Heading for Goal

By Tony Carr

Ultimately, soccer is all about scoring goals and by improving your team’s attacking heading ability you will boost their chances of finding the back of the net more often.

When you first start to get your players crossing the ball into attacking areas of the pitch you add an extra attacking option. The header.

It takes a lot of practice to get used to heading a ball especially for young attackers when they need to react quickly to a ball at head height.

During this session ideally you want to see your players:

• Move into ball’s line of flight.

• Take off on one foot, land on both.

• Use their arms for elevation.

• At the highest point of their jump, head the top half of the ball to direct it downwards.

• Aim for the corners of the goal.

It's a lot for them to think about but take it slowly and it will eventually fall into place. So you need some simple practice sessions to get them used to doing it.

Set up some square grids with each side equivalent to the width of a goal.

You need four players in each group.

Use at least two balls per group. Two players, acting as servers, stand at opposite sides.

A third player, a passive goalkeeper, stands on one of the other sides facing into the grid.

The servers take it in turns to throw a ball slightly ahead of the remaining player inside the grid, who heads towards goal.

Switch positions so everyone has a go at heading, serving and goalkeeping.

You can then advance the session by playing this game:

1. Split the four players into two teams, with each player standing on a side of the square next to their team mate.

2. A player from team ‘A’ throws the ball slightly ahead of their teammate who runs forward and tries to head it past the opponent acting as a goalkeeper.

3. Repeat so all players have a turn each. The teams must alternate turns.

4. As the players become accustomed to the ball coming from one side, make teammates swap positions and vary the angle and height of service.

Tony Carr is the Academy Director of West Ham United in the English Premier League and the editor of the Smart Sessions soccer coaching plans - they come in advanced and core versions. You can get these sessions dropping into your inbox every week by clicking here.