Football coaching tips for coaches and players; Striking attention and goal scoring

In the course of striking to shoot the ball into your opponents net our strikers must be productive. Most of the strikers we have in the on –going Star Times premier league are technically bankrupt. You cannot wake up early morning and lace your football boot and you call yourself a striker without knowing the technicalities in striking.

Goal scoring is an act which has to be learnt and it is when a striker tunes his mind very well that he can achieve for himself and his team the desired results.

I would like to touch head on some of the important things our strikers must know to enable them score goals easily when they are playing matches.

The first thing they must consider is full concentration and quick reaction to blunders committed by their opponent’s defenders.

Defenders are always in a hurry to clear their lines and if a striker is fully concentrated he could capitalize on any loose ball and score a goal before the defender who had caused the blunder can recover to save the situation.

If a striker possesses high concentration he will not delay in punishing his opponents on the mistakes they commit in a game, but when he lacks concentration he will delay to shoot the ball quickly into the net and that will give way to defenders to take a quick cover up.

Our strikers must be trained to develop a right time intersection mentality whenever they are on the field of play.

The following steps will help them to be purposeful and results oriented. That is how to be there at the right time and act swiftly.

The problem with most of our local strikers is that they don’t know how to place or position themselves well in a game to take a pass from their team mates.

They don’t know how to shoot with quick thinking. Good strikers before the ball drops on their foot knew how they will react to the ball.

Also they need to be taught on how to react quickly to situation of the ball movement and how they should concentrate quickly during line breaking for the empty spaces in the front line for the penetration to shoot.

Attention goal scoring is just one touch shooting method with the foot, chest, head or any approved part of the body without wasting time at all.

Sadick Adams could have scored a second goal for Kotoko against Glorious Accra Hearts of Oak if he had hit the ball one touch.

Prepared by Coach J.O Amponsah & Michael Kessey (0507082677/0243475197)