5 Football shooting drills for this season

-February 5, 2020

All players love football shooting drills. They are a great way to finish your training sessions and have fun. This post discusses five classic shooting drills you should use this season.

Preparing for the drills

We strongly recommend leaving shooting drills for the end of the training session or at least warm-up, focusing on the thighs and hamstrings. Shooting when your muscles are cold is a recipe for disaster, especially the older you get. Also, ensure your players don’t start kicking the ball as soon as they arrive on the grounds.

You will need many balls, cones, and a goal for all the drills below. You don’t need top-of-the-line balls for these exercises. However, train with the same make of balls used for the tournaments you play when possible. Cones and goals are ideal, but you can use anything as markers: jumpers, backpacks, rocks, etc.

Simple shooting drill – Pass and shoot

This is a classic exercise for goalkeepers, midfielders and strikers. This simple shooting drill focuses on shooting technique and a good first touch. It is quite a free-flowing exercise, and players often focus on shooting with their strongest foot. This is the progression:

A line of players is waiting for their turn. The first player in the line passes the ball to the server and indicates where they want the ball shouting “right” or “left”.
a. The server player stays on the edge of the box. When they receive the ball, they return it inside the box to the side indicated by the shooter. Receiving and passing must be completed in two touches.
b. Immediately after passing the ball to the receiver, the shooter runs towards the spot indicated to the server.
The shooter shoots at the goal. Only two touches are allowed. The first touch is to stop and set up the ball, and the second touch is for shooting. Once the shot is taken, the player must return with the players waiting for their turn at shooting.

Every 5 minutes, swap the server for a different player to allow them a chance to practice their shooting skills.

Shooting with both feet

This shooting drill is very similar to the pass-and-shoot drill. In fact, it is a pass-and-shoot drill. The main differences are that there are two lines of shooters, and the shooters do not choose where the ball will go. Instead, they shoot from the side of their line: shoot with the right foot if coming from the right and with the left foot if coming from the left. Once players finish their turn, they move to the opposite line where they came from. This way, players practice shooting with both feet.

Shooting box

This football shooting drill focuses on shooting the ball quickly after receiving a pass with their back to the goal. This exercise is great for grabbing the opposition defence and goalkeeper off guard. You need 3 serving lines and a player inside a box formed by cones outside the penalty box. The progression goes as follows:

The player on the left (station 1) passes the ball to the shooting player in the box.
The player in the box turns and shoots to the goal. The movement has to be completed in two touches.
Repeat the same exercise involving stations 2 and 3.
Once the shooting player has received the ball from all stations, they move to station 1, the player in station 3 moves to the shooting box, and the rest move to the following station in an anti-clock sequence.

Block the shot

This drill is a fun game for players and goalkeepers. First, you need to create a small field of two penalty boxes with goals on each side. Then, use cones to split the field in two. Three players and one goalkeeper are on each team. Players stay on their side of the field and cannot cross the centerline. The attacking players must pass the ball using only two touches and create an opening to get a clear shot. The team defending will try to block the shot.

The next team to shoot will depend on where the ball lands after it is blocked. If it lands in the defending field, the defending team will take a turn at shooting. However, if goalkeepers catch the ball, they will pass it to a teammate to take a shot.

This exercise requires players to make quick passes and shots to score. Defenders should also be quick to block shots and minimize shooting opportunities.

Pass, shoot and header

This is a good shooting practice drill to practice 3 skills at once: passing, shooting and headers. You need three stations: shooting players and 2 lines of servers. This is the progression:

A line of shooting players waits outside of the penalty box. The first player in the line runs towards the penalty spot.
a. A player in station 2 sets a pass between the penalty spot and the edge of the box.
b. The running player receives the ball and shoots to the goal in only two touches.
a. As soon as the running player completes a shot, the player in station 3 kicks a lofted pass aiming at the head of the shooting player.
b. The shooting player attempts a header.

Repeat the progression for about 5 minutes and change serving players in stations 2 and 3 to allow them to practice.

I hope you find these football shooting drills useful. If you like them, please share this post with your friends. You can see more fun exercises in our drills section.

Pablo Matamoros

I am a software engineer with 25+ years of experience across diverse industries. I've climbed the corporate leader over the years, which has some benefits but means I moved away from my love for tinkering with technology. So, I build the odd website or application to keep learning and stay in touch with technology. FootballTechniques allows me to combine my programming knowledge with my passion for football.

To find out more about my professional experience, visit PabloMatamoros.com