www.soccercoachinginternational.com wrote:Many trainers recognize the importance of two-footedness. Playing with both feet presents many advantages to a player, such as a higher handling speed and more unpredictable individual actions. That’s why it’s strange that, despite these advantages and the fact that Two-footedness is trainable; there are few players, even in the top, who are perfectly two footed. These players are rare in, for example, the Dutch Eredivisie. Former Ere divisie player Wesley Sneijder is an exception, although players like Kenneth Perez, Augustin, Arveladze and Patrick Kluivert also have a high level of two-footedness.
The fact is that the majority of the professional football players in The Netherlands aren’t capable to use their “Weak leg”. That’s a missed opportunity, because two-footedness is, depended on the ability of the player, trainable.
Text: Michel Hordijk
This means that during a technique training every movement that is practiced should be executed with both feet; dribbling, cutting, turning, fast feet, fake- and passing movements, passing, kicking, receiving, controlling the ball and juggling. All the technical drills are focused on developing ball feeling in both feet.
A few things are important.
Long-term
First, developing two-footedness will cost many years of practice, so it should start at a very young age (from 6 to 7 years). Especially because the development phase of a pupil is much more suitable for practicing two-footedness than the development phase of an adult. Research executed in Hungary showed that even professional footballers didn’t improve their two-footedness after training for 3 months using only their weak leg.
Ability
The age of the player is not the only thing that has an influence; the ability of the player is influential as well. A right footed player is a different than a left footed player and not every left footed player is the same. There are significant differences between the opportunities to become two footed. To be honest I’m not quiet sure how this works, but the differences are based on the drive from both parts of the brain. The drive, which takes place diagonally (the right part of the brain drives the left side of the body, the left part the right side) differs from person to person. That’s probably the reason that left and right isn’t the same as black and white.
Preferred feet
There are left footed players which are right-handed and otherwise (but that doesn’t happen often). When I worked at NAC Breda a youth player dribbled and shot with two different feet. When we were practising a dribbling circuit with cutting and turning and then finishing on the goal with the weak leg, he was dribbling pretty well with his left foot and then finished with his right. So I told him that he should have finished with his weak foot and he answered that he usually dribbles with his right foot and shoots with his left foot. I thought he was kidding me, but when I watched him train and play he actually played like that.
Nature
I don’t think it is a coincidence that two footed players are mostly right footed by nature. Apparently it is easier for a right footed player to learn to play with his left foot than it is for a left footed player with his right. There are also more left footed players who almost never use their right foot then vice versa. But there are far more right footed players than left footed players. Even left footed players who played at the top of the world, such as Fernando Redondo, Willem van Hanegem and Diego Maradona, didn’t used their right at all, only for stopping a ball once or twice. Johan Cruyff was two footed, but he couldn’t get a cross in with his left foot, so he developed a kick with the outside of his right foot so he could get a cross in from the left side of the field.
Coordination
Coordination is a very important part of twofootedness, that’s why it’s import to practice every possible drill with the weak leg. It’s not necessary to only practice match techniques, as fast feet en juggling drills are also useful to improve the ball feeling, also with the weak leg. Off course, when you want to learn to pass and shoot with your weak leg, you should practice that. I’m convinced that these drills are adopted better and faster when certain ball drills are practiced with the weak leg. Wesley Sneijder got a small juggling ball from his youth trainer at Ajax to juggle with both feet at home. It obviously worked.
Rhythm
This is why I have players juggle according to a certain rhythm as a rest drill during an intensive technique training. Instead of telling them to juggle the ball 50 times I will ask them to juggle the ball in a certain pattern, for instance 10 times left foot, 10 times right foot, or one time left, twice right. Firstly this creates a certain general ball feeling in both feet and the players stay focused during their rest period.
Expectation pattern
Some player’s won’t use or learn to play with their weak foot as well as other players. So your expectations should be based on an individual player. It’s good to be ambitious and set high goals, but you can’t expect a player who uses only his left foot to play perfectly two footed. The most important thing is recognizing which players are able to play two footed and which player are not. For those players it is better to focus on their strong points. The free kick’s of Ronald Koeman and Pierre van Hooijdonk (not genuine two footed players) is the result of years of hard working and focussing on talents the players already had from birth.
Focus
At each level its import to focus on the strong points of the players. That way they can improve and develop these quality’s for the team. You can tell Haris Medunjanin a hundred thousand times he has to focus on the transition and defend back, but he won’t get used to it, just like Ruud van Nistelrooij won’t score a goal after executing two beautiful scissor moves and a brilliant turn behind his standing foot. And he doesn’t have to, because he has other great qualities.
Research
Two-footedness and its possibilities for players deserve to be thoroughly examined. At Utrecht there is a youth player who has a useless right foot. He can’t pass, shoot, dribble, cut nor turn with it. But he can use it when he receives a pass with a defender in his back; he takes the ball with the inside of his right foot, so he can turn away from the defender in a special way.
Surprising
Hard work will pay out eventually. That’s why it was surprising that Anouar Diba from NAC Breda scored with a shot from distance with his right foot at Excelsior. It was obvious he wasn’t shooting with his good leg. The goal wasn’t as amazing as the goal he scored against Feyenoord with the inside of his left foot, when he should have hit it with his right foot. But in football, every goal counts, and that’s the way is should stay.
Without the ball
Training two-footedness doesn’t just mean practicing without a ball. When playing 1v1 duels, you can force your players to use their weak foot, for instance by positioning them in a certain way towards the goal. A left footed player who is positioned left from the centre will have to use his right foot in most cases to score, especially when you give them a time limit in which they have to score. That way you don’t give the player the time to keep on turning to his stronger foot. You can also train two-footedness when you position a right back as a left back during training. That way he has to adjust to the fact that he has to play with his left foot. When he keeps on turning to his right foot he has to adjust to different situations and will find out that the first touch is more important than ever.
Kicking the ball in the net
A good drill, especially at the end of a training, is kicking the ball in the net. This is a simple way of teaching children to kick with feeling and technique and is received with great enthusiasm by the children. To start each player will kick a ball from 5 meters in the goal. The ball must hit the net directly; when a player kicks the ball via the ground or via the post he’s out of the drill. After the first kick the distance will grow, until only one player is left, who wins the game.
Pupils
As mentioned earlier, teaching two-footedness has to start at a young age with pupils. Youth coaches should challenge their players to use their weak foot. As a trainer it is almost necessary to have a bit of twofootedness. That way the players will adjust to it better. I’ve trained for years to improve my right foot, I’m a pure left footed player, and it will never be as good as my left foot, but I’ve improved a lot, that shows that you always have to push to the limit.
Preparation
The next time I will focus on the role the technique training can play in the preparation for a season. The role that technique training will play differs per age group. A technique trainer will have to change the intensity and the work-rest ratio during the different phases of the season so it will be consistent with the different parts of the preparation.
Finishing after a diagonal pass
Organisation:
- 4 groups of 3-4 players
- The players with a ball are positioned about 40 meters from the goal and pass diagonally to a player without a ball
- This player receives the ball and turns away from his opponent and finishes on goal
- Passive resistance by the finisher
Coaching:
- Receiving and turning away from your opponent
- Accurate finishing
Variation:
- Limited touches by finisher
- Active resistance
Zigzag exercise with finish on goal
Organisation:
- Players dribble through the cones and cut with the inside and outside of their foot
- Finish at about 16 meters from the goal
- Propose different cut moves
Coaching:
- Speed in exercise
- Precise and accurate finishing
Net shooting
Organisation:
- The players begin at 5 meters from the goal and shoot the ball without a bounce in the net
- All players who miss drop out of the game
- In the next rounds the ball is positioned further away from the goal, which eventually leaves one winner
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A very good article focusing on, in my opinion, one of the most important roles of a junior coach, i.e.helping kids to have the confidence to use the weaker foot.
As the article states, even seasoned pros find it difficult. Young kids generally have less fear of failure than the rest of us, and they learn quicker. From an early age I have encouraged my sons to use their weaker foot, whatever the result of their attempt. My eldest, aged 10, actually believes that he is now better with his left, which he is not by the way. But the point is he believes it, and does'nt think about which foot to use.
I believe the problem for some junior coaches is that generally they expect, and are expected, to get instant results, and fear failure themselves. I take my hat off to the coaches that consider the kids enjoyment of the game, and being able to use both feet with confidence adds to that enjoyment because of less frustration.
Hawkesy wrote:My dad used to make me train with only one boot on. That way you are naturally inclined to kick with the foot with a boot on.
I now believe my left foot is equally as rubbish as my right.
I did that last week with my team. A few were cheating when they were supposed to be doing drills with their weaker foot. So I made them all take off their boot of their prefered foot, worked a treat, and the kids had a laugh !!!
Harry, your oldest isnt a left footer, you're joking arent you, I always thought he was a lefty ?????
A good idea is to occasionally throw in a whole training session using only the weak foot. Everytime the child kicks the ball or completes a drill they should use their weak foot. Have done this a few times in the past seems to work well when the kids realise they actually have 2 feet!
Pride - Honour - Respect
Manchester United Champions of England 06/07, 07/08 & 08/09
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Manchester United Champions Of the World 2009
I think in my case from playing futsal for quite a few years where you have to play the ball quickly, my left foot has naturally improved. I like to think My passing and shooting with my left foot are quite accurate now, although my right foot still has more grunt behind it. Crossing is sometimes a problem with my left, but not my right. I found this article very interesting!
I think its imporatnt to teach kids as early as possible that they have two feet and each training session should have a focus on it. I used to be a lefty until my hip wore out had to learn to kick with my right. Maybe one day when I get a new left hip I'll become double footed.
