By Cristian Caprioru
There are different positions in soccer, obviously. But what’s the most important position on the soccer field? You’d have to say striker, right? Who gets paid the most money in the game? Yes, it’s the striker. The striker is the player who scores the goals. Below are some of the best striker training drills for improving your ability to score goals and help your team win games.
After all, if your team can’t score goals how are you going to win games…also, there’s a reason that strikers and goal scorers earn the most money in world football. Scoring goals is hard and those who can do it on a regular basis are the key to winning games.
The striker position informs the basis of a football / soccer team. This calls for a good football coach who has the ability to take part in striker training drills, instilling the strikers with the football skills and football drills as well as enhancing their striker’s skills.
Many times soccer coaches can’t properly demonstrate a soccer drill since they didn’t play the game at a high level. It’s key for a coach, who doesn’t have the ability or skill, to either have an assistant coach or player who has the skill and is able to show young players how to strike a ball or finish the right way. Here are some key skills all strikers should learn and know:
Quote: “I think when there’s enough will and aggression, there’s no shortage of talent either.” – Jurgen Klinsmann
What are the functions of strikers in football?
As noted earlier, there are different roles for every soccer player. Strikers, however, complement all the other players. They are the players who play in the most advanced positions and should, therefore, be the ones scoring the most goals. For this reason, they have some outstanding roles to ensure the success of the team.
• The main role of a striker is to score goals for his team. For this reason, they should be good finishers.
• It is also the striker who should know the positioning of the goal. This helps the rest of the team to focus.
• Strikers should be the most selfish members of the team. This build-up on their interests to get on to the end.
• They are free to move into any position hence pull the central defenders apart and out of the position so as to create more winning space.
The skills of soccer strikers:
Following their roles in the team, striker’s skills ought to be different from the rest of the members. A striker should be in a better position to use different skills playing with the foot and the shoot. They should dribble the ball far much beyond the players, volley the ball and head it into the goal. The striker should also be close to the ball. For them to realize their real potential, they need to take the free kicks and corners.
Practice is crucial if at all the striker wants to comprehend all the strikers’ skills and drills. The good thing about being a striker is that the practice is friendly and you will not keep colliding with the football coach.
Basic striker training drills:
The striker’s skills are not acquired overnight; it calls for a lot of sacrifice and support from the football coach. Some of the drills can be done as a group with the help of the coach or alone in your yard or at the nearby pitch. The following drills will help the football coach improve the striker skills of his team players.
• The fast feet drills; this is a must-have drill for any soccer striker. This is because the strikers need to use a competitive pace and speed when challenging the defenders in the team. With the fast feet drills, the striker is able to improve their aggressiveness which is an advantage over the defenders. The fast feet drills should go hand in hand with other speed drills after the warm-ups. This also helps the striker to consistently dribble the ball towards the goal while still maintaining a reasonable distance. The fast feet drills also help the striker to change the direction of the ball when the defenders least expect.
• Pass and move instep finish drills; a striker focuses on making winnings within the first-time finishes. This drill helps the striker to pass the ball to the other striker when in a pair or other teammates in the open. A football coach should be in a better position to get the M-station and the goal as this acts as the teammates for the practicing strikers. The striker develops their scoring skills when they receive the ball from the M-station and score a brilliant goal evident of the instep finish. Alternatively, the coach can improvise. It is through such drills that the striker is guided on the best positions towards scoring a brilliant goal.
• Finishing with head drills; this is a perfect drill for both the short and tall strikers. This is because the striker cannot fail to have some head finishes in a complete soccer match. In fact, a notable number of strikers have scored 20% of their goals in a season with the head. This does not mean that the short strikers are at a disadvantage since a good number of short strikers have featured in the list of headers. It is, therefore, important for the football coach to train all their strikers with this skill.
• Cruyff turn; this drill has been named after the best soccer player ever seen in the field of soccer Johan Cruyff. He is best known for his dribbling skills which are both fast and creative. This made him have brilliant finishes and goals. You won’t be an exception after following the coaches’ instructions on this drill. Perfecting on the drill helps you to alternate the direction of the play and be crafty hence the defenders will not be able to predict your turns. This build-up on your accuracy as a striker. They will end up confused because of the multiple turns hence you increase your chances of scoring.
• Two-footed control drills; being a striker calls for the maximum involvement of all your body parts. As you move the ball from the defenders, you need to be tactful. When the ball is close to the box, it gets tough and hence you need to have alternating kicks. This drill will help you have a maximum control of the ball by using the two-foot skill in the sensitive instances. When you have the control over the ball, it will be so easy for you to pass the ball to the teammates in the open hence increasing the chances of your team scoring more goals.
Use these striker training drills and tips to become a proven goal scorer on the soccer field.
