DEVOLOPING SKILLS

The major coaching points that I will be looking into for my sport (football) are the attacking and defending skills, which are essential to the game.

I am first of all going to start with the attacking side of football and what players skills will involve in this area of the game are as follows:

ATTACKING

.   Shooting for goal. This comprises of many demands, which I will be going into

    Detail about.

.   Dribbling.

.   Beating your opponent. This co-insides with dribbling.

.   Heading the ball.

SHOOTING

The great saying here for strikers or any attacking player is if you do not shoot to often enough you will never score. The key issue of an attacking game is being able to score if given the chance; the best way in doing so is to place the ball into the net with great power. The way in which you do this is by pointing the non-striking foot towards the target and draw back the other foot. To then get the greater accuracy use the wide area of your foot, which is in the inner side and is called, the instep. Then finally with a good firm contact try to steer the ball as far away from the keeper as possible. But at times the passing shot is not available due to where you are on the pitch, and the keepers position. This is where you must be able to adapt your shooting technique to these conditions. It also gives you an element of surprise so the keeper cannot read where or how you are going to shoot.

Instead of going for the pass into the net you can bend it around the keeper, which is a very good skill to have in your locker when shooting. To bend the ball strike it with the lower instep just on the side of the ball. In this action you have to almost wrap your foot around it to get it spinning through the air, but the results can be great. With striking the ball with the outside of the foot, near the toes it will make the ball bend away. To create more power with this shot you hit it harder at the rim of the sole of the boot.

As a striker you must always be aware of the keepers position as it you have a chance to shoot when the keeper is out of position it can be easier for you to score. A good example of this is when the keeper drifts of his goal line. With good technique and vision the attacker can exploit this by using the chip shot, which is where you lift the ball over the keepers head with a short sharp stab at the bottom of the ball. Another type of a shot like this is called the lob. This is when the ball is in the air instead of being situated on the ground. The idea is the same with you wanting to put the ball over the keeper’s head, but the technique varies. Here the attacker keeps his eye on the ball and uses his arm for balance and with using the laces of the boot he shoots with his leg following through.  

Another shot that can be used to catch the keeper out is the long shot; this again is for element of surprise. For this shot to be successful it needs to have power as well as accuracy. For this to happen good composure and connection is needed. Normally when hitting a long shot you will either hit it hard in the middle to drill it low along the ground, or go straight underneath the ball to make it shoot through the air, which with power can produce swerve and bend.

Volleying is a powerful weapon with the right technique, as usually when they are on target the power makes them virtually unstoppable. There are basically two types of volleying, front on volley and side on volley.

The technique of a front volley is to connect with the laces and let your leg extend through from the ankle. Make sure you are hitting the middle or bottom of the ball to keep the shot under control.

For the side volley draw back your kicking leg as the ball drops to around hip height, you position your body so it is slightly leaning away, and then keeping eyes on the ball have your arms outstretched for balance and make contact with the widest part of your boot (instep). The follow through is crucial and for the volley to be successful you must kick parallel to the ground and rotate your hips for maximum power. As if the body is leaning to far back the contact with the ball is less meaning the shot is less controllable and can fly of uncontrollably. For a volley to go down just make sure the ball drops below waist height and keep a low follow through. So the key issues for this skill is good timing, balance, body positioning and agility.

Obviously the defending team will always be trying to decrease your time to shoot and opportunity to get a shot in. At times the only way in getting a shot in is to shoot on the turn. This is a shot, which must be executed in a very short space of time. For the shot you must first of all get in a good position to hold the defender off and keep them guessing to what you are going to do next. As the ball comes into you, lean your body slightly against the defender and turn your body against his in a rolling action doing so rolling the ball with you with the outside of the foot with the arms used for leverage. Now you have your body between the ball and defender and now you have a crucial yard in which to unleash before the defender gets himself between the goal and you. Another shot used when your back is to the goal is the overhead kick an action, which again will surprise the opposition. With this shot you must remember to put your hands out, for when you land on you’re back on the floor to protect yourself from injury. The technique is to either kick from side to side or straight depending on where the ball is in the air and your foot should be at full stretch. The non-shooting foots, knee should be bent and you then should lean backwards helping to launch yourself into the air. Your shooting foot then follows through with your toe on top of the ball connecting with the ball.

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The final shooting technique I will look at is the, one on one with the keeper. The can be daunting if not in the right frame of mind. All you have to do is remember.

The keeper will be trying to stand up as long as possible and will want you to make the first move. All you have to do is to keep him guessing as long as possible and make him make the first move and the task of scoring is made so much easier.      

     1.  One way ...

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