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).
