So basically, this thread is for everybody looking to improve their weaker (right/left) foot. I'm looking to collaborate everybody's ideas and tips into one easy to read thread. Strengthening your weaker side is often overlooked by individuals, but it can be a game-changing aspect to your game. Whether you're an U12 junior player, or partaking in a men's Over 30 league, let's make this thread helpful to everybody. I'll start it off: Improving one's technique in football is purely through repetition. This basically means performing the same move over and over. Cristiano Ronaldo developed his free-kicks through repetition, Wayne Rooney developed his deadly accuracy through repetition. And this is what you will have to do to improve with your weaker foot. It will take time, make no means about that. It will vary from person to person, some people will master their weaker foot significantly quicker than others.. But the main part of improving is by practicing. As often as you can. Drills: Now my input into this thread won't be complicated, and if my diagrams do not work out correctly, or you don't understand them. Then there will be a brief description of them underneath. 1) Wall practice. | - - - - - - - - | | x x | | x x | This is very basic, but effective. Basically, kick your ball against a wall.. As you progress, you can set markers out of where you aim to hit with the ball. E.G. Bottom right corner of the wall. This in itself helped me improve massively and it will you too. 2) Juggling. No diagram is really needed for this. All you have to do for this is juggle the ball, or kick-ups if you're British (like me). Try and limit yourself, or vary your technique as you improve. For example, 5 kick ups with left foot, 5 kick ups with right. Personally, I can only do around 30 kick-ups with my weaker right foot, but am aiming to improve. But around 300 when using both feet. 3) Cone dribbling. 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 ------------------> Finish into a goal. There are many many variations of this, an almost endless list of possibilities, imagination is key for improving here. This will help your dribbling with your weaker foot (obviously) and in turn, your dribbling overall. Being able to comfortably dribble with both feet will cause defenders no end of problems. --------------------------------------------------------------------- These are three drills you can do by yourself to improve. Either at local park, or training, or even in your home (preferably not kicking ball at things, just the juggling. ). Now, I'm looking to improve and so any people that can feedback on ways to improve are welcome. I hope in the long run people find this thread useful. Finally, set targets, aim to practice say an hour a day and don't give up. Good luck.
I'll provide some tips of what I did mentally to practice weak foot kicking. Currently I am reading a book called 'Sports Mind' and it covers the psychology of a sport player and what you should do mentally to acheive your dreams/goals. In the book it says mental training should make up atleast 10% of your overall training. What I mean is you should think about the process as well as executing the process. What I do mentally whilst training my weak foot physically is, transfer the movement of how I execute a kick with my right, to my left side. So follow the same movements of how you kick with your right foot. This is how I started. Next you should envision (before you kick) the path in which you wish the ball to go, and your target. Pretty much what you do when you kick with your dominant foot. Pick target, draw out a path in your mind, find the right spot on the ball (that will make the ball follow the path you previously drew), execute the movement. Executing the movement will all come down to repetition and practice - which is the physical aspect. Now what do you do when you miss your target? (This can also be used for when you miss when you use your dominant foot.) Usually what will happen is you will put yourself down, or insult yourself. (for example: "What an idiot!?") What you should be doing is, telling yourself in a disconnected manner (such as your conscience talking to you, or an idol saying "You missed that." and/or "You can do it." Then you should throw away all bad feeling and recollection of that mix up, an action can be used, such as throwing away something invisible from your body (which is throwing away any records of that mix up). Now you should envision how the movement SHOULD go. Do this every time you mess up, keep a positive attitude, and envision the movement being executed perfectly (in your own sense). Forget your mistake/s and leave them in the past. If you remember mix ups in the past, you will lose confidence in yourself which will ultimately affect your future. I hope this helps a few people, atleast it helped me. I only vaguely covered what you can do mentally to improve your game, but I recommend anyone (looking to improve) to look into the psychology of athletes. GL
A quick tip to improve contact with the ball while striking and getting a feel for shooting with your weaker foot. You basically push the ball against a hard place eg. a wall (preferably the bottom step of a staircase so you can lean over the ball.) Then you practice hitting the sweet spot by gently raising your leg and following a slow kick motion. This forces you to practice to get a right technique other than blindly trying to kick as hard as you can. Once you feel comfortable with making proper ball contact it will be a lot easier to kick with your weaker boot. Try to mimic that exact position your in when your about to make contact with the ball while kicking. Here is a rough diagram LOl the the capital l is your foot o is the ball and lowercase l is a wall or step I think ball contact is often overlooked. This will help kick with the "sweet spot" which will improve both power and accuracy The sweet spot is diffrent for many people. For the instep drive it is roughly around the laces I think the first metatarsal passing it is the side foot And for curving and knuckling it's between the side foot and laces
I've found a variation of the standard wall practice.You start out hitting a ball against the wall but slowly start rotating while still hitting the ball. This makes you use all parts of your foot rather than one little spot. After a couple rotations start moving farther away from the wall so you can put more power into your shots. I've found this works really well for improving first time hits with both my feet, especially my weaker. I now use it in all my practices. For control or dribbling I have heard it is best to "make a triangle" with the ball. This can even be worked on with a mini ball during work or school.
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Sorry for not responding sooner. By rotating I mean slowly turning. Yes, rotating yourself. You're not always going to receive the ball at an ideal angle, right?
All of these are great tip! thanks guys. American rising midfielder! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlAlTsTF_-k"]Marcus Alfonzo compilation - YouTube[/ame]
There is no secret piece of advice to help you improve your weak foot. If you think about it.. it's really simple. You need to use your weaker foot as much if not more than your stronger foot, otherwise it's always going to be weaker. Just think about how many more times you have shot the ball with your stronger foot as opposed to your weaker foot. How many times you dribbled with your stronger over your weaker. How many times you controlled the ball. How many times you passed the ball. All those repetitions add up. If you want to develop your weaker foot to the level of your stronger foot you have to get those repetitions up. I have two equal feet and honestly me weaker foot has probably become better than my stronger foot in certain areas. After reading this post you no longer have a weaker foot. Every time the ball comes to your weaker foot and "you should" use it. You will. Don't think about "o no! it's my weaker foot", just focus on your technique and execute the skill. But most importantly.... get in that practice! The best players didn't become good in games or even training sessions, they became good on their own time spending countless hours perfecting their skills (with both feet!). Check out this video on How To Strike A Soccer Ball With The Laces. I'm actually right footed but you probably won't be able to tell. Let me know. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENphmP74EsQ"]How To Strike A Soccer Ball[/ame] Best of luck. Keep me posted on your progress.
Obviously proper technique matters as you don't want to repeat over and over if the form is bad, but get a ball and go to a wall, hit hundreds are strikes with your weaker foot. Do shots, with all parts of the foot, passes the same way, work on control as it comes back to you with the weaker foot. If it goes to your stronger foot on the rebound, quickly snap the ball back to your weaker side and strike is right away, don't use a second touch to set it up. After that work on dribbling and controlling the ball when walking and running; juggle a bit when doing this. The foot will get better. Also......let the ball come across your body to your weaker foot when controlling passes and setting up shots. Taking if off the outside of your stronger foot to avoid your weaker one is bad technique.