Soccer is all about kicking the ball either to your teammates or directly towards the opponent’s goal. Most of these kicks are intended to send the ball in the air. Thus if you are planning to be a professional soccer player or even just a soccer hobbyist, you need to learn how to kick the ball in the air.
The following article will list everything you need to know in order to kick the ball in the air in a perfect way.
But first, let’s talk for a second about the usage of kicking soccer balls in the air.
When should you kick the soccer ball in the air?
There are many scenarios in which you might need to send the ball high in the air.
The first scenario is that you just want to pass the ball in the air to one of your teammates. You do that when you are taking a corner kick for example or when you’re crossing the ball to your striker so that they can score with a header kick or a volley kick or any other way.
Other scenarios are when you want to kick the ball directly towards your opponent’s goal but you want to kick the ball in the air to make sure that it’s harder for the opponent’s goal keeper to block it.
The best way to know when you should kick the ball in the air is to use your judgment on the field.
With that said, whenever you decide to kick the ball in the air, you need to know the following:
- Where to hit the ball
- How much force should you apply when hitting the ball
- Where should you be looking?
Where should you hit the ball when kicking it in the air?
The answer to this question is divided into 2 parts. You’ll need to know what area of the soccer ball you should kick, and what part of your foot you should use to kick the ball.
The following illustration clearly shows you where you should make contact with the ball.
In order to send the ball high in the air, you’ll need to hit the lower part of the ball to send it upwards. This is how physics works.
The higher you want to kick the ball, the lower the point of contact with the ball should be.
Now comes the more interesting part.
Which part of your foot should make contact with the ball?
The best way to make contact with the ball is to hit it using your foot’s bridge. Also, you need to use the area of your foot’s bridge that is closer to your toes.
Many people use the front part of their toes to kick the ball in the air and this is a huge mistake to do. In order to be more precise with your kick, you’ll have to use the area highlighted in the image below.
But why is this area the best choice when you want to make contact with the ball?
When you kick the ball, the direction of the force you’re applying plays a huge role in how high the ball is going to move.
Kicking the ball using the right force direction is much easier if you use the part of your foot that is highlighted above rather than using the front part of your toes.
When you use your lower part of your foot’s bridge, then you’ll be able to rotate your foot in the right angle very easily while kicking the ball.
However, if you are using your toes to kick the ball, then your heel might hit the ground if you’re trying to kick the ball to send it high in the air.
The part of your feet that is highlighted in the illustration above will prevent you from having an easy control over what angle you kick the ball with.
For this reason, always use the lower part of your foot’s bridge in order to kick the ball in the air.
Now you know the perfect way to make contact with the ball whenever you’re planning to send it in the air. The next thing you need to learn is how much force you should apply on the ball.
How much force should you apply when hitting the ball?
How much force you need to apply depends on why you are trying to kick the ball in the air in the first place.
If you want to kick the ball in the air towards your opponent’s goal, then you’ll have to use whatever energy you have to kick the ball with as much force as you can towards the opponent’s goal.
When you’re doing that, make sure that you hit the lower part of the ball that is closer to its middle part than to its bottom. If you hit the lowest part of the ball with too much force, then the ball will fly outside the soccer field.
However, if you’re planning to kick the ball high in the air to send it to one of your teammates, then you shouldn’t use too much force and you should hit the lower part of the ball that is closer to the bottom of the ball.
This will allow your ball to travel in a projectile motion that your team player can handle. You should make sure that the ball will travel high enough and slow enough for your teammate to be able to reach the ball and control it.
The best way to learn how much force you should apply when kicking the ball in the air is by trial and error.
To practice passing to your friends by kicking it in the air, you can draw a circle that is far enough from you, and then try to kick the ball in the air and land it inside the circle.
The more you practice, the more accurate your kick becomes, and the more intuitive it will become for you to kick the ball using the right angle and the right force amount.
Juggling the ball while running or walking can also help you be more precise when kicking the ball in the air.
To learn juggling, you’ll have to learn how much force you should use to hit the ball in order to keep your control over it. This will also help you kick the ball in the air using the perfect amount of force.
Where should you be looking when kicking the ball in the air?
Your vision on the soccer field can influence your performance by a huge factor. If you know where to look during a soccer match, you’ll end up making much better decisions during the game.
Whenever you want to kick the soccer ball, first look up in front of you to decide what is the best direction you should kick the ball towards, then you need to look down on the ball while you’re kicking it instead of keeping your eyes up.
The reason behind that is that first, you’ll be able to hit the ball more accurately because you’re focusing your vision on it. Second, you’ll avoid many leg injuries.
If you try to kick the ball, and for some reason you weren’t able to touch the ball while trying to kick it, then your leg might take damage because you didn’t release all the momentum of your leg on the ball and now this momentum can hurt your leg.
So, make sure that you’re looking at the ball when you’re trying to kick it with a huge force.
If you’re using a slight amount of force to hit the ball, then there’s no need to look at the ball. But when you’re using enough force, it’s better to focus on the ball.
That’s it for this article, thank you for reading this far. Here’s a summary of what you have just read.
Kicking the soccer ball high in the air requires that you know how to make contact with the ball, how much force you should apply on the ball, and where to look when kicking the ball. In order to master the art of kicking the ball in the air, you’ll need to put in a lot of effort and practice.
Best of luck in your next soccer match.