Perfect-Strike Strap is proud to announce a new relationship with Soccer Elite FA. We hope that this new relationship will help us to improve our products by enabling us to test them extensively across entire age spectrum. In return we are happy to provide Soccer Elite FA with free samples of our products and welcome Soccer Elite coaches’ and players’ feedback.
help young soccer players to develop a proper passing technique with this simple yet effective addition to your gear arsenal.
The most important skill for a soccer player skill arsenal is a ball passing skill, and the most important pass to master is a “push pass”. That is why the best teams in the world put so much emphasis on developing this very basic and important skill. This pass is by far the most used ball strike and the faster a player can master it, the faster he/she can progress to learning other aspects of the soccer game. Properly executed “push pass” enables players to control the ball possession, advance the ball quickly in a desired direction and create all those spectacular goal scoring opportunities. In a perfect world any player should be able to execute a “push pass” with either foot. In reality however many young players can be uncomfortable using their non-dominant foot and often suffer from “bad habits” while executing a “push pass”. If you ever coached young players you also know that until all players can execute an accurate pass, your group drills can become a “loose ball chase”.
Young soccer players often suffer from improper passing strike habits. Even at the highest levels some of the players need to be re-train to eliminate them. This in turn leads to inaccurate passes and poor ball control. Many young players (8 years and younger) because of a difficulty with “opening an ankle and a knee” tend to strike the ball with an instep or a front of the inside surface of their foot. If not corrected those habits can stay with a player for a long time and show up at the worst possible moment: “under pressure”. Even though “push pass” might look as a simple strike, there is a lot of aspects of that strike the player needs to control (body position, direction, strike timing etc) in order to execute an accurate pass. In player development it is very important to ensure a consistent foot contact surface, so much so that it becomes almost instinctive and a player no longer needs to “think” about the strike foot positioning while executing a pass. If players don’t eliminate those bad habits, it is nearly impossible to ensure accurate passing and during a game that results in frequent ball turnovers.
Perfect-Strike Strap had been designed specifically for young soccer players to give a player a clear and consistent target on the foot surface and help him/her visualize the foot to ball contact point. Simplifying the strike visualization also frees player’s “brain processing power” to concentrate on other aspects of the strike technique. It helps players to correct bad habits and/or develop non-dominant foot strike. When developing the non-dominant foot passing, it also creates a player awareness and a constant reminder to use a correct foot for passing during drills. Even though the Perfect-Strike Strap had been designed as an aid for “push pass” development, it can also be used for developing other skills. Many players and coaches use it for other strikes where foot surface to ball contact point plays a crucial role. Some of the players on my team had problems with outside of the foot shots. Using the Perfect-Strike Strap allowed them to quickly improve the consistency and accuracy of their shots. If you or a player on your team needs help with strike consistency you should add this simple yet very effective tool to you gear bag.
Divide your players into pairs. Set each pair 4-5 yards apart and 10-15 yards from each other (see Figure 1). Using spray paint set for each player plant foot and ball marks at their positions (see Figure 2). Fasten the Perfect-Strike Strap on each player’s striking cleat, position the strike target in the center of the inside on the foot. Remember that for young kids opening ankle and knee feels very unnatural and providing them with a clear target for both the plant foot and the strike target on a foot makes it easier to concentrate on adjusting the rest of their body to perform the strike.
Divide your players into teams of three. Set each team inside a triangle (see Figure 1) with one ball per team. Use cones to create a triangle area, start with smaller triangle and as your players become comfortable with the drill increase the triangle height. Position the top player (#1 in Figure 1) about a yard inside of the cone. Depending on the target foot fasten the Perfect-Strike Strap on either left or right foot of each player.
The following instructions are for a left foot passing, for a right foot passing reverse the ball movement direction. Start with the ball at the top of the triangle. The player at the #1 position passes the ball to a player at the #2 position. The player at #2 position receives the ball and moves to the #3 position. The player at #3 position moves behind the player #2 and takes the position #2. Player #2 should take only 2-3 touches and pass the ball back to the player at #1 position. Player at # 1 position with one-touch passes the ball back to the new player at #2 position. After 1 minute rotate the player at #1 position so each player gets to play one-touch at the top of the triangle.
Player at #1 position should follow the pass with one step then go back to the cone, when getting ready to pass the ball again he should make 1-2 steps forward to “meet” the ball. Players at #2 position should not “trap” the ball but rather use the first touch to direct the ball in the direction of the movement, ideally the first touch should control and roll the ball in the direction of the movement and the second touch passes the ball back to the #1 position. Make sure that the players look up before they pass the ball. Observe and correct body position (hips and chest over the ball, body facing the direction of the pass and the strike leg swung back). To make sure that they use the correct foot surface you can remind them to use the Perfect-Strike Strap target with a simple “HIT THE SPOT”.
When players become comfortable with the movement you can reduce or increase the height of the triangle to work on speed and control or pass accuracy respectively. To make it more interesting run team competition for number of #1 position passes for each 3 minute rotation.
If the player at #1 position is having difficulty controlling the ball with one-touch pass, allow the #1 player to do two-touch passes.
We used this drill as a “proof of concept” for Perfect-Strike Strap testing. We divided our players into four teams. One of the teams had been wearing our Perfect-Strike Straps. With numerous test, the team using the strap was consistently winning the passing competition due to a much better pass accuracy.
If you ever stop by an AYSO (or any other youth soccer) field on a practice day and watch for a while, you will no doubt notice that for a majority of youth players the “ball skills” are mediocre at best. Our kids in general do not have enough time or support to master the very core skills of ball handling. I see that every year when I start with a new team. If you coach, you probably know that there is not enough time during a practice session to work on any skill in a one on one setting. Young players (U10 and below) usually do not know their bodies as well as we would hope to and asking them to perform any new skill can overwhelm them. Did you ever see a full body twist of a six year old when you ask him to rotate his foot for a push-pass. By the time they are capable of controlling their body for a particular skill, U12 and up, they already develop some bad habits and they need to be “re-trained”. Many coaches across the country are facing that truth even at college and professional levels.
I am an AYSO coach working with a U12 boys club team. When last season I “inherited” my team, within 2 practice sessions I realized that 70% of our boys suffer from either a complete inability to execute a correct push-pass or some form of bad habits related to ball passing
(I think I cried a little when this hit me). The non-dominant foot passing for the most of our team was an “uncharted territory”, for those players that used non-dominant foot, their passes looked uncomfortable and inconsistent. As the result our practice sessions, whenever passing skill was involved, looked more like chasing loose balls than organized drills. Even though I knew I could retrain them, getting them up to speed would not allow us any time to practice the skills they needed to successfully compete with other teams in our league. I needed a cheat to get them into a right direction fast. Because the root of our problems was the pass accuracy, boys were not using the right foot surface to pass the ball, I knew I had to somehow make it easier for them to focus and remember to rotate their foot before strike. I tried a couple of things, but the only one that worked was placing a bright sticker on the strike surface of the cleat. With this in mind I went to develop a strap that would stay on their striking cleat (stickers last only for a few minutes) for the duration of our practice (in the beginning we kept them on even for scrimmages). Wearing a strap with a target made with very easy for me to remind them to use a correct foot surface. It also crated a physical awareness for the players when striking a ball, a “sweet spot” if you will. Using the strap eliminated a need for dedicated basic passing drills, a simple “HIT THE SPOT” reminder during our drills would be enough for players to adjust their strike. Within a couple of practice sessions I noticed a significant improvement in both accuracy and consistency of our passes and we could tackle other aspects of the game. The strap will not eliminate all of bad habits (body position, non-striking foot placement etc.) but it makes it a lot easier to correct improper technique. As an added and unexpected bonus we successfully used the strap to work on other strikes (volley, outside of the foot and long aerial kicks). Since the little gadget worked so well for us, I decided to share this with other coaches and players. We found a manufacturer and now the Perfects-Strike Strap is available for anybody that would like to use it. If you think you need help with passing technique I encourage you to try using a bright sticker on a striking cleat, if that works in your situation you might be ready to give the Perfect-Strike Strap a try. To buy from Amazon.com use the button below.
Perfect-Strike Strap 