"You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." – Wayne Gretsky
Gretsky may have been a hockey player, but his quote about scoring goals is true in any sport, including soccer. A lot of students in our EduKick soccer camps and boarding schools start out with hesitation to shoot. We teach them to take advantage of every opportunity. If you never shoot, you'll never score.
Here are a few tips to help you make every shot count:
Soccer shooting tips
Tips to improve your chance of scoring
Where are the most shots made?
Ever wondered if there's actually a "sweet spot" in a soccer goal? A place where you could kick the ball and it would go in almost every time?
Well, there may not be a definitive "sweet spot," but a recent study did take a look at where scored goals most often went into the net. Here are the results:
Top Left: 8%
Top Center: 4%
Top Right: 5%
Ouch. As you can see, shooting high means you have a pretty low percentage of actually scoring.
Middle Left: 7%
Middle Center: 8%
Middle Right: 6%
While you have a better chance of scoring if you shoot to the middle than up high, the odds still aren't much in your favor.
Bottom Left: 22%
Bottom Center: 21%
Bottom Right: 19%
Look at these stats: 62 percent of all goals were scored low. This makes sense because it is very difficult for goalkeepers, especially tall ones, to get down to the ground. It's much easier and more natural for them to jump high.
Also, looking at the statistics, 67 percent of goals were scored in the corners as against 33 percent down the middle. If you combine the two statistics and shoot low into the corner, you should have a much greater success rate in scoring goals.
As with any soccer technique, you need to practice if you want to improve your shooting skills. Fortunately, the techniques used for shooting are similar to those used for passing. So you can build up two vital soccer techniques at the same time.
But most importantly: If you see the goal, shoot!
This one piece of advice is important enough to reiterate: You miss 100 percent of the shots you never make. If you see an opportunity to shoot, take it! The only way these tips can help you is if you implement them, both in practice and in games.
Good luck!
Thousands of our soccer boarding school players have achieved international confidence and world-class soccer skills with EduKick. Some have gone on to trials with professional teams and many others have gone on to play collegiate soccer.
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