Hi Stephen Ford ,

Have you tried practicing it under the disguise of working on something else? For example - 1 v 1's / 2 v 1's / 2 v 2's etc playing to a finish with your goalkeeper in the goal? Framing it as something else may help the girls to relax about their finishing a little more. 1 v 1's / 2 v 1's / 2 v 2's etc will provide lots of opportunities for attacking and getting shots off at the goal. 

Also consider working with bigger overloads (and spaces) when attacking - e.g. 4 v 2, 5 v 3 as this should provide opportunity for the attacking team to create more opportunities to shoot at goal. 

Breakout games may also be effective - e.g. where a certain number of passes are made in an area before then releasing players to go through with forward runs and finish at goal.  

Basically, try to keep all finishing opportunities match realistic and repetitive. I guess there may be some value in some unopposed shooting too, but I would keep this to a minimum (e.g. when warming up as mentioned) as players are rarely in 'unopposed' situations in matches. 

Maybe try the penalty box shooting game as well - 3 teams, 2 teams in the box competing against each other with the other on the outside as support players. Again, lots of opportunities to shoot. 

Just keep working at it - fun and repetition is the key! One day, if you keep creating the chances it will all fall into place - maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe next year! Be patient and good luck - let us know how its going!

Thanks,
Adam. 

Is the issue that the shots are not on target or just straight at the keeper?

We did as the above but added in different targets, so created a zone in a goal (market by using a pole or a cone) that scored more points than an open goal. It made the players think about where they were trying to put the ball rather than aimlessly hitting it at the goal. 

We also introduced the three Cs for them, control, composure, corners. So they could have a mantra to remind themselves as we had an issue with just panicking in front of goal. We spent time with them on good ball striking. 

overloads are great, sometimes we’d go back to absolute basics though and just have no defenders to let them get used to a drill and to concentrate on ball striking, then add in the defenders to make it match realistic. 

Is the issue that the shots are not on target or just straight at the keeper?

We did as the above but added in different targets, so created a zone in a goal (market by using a pole or a cone) that scored more points than an open goal. It made the players think about where they were trying to put the ball rather than aimlessly hitting it at the goal. 

We also introduced the three Cs for them, control, composure, corners. So they could have a mantra to remind themselves as we had an issue with just panicking in front of goal. We spent time with them on good ball striking. 

overloads are great, sometimes we’d go back to absolute basics though and just have no defenders to let them get used to a drill and to concentrate on ball striking, then add in the defenders to make it match realistic. 

Hi Euan,

Thanks for your response.

There are a few issues. The girls do tend to hit straight at the keeper, or rush their strike whilst off balance. Some of them struggle to generate any sort of power.

I like your 3 C's idea. I think that is a good consistent message we can use both in training and in match team talks.

I will find something to mark the corners of the goals and award more points for hitting it in training. Hopefully they can take that into matches.

The girls are such good listeners I'm sure they'll take it on board. They are so good in fact that I feel huge responsibility to deliver the right messages to them.

For example I think the reason they may be rushing their shots is because I'm training I've been trying to get them to recognise the opportunity to shoot and encouraging them to take it before it disappears!