Scoring goals is an art that not many football/soccer players possess.
Some argue that it all comes down to talent but I personally think it is a skill you can develop just like any other.
Of course, talent plays a huge role in order to fit into the .1% of elite football/soccer players, but you can definitely develop the art of scoring goals by training and studying the game deliberately.
So in today’s video, we will discover 4 ways you can start scoring more goals + a BONUS tip that almost no football/soccer player is doing.
CONFIDENCE
To start things off, the first reason I think most football/soccer players struggle with scoring goals is a lack of confidence.
Sports psychology experts always like to preach that half of the battles in football are won with the mind; be it a 1v1 or a goalscoring chance. And to be honest, if you’ve played a decent amount of games in your life you gotta agree with this.
As the years go by and you become a more “mature” and experienced player, your self-belief and abilities naturally increase.
That is a byproduct of the work you have put in but also the experience you gained playing.
What you basically wanna do is start cultivating that confidence and self-belief as early as possible.
There are lots of ways you can do that but you can focus on two in particular.
#1 Build the skill of goalscoring at practice.
As “easy” and distant from mental training as this sounds, building certainty around a skill allows you to be more successful and score more goals. This in turn will lead to even greater confidence.
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It basically is a chain reaction.
Practice.
Score.
Gain confidence and you repeat that cycle.
And, #2 visualize specific goal-scoring scenarios and gain certainty.
Essentially, visualization is a mental training tool where you create a series of images inside your mind performing a specific skill or solving a specific game problem with detail.
You’re basically gaining more awareness and clarity about game problems you will face during a game before even you even bump into them in real life.
Many players underestimate the power of visualization but once you realize that you’re actually TRAINING without consuming energy and spending hours, it can really become a game-changer for you.
NOT IN THE MOOD TO READ? WATCH THE VIDEO!
IMPROPER POSITIONING
Now, let’s move on to more game-specific reasons; you might be positioning yourself improperly.
What does this mean though?
Positioning is a matter of timing and creating or exploiting space.
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If one of those two or even both are off, you will probably miss the chance of scoring a goal.
Positioning simply is one of those key traits that make an elite attacker stand out.
They just seem to always be at the right place and at the right time to score.
But how do they do this?
Well, positioning is a complex skill to master and develop because it is a multifactorial skill that depends on your tactical knowledge and experience, your off-the-ball movement and manipulation skills, and of course, how your opponents like to structure their defensive actions.
As a rule of thumb though, constantly try to expand your knowledge of the game. Analyze matches and elite players, read books on tactical theories and ideas, and get direct feedback on a weekly basis from your coach.
Furthermore, analyze your opponents in advance and discover the way they function as a defensive unit as well as the usual patterns that they follow.
And of course, learn how to use your body in a manipulative way when you’re out of possession.
HERE’S A VIDEO ON BECOMING UNPREDICTABLE IN FOOTBALL/SOCCER
BAD SHOOTING TECHNIQUE
Next up I wanted to touch upon your shooting technique.
As you might know from our other articles on skill development (click here), the base of any skill is technique.
If the technique of your goalscoring actions is messed up or inconsistent, you’re simply lowering the chances of scoring.
That is why when you’re on a goalscoring drought, you have to approach the problem from every possible angle; the most important one being your shooting technique in various game-specific scenarios and not just stationary shooting.
Evaluate your technique in specific gameplays and try to compare it to the quote-on-quote technical standards. But since this isn’t applicable to all situations though because you know, different game scenarios require different shooting techniques, you might as well compare yourself to elite players.
Get game footage of yourself, study it religiously, compare, and analyze to find what’s off and what needs fine-tuning.
Then, implement those solutions at training so you can start shooting better subconsciously when it’s crunch time.
If you’d like to discover how to sharpen up your shooting technique and start scoring more, just click here to access our technical guide on shooting – not only as a technical aspect but as a *skill*.
NOT TAKING ENOUGH SHOTS
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take
Now, another major reason you might be scoring less is that you’re not pulling the trigger enough.
It’s basic statistics.
The more shots you take, the higher the chances of scoring more goals.
Quantity can make a difference.
Having said that, I don’t want you to start firing shots like a maniac just because you have the ball.
This part is for those of you that always hesitate to take the shot when the ball reaches your feet.
That split-second doubt, where you’re second-guessing your decision to take a shot is more than enough to lead to a failed attempt.
Hesitancy will lead to unnecessary touches and unnecessary touches will increase the chances of losing the ball or getting defended properly.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you should be a one-touch striker all of the time, but the fact that delaying your actions gives defenders and keepers more time to recover and adjust is true.
So please, try acting more instinctively at practice and games because, you know, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
BONUS – YOU’RE NOT FOLLOWING THE PLAY
And to expand this further into the bonus tip I promised you, you also miss 100% of the balls you don’t follow.
Let me be more specific here.
Those tap-in goals you see elite-level players scoring all the time aren’t a matter of luck.
There’s no magic potion that teleports them to the right place and at the right time just to score a “simple” tap-in.
Yes, I get it, tap-ins don’t necessarily require technically skilled players but their positioning must be elite level.
They have to anticipate a possible deflection of the ball either by the keeper or an opponent and follow the play until the E-N-D instead of standing there, waiting for their teammate to finish the job or the ball to magically land at their feet.
By simply following the trajectory of the ball in each shooting play, you can EASILY score tap-ins and add another 5 goals to your scoring sheet each season, and I mean EASILY.
So if there’s one thing I want you to keep in mind from this article it is exactly this; FOLLOW THE PLAY UNTIL THE END – DO NOT GIVE UP.
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