Looking at your game desk results, do you notice a high missed shot percentage?
The most important thing to analyze is the player or team's posture in the water- this analysis will help you understand why athletes keep missing shots.
Are they following through on the shot?
Are their legs under them?
Are they seeing the shot or are they shooting because they have to?
Are they confident in themselves or shying away from the opportunity to make an impact?
Are they just shooting to shoot?
How to Improve
1. Have the athlete(s) work on their posture outside of the water by throwing a ball against a wall in a shooting position.
Suggested Drills:
Impact Ball Training: Full Shot
Shooting Series 6: Posture
Dryland: Cross Face Wall Drill
At Home Workout; Upper Body : Holding The Ball
What to watch for:
Ensure the athlete is using their entire torso on their follow through.
Check that the middle finger is the last thing touching the ball, not the pinky or thumb.
Make sure they are in the ‘statue of liberty’ position
Suggested Drills:
Water Polo 1.0: Statue of Liberty
Water Polo 1.0: Throwing the ball
Water Polo 1.0: Evolution of Passing
Shooting Drills: Shooting Warm-Up
Shooting Drills: Evolution of Shooting
At Home Workout: Ball Handling: No more Twist Wrist Shots
2. If the legs aren’t under the hips, the athlete is either rushing the shot without using their legs or they have created a bad habit. Rushing the shot is natural once or twice, but if it is happening constantly the player is not reading the situation correctly.
When the athlete is open, instead of looking around and moving into the open space in front of them, they are shooting quickly without doing the two steps listed prior. The player needs to be placed in more situations where they are under pressure while focusing on sliding forward picking up the ball in shooting.
Suggested Drills:
Shooting Series 6: Slide & Shoot
Shooting Series 6: Pick Up Ball Underneath
Offense: Absorb Foul & Move
3. Utilize Tony’s “Taking the Space” drills as well as drills that include sliding forward and shooting. ‘Over faking’ can also be used to teach how to make the goalie work and what to do when you have space. If missing shots has become a bad habit, coaches can correct it in training by NOT allowing free shooting and instead directing every shot.
Suggested Drills:
Shooting Series 6: Fake & Shoot
Shooting Series 6: Fake & Shoot Laterally
Shooting Series 6: Posture Shooting
Shooting Drills: Evolution of the Fake
Water Polo 2.0: Tony Faking
4. If athletes are not reading the situation correctly, they must be put in those specific situations more and sometimes while under pressure. Athletes should be shooting from the 3 positions that they play most in a game. If an athlete is a center, have them ‘post up’ as well as take a ‘6m foul’ - this should be 90% of their shooting. Athletes need to be directed when shooting and not given free range due to the risks associated with stunting their own development and not being aware of it.
Suggested Drills:
Shooting Drills: Coming Up for a Shot
Shooting Drills: After Foul Shot
Shooting Drills: Weakside Shot
Zone Shooting: 6 Meter Foul Ball in Place
Zone Shooting: 2-3-4 Shooting
Center: Center Drill
Driving: Backdoor Drive Shin Move
5. If the athletes lack confidence, they need to be put in a repetitive situation where failing is the main focus of the scenario. The first step is talking about their fear of failure; the only barrier to success is fearing failure. Make sure to find out why they lack confidence and reinforce that the only way to obtain confidence is to overcome that fear of failing. The time for the athlete to fail and gain confidence is in practice. If they don’t take shots in practice, they won’t have the confidence to take shots in game situations. Many times teams are reliant on 1 or 2 players and someone gets left out. Ensure all athletes are receiving pressure shooting situations to mitigate this isolation. Training should be harder than games in order to ingrain confidence as a permanent structure in the athletes.