Cannonball run

by Tony Carr in Practice plans, Shooting

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Developing an arsenal of different shooting techniques will enhance your team’s chances of
scoring goals. Use this session to help your players score with either precision or power
shots.
What this session is about
1. Shooting from various distances.
2. Using different finishing techniques.
3. Scoring goals.
What to think about
  Developing a range of finishing techniques in young players is essential to their
individual development.
  Young players tend to always use power when shooting. However, when inside the
box they have many more options open to them such as placing, curling or chipping their shot
and even using skill to go around the goalkeeper to score.
Set-up
Warm
Warm up Session Developments Game Situation
Down

10 minutes 15 minutes 15 minutes 15 minutes 5

minutes
What you get your players to do
Line up two rows of eight footballs from level with the penalty spot out past the D, as shown
in the top picture.
Balls are two yards apart so the closest ball is 12 yards from the goal and the farthest is 26
yards out.
Two teams of four players stand behind the balls. Players take turns on the ”cannonball run”
to run and shoot at goal, set up with a serve from you or an assistant.
Each team has four players so each player has one shot inside the box (using placement) and
one shot outside the box (using power).
Once completed, collect the balls and repeat with the teams changing the side they run and
the foot they use to shoot.
Progress this practice by bouncing the ball for half volleys or throwing the ball for full
volleys.
Two teams line up to take turns shooting at goal. Balls inside the box are placed and balls
outside are struck hard.

Development
Mark out a pitch with a halfway line and play 5v5, including goalkeepers, as in the middle
picture.
Team A tries to combine inside team B’s half to score using placement or a curled finish.
However, if team B wins possession it can shoot at team B’s goal from long range (inside
their half).
In this game, goals inside the half count as one point, but a goal from long range counts as
two points.
Change the restrictions for each team so both practise the different shooting techniques.
 The game takes place in one half, the white team can only score with placed shots and the
other team has to shoot hard at the other goal.

Game situation
Use the same size pitch and same number of players but play a normal small-sided game.
However, different points are awarded for the different types of goals scored in this game:
 0-5 minutes – all goals scored count as one point.
 5-10 minutes – goals using a placed finish count as two points.
 10-15 minutes – goals scored using a shot inside a team’s defensive half count as two
points.
 
The team with most points at the end wins
Play a small-sided game with bonus points for different types of goals scored.