Score Goals Like a Pro – How to Improve Shooting as a Footballer
Homies, I hope you’re all having a fantastic week so far!
In this article, we are going to be sitting down to break down why shooting is such a valuable skill to have and how to improve it.
So, here’s what I suggest:
Grab yourself some coffee (better be an Americano ;)) or tea and a pen if you’d like to take some notes because we’re gonna get down to the nitty & gritty!
Shooting is indisputably one of the most important technical skills to develop in football, no matter your position.
Let’s think about it : which players are the most valuable for a coach and a club…
Who are those difference-makers than who can single-handedly win you games?!
More often than not, these are guys who can score goals and make something out of nothing!
If you check out the top 3 most valuable players in football right now, they’re all top class finishers :
1.Kylian Mbappé,
Worth: 180 Million
https://www.transfermarkt.com/kylian-mbappe/profil/spieler/342229
2.Erlind Haaland
Worth: 170 Million
https://www.transfermarkt.com/erling-haaland/profil/spieler/418560
3.Vinicius
Worth: 120 Million
https://www.transfermarkt.com/vinicius-junior/profil/spieler/371998
All three players are worth well over 100 million as per the website “transfermarkt.”
These are the guys that can put the team on their back and help their teams’ win games. These are guys that can be silent all game, and out of nowhere, they can show up and put 1-3 goals in the back of the net within 10 minutes.
Individually, on average, they can score at least 20 goals or more per season. That’s big time!
Anyways, I’m going to stop talking about others. The point of this article is to help you..
If you can score more goals, your value will increase, and more teams will want you because you can help them get 3 points on the weekend!
Not everything is about making money, it was just to prove a point.
But if you can score lots of goals, no matter what level you’re playing at, you will have a lot of fun playing the game.
I’m not sure about you, but one of the greatest feelings in the world is putting the ball in the back of the net!
But hey, I would say improving your shooting is definitely a worthwhile investment of your time, wouldn’t you agree?
If you learn to shoot the ball properly: your long balls will improve, your driven passes will improve, your curled passes will improve and your overall comfort on the ball will get better.
I don’t care if you’re a full-back, a center midfielder or a striker : it is very important to improve your ability to strike the ball.
With proper technique and consistent practice, you can make shooting second nature.
Master the Basics:
We always talk about the basics, and I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes right now..
It’s ok, I’m used to it.
No matter what you’re doing, building a solid foundation and perfecting the basics is the key to mastery!
So, our first goal is to master the fundamentals of shooting – from proper ball control to foot placement, body position and follow through – as well as tips for improving accuracy, power and consistency.
Gain insight into different types of shot techniques that will help you score more goals.
With this knowledge on how to improve your shooting as a footballer, I guarantee that you’ll take your soccer shooting game to the next level and gain that edge to impress any coach and have the ability to turn heads on the pitch!
And obviously, as I often say, footie just becomes more enjoyable to play when you can master all the different skills – including hitting a more accurate shot.
Ready to take your soccer shooting game to the next level? Let’s jump into it!
Overview of Shooting Technique Fundamentals
As I mentioned, shooting in football is one of the most important skills to have in your locker. With all this being said, there’s no need to overthink the process of how to train it.
In order to strike the ball accurately and powerfully, you first and foremost need a few key fundamentals.
Knowing these basics will help you improve your shooting technique and accuracy.
You with me?
Cool!
Let’s break them down together.
1. A solid non-kicking foot
When you prepare for a shot, make sure your standing foot is planted about a foot and a half away from the ball. To maintain balance and precision, ensure that your plant foot remains flat on the ground while slightly bending your knee as you swing your kicking foot through.
2.The correct body position
If you’re looking to hit a powerful, low to medium height, straight kick – usually from just outside the box – get your body over the ball and hit it right in the middle. This will make it hard for the keeper to handle it first time. Throw that opposite arm up for better balance.
For a shot with swerve on it – for instance if you’re inside the box and looking to beat the keeper with greater accuracy in the far corner – you’re going to want to lean back slightly and use your arms for balance.
Careful though my friend, you don’t’ want to lean back too much when making contact with the ball…
Or your gonna end up launching that ball into a parking lot and maybe breaking a windshield! Leaning back naturally drives the ball up, so find a happy medium.
3.Follow-through with your kicking leg
Follow-through is huge, no matter the type of shot you go for. Your job doesn’t stop once you’ve hit the ball.
After the strike, make sure your kicking foot follows a natural motion and finishes in front of your standing foot by rotating your hips.
This will make for a more controlled kick and it will increase the odds of beating the goalkeeper and defenders.
4.An athletic frame
Finally, to execute a powerful shot, you need your entire body.
Like we always talk about, your body is one chain! It doesn’t move independently, no matter what the meat head at your local gym says 😉
Your whole body is one single chain: so your lower and upper body as well as your core should be in sync for optimal balance when taking shots.
That balance comes with a proper strength training program in the gym.
Though, if you’re younger, I’m not saying you need that. Proper technique and contact with the ball matters much more!
By following these basic, yet crucial strategies for proper body positioning and follow through, you’ll definitely set yourself up for success, have better training sessions and be able to shoot with precision every single time.
Tips for Improving Shooting Accuracy, Power and Consistency
Before we get into this, I know this is boring in today’s “TikTokification” of society. But, you have to MAKE SURE YOU WARM UP before you train shooting.
I know you may be young. I don’t care. You need to do it.
Shooting is very very very hard and intense on your body. And if you don’t warmup properly (I don’t care how old you are), you will eventually get hurt!
The last thing I want you to do is get injured when doing individual training.
We train individually to improve for games and to impress during our matches.
So, if you get injured, that completely defeats the purpose!
If you don’t know how to warmup before training, here is a full warmup for you:
Don’t skip it!
I am watching you! 🙂
Now that you got the boring stuff out of the way and you know the basics of shooting in soccer, here are some tips to help you improve your shooting accuracy, power, and consistency!
5.Step-by-step, Quality > Quantity
Let’s compare shooting to taking your car out for a spin on a frosty winter morning..
When you back it up from your garage on a cold winter morning, you never just start accelerating the car at full throttle!
You have warm it up, start slow and make sure it’s working smoothly before ramping it up and getting on the autobahn!
It’s a similar process for improving your shooting.
Please don’t go out and erratically shoot from 10 different spots with no structure.
I want you to ease into your session.
Start on the 6-yard box, get confident striking the soccer ball in the same exact spot of the net every time perfecting the technique we talked about above.
Perfect the consistency of your shot from the short distances before moving backwards!
Eventually, take your shots from the penalty kick spot.
Finish off from the 18-yard box.
The goal is to build confidence with simplicity first before making it more complex.
Like we talked about before, your main focus should be on quality over quantity.
I would rather you hit 5 shots with quality from each distance rather than 15 shots with poor quality.
The goal is to always have a plan before you get to the field:
I would rather you hit 30 quality shots in a structured, shorter session than randomly shoot the ball from the edge of the box, then the PK spot and then corner flags for an hour and a half.
That’ll just increase your risk of injury and you’ll get less out of your sessions.
Remember..
We go out to train with a purpose to improve and get better!
6.Just go out and take shots (of course after a warmup ;))
This may sound super simple, but as we always talk about, “simplicity is genius!”
Practice makes perfect, it’s as simple as that!
Make sure to shoot as often as possible (with quality) – while listening to your body, of course.
Never overdo it as it can be very taxing on the body (hips and groin).
You can shoot at stationary targets at your local park or school.
Have teammates pass the ball back to you so that you can shoot into the corners.
Most importantly, get creative and enjoy yourself!
No need for a perfect professional full-sized goal setup.
Trust me. I know tons of pros who have never had the ideal ball, target, and overall training setup, yet, they made it to the top.
No excuses homie, you need to do what you can, where you are with what you have !
A beautiful playing field in South-East Asia : no excuses !
The Importance of Individual work:
The reality is, in a club team session, you can rarely focus on individually improving your shooting.
Most training drills revolve around making the team better as a whole.
So, that’s why you need to be training individually to supplement that team training!
Even as a striker, you may only take 10-15 shots in your club team training session.
That’s not nearly enough to improve.
This is why you should implement shooting soccer drills in your weekly individual workouts.
7.Use both feet:
This goes without saying..
You need to be able to shoot with both feet! It will make you so much more dangerous!
If you’re right-footed, don’t just shoot with your right foot.
When starting with your weak foot, it may feel awkward and funny at first.
You probably won’t be hitting a hard shot or getting the ball past the keeper every time.
But trust me, once you get through that phase and focus on applying the tips I discussed, your shooting power and accuracy with both feet will make you stand out! Improving that weak foot is key!
Here’s a quick short I made on how to improve your weak foot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFwz-y-tTVA
Think about it (I know I’m making you think a lot, that’s the point ):
What makes Dembele or Son such dangerous players?
Yup, they’re quick, they’re smart and technically unbelievable.
But, their shooting skills and overall comfort with both feet is what makes them a nightmare to defend against.
I’ve played loads of games as a fullback at a high level, and trust me : those types of wingers are the trickiest because it’s so hard to anticipate their moves and predict which direction they’re going to go.
Let me give you a quick personal example of how my weak foot has improved:
When I first went to Germany as a 20-year-old, I became best friends with another American guy and we would train about 5 hours a day (please don’t do this).
Besides the point, I remember he said to me, “dude, you’re a really good player, you played Division One, you have a lot of talent and potential, but your weak foot is just not good enough. If you want to play professionally, you need to make that weak foot as good as your strong foot.”
I’m a big “dark side motivation guy,” so, I took that critique and trained my weak foot so much that I would get sick of training it.
Where am I at today?
At 28 years of age, my left foot (used to be weak foot) is as good or better than my natural strong foot.
So, as I always say, with smart and hard work, anything is possible.
And I did that at 20 years old!
Very few players have this in their locker, so the sooner you start working with both feet, the better you will be!
I’m positive if you make your weak foot good enough, people will start asking you, “what is your preferred foot?
This will make a surprising impression on your coach, teammates and club supporters!
8.Study pros
Watching professional football matches and studying strikers is an excellent way to improve your ability to shoot the ball.
Notice how they change up their technique depending on their position on the pitch, or the weight of a pass given by a teammate for instance.
Pick up something from different strikers: for example:
Haaland, it might be his ability to kick the ball with more power from any position.
For Neymar, it might be his calmness in front of goal and body position to dummy the keeper and place the ball exactly where he wants every single time.
9.Mix it up !
Like we talked about before, shoot the ball from different distances.
This will help you practice shooting from various angles and positions on the pitch.
Shoot while running with the ball etc.
Basically, try to replicate as many game situations as possible.
Remember to shoot often and from different distances so that you can get used to various angles on the pitch.
Have fun with Soccer Shooting !
Learning how to shoot in soccer can be both rewarding and challenging. But it is also important to make shooting fun. Here are some tips on how to make shooting enjoyable:
10.Play games with teammates
Play shooting games with teammates – have a winger or fullback cross balls into the box and you finish.
Play the first to 5 goals and switch positions.
This will help you focus on the competitive edge you need to improve, while still just having fun.
11. Introduce rewards for goals scored
This will help motivate you to shoot more and have fun while doing it, especially if you’re playing small games with teammates.
For example, if you score a goal on the weekend, reward yourself with a meal you love for dinner or a warm piece of apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert ;)!
Finally, always remember to enjoy the game – soccer is supposed to be a fun sport so make sure to have a good time while practicing shooting.
A few last words for you !
Staying confident in your ability is crucial to be a good shooter!
Sometimes, shooting in football can become a mental game… If you miss a few shots, just make sure you focus on the next one and keep the mindset that you can finish with accuracy from any position on the pitch, especially as a striker! It can be as simple as picking your corner and passing that ball into the side netting.
Another thing you can do is visualize yourself scoring and each step of the specific action.
You can even can take yourself into the future by envisioning the celebration.
At the end of the day, I truly believe shooting is a fundamental part of footie, which can be improved through consistent, smart training.
If you trust the process and really focus on perfecting that kicking motion as we discussed, plus you implement the right drills from the RicFit Academy App, I can guarantee you will improve and reach higher levels. It’s up to you, my friend!
I guarantee you will improve your shooting as a soccer player if you carefully follow the steps in this article and you go out and put them into practice.
Remember, just reading an article does nothing for you!
You need to go out and train!
I hope this article helped you out.
I hope you’re loving the RicFit Academy App so far!
I have put my life’s work behind it. 24 Years of playing the beautiful game, 8 of those years playing overseas, 6 of those years, as a professional.
It’s the app I wish I had at 8 years old.
I didn’t start becoming “really good” on the ball until about 23-24 years of age.
If I had it at 6 years old and I had a mentor like myself at around 14 years old, I guarantee I would be playing in the premier league.
That’s the exact reason I built it.
I’m very happy I’ll be able to help a ton of players like you improve and reach new heights in the beautiful game!
I’d love for you to check it out. Here’s your 7 Day Free Trial:
https://www.ricfitacademy.com/
Love and health,
Ric