The Description Of An Overhead Kick In Soccer (With Pictures)

Like everything else, soccer keeps evolving over the years and the professional soccer players always keep coming up with new ways to score goals. 

Some of these ways of scoring were (and still are) extremely impressive and shocking to the soccer audience all over the world. This article will be talking about one of these shocking ways of scoring, and it’s the overhead kick.

But first…

How can you really describe an overhead kick in soccer?

An overhead soccer kick is a kick during which the player attempts to score a goal by kicking the ball while in the middle of a back flip. During an overhead kick, the player backflips and kicks the ball while it is in mid air in an attempt to score a goal, then they land horizontally on their body.

It’s worth noting that the overhead kick in soccer is also known as the “Bicycle kick”, and some “Scissor kicks” can also be categorized as overhead kicks in soccer. But we’ll be using the term “Overhead kick” during the rest of this article.

From the description of the overhead kick, you can already tell that it’s not an easy kick to perform, and that it’s a super impressive way to score a goal during a soccer match.

Overhead kicks in soccer are highly celebrated both by the fans and by the players who scored them. The overhead kicks get a lot of media attention because they are rare, hard, and they require acrobatic skills from the player performing them.

If you’d like to dive more into some of the most interesting ways to score a goal in soccer, you can check this article that I have written about the topic.

How to perform an overhead kick?

Alright, now that we’ve described the overhead kick, it’s time to go through the major steps needed to perform the kick. Note that these steps are not meant to fully teach you how to perform the overhead kick, rather they are only meant to give you an idea of how it is done in general.

If you want to learn how to do the overhead kick in soccer, then it’s a great idea to attempt it when your coach is around so that they walk you through the whole process in a very detailed way.

With that said, here are the main steps involved when doing an overhead kick in soccer:

1- Lean back and raise the foot that you don’t kick with.

The first step when doing an overhead kick is that you should first lean your upper body backwards, and then you should lift the non-kicking leg high up in the air and extend it.

2- Jump using the toes of the foot that’s on the ground.

Since you’ve leaned backward and raised your non-kicking leg in the air, only your kicking leg is now touching the ground. What you need to do now is to use the leg that’s touching the ground to jump in the air.

Use your toes and jump high enough to be able to reach the ball with your foot. If the ball that’s coming towards you isn’t very high, then you don’t need to apply a lot of force when jumping, and the opposite is true.

3- Swing the non kicking leg down and kick the ball with the foot that you used to jump.

By now, your body is in the air and your upper body is almost parallel to the ground. What you need to do is to swing the kicking leg up while swinging your non kicking ball down. 

The reason you want to swing your non kicking leg down is to give more momentum to your kicking leg and to also use your non kicking leg during the landing phase.

As you swing your kicking leg, make sure to kick the ball whenever you get the chance to. Use the bridge of your foot to kick the ball and send it towards the opponent’s net.

4- Twist your body and land on your side with the help of your hands.

Now comes the most important part in the overhead kick, and it’s the part where you make sure that you’re safe as much as possible. 

You have to land in a safe way on the ground or else you might get injured.

After you kick the ball, try to use your hands in the air in order to twist your body to one side, and then use your non kicking leg and your hand to decrease the force of the impact of your body with the ground.

And with that said, you now know the major steps required to perform a safe overhead kick in soccer. Keep in mind that this is not the only way to perform an overhead kick in soccer, but it’s  certainly one of the most common ways to do it.

It is also worth noting that courage is needed when it comes to overhead kicks.

If you want to perform an overhead kick, then you should have the courage to do it. If you hesitate while in the middle of the kick, then you might either do it wrong or maybe cause yourself an injury.

When do soccer players attempt the overhead kick?

If a soccer player is close to the opponent’s goal, and the ball is high in the air and is behind the player (or is not between the player and the opponent’s net), then the player may decide to go for an overhead kick.

Soccer players usually attempt the overhead kick when they can’t really reach the ball with a header or with their chest and so on, and when they are sure that they can pull it off without injuring themselves.

Why do soccer players attempt the overhead kick?

During an overhead kick, things can go wrong, and the player performing the kick might get injured. So, why do some players go for it anyways?

Well, the answer is that they believe that the reward is greater than the risk. Scoring an overhead kick during an important soccer match gets the attention of the soccer media and the soccer fans.

These types of goals are heavily celebrated and are heavily appreciated by the soccer fans. For these reasons, many soccer players decide to take the risk and attempt the overhead kick.

With that said, I’ll quickly conclude with article with the following few words.

CONCLUSION

The overhead kick in soccer is one of the most impressive ways to score a goal (if no the most impressive way). It is usually easier than you might think, but it requires a lot of practice. If you ever decide to go for an overhead kick, remember to keep your safety first.