Being able to shoot the ball in soccer effectively will make your career in soccer quickly advance. Players that can score is always a need for every team at every level of the game. Consider a few tips about shooting below to increase your probability of success with each shot.
1. Shoot Low. Shooting low is excellent advice the older you get in soccer. As the keepers start to gain height, it becomes much easier for them to save shots in the air than shots driven low to the posts. It takes more time to get low, so this gives the less time to react when saving your shot.
2. Develop Both Feet. To be a very productive soccer player, understand that having the ability to go to either direction of the defender to shoot, based on the game-specific situation will significantly increase your ability to produce goals for your team.
3. Increase the Number of Shots You Take. The team that takes more shots is the team that more often wins the game. Taking more shots is not to say you should take shots from 35 yards away just to "get a shot off." However, getting decent shots on nets increases your chances exponentially of scoring. After all, you miss 100% of the shots you do not take.
4. Don't Be Afraid to Use Your Toe or the Outside of Your Foot. To increase the number of shots you take, don't be afraid to use multiple parts of your foot to get the shot off. You are likely more accurate than you think by using the toe of your foot to shoot. Also, with a bit of practice, it can take you little time to master the outside of the foot shot.
5. Don't Pass on a Pass Just to Shoot. Though you need to increase the amounts your team shoots, it doesn't necessarily need to be all from you. If you have an okay opportunity for a shot and an excellent opportunity for a pass, make the pass. An assist is just as good as a goal.
6. Practice with the Ball Rolling. So many soccer players practice before a game with the ball stopped. Unless you are the designated free kick taker for your team, you will almost never get an opportunity to shoot a stopped ball. Before you take any shots in a practice or during a warm-up, push the ball and shoot it while it is rolling. Practice the way you play to increase the skills that will transfer directly to the soccer game.
Note: Shooting not only increases your chances of the ball going in but also raises the possibility that there is a favorable deflection or a juicy rebound for your team to easily put it into the back of the net. These opportunities don't present themselves to the team that waits for the perfect shot. The ideal time to take a shot is largely a myth as you need to create opportunities for success by increasing the number of shots and the portions of your foot you use to take those shots.
Check out the book Soccer Shooting & Finishing: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Score to read more on the areas relevant to getting the ball in the net, 1v1s, 2v1s, 1v2s, 2v2s, heading form, and the different ways to shoot the ball.
