PLAYER NUMBER 8 IN FOOTBALL: THE ENGINE

Shooting the ball on the goal is the most important factor to win the match, and every striker must master this skill. 

Not scoring a goal for your team will not give you victory, because the attacker makes mistakes while shooting that prevents him from scoring the goal.

5 mistakes football players make in shooting 

If your kicks are weak or you're just finding it tough to kick the ball, you've come to the right site. 

Today, we'll look at five of the most typical mistakes new players make while attempting to shoot a ball.

1- incorrect ball contact area

To realize the value of the contact area on the ball, you just need to understand the fundamental laws of physics obviously if you hit the ball extremely low, it will fly in the air, if you hit the ball's top, it will roll on the ground, and if you hit the ball on either one of the sides, you will get some curve, but this is where the issues start happening.

In my opinion, the contact area on the ball is one of the most crucial factors when it comes to achieving a nice shot. This is why even a robot leg can put the ball into the top bins, so make sure you're doing the opposite in action when you try to achieve something. For example, if you're trying to kick the ball very long and very high but you can't seem to get it off the ground, obviously you're hitting the ball way too high.

2- overly leaning back 

Just like the previous point, you must acknowledge how the rest of your body affects the result of your shot. In particular, leaning back excessively is sadly something beginners often do when trying to kick the ball. Leaning back excessively when approaching to shoot the ball will steer the ball to go way over the goal or way above the heads of your teammates, and even if that doesn't happen, leaning back to the side will still cause the ball to go way over.

You want to make sure to put your chest and upper body over the ball like this because it will at least help you in keeping the ball low and ensure that you maintain a certain amount of power on your shots. I would even go as far as to say that you can't lean over the ball too much because you're in such an awkward position. However, even if that doesn't happen, leaning back too much eats all the power away from your shots.

Take a look at a couple of videos of Cristiano Ronaldo shooting the ball to see how aggressively his upper body is positioned over the ball. I would even attempt to suggest that you can't lean over the ball too much.

3- a bad run-up to the ball

a poor way of approaching the ball now, similar to the significance of the contact area on the ball, a lot of beginners take a run-up to the ball that doesn't support the outcome they are trying to achieve. For example, if the camera is my target and I'm planning on inside curving the ball, I don't want to take a run-up that's in a completely straight line because it will make executing the technique very difficult.

You're always a little bit safer when approaching the ball from an angle depending on your target. Another mistake many beginners make is attempting to make a shot more powerful by simply running up to the ball farther. However, running up to the ball farther—say, 10 meters—will never benefit you because you'll be concentrating only on your run and the power rather than the technique, which is something we'll discuss later.

4- poor footwork

The majority of new shooters, for obvious reasons, have no idea how their foot should behave when kicking the ball, and when they first begin practicing, their toes are typically pointing upwards and the contact with the ball is a weird mix of a floppy ankle and a toe poke that typically looks like this yeah it always ends badly the number one thing you want to avoid is a floppy and soft ankle that will eat all the power away and your shots will look awful.

Instead, you want to ensure that your ankle is locked and firm and that you can hit the ball with as much surface area as possible. Locking your ankle will instantly increase the shot's power and breathe new life into your kick, so avoid shooting the ball with your big toe and avoid doing so with a floppy ankle. Instead, keep your ankle locked and firm, and your shots will improve.

5- overpower and weak technique

The problem with focusing only on power is that when you're just trying to kick the ball as hard and as long as possible, you're typically forgetting about all the other important aspects of kicking the ball, such as making sure your upper body is positioned correctly, making sure your ankle is locked and make sure that you have good balance.

The simple advice offered here is to only concentrate on the technique, especially when you're out practicing alone. I'd say that when you're out practicing alone, even positioning and hitting the target are not crucial; instead, the only thing that matters is perfecting the technique; the power will come later.

Advice

That concludes the list of the five most common shooting errors you should never make, and my final piece of advice is to make sure you never practice with flat footballs because, hopefully, you'll at least be using properly pumped balls in your games. The reason you don't want to practice with flat balls is that the kicking sensation is different from that of properly pumped footballs.