Can You Develop Pure Goal Scorers?

By: Lang Wedemeyer, Women's Soccer Coach, South Dakota State University; NSCAA National Staff

Provided by: NSCAA

I am not sure that I have ever met a coach who said: "my team is unbelievable at finishing and we score consistently game in and game out." If that's you, congratulations. You can stop reading.

For the rest of us coaches, scoring consistently can be as elusive as water through our fingers. We can feel how close we are, but can't quite find any consistency from game-to-game or season-to-season.

This issue has been around since the dawn of soccer. As much as we (me included) complain about our teams not being able to consistently score, I decided to take a hard look at what coaches are doing to facilitate this.

This article is not a definitive thesis on developing finishers, nor is it a directive on whether you can actually develop them. It's more of a combination of thoughts from coaches on how they view this issue and what they do with their teams to facilitate player development. We'll first look at some coaches across the country and their comments on the struggle of goal scorers "nature versus nurture." Then we'll look at what these coaches do in training environments to assist in developing players' best abilities.

I spoke to a variety of coaches, some in college, some at the youth level and a professional coach or two whom I will name periodically throughout this article and/or make sure to give them credit at the end.

The first question that I asked was if they felt they could develop a "true goal scorer" or if those players were something more natural (the "nature versus nurture" debate). Most of the coaches I interviewed felt that true goal scorers are different. They have a different level of confidence; a special personality; bravery; an instinct that sets them apart; a mentality of being hungry to score goals; a thick skin that allows them to miss and not dwell on mistakes; and a poise that allows them to truly be a "finisher" rather than just a "shooter." Goal scorers at the elite level come in all shapes and sizes. Scorers such as Gerd Mueller, Mia Hamm, Ronaldo, Messi, Abby Wambach and Inzagh are but a few. Each possesses their own special talents and scoring methods and have a unique ability to rise to the occasion and score in critical moments (moments of intense pressure where others tend to break).

So, the easy answer to the first question is "recruit one to your team." Scout out the best goal scorer and convince them to play for you and, in the words of University of Memphis head women's coach Brooks Monaghan, "just don't get in their way."

The longer answer leads us to the next question: "Is there a way to nurture and develop those players that are good and could be great? If so, then how?

Duke University women's head coach Robbie Church told me this is becoming a real problem in the women's game. He said a large portion of the county's youth teams don't get a full-sized goal to use on a regular basis in training environments. Church added that we are producing a better possession player, but not a player who can adequately strike a ball with her instep. Nor are we developing players who can score with different parts of her foot because in the prime development years of her career she has grown up not finishing on a regular basis. So by the time they get to college, it's often beyond these players' abilities to address their technical deficiencies or develop into a pure goal scorer.

Former US Women's National Team coach and current head women's coach at the University of Michigan Greg Ryan said that someone who had a definitive simple answer to this question "could make a million dollars." He added that great goal scorers seem to be born rather than developed by a coach. Ryan feels that technical abilities involved in finishing are grossly lacking in many of the country's female players. When comparing the players from the US National Team to some player from Asian countries, for example, Ryan indicated the Asian players seem to be more accurate in attempting chances. Technique is learned at an early age and cemented into muscle memory. Players revert to this muscle memory when shooting (especially under pressure). A player's tactical awareness that involves how to find space, when to shoot, when to drive deeper, and what surface to utilize in the moment are also lacking in many of what are considered "high-level" players.

Tony DiCicco, a former member of the US Women's National Team coaching staff that won the 1999 World Cup, similarly said, "This is the Holy Grail for coaches." "Power is great, but it is overrated," he said. "Female players don't spend enough time learning to chip, bend, pass, or head in relation to scoring goals. "

Binghamton University head men's coach Paul Marco said that "you can't really coach instinct, you have to recruit it. Goal scorers have a special personality, a belief that they will always get the ‘next one.' They must be brave, want the responsibility of scoring for their team, and have a thick skin to keep at it when it doesn't happen." He added that many true goal scorers are often unrealistic about what they can actually do. This leads coaches and teammates alike to yell at these special ones, and that can have a negative effect, especially on younger players.

Florida State University head women's coach Mark Krikorian said it is vitally important not to break the mentality of a selfish goal scorer. "A coach must have sensitivity and protect the special personality players within your team," he said. "Your ‘go-to players' must have the ability to manage frustration either from missing opportunities or not getting those opportunities. These players must have a short memory and be able to manage the highs and lows of being a difference maker. "

Illinois State University head women's coach Andrew Rolf says that his best goal scorers have been "very composed players who rarely try to crush the ball but instead rely on a variety of techniques to place shots with more accuracy. These players often raise the level and confidence of the players around them. Coaches have the capability to fine-tune these traits, but many have a hard time teaching them."

Although the majority of coaches represented here coach females, I believe these themes are quite common regardless of gender. Most coaches believe that true goal scorers are born that way. After reading Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code and Josh Waitzkin's The Art of Learning, I am not sure if this is entirely accurate.

Although it may be said there is something to the genes of these true goal scorers that gives them a better base to develop, the environment that they grow up in plays a role. Certainly elements of speed, size, strength, quickness, mental acuity, balance, and other traits are parts of the puzzle.

But is plausible to say true goal scorers are developed from an early age? Are goal scorers nurtured through the course of their environment to cultivate this desire to score and the proclivity to solve problems? Are they being developed by competing with older players, a hunger to become better, an internal need to score from a very early age that may or may not be fostered, but grows and strengthens nonetheless? Are coaches in recreational soccer taking beginning children and yelling at them to "Pass the ball! Stop being a ball hog!"? Are youth coaches in the formative years allowing teammates to chastise individuals who want to dribble past defenders and score that brilliant goal they saw on TV?

After one too many criticisms, under the premise of fear the player may begin to lose their fire and the desire to be special. Or after scoring a few goals, they are either removed from the game or moved to the back so it is more "fair" to other players. As youth coaches are we not putting our players in front of the goal and allow them to experiment and nurture the wonderful passion that comes from scoring a goal enough?

There are many questions we can ask about the environment we put our youth players in on regular basis that would attract or detract from the development of great finishers. It appears that the few real goal scorers that come out of the youth system in our country and moving on to high school, college, and the professional ranks are the exception.

At this point, I think it's appropriate to take a step back and take notice that when I talk about true goal scorers I'm referring to those male and female players who seem to find ways to put the ball in the back of the net more often than their counterparts, especially in critical moments or in high pressure games. A goal scorer could be a terrific finisher at one level but not at the next. I am sure most college coaches can attest to having a player on the team that scored goals like crazy in club and/or high school but struggled to match that proficiency at the collegiate level. I'm sure that can be said for many players as they moved from one level to the next. There are all kinds of reasons for this, from technical inefficiency to speed of thought to a different level of opposition (among other things).

Having gone through all of the reasons why coaches feel that true goal scorers seem to be born rather than made and why we might not be doing the best at developing more in our country, let's take a look at what many of these coaches are doing to enhance the abilities of the players on their rosters.

The common theme for all coaches I interviewed was repetition. Most created activities within their training regimen that allowed for unopposed repetitive finishing exercises for their attacking players. Many said they would often separate those specific players to give them as many shots in a given amount of time as possible in the course of a week's training sessions. Krikorian and DiCicco both said they liked to conduct simple finishing activities from different areas of the box in order to develop the confidence level of attacking players.

Others said they do the same thing but there is a need for defensive pressure to create more realism with the decisions that correlate with finishing techniques. Many years ago I remember University of North Carolina head women's coach Anson Dorrance saying he often placed his attackers in environments where they would have one chance or a few opportunities to finish in a given activity because it created a mindset where that player would take each opportunity as if it were vitally important to the game's outcome. There was a different mindset for his goal scorers when they knew that they would only get three shots in a given activity. It made them sharpen a focus that wouldn't have occurred if they knew they would have unlimited chances to shoot or score.

Several of the coaches talked about utilizing small-sided games (3 vs. 3 or 6 vs. 6) with big goals in their training sessions. In a field session Dorrance conducted at an NSCAA convention a few years ago, he had three to four 3 vs. 3 or 4 vs. 4 games going on big goals where only one goal scorer was allowed on the team. This puts the pressure on that player to make something happen. It develops a mentality of responsibility. Many coaches intimated they do similar things with their teams. There are a variety of positives that come from this environment, but the main reason in relation to goal scoring is that players receive lots of opportunities to finish under pressure in a small amount of time. For most of us, that seems makes sense.

Contrary to that notion, Marco feels that although small-sided games are great, they are not necessarily a great developmental tool for finishers because these players are often getting balls in areas in such ways that are different than the real 11 vs. 11 game. How your forwards receive balls, the proximity to the goal, the angles, distance of defenders, etc., can be different than what they experience in the bigger game.

Some coaches don't want to alter the mentality or perceptions of their scorers. Coaches may feel that if those special players are "thinking" too much, then the players rely less on the instinct that makes them unique. Other coaches feel that to ascend to higher levels of goal scoring ability, your scorers need to be more adept at understanding and reading the game and cerebral in their ability to solve the problem(s) that require the ability to put the ball in the net. To this end, coaches ask their players to "journal;" that is, have them recount how, when, why and where they were able to score or not as a means to improve their soccer brain in reference to scoring goals. The more pieces and pictures these players can recount, envision and dissect, the more the decisions necessary to succeed will be imprinted upon their minds and enable them to make "better" judgments in key moments that lead them to score more often. So in effect, coaches hope that their scorers become even more automatic by enhancing their instinct.

Many of the coaches implemented pattern play that resulted in finishing opportunities; some went with pressure, some without. Many noted that the real "hungry" players who strive to go beyond what they can currently do make it a point to come early or stay late for extra repetitions. I remember watching DaMarcus Beasley train at PSV in Holland. Beasley did exactly that. He stayed after training for 45 minutes or more working on finishing. Brian McBride did much the same through his entire career. This is nothing new for top performers. The question remains about how purposeful is that extra work and how does it lead to greater efficiency.

Finishing crosses is another area that many coaches work on extensively. Certainly, the ability for finishers to get quality service in key spaces makes a huge difference. The server's ability to provide a quality cross or pass and the finisher's ability to read the server, the defense, time the run, get the body at the correct angle, and technically execute under pressure are all elements that can more often than not go wrong at some phase of finish. Ultimately, it becomes a numbers game. As Church noted, if goal scorers have to work too hard by traveling too far from the box to get the ball, then they are not getting into prime scoring areas as often.

From a technical development side, Church adds that he likes to consistently put his players into racquetball courts where they can get a lot of repetition with ball striking. It is an integral part of his spring and off-season training but something that he has players do in the fall. He talks of how quickly a player can strike the ball with the kicking leg-pull back and speed through the shot. He also teaches his players about the stride to the ball and how to execute that so that the shot is more fluid through body mechanics.

Church doesn't talk much about missing chances but prefers to emphasize getting more reps in practice as a means of changing the shooters' form. He also mentions a drawback of coaching women is the psychological stress of missing chances has a tendency to stay with them longer. Coaches have to work with a majority of these players to get them to consistently be able to put failure behind them and move forward to the next play. Church likes to put his finishers into training situations where they are pushed and pulled by defenders; deal with an aggressive goalkeeper charging out at them, and overall making life difficult where they must demonstrate a hunger and toughness to score. As with many larger college soccer programs as well as professional teams many coaches have the advantage of utilizing a sports psychologist to help with these mental elements of dealing with pressure and poise in the moment of execution.

Ryan uses training and game video to show his players technical breakdowns and poor decisions as well as correctly executing plays. He wants his goal scorers to "see" themselves in both situations and learn for the future. Ryan likes to use small-sided games (often with plus players) so there is pressure but more opportunity for shots to be taken when attackers outnumber defenders. He stresses the importance of simulating time, space and pressure that the real game places on players so they are familiar with it when it counts. Ryan also tries not to get down on a striker for missing but encourages them to keep looking for and taking chances.

DiCicco echoes many of those statements and adds that coaches must get their players in front of goal every day, to focus on the simple things, demand concentration, and do it at game speed. "It's all about repetition and confidence building," he said.

This small contingent of coaches all seem to agree that it's much easier when true goal scorers come to you rather than you having to develop them. They all feel there is a need for repetition, build confidence and nurture these special goal scorers. Although youth coaches may be hamstrung by the availability of goals and space, there is a real need for emerging youth players to become more adept at being more lethal in front of the net. Some coaches believe that you can further develop these natural finishers while others try to not get in the way.

Some of the greatest abilities of these players to become great finishers include ball striking, timing of runs, bravery, reading defenses and goalkeepers, creativity, craftiness, proper decision-making, quick decision-making and instinct, quickness, technical acumen, poise, hunger, the ability to let mistakes go, and above all, supreme confidence.

How do you go about developing the players you have and getting them to score at your level? That is up to you. Every player, coach and training environment will be slightly unique, but the bottom line is that this country needs more efficient, lethal and consistent goal scorers. As you go to your next training session, realize that there is a need to develop and nurture the technical, tactical, and physical side to help create your finishers, but the most important piece of all may be psychological.

Over the last five months, I have talked to numerous coaches about this issue (far too many to name or even remember). A handful responded via e-mail, while others discussed this over phone calls. I would like to thank Robbie Church, Anne Cook (Penn State), Tony DiCicco, Mark Krikorian, Paul Marco, Brooks Monaghan, Andrew Rolf, Greg Ryan, Brett Simon (formerly of Stanford), former Canadian National Team coach Tony Waiters, and all others who gave me their time and insight.