BALL-STRIKING FUNDAMENTALS – BUILD THE FOUNDATION
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 fundamentals. Unfortunately, these fundamentals are not often taught appropriately and in many ways information provided to young developing players is in complete contrast to these fundamental movements.
There are ball-striking myths/rules (conventional wisdoms) that have been passed on from one soccer generation to the next. Coaches and players alike, continue to perpetuate these myths/rules as the ‘truth’. Many of these rules for ball-striking are incorrect or partial truths. On this site we will examine and CHALLENGE these myths/rules.
Two terms which you will see within this site 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 over-stretching. The stretch-reflex then, is an involuntary response to a muscle being stretched. Consequently, we must understand how each movement of our body assists or hinders this stretch-reflex.
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.
We are not saying that there is only one technique, but we do believe the principles within this site are the foundation for all other striking techniques.
We ask you to keep an open mind, watch the demonstrations, read the information, recognize the consistencies of these ball-striking principles.
We challenge you to look at these techniques and find the inconsistencies of the OLD MYTHS or RULES.
* In relation to ball-striking, we pre-stretch the hip flexors/knee extensors by concentrically contracting the hip extensors/knee flexors (glutes/hamstrings).