Soccer Tip

5 Ways to Improve your Weaker Foot

Do you favor one foot heavily? Do you lack power, accuracy, control and skill with your weaker foot? If you want to play soccer at a high level, you'll need to be skillful with both feet, to avoid becoming a predictable player. Below we outlay some tips, techniques and a method to improve your weaker foot.

We all have one foot that just doesn’t seem as strong or skillful as the other. In order to correct that, it will take time and patience and some solid work. There’s really no shortcut or magic trick, but if you follow the steps below you can dramatically improve your 'weaker' foot, and with this see a dramatic improvement in your game.

The trick here is to become obsessive about it. Train your weaker foot as often as possible.

Although what you’re looking for is not necessarily perfection with both feet, while that would be ideal that might not be possible. What you’re looking for is a high standard of skill where you can do everything with the soccer ball you can do with your favored foot. It’s natural to have a favored foot but too limiting to have a weaker foot that’s nearly non-functional!

With some dedicated work, you’ll slowly start to make progress and get more comfortable on the ball with your weaker foot. It’s about balance and getting the muscles in the leg and foot of the weaker foot to fire and have more muscle memory (think repetition). Here are some specific ways to improve your weaker foot:

• Walk with the ball using your weaker foot and build up to a jogging pace - touch the ball with each step. Don't start sprinting with the ball until your control is perfect and you can still touch the ball with every step with your weaker foot.
• Pass and strike the ball against a wall. Turn your body so your hips are at a slight angle towards the wall, not squarely facing the wall. Lock the ankle and focus on a strong connection with the center of the ball. Develop a rhythm where you're kind of rallying with the ball and tallying up a series of passes in a row.
• Juggle the ball only with your weaker foot. Lock your ankle and strike the ball firmly. Vary the height of the juggles, from low to high as you improve. Juggle the ball high in the air and then a few low juggles. If this is a challenge, start by simply catching the ball after each juggle and slowly progress that way.
• Dribble in and out a set of five or six cones only using your weaker foot. This will improve your control and build your confidence with your weaker foot. Use different surfaces of the foot, from the front instep area to the inside of the foot to the outside and sole of your foot to go around the cones. Move the cones closer together and pick up speed as it gets easier. It won't be pretty at first but that's ok, stick with it.
• Get a teammate to challenge you and put you under pressure as you dribble the ball with your weaker foot. Have them strike the ball with pace and at different heights at your weaker foot to work on control and first touch.

Overall tip for all of these drills: Start out slowly using your weaker foot and then build up speed and power as you get more comfortable. Build it into your daily/weekly training routine to develop muscle memory. You’ll find that part of improving your weaker foot comes with just getting accustomed to orienting your body in a different way to use your weaker foot and introducing the use of your weak foot into your game.

Don’t get discouraged, the key is consistency!

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