It is important to use drills in warm-ups that allow you to accomplish multiple goals. Time is limited and you want to get your players as prepared as possible for the match. The shooting warm-up drill below is a great pregame activity. The players get opportunities to dribble, pass and shoot. Additionally it allows you to practice some movement patterns that you would hope to use in the match.

The shooting drill is from World Class Coaching, a tremendous resource for coaching tools. In the video below, Tom Mura uses Planet Training Session Planner to illustrate the Shooting Warm-up Drill. For other great videos like this you can visit the World Class Coaching YouTube Channel or visit their site at the link above.

The YouTube video has sound, so please make sure that your sound is turned on and that you have access to the site. (Some schools block access to YouTube)

To begin the drill place four cones in a rectangle outside the box. The two cones closest to the box should be just outside the circle and the two cones furthest from the box should be about 20 yards away. A fifth cone should be placed in the center of the rectangle.

The shooting drill begins with one player in the middle and one player at each of the two cones near the box. All remaining players form two lines behind the other two cones closest to midfield. The players in the line will have a ball.

There are several different versions of the drill that may be utilized but here are a couple of versions. Your creativity will certainly allow you to use the drill in a variety of ways so as to emphasize whatever is most important to you and your team.

In the first drill the ball is simply played to the middle person, who will in turn make a pass to the outside player for a shot. The outside player will open up and make a curved run out and then back in to get behind the defense. This is to simulate avoiding offsides. The player will receive the pass an attempt a shot to the far post. The shooter retrieves the ball and returns to midfield area and gets into the opposite line. Each player will simply follow their pass the the next cone and the drill continues with a new ball being entered by the next player. The two lines at midfield alternate entering the ball.

One variation is once the ball is passed out of the middle the outside player can return the pass and the middle player can pass the the left side for a shot.

A second variation might be to remove the middle man. The passer may pass forward to the outside person. The outside person then lays off the ball and the original passers sprints forward to take shot from straight on.

Again the variation are limited only by your imagination.

There are countless drills to practice finishing and scoring. Below are two very simple drills that you can add to your toolbox. While the scoring drills that you are currently using are probably effective and well designed,it is often helpful to simply use a different drill.

Adding new drills can help with practice enthusiasm and keep players from become “bored with the same old drills.”

The drills are from Alan Kirkup, University of Florida Assistant Coach,former player for Manchester United FC; over 27 years coaching experience including 18 years as a head coach at the collegiate level. In the clip Coach Kirkup demonstrates two different scoring drills.

For more information about the DVD that this clip came from click the link 30 Shooting Exercises to Score Goals

The first drill is a Give and Go Break Away Drill. There are three players involved in this drill and they rotate through three positions. The ball is played into player number 1 who then passes it forward to player number two who is pretending to ward of a defender. Number 2 then sets the ball to the third player. Number 2 spins out and receives a return pass from number 3.

Number 2 now tries to score on one touch with number 1 chasing down and trying to defend. The emphasis is on a quality set and through ball in order to score with one touch.

The YouTube video below has sound, so please make sure that your sound is turned on and that you have access to the site.(Some schools block access to YouTube)

The second drill is a Two Touch Finish followed by a 2v1 finish. In this drill the ball is played in to a player who uses two touches and then scores. That player then becomes the defender for a quick 2v1 scoring opportunity. The coach will play the second ball into one of the two offensive players and they will quickly attack the 1 defender trying to score as fast as possible. Here you can emphasize the overlap and the give and go to create scoring opportunities 2v1.

The following exercises comprise an excellent diamond passing and transition drill. This drill will allow you to practice the concepts of proper shape, maintaining possession, and mounting an attack.

In addition, attacking players will to learn to quickly condense and get in a good defending position when they have lost possession. The defensive players will also have to transition to attack.

They must get wide into a support position with proper body shape that allows them to receive a ball and play in any direction.

The drill animation below is from World Class Coaching, an excellent resource for soccer coaches. In the clip Tom Mura explains a 2v2 plus 3 progession that serves as a Diamond Passing and Transition Drill.You can access other great coaching tools by visiting their site at the link above or you can visit the World Class Coaching YouTube Channel to other great videos.

They YouTube video has sound, so please make sure that your sound is turned on and that you have access to the site. (Some schools block access to YouTube)

Getting you players to recognize the number of defenders in the area and then adjust their position to take advantage of the situation is fundamental to the sport. In the drill below you will see a possession and position drill that is designed to help players attack in 4v1 and 3v2 situations. The drill not only allows you to teach and practice proper positioning in each situation, but also requires the players to adjust their position quickly when the situation changes. This is a nice variation of the common Rondo drill

The drill is presented and explained clearly by Tom Mura of World Class Coaching, an excellent resource for soccer coaches. The presentation is two part. The first part ( approx 8:45) is an animation of the drill using practice planning software followed by a 2 minute video clip of the drill being used in an actual practice.

For more soccer coaching tools you can visit their site at the link above or you can view additional videos at the World Class Coaching YouTube Channel

The YouTube video has sound, so please make sure that your sound is on and that you have access to the site. (Some schools block access to YouTube)

This possession and position drill is played on small grids ranging from 7×7 to 10×10. Smaller grids are better for training control and larger grids provide more conditioning. The sill level of you players is also a factor in selecting the size of the grid. This is a quick transition drill as it changes from 4v1 to 3v2 and back to 4v1.

The drill begins with two teams of two playing 4v1 vs a defender. In this portion you can stress the importance of getting a player one player on the right, one on the left and one in the spit. When the defender wins the ball or it goes out of bounds, the drill transitions to 3v2. The two new defenders will be the pair of offensive players that lost the ball. The original defender is now on offensive with the other two original offensive players. In this segment of the drill you can stress getting one offensive player short and one splitting the defenders.

The drill returns to 4v1 when the defense wins the ball or it is hit out of bounds.