WHY CANT AFRICAN PLAYERS SHOOT THE BALL?

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

African teams in general rarely score from distance,set pieces or corners.this makes them very easy to defend. If we can strike the ball with the same accuracy as even the mediocre euro or south american team we'll be in the semis. I'm tired of free kicks and corners looking like goal kicks. We have a serious issue our ability to strike the ball.

[cic old boy]

Lack of exposure to proper coaching at the early stages of their development.

[Comrade Machel]

I have lamented the same problem before, our players are not very good at shooting at all Given how physical strong we are one would expect african players to regularly unleash rockets that result in goals, but no the shots are more a threat to spectators behind the goal than resulting in a goal

[zoro]

Lack of exposure to proper coaching at the early stages of their development.

You can't play shots at monkey posts or under Ojuelegba and obalande bridges. We had such when people like us who trained in proper fields were there.

[bolaji]

Good observation. At Columbia for example, aside from Azeez and Nwofor who are both very good at striking the ball, the rest of FE players have poor technique at striking the ball.

I think the problem lies with the very basics of football training. African kids don't have the luxury of proper youth coaching.

In the past 4 weeks, I started training my 4 year old how to strike the ball with the instep, outside and laces. I was shocked how quickly he picked up the techniques.

I also made him pass the ball 20 times with both feet in repetitions using all 3 methods. I was shocked at his 75% accuracy rate.

Youth coaching is extremely important to the success of African players.

[marko]

Again, you cant teach old men new tricks!!!!

[YUJAM]

Poor fundamentals. We are good at the individual play but not at team work and basics such as shooting, passing and movement

Lack of exposure to proper coaching at the early stages of their development.

[juventuss]

technique which can only be learnt. Look at players like Eto'o, Drogba, Martins.. Those guys I think, have great technique and are able to take very powerful shots. However, Eto'o and to an extent Drogba are able to actually make the ball ball move the way they want. Not necessarily all about power but placement. Watch David Villas' goal against Madrid. It was all technique.

[YemiBrazil]

technique which can only be learnt. Look at players like Eto'o, Drogba, Martins.. Those guys I think, have great technique and are able to take very powerful shots. However, Eto'o and to an extent Drogba are able to actually make the ball ball move the way they want. Not necessarily all about power but placement. Watch David Villas' goal against Madrid. It was all technique.

KPOM! It's all about the drills. Extra 1 hour after general training won't harm your career in any way - we've seen the result with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, JJ Okocha, Ronaldinho Gaucho, Roberto Carlos, Van der Saar, Rasheed Yekini etc.
Some coaches even use their own private time to assist some of their players with some techniques. Like most fields of human endeavor, it is all about some extra hours - the secret of the big difference.

[bigpete]

practice , practice, practice .
Its all about technique and muscle memory.

[GREENWHITEGREEN]

Ability to shoot the ball is a fundamental aspect of the game.

You cannot outrun your apparent lack of fundamentals.

All that 100m/hour sprint all over the field won't help, sooner or later your shortcomings in the basics of the game will catch up with you.

How long have we all been here on this forum? We see the same things over and over again at U-17, U-20 WC, Women's WC, etc.


Go look at the threads from 10, 8, 4years ago. We will not even admit that we do not know how to do the simple things.


The French and Argies know this more than any other countries.

[fabio]

I go give una example. Our church has a football team that, I help out with the coaching. After a couple of games, it was obvious that our shooting was poor, the reason we could not score goals. It was my turn to do drills. I informed the players of my observation and today's drill shooting.

If you saw the look, they gave me. We can shoot, we know how to shoot etc. I still went ahead with the shooting drill. If 100 shots were taken, only 20 were on target and of those 20, 10 of them get as e be.

Sometimes, certain players believe they are too big to do drills like shooting.

[bolaji]

That's the average Nigerian mentality though.

The reality is that lots of us grew up playing without understand the very basics on how to hit the ball and make it do exactly what you want. Early coaching will enable kids understand how to position the foot properly while striking the ball.

I go give una example. Our church has a football team that, I help out with the coaching. After a couple of games, it was obvious that our shooting was poor, the reason we could not score goals. It was my turn to do drills. I informed the players of my observation and today's drill shooting.

If you saw the look, they gave me. We can shoot, we know how to shoot etc. I still went ahead with the shooting drill. If 100 shots were taken, only 20 were on target and of those 20, 10 of them get as e be.

Sometimes, certain players believe they are too big to do drills like shooting.

[YemiBrazil]

I go give una example. Our church has a football team that, I help out with the coaching. After a couple of games, it was obvious that our shooting was poor, the reason we could not score goals. It was my turn to do drills. I informed the players of my observation and today's drill shooting.

If you saw the look, they gave me. We can shoot, we know how to shoot etc. I still went ahead with the shooting drill. If 100 shots were taken, only 20 were on target and of those 20, 10 of them get as e be.

Sometimes, certain players believe they are too big to do drills like shooting.

Tell me about it. From our primary schools to the highest levels we think stuffs like shooting, free kicks, corner kicks, penalty kicks are 'normal' easy things in football and don't require regular drills - in fact your comment reminds me of some of my football pals over the years. They can score freekicks with their mouth but when we try it on the field come and see how Naija boys dey endanger innocent birds for sky .