I'm 32, and I just recently started playing at a weekly pick-up game so that I can practice and play in a rec league in spring. My only problem is that the only way I seem to have any accuracy and power, is when I kick with the side of my foot. The guys give me a hard time sometimes for it, and although I'm trying to learn kicking it with the top of my foot I was just wondering if anyone knows of proffesional players that have been successful that kicked with the side of their foot all the time, so I can tell them to shut up!!!!!!
I can't give you names of players who just use the side of their foot the whole time, but I would say in my game I use the side of my foot as much as the top of my foot. You will notice that when a player hits a good penalty into the bottom corner of the net it's usually with the side of the foot. It's very good for accuracy and you can get a fair amount of power too. I would really work on kicking with the top of your foot though - that's where you get the real power, distance and height. There's quite a few different techniques and different types of kick so just watch lots of football and try what you see!
Hmmm...you are not wrong in using the side of your foot, it seems you are just using it in the wrong situations. If your kick produces a relatively slow, accurate, roller on the ground you shouldn't use it for shots but for short-medium range passes. You don't have to use that part of your foot but it is tremendously reliable and simple if used correctly, just watch the pros they use it A LOT since they are so good they can break a defense down with those easy passes (mixed with other more complex things I'm sure though, that I probably wouldn't even understand). You should use the "top" of your foot for driven shots say just inside of the 18 or outside OR, in some situations, for long powerful passes...but how much you use that strategy depends on your mindset. The "top" of your foot should be defined as the large bone running up your foot along the big-toe side of your foot. Since this area has the most surface area it will net the most force if you correctly hit the ball. That is about all I really want to share, to learn how to correctly drive the ball with your laces simply go to a search engine and type in "Soccer instep drive" or "Laces kick" you will get some helpful results I'm sure that could eventually improve your kicks dramatically.
There are also several good threads in this very forum that have a lot of pretty detailed discussions about getting good technique with the top of the foot (laces).