How to bend the ball like Beckham?

i think 99.5 mph was for a PK...

A straight strike will travel a lot faster then a bent shot... i'm sure Beckham could hit a 100mph strike

 

Strange I heard that it was physically possible to hit "only" 130 kmph (the new adidas fevernova supposedly increased maximum speed from 120 to 130), 100 mph would be about 160 kmph...

 

Just a quick question, didn't really know what topic to put it in:

When you contact the ball on a straight shot, should your leg be completely straight at that point?

Does anyone have high quality movies that you can play in slow motion? On kazaa there are some but they won't play slow motion in the theatre thing. I want to examine people's technique.

I watched zidane and I thought his leg was straight when he hit it but then I watched a killer free kick by someone else(both these shots rose into the corner) and I don't think their leg was straight.

 

what do you mean by straight? hitting the ball with the full instep or the area between the side of the foot and the big toe? It is much easier to use the full instep to make a straight shot. but no one can ever control the amount of curl or bend in the ball.

 

I am talking about whether your leg is straight, like at the knee.

 

Here's a fun and simplified explanation of Bending it Like Beckham:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/football/ball.shtml#animation

 

I'd give up football for life for that opportunity!

 

BeckHam practices for several of hours a day like probly 6 or 7, and he is always trying to make everything he dose better("Hint,Hint") practice the more you do the better you become. Go in your back yard and chips balls of somthing like a swing set and change your way you hit the ball. you should eventually figure something out plus BeckHam's Shoe's the Manias have that Preedator at the inside sole i have these shoes and it helps a whole lot....

 

The predators are overrated, I think anyways. I had the predator precisions....and yea, they helped the spin a little bit, but seriously, they would really only have dramatic improvements if you hit the ball at crazy speeds. I have the Total 90 II's now, and most of the time I get better spin then I did with the predators b/c without the rubber vamps, you can hit the ball faster...making it spin more. Yea, preds help out Beckham...but thats b/c he has to much speed anyways....

 

I've also seen his shots. It looks like he points his toe up and hits it with the inside of his foot for more topspin. he also throws his arm up right when he strikes it for a little more spin. I think. Ive tried it and it works well.

 

When you strike the ball, strike it so your shooting foot is perpindicular to your plant foot

So basically it should be a sideways 'T'

 

Dont worry, if you marry Victoria you'll pull it off.

Do it like Victoria!

 

Does anyone know how to shag like Beckham. Apparently he's hung like a Viking God.

Revelian

 

Part of you people's problem's may be that you just dont have the leg strenght to hit the ball with effective pace to make it drop. You have to have very strong hips to do that.

 

i've watched beckham's FK against Greece in WCQ over and over and over again, and the one thing that i picked up that i haven't heard or tried already, is his method of getting loft with the ball.
instead of purely using his body and his legs as levers to lift the ball into the air (which causes a lot of force and is difficult to control), he uses this ALONG WITH his ankle movement to cause loft on the ball.

now, put out your hands infront of you, with the palms facing down. take your "shooting hand" (whichever hand that corresponds with your shooting foot), for me it's my right hand, and turn it so that the palm faces your left hand (or vice versa if you're a left footer). you want to hit the ball with your foot using your ankle, so that the ball is lifted inthe air. use of your body also helps, but it's usually too powerful.

now obviously, since i'm only trying to show the motion of the ankle the position of the feet as i've just explained is incorrect. the "T-shaped" idea, and standing at a 90 to 100 degree from target (check previous posts if unsure of what these mean) are very important positioning tips.

when striking the ball, what you want is generate a lot of spin, as you may already know. it's hard to explain with just words and text where on the ball to strike to get the correct directional path, but if you have a basic idea of how this works you'll understand already.

now, when striking the ball, you want to not only CUT the ball, but also hit it with the lifting ankle motion as i explained above (i think it's called inverting the ankle?? Phys Ed. majors, help please ). what this causes is SPIN and LOFT. spin obviously causes the ball to curl, while loft, simply just lifts the ball so that it sort of floats. when you do this, what happens is that you achieve top spin. when the ball is struck, there should only be horizontal spin. there should be no other direction of rotation. so what happens here, is that the forces on the ball, loft and spin, are unequal: there is more spin force than loft force. this causes the ball to initially go relatively straight (foward force) because of the loft that is caused, and then when the force of the loft is wearing off, towards the end of the flight, spin takes over and loft is decreasing, SO THEREFORE the ball curve smore significantly and, also have a dipping action. and if done correctly, is splendid to watch .

very important also: follow through in the direction of the kick. you will lose spin if you compensate by adjusting the strike to go foward, rather than following through.

now, i can't say i'm a beckham replica or anything like that, NOR can i say that my methods here will guarantee that you will have perfect free kicks. it's just that i've heard this topic brought up over and over again, and i'm sure that there are those experienced players out there who know how to do it, and how their actions cause the ball to move, but so far i haven't been able someone who is able to explain FULLY, what a player must cause the ball to do, to shoot a bending and dipping freekick.

i've practised and practised, and experimented and experimented over and over with free kicks, watched video after video, and it's been about a year or two since i've been fascinated with these spectacular free kicks that i've been able to break down the methods, which i believe, to be key to performing such beautiful sporting feats. no one can tell you how to bend a ball like beckham, but i just hope that i've explained a few things so that you get have an easier time trying to figure it out and hopefully, if you put it into practise, you might just be able to do it.

AHHHHHHHHHHH! hope this helps. feedback is welcome, and if anything is unclear please ask.

this "tutorial"...no, this simplified explaination is meant for those with basic knowledge of ball curving and ball spin etc. already.

ps. good tip: start by learning to just BEND/CURVE the ball, THEN work on loft.

pps. yes i've done it quite a few times before, but i've yet to build consistancy, and i cannot strike it at speeds beckham does (obviously).

 

I doubt anyone on these boards can kick it anywhere near Beckhams velocity. I'm 18 and the fastest I've clocked a PK at of my own was 68 MPH, which is somewhere around how fast Beckham's free kicks from around 25 yards out are I'd imagine. And to control the spin on a shot that fast is insanely difficult. It'd take years and years of practice to even come close to doing what Beckham, Zidane, Totti, Roberto Carlos, or any premier free kick taker can do with the ball.

What I try to do with my kicks is use the inside of the boot and sort of swing my leg around striking the lower outside of the ball with my toe pointed up and my body slightly leaning back. As I kick the ball it sort of rolls along my foot coming in contact with the entire side of my foot starting near the toe and ending near the heel coming off my foot with diagonal spin at approx. a 45 degree angle, if I hit it hard enough and lean properly the ball will get enough heigth to clear the wall then curve down and in. This works at the high school level but I can't find a way to get enough speed on the ball to get it by the keeper from a good distance (over 23 or so yards) with the control I need, I suspect that faster kicks would come with more practice (as in years of practice almost daily).

I believe i described a different style than quattro (or maybe I can't visualize) and it works for me. Describing how to kick a ball with no picture/video is difficult to say the least.

 

has anyone seen replays of the recent beckham FK, against FC Tokyo? when you watch the slow-motion replays, you'll see that the ball only has top spin.

romagol:
i know exactly the style that you're speaking of...and the problem with the long distance thing that you're having, i think, has to do with the fact that that style generates a lot of spin, but not enough power to go far. it's not the spin that makes the ball travel farther distances, but rather how hard you "hit" the ball, not the amount of spin you generate by "cutting" the ball, as you would with that technique. and i think, it's kinda hard to control also, using that style, IMO.

but of couse, there's no reason messing with it, if it works fine for you

it really is difficult trying to describe these kinda thngs with vids or pics..

 

I'm 13 years old...and ive bene working for less than 6 months..and i have the basic ball spin and small curve...i just need more power in my legs...i approch it from an angle..and hit it in the lower right/left corner...if you see your ball spin in a diagnal way then you know it has ball spin...kick it harder and followthorugh with your legs and it should eventually bend...remember this isn't somthing you'll just do...it takes practice