Ball Striking Introduction

There are many ball striking techniques within the game of soccer that you will see from top professionals, however, their variety is built on sound ball striking principles. Unfortunately, these principles are not often taught and in many ways, information provided to young developing players is in complete contrast to these principles.

There are ball striking rules (conventional wisdoms) that have been passed on from one soccer generation to the next. Coaches and players alike, continue to perpetuate these rules as the 'truth'. Many of these rules for ball striking are incorrect or partial truths. On this blog we will examine and CHALLENGE these rules.

Two terms which you will see within this blog are 'Stretch-reflex' and 'Posture'. These are two elements that require additional explanation so you can connect these terms to successful ball striking.

Stretch-reflex: Take an elastic band and stretch it. This takes energy or effort on your part. The stretched elastic band now stores that energy (potential energy). Now let it go. It returns (kinetic energy) to its original shape and size without any effort from you required. The effortless completion of many techniques in soccer, especially ball striking, are based on this understanding. In the body we call this the stretch-reflex, where we pre-stretch a muscle* using energy and then allow it to return to its original length with minimal effort.

In simple terms, when a muscle is stretched, it will attempt to return to its original length because it is attempting to avoid overstretching. The stretch-reflex then, is an involuntary response to a muscle being stretched. Consequently, we must understand how each movement of our body assist or hinder this stretch-reflex. Take an elastic band or hair elastic and stretch it.  It takes effort to do this however once released the elastic comes back without your assistance ... that is similar to what is happening in the muscle.

Posture: To assist with the stretch-reflex, your posture, or the way that you stand and hold your body is a vital part of success in many techniques of the game. A posture with shoulders back and hips forward is the foundation for ball striking, heading, controlling the ball in the air, controlling on the ground, passing with the inside of the foot, juggling, and the list continues. An upright posture, rather than bent, creates effortless techniques. Work on this posture.

The information that you will find on this blog should be taught/learned at all ages. We should not continue to teach incorrect movements (based on the old rules) to youth players. These incorrect movements will only serve to make them average ball strikers in the long term.

There is not only one technique, but the the principles within this blog are the foundation for all other striking techniques.

Keep an open mind, watch the demonstrations, read the information, recognize the consistencies of these ball striking principles.

The challenge is to look at these techniques and find the inconsistencies of the OLD RULES.

* In relation to ball striking, a player will pre-stretch the hip flexors/knee extensors by concentrically contracting the hip extensors/knee flexors (glutes/hamstrings).

Rule # 1

Myth: "In order to strike the ball high, a player must plant their non-kicking foot behind the ball, and in order to strike the ball low, the player will plant beside the ball.

Challenge:

1. The non-kicking (plant) foot for consistent ball striking, regardless of it being a lofted pass, or a low driven pass or shot is planted in front of the ball.

2. The back of the non-kicking foot's heel should at least be in line with the center of the ball. If a player plants their non-kicking foot with the heel even further forward relative to the ball, they will achieve greater power and accuracy.

"Heel to the center of the ball."

3. This "Power Position" is behind the heel. The non-kicking foot should consistently be placed in front of the ball.

4. When the kicking foot passes this "Power Position" during the kicking motion, the foot begins to decelerate.

5. If a ball striker plants their non-kicking foot behind the ball, they will be striking the ball with a foot that is slowing down.

Rule # 2

Myth: "The ball striker must JUMP through the ball toward the target and land on the KICKING FOOT in front of the ball for the most powerful and accurate ball striking to occur."

Challenge:

1. The ball striker should lean their body to the side and slightly back. the KICKING FOOT will be the first foot to come in contact with the ground after kicking the ball; however, the player will not jump through and land in front of the ball.

2. In fact only the non-kicking foot will go in front of the ball. A ball striker with good technique, will 'End Up Where They Started' and not in front of the ball. Observe the starting and finishing positions of the ball striker.

Rule # 3

Myth: "The ball striker's body should be straight up and down with the toe pointed to the ground."

Challenge:

1. The ball striker's body leans to the side and slightly back to allow the foot to come across the ball horizontally with the toe pointed away from the ball striker.

2. For most ball strikers, the hardest part of the foot (where the tongue comes out of the shoe) will be above the center of the ball if the body is upright and the toe is pointed straight down. This technique often results in a player kicking the ground.

Rule # 4

Myth: "The ball striker should attempt to keep their head and knee over top of the ball in order to keep the ball low when they pass or shoot.

Challenge:

By putting their head and knee over the ball, the ball striker will bend in half (fold at the waist). A ball striker that bends at the waist over top of the ball:

1. Limits their ability to open up their hips as they approach the ball, thus limiting the ability to initiate the stretch-reflex and the time that they can generate force (accelerate the leg).

2. Shortens their body into two halves (upper and lower), thus generating force from the lower body alone (hip flexors). This forces the player to put additional effort into the ball strike, resulting in speed - accuracy errors (in all sports, increase speed/effort = decrease in accuracy; decrease speed/effort = increase accuracy).

3. In order to avoid kicking the ground with their toe (means of self-preservation), when the ball striker bends over top of the ball, their ankle flexes into a position that is difficult to lock and that creates a wedge forcing the ball to go up quickly (very similar to the field-goal kicker's 'Wedge' style in American football).

- Consequently, when we tell young players to "Get over the ball", "Keep your head over the ball", or "Get your knee over the ball", we are actually putting them in a body position that forces them to use more effort (less accurate), and puts their ankle in a position that is difficult to lock (less power generated) and makes the ball go up quickly with side spin.

4. The ball striker should focus on keeping the body open, by pushing their hips forward and pulling the shoulders back. Contrary to the OLD RULES this will serve to make strikes more accurate and not create a strike that goes up.

5. By creating a 'long line' from toe to top of the body, the ball striker is able to put the forces generated by the body's movements in the appropriate order.

Rule # 5

Myth: "The arm opposite the kicking leg is insignificant to the ball strike. The arm can move in any direction prior to the ball strike without having positive or adverse effects on the strike."

Challenge:

Although people believe that the arm has some significance to the ball strike, not many fully address it's importance.


1. The opposite arm completes the pre-stretch of the body. If the arm does not get lifted to shoulder height or if it gets lifted too far above shoulder height, the stretch becomes incomplete.

2. By moving the opposite arm out to the side, the ball striker will also be moving weight and the center of gravity outside of the body to help with the body lean.

3. "Belly-button to Shoulder Height" is a way to explain the movement of the hand. Watch for players that swing their arm up over head height, or swing it low then up to shoulder height.

4. As a general rule, move the arm up to shoulder height and then back across the body as the ball striker begins to move the foot down to the ball. By moving the arm across the body, this brings the center of gravity back within the ball striker's body.

Ball Striking - Recap

Conventional ball striking information is inconsistent with the manner in which top ball strikers perform the task of shooting or passing with the laces.

While learning the principles of ball striking and understanding the movement as a whole, players and coaches are better able to apply these principles throughout the game and to other ball striking techniques.