How to kick a soccer ball

How do you kick a soccer ball the right way?

Some interesting information from Coach V....

One of the most common questions I get from parents and youth coaches is the question of the basic correct soccer kick. The biggest problem is that we often hear a lot of misinformation on the subject. Many times we simply experiment until we “think” we have it right. I will offer some basic tips and information to help explain.
First understand the evolution of a soccer kick.
When we are young we simply step up behind the soccer ball and push our leg through it. What amazed me throughout our research is how prevalent this style of soccer kick is even in older soccer players. Now, I don’t mean older youth players of 8 – 10 years of age, I mean much higher levels of 14 to 18 years old. If you don’t believe me we have hundreds of hours of footage to prove it.
To kick a soccer ball the right way, youth players must learn step one.
Step one is the Proper Load. It makes me laugh a little when soccer coaches and parents tell soccer players to kick the soccer with your laces or in-step, not your toe. (I was guilty of the same years ago.) It is physically impossible to do this from their current kick without stubbing their toe or “breaking their foot”. Don’t feel bad, it took us a while to figure this out as well. There is a special pattern and understanding of the full leg swing that must be understood and taught prior to telling them to kick with “laces”.
We developed a simple 1-2-3 process that teaches even the youngest players how to accomplish this. Older players don’t know they do this, their bodies simply figure it out. However, they often figure it out with bad habits and swing patterns.

Next I will address the issue of what part of the foot actually kicks the ball. This is a huge topic of debate in many soccer discussions and you can go to hundreds of websites and watch all the soccer training videos you want, but there is only one real answer. The answer is simple. We strike the ball with all parts of our foot. The REAL problem exists when ONLY ONE part is taught as the “right way”. I will explain this in writing but it really must be seen to truly understand. The TOP of our foot is used in several soccer kicks. To help you understand what we mean by the top of your foot we simply mean the entire top including ALL the laces. This differs from a SWEET SPOT kick.

The sweet spot is the inner part of the laces, or the large bone that connects the large toe under the laces. Many people say that kicking with the SWEET SPOT is the right way to kick the soccer ball when in fact this develops a very limited kicking arsenal. A soccer player must learn to kick with the top of their foot, the sweet spot, the inside and the outside of the foot. We quickly learned that a large percentage of US players have never been taught this kick properly. We have seen very high level soccer players that can’t perform a basic straight kick.
Please, DO NOT listen to people that tell you “the proper soccer kick is performed by striking the ball with only the sweet spot”. Many of these same people also say the “only proper approach” is from an angle approach. This is the most misguided training information ever to hit the soccer training “airwaves”.
In our soccer kick training video, Blast the Ball, we break down each soccer kick and show you how to perform them.


The plant foot growing roots.
A bad soccer kick pattern we often see is the “plant foot” actually growing “roots” as we call it. I prefer not to call it the plant foot, but rather the touch foot. Your non-shooting foot simply touches the ground for a brief instance while the strike is being made. Once the impact of the soccer kick is complete, we leave this foot and land on our striking foot. This is true for almost all kicks.
Letting the “plant foot” grow roots will often make players lean back, and block the forward momentum of their hip. This reduces the natural swing pattern of the soccer kick, reduces power and can cause injury. We teach an entire section on what takes place during the kick and what needs to happen.

When teaching a young player to strike the ball with either the instep (laces) or the sweet spot (above big toe) make sure you start slow. These drills should be performed in slow motion to allow the muscles to FEEL the difference. Increase the speed ONLY after several slow motion training sessions.
Make a young player kick the ball in slow motion only allowing the ball to have enough force to travel 3 to 4 feet. You will notice that as they perform this drill faster and faster, the old TOE KICK will reappear. Slow it down when it does.
Next, explain to young players why their bodies are fighting what you’re trying to teach them. If they understand that they have years of muscle memory and their body does not want to do it differently, they will understand. This will save a lot of frustration. Keep these training sessions short. Once a child shows frustration, stop and do something fun.