 Being a good shooter and a good goal scorer are two totally different things. In this video I will teach you how to improve your finishing and confidence in front of goal. Before I show you some on-field examples, you should understand that goal scoring starts with your mind and your movement. Every time you step on the field have the desire to score regardless of your position. You want to score goals. You are going to put yourself in those situations where you can score and when you get your chances you are going to finish them. Obviously a striker will get more chances than a fullback in a match, but whatever your position have the need and want to score goals. Have a desire to score more goals in your individual training, your team practices and your matches. Always aim higher and expect more. How many goals did you score last year? This year you're going to beat that number. Good goal scorers are greedy. Obviously there's a difference between being greedy in front of goal and being stupid. If your teammate is wide open waiting for a tap in at the back post, give him the ball. However, if you get space in and around the box and you know you should shoot, take the shot. Don't pass up on shooting and goal scoring opportunities. You will always regret it. If you do miss a chance, shake it off and immediately go searching for the next goal scoring opportunity. Dwelling on a missed chance or stressing over the past will not help you score more goals in the future. Get over your mistake, learn from it and go searching for more goals. Great goal scorers are consistently in the right spot at the right time. In the defending tutorial we talked about reading and anticipating the play rather than reacting. You want to think about doing the same thing when you're attacking especially when it comes to scoring goals. You want to anticipate where your teammate is going to put the ball and you need to get there at the right time. You want to anticipate that maybe defenders are going to screw up and make mistakes. So instead of always reacting to what happens, you want to anticipate where the ball is going to be. If you want 12 weeks of in-depth coaching covering every area of player development, daily follow-along training routines to improve your skills, fitness and confidence, 12 weeks of professional match analysis and access to every advanced course I've created in the past, check out the link in the description below. Scoring goals isn't so much about technique. It's about being in the right spot at the right time. Your movement is extremely important when it comes to scoring goals. Now you don't have to be the fastest player. You don't have to have blistering pace, but you do need to be quick and sharp with your movement. So first of all, get light on your toes. Be ready to react and anticipate that there's an opportunity coming. When the time is there to attack the ball, you need to be quick and sharp with your movement. If you're flat-footed, waiting for the ball to come to you, you're not going to score many goals. But if you're quick on your feet, you're quicker to think than the defender, you're quicker to move than the defender, you're going to get on the end of crosses, you're going to find open space to get off shots and you're going to be scoring more goals more frequently. So think about your anticipation, gambling on misplaced passes, gambling on defenders making mistakes, anticipating where your teammates are going to put the ball and getting there at the right time. And then focus on the sharpness and quickness of your movement. If you're flat-footed, standing, waiting for the ball, it's not going to get to you. But if you're light on your toes, you're going to the ball, you're quicker than the defender, you're thinking faster than the defender, you're moving in front of the defender, then you're going to score more goals. I want to talk to you about creating space to get your shots off and thinking a little quicker around the top of the box and in good goal scoring areas. So number one, if you receive the ball, just go back a little bit for me, if you receive the ball and you have space around the top of the box, you don't have to beat the defender, okay? You can just turn and get the shot off. So if he's not going to close me down, don't feel like, okay, there's a defender, I have to get past him or I have to do a move in order to get my shot off. If there's space, do not hesitate to take your shots early. Now saying that if he comes a bit closer to me, he's not giving me space to get my shot off, I have to be a little more creative. I have to create space for myself and I can do that in two ways. So go back a bit, just make sure in here. Okay, so number one, I want you to think about, like we talked about, with using your body and protecting your space, owning your space, stealing some of his space, I can make a little space for myself with my body. So if that ball is coming in, I can push off him and turn on him like this. If you want 12 weeks of in-depth coaching, covering every area of player development, daily follow along training routines to improve your skills, fitness and confidence, 12 weeks of professional match analysis and access to every advanced course I've created in the past, check out the link in the description below. Now I have space and I can either go right or left and now I'm in control, okay? If he's going to stay tight to me, so again I'll try to make a bit of space, but if he's strong, he's not letting me any. Now I have to think about how can I turn with my first touch or create a little bit of space because if I'm just stopping that ball dead, it's not very likely that I'm going to be able to take my second touch or my third touch and get a shot off. Let's show an example. Okay, so if I'm receiving this my first touch, now he's already pushing me back, I'm losing my momentum. So you need to think a little bit quicker, play that ball in. I want to think about either first touch turning, okay, or obviously you can turn the other way. Okay, but making a little bit of space with your first touch, okay? So you need to think a bit quicker and think, can I put my first touch into space to get a shot off? Now let's talk about when I get turned on him, let's say I'm facing him, so say I made a bit of space or I received it into space. Okay, don't feel like you have to do so many moves, special moves to get past him. If I can just put it to one side and hit the ball, just quickly shift it out of your feet and hit it. Okay, now saying that if he's going to stay with me, so again, sorry, say I'm turned, give me a bit of space. Say that I'm turned and I do try to shift it quickly. Okay, and he stays, it's a great idea to do a fake shot, something like that. Okay, so when you're in these situations, think about being direct, if he gives you space, take the space, take the shot on. If he's really tight to you, think about creating a bit of space, either with your body pushing him away or your first touch into space quickly, when you are faced to him, hit the ball one more time. When you are faced to him, all it takes sometimes is just a quick shift and get your shot off. If he does stay with you and you need a little bit more space, fake shot to create some more space for yourself. I want to talk about composure in the box, because sometimes you'll get really good chances. You'll find yourself in front of the keeper with tons of time, well maybe not tons of time, but a really good opportunity to score and we usually rush ourselves. We snatch at the opportunity and we start to panic, we start to think about everything that's possibly going to go wrong, missing the net, everyone yelling at us and we just rush our decisions. So play that ball into me. Okay, so what happens usually is we'll get the ball in some space like this, great opportunity one on one against the keeper and like I said, you start to panic and instead of just being calm and composed and tucking it away, making it nice and easy on yourself, we try to blast it as hard as we can and end up skying it over the net from point blank range. Okay, so when you're in these areas, it's so important that you stay calm with your thought process. Yes, you want to be quick, you want to be sharp with your movement, sharp with your finish, but it starts right here, you have to stay calm and say, just tuck it away. Okay, so play that ball in. It's just open up and then pass it in the corner with a bit of pace. Okay, you still want to hit it hard, you want to get it past the keeper, but just think about making a really strong pass into the corner. Play me one more. If you want 12 weeks of in-depth coaching covering every area of player development, daily follow along training routines to improve your skills, fitness and confidence, 12 weeks of professional match analysis and access to every advanced course I've created in the past, check out the link in the description below. Okay, if you get a bit of time, just take it and pass it away. Play an awkward one to me, maybe into my chest and put it down. Put it down into the ground, keep it on net, just be really calm and composed, but think about getting it on target, making it simple on yourself, just passing it into the corner. Let's talk about your decision making when you're in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper. So first of all, play my ball. First of all, when you're in this situation, you have to be positive. You have to think, yes, this is a goal I'm going to score right now. Okay, a lot of us get in this situation and we're like, I don't know what to do and it's hesitation and he gets too close, he cuts down our angles and we make it easier on him. Okay, so what I want you to think in your mind is think, yes, this is a goal. Focus on the finishing, don't think about anything negative, don't think about the goalkeeper is going to save it. Don't think about it. I don't know what to do. You know what to do because I'm going to tell you exactly what to do. I want to give you three options when you're in this situation. Okay, so when you're here, yeah, if you really want, you can blast it as hard as you want, but that's not really going to increase your chances of scoring in these one-on-one situations. So first, what I want you to think about is just passing it into a corner. Okay, so when I come in here, if he's giving me a little angle, if I can see space in one of the corners, I want to pass it there. So remember in the passing tutorial playing the ball when we talked about the shape of your pass. Okay, so if I'm shaping my pass this way with inside curl and I'm trying to put it to that corner, that's pretty easy for him to save as opposed to if I'm shaping it here, so it's almost going outside of the post and I'm putting it into that corner. That's going to increase my chances of scoring that type of finish. Okay, same thing goes if you want to use the outside of your foot. Okay, so if I wanted to use the outside if I'm going that way, that's easy for him to save if he's ready. Okay, so instead, if I wanted to go there with my left foot, I would probably use the outside of my left or I could use the inside of my left or I could use the outside of my right. Here, if I want to go to this side, yes, I could use the outside of my right into that corner or I could use the outside of my left, something like that. So think about the shape of your finish, like we did in the passing tutorial, to increase your chances of scoring that type of finish. The next type of finish I want to think about in this situation is when you're trying to create an angle, but he's coming out and it's a little too tight and he's going down to the ground and you're going to do something like that, go over him. Okay, so he's going to come out with real intensity, he's trying to slide you, try to take you out. Okay, he's coming out and when he gets too close, that's when I want to go over. I almost want to fake like it's a shot, fake like I'm going to almost like blast it at him or try to put it under him, play the ball. Okay, so it's like I'm here and I'm getting him to commit to the shot and then I'm flicking it over him. Okay, that's a really good finish in a one-on-one situations. The last thing I want to talk about is going around the keeper. So play the ball. So say I receive it, I'm running at pace, he's running out to meet me. Again, it's just a touch away and pass it into the back of the net. Okay, so you're going to have to get your timing right. If I do it too late, play him again. So if I hesitate in this position and I do it too late, he's going to win the ball like that. So I want to do it a bit early and again, like the fake shot on the chip. If I can get him to commit a bit, so maybe that is a fake shot like that and then I'll just pass it in the corner. You want to try to get him to go down to ground early so you can touch it around him and finish the goal. So those are three ideas to think about when you're in a one-on-one situation with the keeper. Two helpful tips for finishing from crosses. First of all, get light on your toes and be ready to move. Next, you want to pick up the flight of the ball and move towards it. Now, sometimes you don't always have this option, sometimes you just have to get on the end of the cross. But whenever possible, you want to think about attacking the ball. Do not let the ball come to you, otherwise it's just going to get intercepted. When making contact, you really want to focus on just getting the ball on target and you will do this by pushing your follow-through towards the goal. So after you make contact with the ball, look at your foot. Is it faced towards the goal or is it going off to the left or to the right? Also think about your body positioning. After you make contact with your shot, look at your chest, your torso, your hips. Are they faced towards the goal or are they going to the left or to the right? And finally, think about getting over the ball. If you want 12 weeks of in-depth coaching, covering every area of player development, daily follow-along training routines to improve your skills, fitness and confidence, 12 weeks of professional match analysis and access to every advanced course I've created in the past, check out the link in the description below. How many times has a nice easy pass come across the face of goal and you or someone else has managed to put it over the net from point blank range? So when attacking balls and finishing from crosses, you really want to think about getting over the ball. It's better to put it into the ground than to go over the net. And you do not have to blast or hit these shots hard. The more pace the cross comes in with, the less power you need to generate. You simply need to focus on redirecting it onto target with good contact. So really focus on having a nice firm, flexed foot. If your foot is weak, when a ball is coming in from across, it's just going to flick off your foot and it's not going to go on target. I want to give you a few tips on penalties because if you can be a confident penalty taker, you're going to increase your goal tally instantly. So number one, you want to take the penalty. As soon as the foul is committed, you're the guy who steps up and says, yes, I am confident, I am going to score this thing. When everyone else is looking around saying who's going to take it, you're coming to get the ball. Okay. So number one, you have to want to take it and two, believe that you can actually score. So when you put that ball down on the spot in your mind, you're not thinking about missing. You're not thinking about everyone being upset. You're thinking about being confident. You're thinking, this is a goal. This is another goal on my stats. This is another goal that's going to help my team win. Okay. Everything that you're thinking is about putting the ball in the net. I don't feel like I'm too centered. We'll go like that. Okay. So traditionally, if people tell you come up, pick your spot, know where you're going to go, hit it there with pace, hit it there with purpose. Okay. So if I'm approaching the penalty and I want to hit it, don't miss the net like that. And that's the only problem I have with that. I hit a good shot, but it was a bit too hard. Now personally, I've gone through that. I've hit good penalties and I've hit too many posts more than I would like. So what I've done started to do is I take a different approach to penalties. Okay. I set up like I'm going to do the exact same thing. So I set up like I'm going to whip it into the top corner or whip it into the bottom corner and I'll come back like I'm going to do a big run up and I'll start sprinting at the ball. If you want 12 weeks of in-depth coaching covering every area of player development, daily follow along training routines to improve your skills, fitness and confidence, 12 weeks of professional match analysis and access to every advanced course I've created in the past, check out the link in the description below. But then at this second, I'm right before I hit it, I look up and I see what the keeper is going to do. And if I see that he went to that side, just a little bit, if he just took one step, then I'm just going to calmly pass it in the other corner. So I want you to be cautious when you're taking this advice. Because if you don't have the presence of mind, if you don't have the calmness and the confidence and when you get your head up to look at the keeper, you're saying, oh crap, rather than I know exactly where I'm putting this, then you're probably going to miss. Okay. So don't hesitate. Again, put the ball down. I'm sprinting up here like I'm going to kill it. And then I see that his body position went a little bit that way. So I just put it in the other corner. So number one, confidence. You want to take the penalty. You want to score the goal. Number two, everything going in your mind is saying positive things about, yes, this is going in the net. I'm going to score. I'm going to win this game for my team. The next thing is your choice. So I want you to do whatever is comfortable for you. I choose what's comfortable for me, but you need to do what's best for you. And like I said, I've hit a lot of penalties in my day. We'll go again. Ready? And you can take that approach, hit a nice hard penalty into either corner. If that works for you, then that's what I want you to do. However, for me personally, I've hit too many posts. I've missed the net a couple of times where I've hit a really hard shot, but the keeper made a great save. And I feel taking this new approach by looking at the keeper and reacting to what he does. I increase my chances of scoring the penalty. So one thing I want to say when you're doing this, the reason I can get away with this and other players don't is because I act like I'm about to run up and blast as hard as I can. There's no hesitation in my stride until I'm at this point. And then I react to him. What some people do is they have a very hesitant, very slow run up. So their run up is more like this. And they're watching the keeper, but the keeper knows that he's waiting for him to dive so he can react quickly. Maybe not today, but on a different day. Okay. So when you're doing that, if you're going to choose that method, act like you're sprinting at that ball, you're going to hit it full force. And then at the last second, get your head up and pick your spot.