Shooting Games

This thread was on my own personal Twitter the other day. It will explain some of the rationale behind the exercises in this PDF, which is downloadable here for £5.

I started coaching in 2008. It wasn't until 2014 in Mexico that the penny finally dropped. Constraints lead approach, games based, teaching games for understanding etc. I was playing this game with U7 boys, and it all clicked.

At that point, I had worked in USA, Canada, Kuwait, Singapore, as well as Mexico and England. I'd had a crack at the UEFA B by then, and done all three FA youth modules. I even had a degree in football studies. So much knowledge and experience, yet it took years to make sense.

I had an hour session with them. Twelve showed up. Our club had recently bought lots of goals. I had intended to do this kind of exercise for only around fifteen minutes or so, but did it for the entire time.

While observing them in this activity, I noticed so many things were happening. It was by far the most engaged they had ever been. There was a language barrier, and a wide range of abilities in that group. Even matches and simple exercises would not always work with them.

But we played this game, and they were loud, energetic, playing with 100% intensity, and even the weak and dopey players were joining in and having a great time, when often it was hard to prevent them pulling their shorts down (true story).

Three balls between twelve players. A ball to player ratio of 1:4. That's a very good ratio for engagement. Far better for sharing, touches, actions, and interactions.

Usually, if the weak player couldn't tackle the strong player, they would give up and play with the grass. Having three balls almost turned it into having three weight categories within the same royal rumble.

Players love scoring goals. It's the best part of football. Now, each player had three goals to shoot in. Plenty of opportunities for goal scoring, plenty of repetitions. And the variety of repetitions. Not just 100 shots, but 100 different shots.

There were volleys, dribbles, rebounds, long shots, one touch finishes, fake shots. Just about every type of goal was being scored by all players. Left, right, and head too for many of the stronger ones.

Competition is always important. It's always hard to keep score in this type of exercises, but the kids didn't care. The competition they were most interested in was showing what they could do with the ball, trying to one-up someone who got them, looking for retribution.

Each team may have scored fifty goals each, but what the players talked about after was "did you see that goal?" "Did you see my skill?" They don't know who "won" in the conventional sense, but they do know who kicked the most ass.

Although it was a shooting game, it was during this observation that I noticed what else was going on. The "hidden curriculum." They were passing, dribbling, tackling, heading, saving, controlling, using skills, making a whole variety of decisions.

It was chaotic, but with a structure, like a real football game. 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 2v1, 3v2, 3v1, 1v2, 1v3, 2v3 all over the place, from all angles, with recovery runs, support runs. Relevant, but changing and dynamic pictures were being presented to the kids.

That's when I learnt the true meaning of "the game is the best teacher." Not the bastardised version Americans believe of putting them into a match and shutting up. No. It's that if you play football, they learn football (conditioned games rather than drills).

I could tell them to shoot across goal, use the laces etc. but it would fall on deaf ears (especially as their English and my Spanish was limited). If I put them into a game with lots of realism, and lots of repetitions, they would gather feedback through trial and error.

Then I could monitor to see what I could praise, and where I could offer advice. And it wouldn't be through stop stand still interventions, but personalised, individual feedback, relevant and specific to a situation that actually happened, rather than one I NEEDED to coach.

I started to think about what I could do to challenge players. What if one team was conceding more goals than the others? Rather than making players switch teams, I could have flipped the goal over, so the opponents were shooting in the short side.

I could have offered double points for scoring against the team that was clearly the best at defending. It could have been that only goals scored with the weaker foot, one touch, or in the air count versus the weakest team.

All this manages the difference, and keeps it within that band of competitiveness, perhaps the warm porridge of competitiveness, that kids need in order to be engaged.

What I would do a lot of was to put cones in the corners of the goal, awarding extra points for slotting it in the corner. It reinforces positive behaviour, without taking away the possibility of scoring in other parts of the goal if that is the best option.

Sometimes I would change the angle of the goal. This would begin to simulate and therefore favour approaching and shooting from different angles and distances.

Sometimes there might be a futsal or a size 1 as well. This would add variation, keeping it interesting, giving them different tasks to navigate. This could also be a way of challenging them in ways that were appropriate to their level of development.

The possibilities are seemingly endless. The point is, do football, keep all the players involved, manage difficulty levels.

But what fascinates me here is that it took me six years of coaching, and thousands of pounds spent on education to get to this point. It's also why we can't use experience or qualification level as an absolute measure of quality.

Sure, there is a correlation between license and ability, but it is not necessarily a causal relationship. In my experience, the best sign of competency in a coach is curiosity. Is a coach still willing to learn and improve? Regardless of the level, that matters most.

I have always been incredibly suspicious of colleagues who don't read, listen to podcasts, attend CPD or courses, and show no real interest in growth and development.

The vast majority of my colleagues have been young men without major time commitments besides coaching. So many level 2 coaches working abroad who have found their level, and carved a comfortable cave for themselves in a far away land.

Nevertheless, my 2014 CV looked quite impressive. Yet, my understanding was a fraction of what I currently know. And I hope to never stop growing.

What's in the PDF?

Good question. It starts off with a bit of theory. In here, we look at what is important when creating shooting exercises, and what things to consider when coaching them. Shooting, like passing, is a sending skill, so much of the same principles apply. The biggest difference is really the pressure associated with missing the goal as opposed to missing a pass. Missing a pass is not as obviously catastrophic to the layman as missing a goal is, yet that missed pass could be the pass that leads to the opposition scoring.

The typical shooting line drill is ripped on heavily, and deservedly so. In this PDF, there are 43 exercises, so you never have to resort to this nonsense again. You'll also, hopefully, be able to come up with your own that are appropriate to your players.

Here are examples of some of the exercises.