Return to play: Two touch shooting

Please check out the latest sport and social distancing guidelines in your area, and follow the recommendations when planning training sessions. This activity gets strikers ready to receive and shoot at goal from balls played in and around the penalty area. That vital first touch is made even more important due to the two-touch finish from a crisp pass.

Set up

Use the penalty area of your pitch. Mark out a 4×4-yard shooting zone in the D of the penalty area. We’ve used four players here – a working player, a goalkeeper and two servers. You need balls, cones and a goal.

How to play it

The working player stands in the shooting box, and has one touch to control and one to shoot. The servers play crisp passes into the striker, making it more difficult to control the ball – much like the chances he would get in a match. The attacker must stay inside the shooting zone at all times, so his first touch has to be good. As soon as the shot has been made, the second server passes another ball in. Play six balls for each player and then swap players around and see who scores the most goals.

Technique

The body shape is vital to cushioning the pass into a position where a shot is on. At first players will have a poor first touch but, as this gets better, the percentage of goals to shots will get much higher.

1. The striker must stay in the shooting zone and control passes from the servers

2. Servers take it in turns to play crisp passes into the shooting zone for the striker to control

3. The striker has two touches: the first touch to control the pass and the second touch to shoot

4. The second server plays a ball to the striker immediately after a shot has been fired at the goal

5. Each striker gets six passes to control and shoot and the one with the most goals wins