I need help with my shooting I have very good accuracy with my curls and using side of the foot, but my instep drive lack power, accuracy and I have a lousy technique. so how can improve my instep drive I also want to learn how to have no spin when I hit it with the instep any tips?
I'm just going to take a shot in the dark, based on my experience working with young kids on kicking technique. The work is tedious but necessary. Part 1: If you divide the ball into fourths (top and bottom, left and right hemispheres). You need to learn to hit it where the two hemispheres intersect--dead center. Part 2: Keep your eye on the exact spot on the ball you want to hit UNTIL THE BALL IS GONE. The part in caps is critical. Too many players pick their head up at the last second and being off by just a little bit will cause you strike it off center and create spin. Part 3: Learn to approach and kick straight. Most of us approach a ball to kick from an angle. Very very few coaches a) teach how to kick and b) teach how to kick straight. Think of all the players you know, and how many do you think could kick the ball in a straight line on command? Sounds simple, but I'd put the number under ten percent. Put the ball on a line, like the 18, approach it in a straight line, strike it and see if you can keep it along the line. The critical part of the technique is the leg swing, it must swing straight through the hip. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the tips but I have a couple of questions What do you mean straight through the hips? I can hit in a straight line but it doesn't have much power any tips? Also any tips on running up to ball in a straight line it feels very awkward?
Some players turn their hips. It helps generate power, helps put spin... it's not a bad thing but in cases when you want to kick straight, it's not good. Think about how you would walk in a straight line. Your hips are pointed straight forward and your legs naturally swing through—no twisting, unless you're a chick shakin' your goods Think straight approach, straight hips, straight leg swing=the ball should go straight. It's a process. If you strike a straight kick with your laces you'll naturally drag your foot on the ground, so you have to adjust by raising your kicking hip slightly. Yes, it's awkward but it's how it's done. Some players compensate by turning their foot out, which is okay but you mess up your "straight alignment". Get the motion down and you'll be able to increase the force of the kick gradually. Once you get the motion down, the force will come along quickly. Also... so you've set up a ball along the line. You're running up to it and kicking it straight. Set a target about 5 yards beyond the ball on the line you're following (could be a cone, a bag, anything). After you make contact with the ball, keep your motion going to that target. It trains your body to a) follow through on the, which adds power and b) instead of just your leg generating the force, you're using all your body weight to generate force, which also adds power. Just repetitions really. The more you do the more natural it will become. If you want to get into the details, any kick in soccer has 3 phases: hop and back swing (done simultaneously as you step up to the ball), the swing through (where you strike the ball), and the follow through (ball is gone). If you can, see there's no "running up to the ball"... arguably that's separate from the kicking motion. Arguably, has little/no bearing on the kick. So once you're done running up and enter the kicking motion, it becomes all the same (all 3 phases)... push pass, free kick, goal kick, etc... the situations are different but the basis of the kicking motion is the same. For example, I (personally) can generate as much force on my kicks from two steps as I would from a very long run up. Obviously not the same caliber, but think of Cristiano Ronaldo (short run up) vs Roberto Carlos (very long approach). Both generate a lot of force on their free kicks but different techniques.
I always seen pro players swing there leg to the opposite side of their boy like in this video. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6yEgmfIuwQ&feature=related"]Ibrahimovic Unstoppable Freekick 170km/h vs Zaragoza HD (25.10.09) - YouTube[/ame] also how do you lift your hip do you lean to the opposite side
It's not wrong to swing the leg across the body, it's just another technique or type of kick. If you watch at the 49 second mark, Ibra is striking the ball with the sweet spot of the foot, not the laces. So the foot must turn outward a little, the hips must drop lower, the plant foot must set up a little further away from the ball, which forces the striking leg to swing through and across the body. How to lift your hip? Stand with both feet on the ground, balance on one foot and just pull your non standing hip up. But really, if you can stand and freely swing your leg back and forth (with a bent knee) with your toe pointed down. That's really the goal.
Would the laces technique work if I wanna blast shots from 30 yards away? or what do you think is better Thanks again for all the help it me a considerable amount.
Blast from 30? I prefer hitting it on the sweet spot, because it gives the ball a hard surface to hit off of (the 1st joint of the 1st metatarsal, the biggest bone in your foot aside from the heel bone). The straight kick is a technique to a)kick the ball straight b) provide you an option to strike the ball well when you have defenders on either side nearby and space is tight.
THIS IS THE SINGLE BEST DRILL I'VE EVER PRACTICED FOR ANYTHING TECHNIQUE RELATED Seriously man, you should see great results if you practice this for five or ten minutes every time you train. This drill is great for people who already have good shooting ability but find themselves suffering from inconsistency. Not hitting screamers every single time you go for power? Do this. All you need is a wall and a ball, and if you have a target or something you can aim at on the wall, that's even better. Start about 15-20 yards away from the wall. Place the ball on the ground and put your plant leg right next to it two to four inches away from the edge of the ball. If you were to draw a line from the big toe of your plant foot over to the ball, the line should be cutting the ball in half. The small circle is your foot, the big one is the ball. oO You should be standing almost directly over the ball. Now for the drill itself, simply swing your shooting leg back and then through the ball with your INSTEP and never any other part of the foot. If you you're wide left or right of your target by any amount, then you know you didn't hit the ball dead center. You're not going for power here, the most important things are hitting the ball dead center/hitting the target. Until you get comfortable with it it wont resemble anything like a shot. It will look more like a chip. There should be a TON of backspin on the ball. Yes, you're essentially chipping it with backspin with the instep of your foot. DO NOT READJUST YOUR PLANT LEG. It's going to feel weird at first. You're going to want to get a little farther off the ball, you're gonna want to tilt your body as you hit it, don't do this. Defeats the purpose of the drill. Technique wise, aside from making perfect contact with the ball, you want to focus on bringing your leg as far back as you can in the power up and lifting your foot as high possible during the follow through. Aim to improve in both these areas over time. For example I've been doing this drill for about six months and now on my follow through my foot extends all the way up to about eye level. It's quite important that your lifting the ball up into the air. By the time the ball hits the wall or the target gravity should be visibly taking effect and the ball should be on its way down. This is important. You'd think that you're getting under the ball too much but when you hit the ball in this spot while actually trying to crack one you'll be hitting one of those driven balls that's still rising when it crosses the goal line. This drill forces you to hit the ball cleanly exactly in the center. It also forces your shooting leg to operate on a straight line during the entire shooting motion. The most important thing is that it forces you to do it over and over again from the same position with the proper technique. Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. One reason the pros are pros is because proper technique has been permanently ingrained in their muscle memory. One thing I recommend is doing this drill for over ten minutes and then practicing some normal shots with power in mind. Try and remember to bring the range of motion from the drill with you. Right away you should feel a difference in the amount of effort it takes for you to hit driven power shots with your instep. This 60 year old who used to play pro ball in France is always around the park I train at and put me on this a while back. I can't thank him enough. Hopefully it helps someone on this site as much as it has helped me.
The drill I posted above is all about point 3. If you aren't already very sound with 1 and 2, you should probably worry about mastering those first.
it's not all about practice, it's about practicing the right way. if you're practicing and you have the wrong technique, you're just enforcing bad habits.
that's it exactly. you're basically developing balance in your plant leg. accuracy is the most important thing but as your accuracy improves you should also be trying to develop velocity.
Practice a lot, try different techniques, try to emulate various players shooting styles, experiment shooting with different parts of the boot (have you tried shooting with the tip of the boot for example? It packs quite a punch). It can get quite boring to just keep shooting, so you can try shooting games. When I was a kid we played two different shooting games, "jogar à parede" (the wall game) and "jogar ao mata" (the kill game). For the first one find a wall (without any windows btw) with some obstacles in front of it and bring a group of friends. Choose a shooting order. The objective is to hit the wall in your turn, if you fail to hit it you're out, if someone touches (or is hit by) the ball out of his turn he's out too. The catch is, you can only touch the ball once, so many times you won't have time to prepare your shot before it goes to far or behind some obstacle. Futhermore stonger shots will be more difficult for your opponents to catch, so it encourages you also to shoot with more power. For the second game you'll need an area limited by walls, again like in the previous game, obstacles in the game area will make the game more difficult and interesting. Bring a group of friends and try to hit each other with the ball, you can only touch the ball once each time. So if A shoots the ball he can only touch it again after someone else touches it too. When someone is hit you can put him out of the game, but that will make the game kind of boring to the end of it. When I played the game, we would chose a Home Base and when someone was hit, he would have to make a run for it while the rest of us punished him in some way. We usually slapped the back of his neck, but bear in mind that this is supposed to be a friendly game, we wouldn't slap each other hard. It's a really good game because you have to hit moving targets without being able to control the ball and prepare the shot. Furthermore when we were kids it helped us to lose the fear of being hit by it.
Shooting is something that you need to spend hours and hours of consistent practice on if you want to be good. I would suggest committing at least 10 minutes a day to shooting with both feet. Consistent practice is the key. Here is a video on How to shoot with the laces to help you out with your technique: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENphmP74EsQ"]How To Shoot A Soccer Ball With The Laces[/ame] Best of Luck. Keep me posted on your progress.
^At 1:17 and 2:00 when the camera is directly behind him notice how his shooting leg is straight back, then straight forward like a pendulum completely in line with his hips. Good video Mentor.
Are you supposed to hit the ball in the middle of the foot? That's not what i've learned. Red = Where it looks like on the video where you should strike the ball (tried it and it generates very little power) Black = Where i always try to hit with the ball http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/684/fotter.jpg/
I generally get the feeling that that kind of thing depends on the person, personally I don't feel comfortable hitting the ball where the black mark is, seems like that's way to high and the ball would make contact with your ankle which isn't good. There's a big protruding bone on my foot about an inch to the left of the red dot and maybe a quarter inch above, that's where I hit it.
Lol I know this is an old thread, but i kinda just saw this. What's the follow through like if I want to hit a driven ball with backspin, like those that rises into the top corner. I'm trying to master the driven shot technique, but no matter how much I practise it seems almost impossible. Whenever I shoot the ball goes way to high almost like a goal kick. My body positioning is wrong and i'm not sure about the follow through
Hi guys! We are talking about shooting, so I would like to ask you about something. How do you choose which side will you shoot? When I'm on the pitch, I never know which direction should I shoot to. How do you do it?
Shooting is what you do when your further out then 18 yards from your attacking goal. That is when you use the instep drive. Finishing is putting location on your finish is what you do when your inside 18 yards. So shooting for distance using the power instep drive. First you learn how to take the instep drive on a dead ball with a short approach. You want toe down and ankle locked heal up through the shot. Take a ball drop it on your foot in that position. When you find the right spot to hit the ball the sweet spot. The ball will go flying off your foot. You need a good arc in your leg back swing. Plant foot very slightly a head of the ball not even with the ball but you can begin with your foot even with the ball. All your weight on the plant foot. Then for distance power that weight is transfered by landing on your kicking foot. Also take into account the distance from your plant foot to the kicking foot. Adjust that position for you and you will get better results. Your approach angle matters so not straight at the ball. When shooting in normal situations you want a quick shot and you might not want to land on the kicking foot you might want top spin instead to keep the shot from going over the goal. For distance shooting you need that nice arc in your leg back swing to your shot that takes more time to do then a quick shot. So you need more time and space to get that shot off in. So you won't have that time need for the power instep drive if a defender is near you when you take it. You can practice taking it with a wall and a ball. But you won't see if you have that power in your shot unless you go further out after and try it from a longer distance. There was a guy who used to post on strength training on this site his user name was loden he sent us a small clip on his shooting an instead drive. He thought he did it right but it was a weak instep drive. I will see if I can find his post. It does take thousands of shots to do it right. There are very few pros here in the US that have powerful instep drives.