his teammates on the other side.

Next, we allow the player who passed the ball to the forward to support his pass and move into the attacking third of the field. This run makes the game more realistic and allows for the forward to combine with another player in order to score. The second attacker is allowed to stay in the attacking half until the ball he passed in is played back to side of the field so now there is more pressure on the team to move the ball to open space to create the chance to shoot or pass to their forward.

This final progression adds an additional forward but still allows a player to support his pass to the forwards, putting three players in the attacking half.

Do you have any other progressions that could be used with this game? What shooting games or exercises do you use to transfer shooting technique into finishing skill?