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Different Ways to Kick Soccer Balls

Jun 20, 2011 | By Rogue Parrish
Different Ways to Kick Soccer Balls
Photo Credit Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images

Children and novice players tend to toe-poke a soccer ball. While this certainly sends the ball skittering forward and can even work at the highest professional levels to score the occasional goal, coaches typically make their first priority the teaching of better ways to kick soccer balls to provide control. Seasoned soccer players, including Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, use an arsenal of different ways to kicks. No part of the shoe goes untried as a means of sending the ball forward accurately.

Ground Kicks

You can send the ball the farthest using the laces kick, where you plant your support leg, cock back your kicking leg and swing through the center of the ball with the top of your shoe, an area called the laces or instep. An inside-of-the-foot kick, taken with the inside arch of the foot, allows you to send the ball a shorter distance, often with precision, and also works well for close-in shots. The outside-of-the-foot kick, using the area of the shoe between your little toe and arch, can shovel a quick, deceptive pass to a teammate running laterally with you. The back heel can draw oohs and aahs from spectators as you tap the ball unexpectedly behind you using your heel.

Volleys

Volleys entertain the crowd with their resemblance to a martial arts move in a Bruce Lee movie. You strike the ball in the air, swinging your leg to your side to snag a ball moving at waist height. Top European players, including Zinedine Zidane while at Real Madrid and Dejan Stankovic of Inter Milan, have successfully scored with distant volleys in high-level competition. The half-volley is similar but executed right after the ball bounces up from the ground.

Bicycle Kick

This move forever associated with Brazil's Pele--although invented by Basque player Ramon Unzaga in 1914--is taken with the back to the goal. You launch yourself in the air, fall back toward the ground, swing your kicking leg into the air and follow with your other leg. You need to turn to your side before striking the ground to avoid falling on your back. Soccer coaches recommended training in a sand pit or on gym mats to avoid injury when first learning this move.

Goalkeeper Kicks

The goalkeeper can use his hands for three specialized kicks. Punts involve a drop from the hands and a kick off the laces as the ball is dropping in the air. Drop kicks follow a little quick bounce of the ball off the ground. The widely used and accurate sidewinder is essentially a side volley, where the keeper drops the ball slightly to his side, turns his hips in line with the height of the ball and strikes it with the laces. Goalies also take goal kicks using the laces to connect with a ball laid on the front boundary of the goal area, a small rectangle marked right in front of the goal.

References

Article reviewed by Eric Althoff Last updated on: Jun 20, 2011

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