Soccer Toe Kick

Soccer Toe Kick

How To Kick A Soccer Ball With The Inside Of Your Foot:    • How To Kick A Soccer Ball With The Inside ...  

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What skill are we covering today? The toe kick in soccer.

When you first start playing soccer, you instinctively start off kicking the ball with your toe. You are quickly told that using a toe poke/toe blow is incorrect and that you should be using the bone of your foot to shoot. In fact, many of my trainees make fun of other trainees when they kick the ball with their toe. The trainees have been so conditioned that using their toe is incorrect, that they are confident enough to tease others who use it. However, after playing soccer with that limiting belief for the last 15 years, I have come across three instances I can remember that have entirely shifted my mindset over the last few years so that this is no longer a way of how not to kick a soccer ball.

For the first example, I was watching a highlight reel of outstanding goals and yes, I was supposed to be doing my homework instead. I could only recall Ronaldinho's goal from the video that was several minutes long. Ronaldinho's goal was when he was still playing for Barcelona. On the YouTube video highlight reel, he scored from just outside the 18-yard box. He was standing still for a few seconds looking for a pass. The defender gave him as much time as he wanted as the defender felt he had stopped Ronaldinho from advancing with the ball or being able to shoot. The defender was standing in front of Ronaldinho and was waiting for him to make a move when Ronaldinho decided to toe blow the ball, which resulted in him scoring a goal. If you have watched any of Ronaldinho's highlight videos before, then you have likely seen this goal and can imagine it right now.

The toe poke soccer move allows you to extend your leg so that you can take more shots. Most shots require you to plant past or next to the ball which limits the reach of your leg. Whereas, because you can extend you leg in front of you, it gives you much more reach to be able to strike the ball. Notice in this image how the attacker is able to reach further for the ball in order to strike it which does not allow enough time for the defender to stop him.

The first time I realized it is okay to shoot with your toes, I was playing in a scrimmage against another team, the other team's coach had stopped his player after an attempt to score. The coach pulled the player and told him "when you are that close to the net, do not be afraid to toe poke/toe blow the ball if that is the only way you can take a shot. A shot with your toe is going to be a lot better than no shot at all." For me, the other team's coach drove home the message that taking more shots is going to result in more goals, even if they are not perfect shots. The chance may end up being a lucky and accurate shot, the goalie may mishandle the ball resulting in a goal, or the goalie may give up an easy rebound for yourself or a teammate to shoot the ball in the back of the net.

It is very deceptive to use a toe blow. When toe poking the ball, you are only extending at the knee, which is extremely quick to do. Therefore, it is hard for a defender to recognize you are going to shoot the ball and then step in front of the ball to stop it.

As the last example, it was a handful of years ago that I was watching the El Clásico between the world's two largest soccer clubs: Barcelona and Real Madrid. The game ended in a draw because of Cristiano Ronaldo's goal. The average soccer fan watching simply saw that the ball went in the net. However, on closer inspection of the goal, the ball was played a little too far in front of Cristiano Ronaldo for him to shoot any other way than to use a toe poke/toe blow.

When learning from this toe poke tutorial, avoid using this form unless it is your only option because the accuracy of your shots is usually low. But this isn’t a way for how to not toe kick a soccer ball.

For the pro-tip you have been waiting for about the football toe kick, here is an image of one of the first search results in Google about kicking with your toes. It states that the toe kick is a common issue and that it needs to be cured. Obviously, this is not the way you want to take most shots which is using the driven shot, however, Google and Wikihow are making it sound like it is a disease that needs to be cured. Which is laughable because as long as the ball goes in, it does not matter how flashy the goal was. A goal is a goal.

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