Soccer Shooting Exercises

In our last post on Instep Drive Shooting called "Soccer Coaching - Shooting Instep Drive", we walk you through body positioning, foot positioning and body movements to strike the soccer ball with the instep of the foot (shoe laces). Now I will go over some Soccer Instep Shooting Exercises that will give you ideas to practice the instep drive with your team.

1. Start by having the players dropkick the ball into the goal from various angles and distances. The dropkick will allow the young player to get a good feel for the proper striking spot on the foot (instep) and the ball (center of ball). The dropkick will also work on timing of kicks.

2. Next, have the players shoot stationary balls from the ground from various angles and distances. The stationary ball on the ground will help the players get the feel of proper distance from the ball as well as placement of kicking feet.

3. Now that the players have progressed from the first two shooting exercises, have the player roll the ball at an angle away from their body towards their kicking foot side to strike the instep drives. Have the players start with a slow rolling ball with a slow approach at first and as they get comfortable striking slow balls, have them roll the ball a bit quicker with a quicker approach to strike the ball.

4. Next, instead of the player rolling the ball to themselves, have the coach roll a slow pass to the players kicking side and have the player strike a ball that is rolling towards them. Having a good slow pace on the ball towards the players kicking foot will allow a fairly strong kick if the players timing and body movements are correct. Make sure ankle is locked and toe is pointed down.

5. Have the players shooting moving balls combined with short and long distance dribbling, begin slow and increase speed as the player gets comfortable.

6. Have the players shoot from passes received from a teammate. You can modify the angles, number of passes and shooting distance as needed.

7. Have the players shoot from combination pass from a teammate.

8. Have the players shoot from a cross from the outside of the field.

9. Shoot while under pressure from a defender on a 1v1 plus a keeper situation. Here is a good soccer drill that is fast pace and can be tweaked to work on 1v1 shooting game.

10. Shoot from the volley or half volley from different angles and distances. This can be accomplished easily as the coach tosses the ball from their hands to the players kicking foot. This is for more experienced soccer players.

11. Shooting volleys or half volleys from flighted balls or crosses.

Here are a couple good soccer shooting drills that I found on the web:
Power Fineness with a Twist
Trap and Shoot Game
Half-Volley for Shooting Technique and Power
The Corner Shot