Now there are two types of volleys, there is a regular volley that does not hit the ground before you strike, and then there is the half-volley where the ball has a short bounce before it is kicked. For this concept, I focused on a regular, full volley.
When it comes to a striking a volley, you want your hips to be aligned with the ball and the target. You also want to make sure your body is balanced, your eyes are on the ball, making good contact with the ball, and pointing your toe down so your toes are below you ankle (42). Making sure that I was constantly watching the ball allowed me to create good contact that then enabled me to successfully strike the ball.
Once I practiced my volley using the little information above from Andrew Latham, I used some more precise details that helped me hit a much stronger volley. "On contact, strike the ball with your laces and lock your ankle joint. As you bring your foot through the ball, keep your toes below your ankle at all times. This will stop the ball from going in the air" (43). Keeping my toes down and hitting the ball with my laces made my volley much stronger and more accurate because I was able to keep the ball down.
Practicing these techniques and ideas has improved my volleying abilities and now I am able to strike the ball on a volley much stronger than I was able to before. The volley gives more opportunities to score a goal because it is a new skill that can be used for different goal scoring situations.
One question that I had when it comes to shooting and scoring goals is, which type of shot do you believe is easiest to score off of? For example, a header, ad volley, etc.
Latham, Andrew. Soccer Smarts for Kids: 60 Skills, Strategies & Secrets. Rockridge Press, 2016.
Tionna,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was very informative and to the point. Trying to execute a solid and accurate volley shot during a game seems very difficult, but I agree that continuously working on the simple technique and composure that you described above will result in noticeable improvement. To answer your question, I think that the easiest style of shooting to score would be the simple low, powerful shots with placement to either corner. Although a screaming banger to top-bins would always prove successful, in regards to efficiency and consistency, I'll always put placement over power.
Joey,
DeleteThank you for the comment! I'm glad to hear that my posts are informative and can help you on certain techniques. I agree with your statement, "placement over power" and I think that this concept cannot be stressed enough. Sometimes I believe people look at the dramatic goal over the clean goal that someone has scored using simple technique.