Shot blocking

I have a few points about shot blocking that I read from a book. These are simple points that help increasing the amount of shots you've blocked, and the amount times you've forced an attacker back and denied him a chance of taking a shot.

1. Get close: This is the most obvious one, to cut out an attackers angles and his chances of shooting in different parts of the net you have to get close. This will reduce the number of options he has to score and it will put quite some pressure on him. Getting close will also enable you to reach for the ball if he does anything stupid. 

2. Block the free option: Usually when defenders cant get close and an attacker is going to take a shot they tend to stay dead center because that's where the goal is. But the keeper is behind and can handle a shot that comes straight to him. But if the ball goes to the far post it is harder for him to block that. So if your keeper is already covering the first post and the attacker is taking a shot from some distance. it makes sense to position yourself in a way where you're covering the second post.

3. Take the short route: This is when you have been beaten by a player in a 1v1, to beat you the player has to go around you. Now after he's beaten you there's no point trying to stay side by side and taking the long curved route to the goal with him. Instead run in a line that gets you faster in between him and the goal. You can resume your battle once you've recovered.

4. Get up quick: A lot of times when defenders attempt a tackle and are beaten by the attacker they take way too much time to get back up and sometimes they just watch the attacker take on the keeper 1v1.There is always a chance that the keeper saves the shot and the ball rolls out for anyone to take. Instead if you get up quickly and recover you can get to the second ball after the block. 

These were the points that I got from the shot blocking chapter.

That's it