Shooting a pass or cross on your first touch, with no touch to control it first. Most of the work happens before the ball arrives: you look, decide, and set your body so you can strike it where it will be, not where it is. The analyzer reads your striking form: balance, getting your body over the ball, and a compact contact and follow-through.
Read it early
Look before the ball reaches you. While the pass is travelling, take a quick look at the goal, the keeper and the defenders, then bring your eyes back to the ball.
you already know where the goal is when the ball arrives.
Decide early: control it or finish first time. If the shot is on, commit to it before the ball arrives. Changing your mind late leaves you half-set.
Open your body toward goal before the pass arrives. Arrive at a slight angle to the ball, half-turned, so you can strike without turning first. Coming at a moving ball dead straight or from a wide angle tends to send the shot off line.
Make contact
Plant where the ball will be, not where it is. Picture the spot where you'll strike it and put your standing foot beside that spot, slightly away from the ball, toes pointed at your target, knee slightly bent. If the ball is running away from you, plant ahead of it so it rolls up beside your foot.
Strike it when it's level with your standing foot. If it has run out in front of you, your foot is already rising and the shot goes up.
the ball arrives right beside your standing foot.
Lock your ankle and keep your head down through contact. Watch your foot hit the ball. Look up only after your kicking foot has landed again.
Hit it at a controlled pace, not flat out. Accuracy comes before power. Aim just inside the post rather than trying to beat the keeper with pace.
calm and balanced, a guided strike, not a wild swing.
Pick the surface
Side-foot to place it. Hips face the target, kicking-side shoulder in line with the ball. Strike the middle of the ball with the inside of your foot, toes slightly up, then follow through with the inside of the foot flat to the target and your knee coming up.
Laces when you need pace. Knee and chest over the ball, toes pointed down and ankle locked, strike the middle of the ball and follow through, landing forward on your kicking foot. Striking above the middle keeps it down; striking below it makes it rise.
Feel it
You were set before the ball got there. It arrives beside your standing foot, you strike it once, and it goes low toward the spot you picked. If it rises, you hit it too far out in front. If it goes across goal, check your angle and where your hips faced.
Fix-its
- Ball flies over You struck it too far in front, with your foot already rising. Plant where the ball will be and strike it when it's level with your standing foot. On laces shots, get your knee over the ball.
- Shot drifts across goal Usually a straight-on approach (right-footers tend to pull it left) or hips not facing the target. Arrive at a slight angle and point your standing toes and hips at the target.
- You scuff or miss it Your eyes were still on the goal at contact. Look up early while the ball is travelling, then watch it onto your foot.
- Shot is weak or wild You went flat out. Strike at a controlled pace and aim just inside the post.
- You end up taking a touch anyway You decided late or were facing away from goal. Decide and open your body before the pass arrives.
Drill
- Ball set to the side: start 10 yards out from two markers at the edge of the box, push the ball to the side and shoot it as it moves. Right foot, then left. Accuracy first.
- Ball moving ahead: dribble fast from about 20 yards and shoot as you reach the markers, planting ahead of the ball so it rolls up beside your foot. Both feet.
- Served passes: a partner beside the goal plays ground passes out to you; meet each one at the edge of the box and finish first time. Add a keeper who stays still, then a live one.
- Small-sided game: 3v3 in short rounds (about 2 minutes) where goals only count from a one-touch finish. Shrink the area as it gets easier.
By position
Most senior goals (around 60 to 70%) come from inside the box, where there's rarely time for a controlling touch, so this matters most for strikers and attacking midfielders. Younger players usually need more touches before shooting, so build up to first-time finishing rather than starting with it.
Sources
- US Youth Soccer — Skills School Manual (2017), Shooting: Inside of the Foot and Instep Drive, pp. 12, 41–42
- John C. Harves, Coaching American Soccer — Intermediate Shooting (B): Moving Balls
- England Football Learning — How to coach players on finishing in football (2022)
- England Football Learning — Session programme: receiving and finishing to score (2025)
- Carlsson, Isberg, Nilsson & Carlsson — The influence of task conditions on side foot-kick accuracy among Swedish first league women's soccer players, J Sports Sci Med (2018)
- Jordet et al. — Scanning, contextual factors, and association with performance in English Premier League footballers, Frontiers in Psychology (2020)
Last checked 2026-10-30.