Learning to kick the soccer ball hard

With both my U6 and U10 teams, most of the players fail to do two things when kicking the ball:

1. Placing their plant foot beside the ball.
2. Looking at the spot on the ball they want to kick.

There are many other opportunities varying from player to player, but these two seem the most common.

To work on this, I lined up the players on one end of the field (each with their ball) and a goal about 1-2 yards wide at midfield (the width and distance depending on the age group). We talked about the keys to good, accurate hard kicks:

• the last step is a big step
• the left foot goes beside the ball with a bit of space between your foot and the ball
• your plant foot is pointing at your target
• lock the kicking ankle
• look at the back of the ball where you foot will go through it
• swing your foot through that spot
• land on your kicking foot

Then let them kick away. They chase down their own ball and do their fast dribbling to get back to the line and try again. The goal should be far enough and small enough that when one of the players makes a goal, its a big deal. We did this for several minutes and the kids didn't seem to get tired of it. Best of all, I saw some noticeable improvements.

With the U6 players we then transitioned this into a game where I was the "other team" and I kicked the ball out of bounds. Depending on which part of the field the ball went out at, they had to decide if it was a goal kick, kick-in, or corner kick. We emphasized where to aim, getting ready fast, and using their new hard-kick skills they just learned.