She has excellent skill, is a fantastic passer, sees the field great and excels at a lot of facets of the game but simply cannot finish well. When she's near goal 1 of 2 things happen 1) she duffs the ball and it dribbles into the goalie or she hits it well right at the keeper. She has scored several goals this past Spring and Fall but finishing is certainly her achiles heel. If it were tracked her conversion rate would probably not be very good.
Sounds like she just needs to practice the scenario much more. Repetition is key. Give her many reps in practice. At some point then things will slow down in the high pressure moment and she'll better be able to focus on her shot rather than on the pressure of the defenders surrounding her.
@ppierce34 - if she is a striker or CM (#9/#10) maybe she's not a natural. Have you considered another position because at one point the team will be depending on her to score. Sounds like she could be a great CB or MF. If she is a winger maybe scoring is not as important as good crosses and assists. But if you think it's just a funk - visualising is supposed to work, a few privates may sort it out and of course she needs to practice, practice, practice.
Duffing seems like she's not watching the foot make contact, but looking up at the goal to aim/watch the end of the shot. I'd tell my players "watch your foot hit the ball. if you score, trust me, everyone will let you know" For shooting right at the keeper, most likely she's focusing on the keeper. Gather as many balls as you can, go to a park and have her aim for the back corners of the goal. Then the front posts. Then the upper 90. You get the picture. When she's in, look at the target in the goal, not the keeper. If you can get a handful of kids togehter, rebatida is a good game for this - brazilian court based game, they play 2 v2, shooters vs keeper & d, you can score directly, you get points for hitting the post/crossbar then scoring. We'd play 3v3. 6 balls total, 2 left, 2 central, 2 right, an attacker at each position. Keeper and 2 D, d has to start in the 6, keeper can have htem in a wall. Attackers have to let them nkow which ball they are shooting, then it's a free kick. play the ball until scored/controlled by defending team/played out, then next ball. Teams switch after 6 balls. We'd do 3 innings of this. 1 point for a direct goal, 1 extra point for goal that hit keeper/defender, 2 points for a goal after hitting an upright, 5 points for a goal after hitting the crossbar, 10 points for a goal after hitting the upper 90s. I had one kid, left footed, shot always hooked. Had to instruct him to actually aim for the keeper, if he aimed far side it always went out, if he aimed near post it curved right to the keeper....ymmv
Thanks for this VERY well thought out post. I really appreciate it and will definitly try to use what you discussed.
Take the mental block of shooting out of it. Tell her to pass the ball very hard to her imaginary teammates standing on the inside of the goal posts.
Is she trying to "strike" the ball every time? Maybe that's the problem--she's worried about the technique of striking rather than just trying to get the ball into the net any way that works?
Yep most likely part of the issue. Every shot is with laces (which is how she learned). My feeling is that inside the box you should be using inside of your foot to guide it.
This . A general rule of thumb would be, inside the box inside of the foot. Outside of the box strike with the laces. Obviously there are so many other factors to consider when finishing like direction ball is travelling, speed of ball, position of goalkeeper etc etc If she is a good passer, she can be a good finisher too.
I had a sneaking suspicion. Maybe she'll work this out on her own; often young players "over-use" a new technique they're trying to master.
How many shots on goal does she practice every day? Do you take her to the pitch on her own to just take shots? From my experience, telling them what to do, how to hit it, etc can sometimes negatively effect them. Some need to find their shot on their own...and once they find it, repeat til it becomes primal instinct.
And I think you see this a lot. Some kids dont care about technique but will take every shot possible and expect a good outcome. Some kids concentrate on technique but want every shot to be perfect because they think that is the only way they can get a good outcome. She may lean towards the latter, so my suggesting is to get her practicing lots of shots off passes, off bounces and off runs with the aim of just getting a shot off first. Concentrate on body position, plant and follow through.
Just ran into this thread. Another technique by son (DA striker) was taught from his coaching staff, is a quick toe poke. Very difficult for a keeper to react to since there is no wind-up (as you'd see when striking the ball with the laces or inside the foot). It is super effective inside ~8 yards while under pressure, 1:1 situations with the goalie, and/or when he needs to "stretch" to get a foot on the ball in traffic.
This is an excellent point. I think kids are so hyper-focused on proper technique because thats all they hear from their coaches "toe pointed down" "use your laces" "follow through" etc etc that in certain scenarios a good old fashioned toe poke will get the job done.
I've been preaching this for years--the toe poke is underrated. No body mechanics for the keeper to read, no setup, just a quick re-direct of the ball.